Section VI: Profiles of Participant Institution Initiatives

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Broward Community College. Broward Community College’s motivation for progress in e-Learning was twofold. First, Broward believes it is important for students to have flexible learning options. Second, Broward feels it is important to support their faculty in becoming “21st century professors.” Broward’s greatest accomplishment has been achieving exceptional faculty participation through grass-roots growth in a highly supportive environment. One third of full-time faculty at Broward are involved in e-Learning that has supported about 15,000 enrollments in the last year, roughly 7% of the total credit hours produced by the college. Broward utilizes e-Learning across the curriculum, with roughly 47% of online activity associated with web support of in-class learning, 33% associated with fully online courses, and the remaining 20% associated with a hybrid or blended delivery approach. Consistent with its emphasis on faculty support and growth, Broward has implemented a very innovative approach of designating “e-Learning faculty associates” who are paid by the college to assist other faculty on a one-on-one basis. Contact . . . .

Dallas Baptist University. Dallas Baptist University began its e-Learning initiative in 1998 motivated by the desire to better serve adult learners. The effort now encompasses nine graduate and eight undergraduate programs that are fully online, but, also supports traditional age students needing some flexibility to support their busy lives with online and hybrid courses. Today, 1026 of Dallas Baptist’s students are online with over 5,000 online enrollments in the last year. The online programs have consistently operated at a 92% retention rate, which evidences strong commitment to quality. Dallas Baptist has implemented a required six-month course for all faculty teaching online. More than 150 faculty have gone through the course. The course fully equips faculty to deliver a high quality course online. Another Dallas Baptist quality innovation is a proofing process that involves academic reviewers at several levels before a course is offered to students. Contact . . . .

El Centro Community College. El Centro Community College started down the path of e-Learning as a result of strong vision of both the President and Chancellor. The college used grant funding to make a strong push to incorporate technology to record lectures and make them available online. Today, a significant number of the faculty are using the evolving system and more than 90% of students in the Health Occupations Division, are taking courses that feature the technology. To date, more than 2500 students have gone through technology-enabled Health Occupations programs. The institution reports anecdotally that the online review of lectures has enhanced student test score performance in the range of two to four points. The level of innovation in usage of video for better instructional results is evident in classes such as Echocardiology Technology, where students can watch the usage of equipment in real-time remotely with a better view than if they were watching from a seat in the classroom. They can also replay the archived session as many times as they need. Contact . . . .

Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences (FHCHS). FHCHS began its quest into e-Learning with a strong interest in finding a way to advance the radiography profession. There were only a handful of baccalaureate degrees available. Therefore, for those in the profession who wanted to move ahead but were not in the vicinity of one of those programs there were few options. Today, FHCHS is serving over 500 students through the program, with more than 96% from outside commuting distance of FHCHS and 89% from outside Florida. Over 100 have already graduated. The success of the BS in Radiological Sciences spurred the development of an equally successful RN to BS nursing program with over 180 students. As a small institution, FHCHS accomplished success by leveraging technical and marketing resources from a for-profit partner, through very close cooperation and open communication. FHCHS’s implementation has featured a pedagogical foundation that combines synchronous chat sessions with asynchronous instruction. Achieving best practice in this regard has enabled a strong sense of community among the participants as evidenced by 71% of the recent graduating class coming to campus for graduation despite no previous physical interactions. Contact . . . .

Iowa Community College Online Consortium.  Five years ago leaders from the fifteen community college districts in Iowa came together to discuss forming a consortium to pool resources to accelerate progress in developing and delivering online courses.  Ultimately, seven of the districts decided to participate. In the latest term 3,246 unique students were served via 5,199 online course enrollments. It is estimated, through student surveys, that 30-35% of those students would not have been able to participate if the online courses were not available. The greatest accomplishment of this consortium seems to be the high level of cooperation that has enabled a highly consistent 91% student satisfaction rating across the system. The consortium has implemented a very innovative annual conference that is essentially free to the faculty and other participants, thus engendering a very collegial and cooperative atmosphere in which to participate. Another major accomplishment was the receipt of a major Title III grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Contact . . . .

