Engagement with each institution consisted of three steps. The first step was an extensive background web survey that consisted of over thirty multi-part questions, including many open text responses. The second step was a follow-up phone interview to discuss the specifics of the institution’s experience and collect some key items for an included profile. The third step was a final web survey of over twenty questions that took some of the text responses from the initial survey and turned them into choices to be ranked among all participants, as well as collecting additional data on future expectations.

Participants. Participants consisted of 21 institutions from the complete spectrum of categories: 4 community colleges, 1 community college consortium, 1 national for-profit college, 2 non-profit public baccalaureate/masters, 4 non-profit private baccalaureate/masters, 8 non-profit public research doctoral, 1 non-profit private research doctoral

The participants and associated sponsors are summarized in Appendix A. Without any pre-intention, the sample set seems to be consistent with the findings of the Sloan “Entering” study in the sense that private institutions are less prevalent. The institutional operating budget distribution is shown in Figure 2.

Definition of Internet-Supported Learning. The “Thwarted” study considered a wide spectrum in the definition of “e-Learning,” from distribution of distance learning or correspondence course materials (often referred to as “online” or “fully-online” courses or

programs - meaning that students never need to come to campus) to a facilitator of limited communications transactions between faculty and students (often referred to as “web-supported” courses, where a Course Management System is used to distribute course materials or provide simple interactions like quizzes) to “electronically mediated learning” in which the online materials provide the learning experience through a simulation or other form of learning interaction. On the other hand, the Sloan “Sizing” and “Entering” studies are focused on “online” courses, defined as having at least 80% of the course content delivered online. The Sloan studies also define blended/hybrid courses as having 30% to 79% of content delivered online, and web facilitated as having 1% to 29% of content delivered online (Allen and Seaman 2004).

For purposes of this study we chose a classification similar to the Sloan classification, but, realizing that it is very difficult to quantify the exact amount of content that was delivered online we chose to use terminology that was indicative of the student experience at both the course and the program (program of study leading to a credential) levels.

In this study, we consider all of the above types as “Internet-supported” learning. One of the explicit goals of the study is to understand the preferences among the participating institutions for these various alternatives and the rationale for those preferences. During the study we actually used the general term “e-Learning” in order to encompass the broadest possible set of experiences. We chose “Internet-supported” learning for the final title of the study because it turned out that all of the institutions involved were focused on delivery of education that was enabled by the Internet. Use of pre-Internet technologies and modes of delivery such as PowerPoint in the classroom, point-to-point distance learning networks, or instruction on CD-ROM were not the focus of any of the institutions participating in the study, although they may have been components of a larger Internet-enabled solution.

Sample Significance. This study is a compendium of case studies from 21 institutions that perceive themselves as successful in the use of e-Learning. Since the participant institutions had no special requirements, there is no reason to believe that other successful institutions would not exhibit similar characteristics. However, this study does not attempt to indicate the degree to which similar practices may or may not exist across all higher education institutions.