Should we do more courses online?
What do you think about MNSCU's plan to do more online courses? Is that a path we should take? Does it really save money?
In hopes of saving tax dollars and reaching more students, state leaders in Minnesota say they plan to offer a substantially higher percentage of their courses online in the next seven years.
Tim Pawlenty, the state’s governor, and David Olson, the chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, held a series of press events today announcing their intention to offer 25 percent of college credits online by 2015.
Only about 9 percent of course credits delivered during the past academic year were received through online education.
Comments
There's a good report on enrollment management for online learning from eLearners.com at http://www.eduinsight.com/archive/Best_Practices_Online_Marketing.pdf
I was particularly struck by the lead-to-enrollment timeframe being only 40-60 days or less and that some institutions are generating 80% of their leads entirely online.
Posted by: Kristeen Bullwinkle | December 3, 2008 6:42 PM
Jean,
Well, I don't really see why we need a quota for online courses -- how does one arrive, after all, at 25%, and why is that percentage meaningful?
That said, I'm teaching an online course this term and one next term -- my first since I have been at UM.
It's hard work, as we all know, and the back-and-forth with students takes more time than some faculty will want to spend online. But we have plenty of students in my own department, particularly at the MA level, who really appreciate taking some of their courses online. Gas prices, children at home and spouses at work, on-campus parking costs, snow on the roads --students reasonably make the case that online courses are helpful to them at certain times in their lives and in this very bad economy which has added even more stress to many teachers/student teachers' lives.
Posted by: Thom Swiss | December 3, 2008 7:38 PM
Hi Jean,
This is a very hot topic right now. Unfortunately, the real driver is money.
For a discussion between me and some MNSCU faculty about the matter, please see the comments section of Margaret Soltan's piece on an article in the Rochester paper:
http://www.margaretsoltan.com/?p=6623
Best,
Bill Gleason
Posted by: Bill Gleason | December 10, 2008 11:22 PM
The link I provided to the white paper doesn't work unless eLearners already knows you. Try http://sharing.educationdynamics.com/media/9/default.aspx instead.
Posted by: Kristeen Bullwinkle | December 15, 2008 5:18 PM