Home

Services/Samples

Subscribe

SurfingThroughNoise

10/05

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. MORE

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. MORE

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. MORE

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. MORE

Copyright. All rights reserved. Lorenzo Associates, Inc., P.O. Box 74, Clarence Center, NY 14032.