Johns Hopkins University Engineering and Applied Science Programs for Professionals. Johns Hopkins moved into online learning for its engineering programs for professionals in order to provide increased flexibility and access for students and faculty. A majority of the faculty in the program are part-time and it was initially envisioned that some might be recruited from outside the immediate region, although this has not turned out to be a major need. As part of an elite private institution, providing quality has been a major focus of the online program, which to date has focused on providing fully online courses. As such, Johns Hopkins greatest accomplishment has been the development of online course standards. Development and implementation of these standards has resulted in a framework suitable for the professional adjunct faculty to produce a high quality online experience while providing consistency of the student experience from course to course. Contact . . . .

Kansas State University. Kansas State originally implemented early online technology eleven years ago to meet the perceived needs of a business degree for farmers, which evolved into serving a wide constituency. These were and still are implemented in a blended program format. A couple of key strategic decisions were made early on: Focus on complete programs so distance students could get degrees and not just accumulate credits, and, focus primarily on programs in which the institution has a strong research reputation and ranking. Online evaluations have been an important component with the objective being to understand how to serve students better. A good example is some online advising tools implemented to address feedback on advising. From the lessons learned in distance learning use of online technology was brought into the classroom. In the latest fall term, roughly 17,500 students of Kansas State’s 23,000 were being supported by online technology. Kansas State boasts several noteworthy innovations, among them are a “Teaching Scholar Academy” in which one faculty member is recognized each year and added to a group of scholars whose mission is to impact teaching and learning, and, use of new course formats in which students review lectures prior to class so that class time can be focused on more engaging activities. Contact . . . .

Medical College of Georgia, School of Allied Health. The School of Allied Health at the Medical College of Georgia was motivated to make greater use of the Internet in order to provide a more flexible and inexpensive alternative to a legacy point-to-point video hook-up between distributed classrooms. The School of Allied Health implemented a solution that not only allows students to experience classroom lectures at any location at a lower cost than the legacy video link, but also allows faculty to put lectures online with little or no increase in development time. Of eight departments in the school, two have now put all of their courses completely online. Over 400 lectures are now available to students anytime and anyplace. Contact . . . .

Michigan State University.  Michigan State developed an early leadership reputation in online courses, with nearly 100 courses online in the late-1990’s. In the late 1990’s Michigan State established an innovative program providing online Advanced Placement courses throughout the State of Michigan.  The materials developed for this program are currently the basis of several of the university’s introductory courses.  Over 1900 course sections currently are supported by a commercial course management system. Michigan State has developed and implemented LON-CAPA, an award winning content sharing and testing system that has become the core of its physics, chemistry, and sciences teaching programs.  Michigan State’s approach to e-Learning also reflects a best practice in providing a centralized group of course producers and instructional designers providing resources for faculty throughout the institution.    Contact . . . .

Montana State University, Billings. Montana State University Billings (MSUB) began its work in e-Learning in 1998, motivated by the need to serve a geographically dispersed student base and to keep up enrollments even as high school graduates in the area were predicted to decrease. From five online courses with 35 enrollments they have grown to 240 courses and 6500 enrollments in academic year 2004, serving 3500 students. The most important accomplishment at MSUB is reported to be making some good choices early on in focusing internal resources first and foremost on program selection and delivery and partnering with an external provider expert in online technology. This focus enabled rapid progress in what matters most to MSUB students: high quality programs. MSUB believes strongly on a student-centered approach and has achieved best practice with a dedicated online advisor and point persons in all divisions responsible for the various student services for online students. Unlike many institutions, MSUB has not been afraid to tackle the undergraduate curriculum, with the Bachelors of Science in Liberal Studies being its showcase program from the start. Contact . . . .

Montgomery College. Montgomery College, Maryland, recorded 2414 “seats” in fully online courses in the latest Fall term and are growing at approximately 25% per year. Montgomery also provides hybrid/blended and web-supported classes. Montgomery’s effort has been largely a grass roots success driven by the academic community. An early adopter of pre-Internet technologies for online courses, Montgomery’s faculty rapidly took to the Internet. Montgomery’s implementation has featured a mandatory six-week intensive program for every faculty member teaching online. This training not only goes beyond technical features to include a significant emphasis on pedagogy, it also features development of the course that the faculty member will be teaching. An additional innovation of the Montgomery program that is just beginning to be implemented is a course observation process for online courses. This is a new tool that the academic departments will be using to monitor quality of the online courses in the same way that classroom delivery is monitored. Contact . . . .

