The Sloan Consortium

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Adding Clicks to Bricks Increasing Access to
Mainstream Higher Education
Raymond E. Schroeder Burks Oakley II University
of Illinois at Springfield Sloan-C Summer
Research Workshop 8-10 September 2004 Babson
College, Wellesley, MA
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Univ. of Illinois at Springfield

• Historically, Sangamon State University (SSU) was
  founded in 1969 as an upper-division institution
  to provide access - offering baccalaureate degree
  completion and masters degrees
• SSU became UIS in 1995
• In 2001, UIS added a lower-division Capital
  Scholars program (100 students/year)
• 2,822 FTE students, 4,346 head-count, 160
  full-time faculty (Fall 2004)

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A vibrant campus at UIS
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The pillars at UIS
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A wireless campus at UIS

• UIS was the first public university in Illinois
  to implement wireless networking throughout its
  campus even in the soccer stadium

University Hall Opened July 2004 31
million 116,000 sq. ft.
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UIS students

• Large population of non-traditional students
• Large number of part-time and commuter students
• Small, but growing, residential population

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Online degree programs

• The online program at UIS was started in 1998
• Masters degrees
• Management Information Systems (98), Master
  Teaching and Leadership (00)
• Bachelors degrees
• Liberal Studies (99), English (02), History
  (03), Computer Science (03), Math (Fall 04),
  Math Education (Fall 04), Philosophy (Fall 04)

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UIS online enrollments
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UIS online enrollments

• Annual enrollments (summer, fall, spring
  semesters)
• 1999-00 1,160
• 2000-01 1,603 up 38
• 2001-02 2,404 up 50
• 2002-03 3,312 up 38
• 2003-04 4,554 up 38
• 2004-05 5,700 (up 26, projected)
• Largest enrollments in for-credit online courses
  of any public 4-year institution in Illinois

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Penetration of online learning

• In the Fall 2004 semester at UIS
• 1 in 3 students is taking at least one online
  course
• 1 in 6 students is taking online courses
  exclusively
• gt19 of all course credits are generated by
  online courses
• The online course enrollments (numbering 2007)
  are 30 greater than they were during the Fall
  2003 semester

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Penetration of online learning

• 47 of the Spring 2003 graduates had taken at
  least one online class at UIS (5 of the
  graduates had taken online courses exclusively)
• About 50 of the UIS faculty have now taught an
  online course online teaching is done on-load
  it is integrated into the regular teaching on
  the campus
• Online degrees are offered by departments not
  through a separate continuing education unit

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e-tuition

• In the Fall 2003 term, UIS implemented an
  e-tuition policy
• All Illinois residents automatically qualify for
  the e-tuition rate
• Out-of-state students who are enrolled in an
  online degree program and are taking only online
  classes also qualify
• The e-tuition rate is 124.25 per credit hour
  (undergrad) and 140.00 per credit hour (grad)

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e-tuition

• Due to e-tuition, UIS is now attracting a
  national (and international) audience
• During the Fall 2004 semester, students are
  enrolled in online courses from 36 states and 8
  foreign countries
• Florida to Massachusetts to Washington state to
  California (31 students from California)
• Bali, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Kuwait, Mali, Saudi
  Arabia, Turkey (Spring 2004 data)
• From here to Timbuktu

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e-tuition

• There were 99 new degree seeking undergraduates
  in online programs in the College of Liberal Arts
  and Sciences in the Spring 2004 semester
• 49 students were Illinois residents
• 45 students were residents of 19 other states
• 2 students were Illinois residents, but are
  living in Africa and Europe
• (3 unknown residency)

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Integrating online teaching

• Online Teaching Integration Subcommittee (OTIS)
• Faculty chair, Director of OTEL, Dean of LAS,
  Dean of Library, Vice Chancellor for Student
  Affairs, CIO, chief advisor in LAS online office,
  several online faculty, several online students
• Committee deals with all issues related to online
  programming, in order to continually increase
  quality and student and faculty satisfaction

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Marketing efforts

• Marketing efforts capitalize on the University of
  Illinois brand name
• Comprehensive marketing strategy emphasizes
  online approaches
• search engine optimization
• website traffic analysis software
• paid or pay-per-lead listings in various higher
  education portals, including GetEducated.com,
  Gradschools.com, and ClassesUSA.com.

U of I Online website is currently in the
sixth position for a search of online degrees
on Google
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Community college partnerships

• A pipeline to UIS online degree completion
• Formal partnership agreements with community
  colleges throughout the nation, ranging from New
  York to Michigan to Colorado to California
• Community colleges promote UIS online degree
  completion programs to their AA and AS graduates
  (great marketing strategy)

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Community college partnerships
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FY04 federal earmark

• The FY04 US omnibus budget bill (signed by 43 on
  23 January 2004) included a 250,000 earmark for
  UIS to develop and deliver an online math teacher
  degree
• Holders of this credential would be highly
  qualified teachers under the No Child Left
  Behind legislation
• Rep. John Shimkus (R, IL-19) was a strong
  supporter of this funding

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Quality, scale, breadth

• Sloan-C quality framework and the five pillars
• Access
• Learning effectiveness
• Student satisfaction
• Faculty satisfaction
• Cost effectiveness

