Online Visioning Draft

Online Visioning Task Force (OVTF) State of our Discussions. May 21, 2013

The Core Problem and Key Finding

The University is not meeting the needs for online and hybrid programs for current students, self-identified prospective students, and market-identified potential students. These students are either not enrolling or are enrolling elsewhere where they perceive programs better meet their needs. It is apparent we do not offer many of the online degrees students are seeking and the online degrees we have do not have the characteristics they are seeking and competitors provide.

Committee members identified personas of students of the future (Appendix 1). They will seek enrollment and curriculum flexibility, mixed delivery modalities, more customization of their degrees and the ability to enter and exit from programs fluidly. Those students of the future are appearing today and many do not find a compelling reason to choose our institution over others.

The Evidence

Overall enrollment in online and hybrid courses at CU Denver is flat or declining (see page 5). While it is true that the rate of growth in online enrollments is declining nationally, online enrollment is still growing whereas overall higher education enrollment is declining and declining at an accelerating rate.

Key regional public and non-profit competitors such as CSU Online Plus (+150% in last 3 years), CSU Global (currently almost 8,000 students) and Western Governors continue to outpace the national online market in enrollment growth. Their students are not marginal students, but in most cases students with prior college and often work experience who we would like to call our own and who would profile well as part of our transfer student population.

Results of a very large survey CU Online conducted in April identified prospective students whom we have failed to enroll as our students. As they look at other institutions, and the number one reason they are doing so is because of the "programs" those other institutions offer (see pages 6-7.)

In our mid-term surveys of current online students, they continue to request that we expand our online offerings in many areas such as psychology and accounting (see page 8.)

A comparison with regional competitors shows we have far fewer online degree programs and certificates at both the undergraduate and graduate levels (see page 9).

MOOCs show a voracious appetite for higher education and a potential end to our monopoly over the meaning and value of credentials and degrees.

1 The problem is inherent in our model

There are two characteristics of our model for developing and delivering online and hybrid programs which need to be addressed.

1. Online courses and programs are developed organically on a voluntary basis according to faculty and department interest and capacity. Their selection and development is not directly planned to address market needs and competitive conditions. This method has the great virtue of producing programs with strong academic unit support. Future initiatives by departments, schools and colleges to develop online/hybrid programs should be encouraged and strengthened. However, voluntary organic growth alone has not yielded either sufficient or adequately targeted online programs to address student demand and market competition. Future online development needs to be more targeted and responsive to student needs.

2. Online programs mirror campus practices, policies and procedures in most relevant respects. Many of those practices, however, have been superseded by practices of our competitors which students find compelling. These innovations include offering multiple start dates, fixed tuition, shorter courses, credit for prior learning, and new interdisciplinary degree programs and programs targeted to emerging job market needs. For us to engineer similar and unique innovative program features will require flexibility, nimbleness and policy creativity to move beyond our campus model of instruction that our online programs exclusively imitate.

There is an urgency to address this problem.

We believe the changes in this enrollment environment are not merely cyclical. If we continue to develop and deliver online programs only as we have in the past there is no reason to believe the flat to declining enrollment trend will not continue. We may be particularly vulnerable since the rate of enrollment decline nationally is greatest among the adult population upon whom we are disproportionately dependent.

There are also competitive forces at work that have not yet played out. Nearly every top university is contemplating greater involvement in online instruction. For-profit institutions are attempting a rebound with more competitive pricing and huge investments in adaptive learning and retention practices to repair their positioning. There is evidence of increasing pressure on tuition pricing and predictions of price erosion. By contrast, there is little evidence that the enrollment growth that has occurred in the past through our model will return and it will take time for us to complement our currently successful programs with additional ones with more compelling features.

Ideas for a potential response

1. Short term (immediately). Incremental and targeted growth of CU Online.

Do no harm to programs that are prospering and to processes that allow schools/colleges to expand their online/hybrid programs as they wish. Programs that are healthy, growing and meeting needs need continued support (see Appendix 2 for list of undergraduate majors by size).

However, rather than relying exclusively on organic growth, plan and intentionally increase the number of online and hybrid degrees and courses in the areas of greatest market demand and potential. We can

2 leverage our existing program development, support and delivery model to do so. The degrees to target for online development need to be further researched and discussed.

This plan has many benefits. It addresses the limits of our voluntary and organic method of online program development. It can start immediately. Depending on its scope, development costs can largely be covered by existing online reserves. It will leverage organizational strengths and build on current human and material resources. Assuming new course/program development begins in the fall of 2013, students should be able to begin enrolling in fall 2014 or spring 2015.

Uncovered Costs: Advertising. Amount TBD. Current reserves consist of online student fees and cannot be used for advertising.

2. Intermediate Term (1-5 years). Create a new Online & Continuing Education Partnership Organization

Create an innovative organizational structure, on a federated model, charged with collaborating with schools and colleges to develop and administer alternative academic programs and services and scoped to doing everything that we can't or find hard to do within the framework, support structures and constraints of existing main campus programs.