Ocean County College. Ocean County College’s primary motivation to move online was to meet the needs of students who desired more schedule flexibility. Ocean’s efforts have been primarily faculty led with faculty leaders serving as mentors to other faculty. This grass-roots effort has been complemented by a cooperative relationship with the faculty association for compensation of course development and the support of the president, especially as it relates to enabling the development of quality online courses. Faculty who teach online are required to have been an online student, which spurred the development of an online course in teaching online. Ocean has experienced almost 3000 enrollments in fully online courses over the past year. Building on this experience, Ocean is now involved in the Roadmap to Redesign effort funded by FIPSE and involving the Center for Academic Transformation, focused on improving high enrollment courses with a blended delivery approach. Contact . . . .

Park University. Park University looked to the Internet, beginning in 1996, to better meet the needs of undergraduate degree completion students being served at military bases around the U.S. Today, Park serves 37 military bases in 21 states. From the start the focus of the Park initiative was student service - making all services that would be available face-to-face also available online. An example includes the equivalent of a campus director assigned to each student. To date over 120,000 students have now been involved in online courses, which now encompass 200 courses and three complete graduate programs. Over 40,000 online course enrollments have been achieved this year. As a best practice, Park has focused on quality of instruction by requiring faculty teaching online to go through a 6-8 week training program in which they are the student in the course they will be teaching, thus understanding the student perspective. This is a rigorous process in which the attrition rate is purposefully high. In most cases, faculty are also required to have taught the course in a face-to-face format before teaching it online. The net result has been an achievement of 94-96% retention of students, despite the obvious uncertainties associated with military life. Contact . . . .

Peirce College. Peirce College was motivated to create Peirce Online as part of its mission of practical, leading edge education in service to working adults and its legacy of innovative instructional technology in support of that mission. Peirce offers complete, accredited degrees totally online. Peirce feels that their number one strategic accomplishment with respect to e-Learning has been expanding from a strong regional brand to a national brand during the last five years. Peirce has degree students online in 43 of the 50 states. Today, roughly 46% of Peirce’s tuition revenue is generated online. Traditional face-to-face instruction and online delivery utilize the same curricula, course descriptions, and professors. Both formats are included under institutional accreditation through the Middle States Association (MSA) as well as multiple program specific endorsements, such as the ABA and ACBSP. Peirce has an 86% retention rate currently in the online experience. Peirce has established a program advisor model that essentially is higher education’s version of a relationship manager, making sure students have a “single touch point” for all their needs. Contact . . . .

Penn State University. Penn State, an innovator in the use of technology in learning for 25 years, received a major shot in the arm four years ago when they undertook the creation of a common learning environment for all students.  This common learning environment was championed by the provost and was seen as a way of providing a common framework for faculty to encourage progress through having a common set of e-learning resources. Today, the major accomplishment is how ubiquitous but yet how invisible this framework is - invisible in the sense that it is a fully accepted part of the natural process of teaching and learning.  As of November 1, 2004, some 62,000 of Penn State’s 75,000 unique students were enrolled in a course supported with online technology.  This equates to 137,000 course enrollments supported by online technology.  Additionally, Penn State has used the same infrastructure to provide support to numerous online communities.  Penn State has achieved best practice in enquiry-based learning, as exemplified by its School of Information Sciences and Technology, which features problem-based learning supported by online technology. Contact . . . .

University of Baltimore. University of Baltimore (UB) has achieved considerable success in e-Learning in several specific programs as well as institution wide. For this study we focused on the MBA program. Out of a total of approximately 700 students in the UB MBA program, approximately 200 are fully online, and half of these students are from states other than Maryland. Greater than 50% of the credit hours delivered in the MBA program are through fully online courses. UB has a 75 year history of serving adult students, primarily through evening and weekend programs. With the arrival of e-Learning UB saw a potentially better alternative. The result has been increased access for local students and additional enrollments from distance students. UB feels that its greatest accomplishment has been a high degree of acceptance by traditional faculty. 50% of faculty across UB have taught an online course. From the early days, UB achieved best practice by fostering a high degree of faculty student interaction in its online courses. Contact . . . .