Westminster College Fulton, MO
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OTEL support

• Faculty are supported by the Office of
  Technology-Enhanced Learning (OTEL)
  instructional designers, web developers, graduate
  assistants, hands-on training, brown-bag
  seminars, etc.
• OTEL emphasizes student-centered learning and
  constructivist pedagogy fully embracing the
  Sloan-C type of ALN

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Faculty development

• Illinois Online Network (ION)
• Online professional development courses Making
  the Virtual Classroom a Reality (MVCR)
• 10 different MVCR classes available online

Recipient of 2002 Sloan-C Award for the
Outstanding Online Faculty Development Program
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Faculty development

• ION offers the Master Online Teacher
  certificate based on the MVCR online courses
• 4 core courses, 1 elective course, plus a
  supervised practicum

UIS faculty being honored at a luncheon for
earning the Master Online Teacher certificate,
November 2002
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Retention in online courses

• Retention in online classes at UIS
• Fall 2001  93.0
• Spring 2002  96.2
• Summer 2002  94.5
• Fall 2002  94.1
• Spring 2003  94.3
• Summer 2003  94.8
• Fall 2003 93.1
• Spring 2004 94.2
• Summer 2004 95.6
• On-campus retention averages 96

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More than just online courses

• Student services are now available online
• Admissions
• Advising and counseling
• Financial aid
• Help desk
• Library resources
• Center for Teaching and Learning writing
  assistance
• Tutoring

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Looking into the future

• UIS Chancellor Ringeisen convened a National
  Commission on the Future of UIS in March 2003
• The commission was asked
• Where will we be in 10 years?
• What do we aspire to be in 10 years?
• The commission released its final report, A
  Vision for All Seasons Looking Ahead 10 Years,
  in October 2003.

http//www.uis.edu/chancellor/commission/FutureRep
ort.html
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A Vision for All Seasons

• The top four goals for the future of UIS are
• to become a regional and national leader in
  higher education
• to expand diversity in all aspects of the campus
• to be on the leading edge in the application of
  technology in higher education
• to expand online teaching and learning leadership
  through innovation

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UIS Virtual Campus

• UIS is now undertaking an ambitious project of
  developing a virtual campus
• The virtual campus will provide the full range of
  degree programs and support services that are
  available to on-campus students to a new
  population of previously under-served learners
• New online degree programs will be developed in
  all four colleges (LAS, Business, Education
  Human Services, Public Affairs Administration)

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Faculty-driven process

• Online degree programs at UIS are faculty-driven
  departmental faculty first must vote to put their
  degrees online
• College must then approve, then the Undergraduate
  or Graduate Council
• Special Assistant to the Provost
• Bill Bloemer, Dean Emeritus of the UIS College of
  Liberal Arts and Sciences
• Appointed in August 2004 to work with units from
  all across the campus to put their degrees online

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New online degrees

• New degree programs in
• Business and Management Economics (BA),
  Business Administration (BA, MBA)
• Education and Social Work School Administrator
  (MA), Social Work (BA)
• Liberal Arts and Sciences Communications (BA),
  Psychology (BA), English (MA)
• Public Affairs and Administration Environmental
  Studies (BA), Political Studies (BA), Public
  Affairs (MA)

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Model for hiring new faculty

• The full-time teaching load at UIS is 3 courses
  per semester (typically 4 semester hours each)
• As a department is able to offer (and fill) 6 new
  online classes in an academic year (using
  overload payments and adjunct faculty), they are
  given an additional full-time faculty line
• The increased tuition and fees from the six
  classes covers the salary for the new full-time
  faculty member hired

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Balancing online on-campus

• There must be a balance between online and
  on-campus enrollments
• Each department will have to determine the
  balance point most will not be 50-50
• Philosophy, MTL, Liberal Studies online only
• English greater online demand, higher entrance
  requirements for online program
• MIS equal numbers online and on-campus
• Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Visual Arts may
  never have a fully-online degree

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Important campus issues

• What issues are magnified in importance as online
  enrollments grow?
• Hiring full-time faculty
• Developing a campus culture that emphasizes the
  importance of scaling online education
  (entrepreneurial deans)
• Providing student support services (online
  students are not our students)
• Convincing state legislators and university
  trustees that online is as good as (or better
  than) on-campus

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Important campus issues

• Creating a business plan to support expansion and
  assure sustainability
• Dealing with high-demand programs that need to
  scale in size to meet demand
• Faculty governance
• Extended review by multiple layers of committees,
  assuring faculty support each step of the way,
  but resulting in delays in developing new online
  degree programs

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Important campus issues

• These are many critical issues that institutions
  simply have never confronted before
• If allowed to be obstacles, online education will
  never fulfill its promise

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What is the future for UIS?

• UIS is poised to become the prototypical 21st
  century institution, in which online and
  on-campus teaching have equal presence
• UIS will use online education to address
  high-priority institutional goals
• UIS will serve as a model of how ALN can
  transform an institution

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Adding Clicks to Bricks Increasing Access to
Mainstream Higher Education
Raymond E. Schroeder University of Illinois at
Springfield Schroeder.Ray_at_uis.edu Burks Oakley
II University of Illinois oakley_at_uillinois.edu