THE ADOPTION OF INNOVATION:
ONLINE LEARNING BUSINESS PLANS,
STRATEGIES, CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP
This month we focused the entire issue on the business side
of distance education. The starting point for this issue was
formed through our collegial relationship with MSU (Michigan
State University) Global’s Christine Geith and Karen Vignare,
two veteran online degree educators with more than 20 years
of combined experience related to numerous levels of online
operations, marketing, teaching and learning. Geith and
Vignare are also members of the Educational Pathways
editorial advisory board. Geith’s and Vignare’s research,
along with Stephen Schiffman’s from Babson College, helped
to frame a series of interviews we conducted with the
administrators of nine higher education units that manage
online higher education courses and programs. The
information that came out of these interviews was used
primarily for a recent Sloan Consortium workshop. Three of
those interviews - from the University of Illinois at
Springfield, Colorado State University and Duquesne
University - have been re-purposed inside this issue of
Educational Pathways.
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STILL GROWING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT SPRINGFIELD
We think it is appropriate to make note here that the
University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS) was featured in
the first cover story of Educational Pathways, published in
January 2002. At that time we wrote about how UIS Online
launched in the fall of 1998 with two undergraduate online
courses (MIS and Computer Science) and, in three years, grew
to offering 65 online courses and three complete degree
programs with 918 enrollments. The growth hasn’t abated as
UIS Online continues to grow by about 30 percent annually.
UIS Online had more than 2,600 enrollments at the start of
fall 2005 and was offering more than 200 online courses
inside six undergraduate degree programs, four graduate
degree programs, and two certificate programs. UIS Online
falls under the Overhead-Funded Service Unit business model.
UIS Online was started by the Office of Technology-Enhanced
Learning (OTEL) through start-up funding from the University
of Illinois (U of I) Online, which is the university-wide,
three-campus initiative (Chicago, Urban-Champaign and
Springfield) administered by the Office of Vice President
for Academic Affairs.
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COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY'S "TARGETS OF OPPORTUNITY" MODEL
Colorado State University’s (CSU) Division of Continuing
Education (DCE) falls under the Self-Funded Independent Unit
business model. Under Colorado state law, DCE operates as an
enterprise unit that pays its own bills from the tuition
dollars it generates in its distance education degree and
certificate programs (online and other distance learning
delivery modes), credit and non-credit courses (delivered
both on-campus and at a distance), and custom training for
businesses and industry (delivered both on-campus and at a
distance). DCE is the sales, marketing and coordination unit
for all these offerings. It is also responsible for
registering students and assisting students with their
access to distance education courses. For our purposes here,
we are focused on DEC’s distance-delivered courses and
programs.
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DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY'S BALANCING ACT
Duquesne University’s distance education operation is housed
inside its School of Leadership and Professional Advancement
(SLPA), offering two undergraduate degrees, one graduate
certificate and five graduate degrees. Combined, these
programs enroll about 700 students, which represents a
significant increase in overall enrollments annually since
SLPA launched its first fully online degree in 1999 (a
master’s in Leadership and Liberal Studies) with 10
students. SLPA falls under the Self-Funded College Unit
business model. Its distinct online programs take advantage
of the unique skills and knowledge of Duquesne faculty,
along with its ability to form partnerships with outside
professional organizations.
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