University of Cincinnati.  The University of Cincinnati points to the confluence of several factors as the catalyst for moving online, including their desire to increase access, a strong market need for select programs such as their top ranked criminal justice program, an institution-wide deployment of a course management system, and a new initiative for “revenue-based” programs. Growing a set of programs to over 1200 students in a few years, the University sees its most significant accomplishment as achieving equal quality where students can receive the experience of a top-ranked program online. The institution has achieved best practice in maintaining a high faculty-to-student ratio, typically assigning a dedicated facilitator for cohorts ranging from 15 to not more than 25 students.  A tenure track faculty member leads most courses. Feedback from students through both annual and course surveys shows that satisfaction levels in the online programs versus the campus-based programs are at least equal, if not higher. Retention in online programs is as high as 100% in the education administration program, with an average across the board exceeding 85% in select online graduate programs. The University has also achieved best practice with its strong focus on the pedagogical needs of working adults. For instance, a decision was made to structure some programs to be delivered one course at a time in intensive, shortened periods, in recognition of the challenges that working adults have in juggling the demands of school, work, and life. Contact . . . .

University of Colorado Boulder, College of Engineering. Internet-supported learning was implemented in the graduate programs in the College of Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder in response to students’ desires to have access to courses in the “new currency” of today’s connected world: digital content. Why? Graduate students at the school are primarily adults - many of whom have significant travel as part of their job description. In less than one year the school captured the live lectures for over 40 courses in digital video format and have made them available online. This includes five complete Masters programs. Today roughly 50% of all enrollments in the graduate programs are in the distance sections with 70% of those online. The school continues to improve the quality of the recording process, as the archiving of all lectures is rapidly becoming a standard for graduate engineering programs. Contact . . . .

University of Florida. University of Florida’s primary motivation for implementing e-learning was to provide increased access to their high quality programs. The university implements select programs that are marketed and delivered nationwide. Since 1997 the Pharm.D program for working pharmacists has graduated over 600 students. Currently there are almost 600 active students in the program. University of Florida boasts one of the most innovative business models we have found. Programs are invested in and launched only after a sound business plan and market analysis have been performed. The centralized support unit receives a portion of the revenues from the success of the program and tuition levels are set competitively under the auspices of continuing education without reimbursement from the state.  There are additional distance education-based programs for students in the state of Florida that are funded through the traditional tuition model. Approximately 6000 students registered in various Colleges on campus are studying at a distance. The best practice that was most notable, besides a very strong passion to serve the working adult learner, was the perfecting of a blended delivery approach that features regional meetings once per month that are run by University of Florida facilitators. Contact . . . .

Virginia Tech Math Emporium. The Virginia Tech Linear Algebra Course is a hybrid program with online course materials supplemented by live in-person tutoring and access to computers at a center near campus. The students served are undergraduate, residential students in the Engineering program. Over 12000 students have successfully completed this course. There has been a 75% reduction in costs of delivery per student while maintaining equivalent quality to the lecture-based course and achieving a 33% reduction in failure rate. Implementing this course has allowed Virginia Tech students to participate in a personalized learning experience, especially as compared to the most frequently used alternative at most institutions: very large lecture sessions. The most significant innovation has been the successful design and implementation of the 24/7 math center that has combined the flexibility of online materials with personal face-to-face tutoring. Contact . . . .

Westwood College Online. Westwood College initially looked toward e-Learning as a complement to its on-campus offerings. Westwood became motivated by the potential growth opportunity as well as by the opportunity to expand its brand by serving additional segments of the “non-traditional” post secondary student population. Westwood has since learned that fully online programs have allowed serving a different demographic in a different way than is being achieved on-campus. Westwood tracks demographics, outcomes, and satisfaction very closely. In fact, Westwood believes its most notable accomplishment in e-Learning is achieving outcomes as good or better than on-campus, especially for its “Design and Technology” programs, which require significant “applied learning.” Westwood has achieved significant online success, supporting approximately 320 course sections, 8000 course enrollments and 2300 students in the most recent term. An extraordinary 94% of online students indicate they would recommend Westwood to a friend. In fulfilling the delivery of their Design programs online, Westwood has developed and integrated a very innovative set of tools that combine online interaction with locally run software applications on students’ home computers. Contact . . . .