Today’s ‘Driving Factors’ in Online Education

Posted on July 10, 2008 by David Gray

UMassOnline David Gray One of the great things about higher education is the willingness of colleagues to share lessons learned and best practices across both institutional and geographic boundaries. I just returned from a three-day summer institute in San Francisco sponsored by the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA), the theme of which was “innovations in program development.” I had the privilege of leading two workshop sessions, one dealing with the role of distance education in transforming institutions and the second looking at the rise of blended learning opportunities. There were other provocative and informative sessions on marketing led by Jim Fong, President of Diagnostics Plus, on leadership and excellence led by Joyce Feucht-Haviar, Dean of the Tseng College at California State University Northridge, and on international opportunities and financial tools led by Kristine Billmyer, Executive Director of the College of General Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Over 60 institutions from the United States, Canada, and Egypt (yes, Egypt) were represented at the UCEA institute. The overwhelming majority of participants indicated that their institutions had substantial foundations of online learning programs. While this was not surprising in and of itself, the extent of the interest and development of online learning certainly was revealing. One institution, the University of South Florida (USF), indicated that they logged over 63,000 online course enrollments in the recently concluded academic year. This is an astonishing number! By my back of the envelope calculations, that represents at minimum 6,300 full-time equivalent (FTE) students, larger than the FTE enrollment of many U.S. colleges and universities. And, USF folks told us that they are only now starting to think about distance education strategically!

Several themes emerged from the presentations and surrounding conversations:

Continuing/distance education programs need to ratchet up the sophistication of their marketing efforts
A sound understanding of institutional context (culture, mission, etc.) is prerequisite to advancing any kind of strategic agenda
A model of institutional incentives that work at multiple levels (college, department, individual) are incredibly important to buy-in
The international front is increasingly attractive for continuing/distance education efforts
Blended learning as a mode offers some compelling advantages for students, faculty, and institutions alike
Online and blended learning programs will be beneficiaries of higher gasoline prices (see related stories released on July 9th by the Associated Press and on July 11th by the New York Times).

With respect to the last point, it is worth mentioning that UMassOnline has been commenting on this trend for quite some time. Jennifer Brady blogged on the related topics of distance learning and the green movement back on January 28th and soaring gasoline prices on June 16th. Please note that UMassOnline is not attempting to capitalize on a trend that is economically punishing for many households in the U.S. and abroad. We are merely commenting on realities of the marketplace and how those realities can profoundly influence personal and business choices. The strength and attractiveness of online learning (and its variants such as blended learning) were firmly established long before the current surge in fuel prices. The online learning trend may be amplified by economic and other factors, but it is fueled (no pun intended) by forces even more powerful than the price at the pump. Most fundamental among these forces are deeply rooted human desires to learn and better one’s life situation. High quality online and blended learning programs will thrive as long as they remain responsive to those fundamental realities!