Among the activities of this partnership organization may be: a. Develop programs with innovative cost and tuition models. b. Create modular degree programs that can be more easily customized to student needs and aspirations. c. Create programs and certificates of limited duration targeted at immediate needs. d. Create interdisciplinary degree programs beyond the capacity or will of individual schools/colleges to sponsor on their own. e. Develop programs that do not follow the campus semester model. These can be online, but also use accelerated, weekend or other course models. f. Develop a program for rigorous yet streamlined assessment of prior and alternative learning (e.g., student learning in MOOCs). g. Solicit, investigate and sponsor development of worthwhile educational ideas and innovations much like a technology transfer office functions for research. h. Serve as an incubator (venture capitalist?) in the business of building things which can seed or pilot new initiatives eventually destined for school/college sponsorship. i. Develop and support community education and engagement programs (credit, non-credit, and enrichment) that can serve as pipelines for future students, donors, supporters and other interested in varied levels of involvement with the university.

Financial model: The organization will be self-supporting after an initial start period and will share revenue with participating schools/colleges and the central administration.

3 1. Long term (1-10 years). Institutional Transformation

Members recognize that higher education is changing and that the educational methods for all areas of learning will be changed by these demographic, political and technological changes. To adapt to these changes and flourish, program innovation and the use of technology must infuse every program and college; flexibility, custom and experiential learning of all kinds will be a hallmark of a student’s education even in traditional programs.

No one can “opt-out” of these developments and thrive. But we can embrace them and strengthen our institution. We could, for example, adopt online technology use and expertise in the conduct and support of teaching and learning and the education of students as one of the signature features of our institution whether that learning is conducted as a supplement to traditional classroom or lab teaching, clinical practice, hybrid or online learning modalities.

To have this become a signature of our university would take time and dedication – a life-long learning effort for us as an institution. It may take an overhaul of basic policies so that RPT, for example, includes reporting on use of technology in teaching. It may require all hires to have a paragraph in their contract identifying the potential requirement to teach online or create online content. It may require all graduates be able to demonstrate proficiency in the use of technology in their discipline. It would require faculty support in the use of technology at a level we do not have at present. It would take deeper engagement and a relationship with a larger community of teachers, preceptors, practitioners and our communities than we now have or have the technology or processes to support.

1. Foundational Requirements. (start immediate and persistently strengthen)

These initiatives require strengthening some of the institutional foundations on which their success depends. Key areas needing attention include:

a. Improve faculty incentives and culture in the use of technology. b. Improve our planning processes to map our curriculum and delivery planning to changing market conditions and opportunities, cost structures, competitor threats and to enable us to respond to innovative ideas and proposals. c. Improve our student-centered practice including registration and billing flexibility, online student services and student retention practices. d. Strengthen our technology infrastructure and tools available for recruitment, teaching, retention and outreach. e. Create new budget, cost and revenue sharing models that will incentivize this development and assure it will strengthen the financial status of the institution in the long run. f. Improve our administrative/leadership structures to provide appropriate responsibility and accountability for creating plans to achieve the above goals and executing them. g. Improve our enrollment marketing and management capacity, particularly in graduate programs and continuing education.

4 5 6 7 8 APPENDIX 1. PERSONAS

OVTF Sub-group #3 Personas March 21, 2013 Chris

Chris is a 26 year old junior pursing a degree in landscape architecture and design. She is a solo parent of a 5 year old daughter. She works 30 hours a week for a landscape design firm; the 30 hours a week job provides her with healthcare insurance and the income needed (but barely) to cover her and her daughter’s living expenses, her daughter’s after-school care, and some of her own education. She is a valued employee for many reasons (e.g., her prior knowledge, her time and people management skills, and her Spanish fluency). Her employer encourages her to work from home on occasion and allows her to use the company’s technology (computer, printer, scanner, digital camera, etc.) for her school work.

Chris receives financial aid to offset the costs of attending university. Her financial aid is based on the number of credits being taken, allowing her flexibility to pursue the course load that makes sense for her given her employment and dependent care responsibilities. Chris’ financial aid documentation is available online, so she can easily monitor it as well as easily communicate with her financial aid advisor.

Given the nature of the profession Chris is preparing for, much of her coursework is conducted off campus. The students in the program are involved in community-based projects all over the city. Chris and the other students meet physically at community sites, but collaborate on research and design work via social networking and media tools. For example, they use Flickr to coordinate and archive their digital photos of work sites, and they use Google Drive to share their research notes and write their design documents. Since her team members are not always on the physical site at the same time, they use Google+ Hangouts to videoconference to keep each other abreast of what work was accomplished during the day and what needs to be done (and by who) the following day. The professor uses Google+ Hangouts for weekly team meetings and for scheduling on- site visits to assess progress.

Chris’ playground renovation project is located downtown. Because it is an urban setting, the team proposed to the community stakeholders and city that the renovation consider the following three goals (a) make it a place for families to gather, (b) make it a safe yet fun place that children fully enjoy, and (c) have it be a place that expresses the diversity of the community it is serving. Before proposing the project, the team researched community demographics and what makes a place fun and inviting to families. They also researched safety issues related to playgrounds. All of this data was easily gathered via online databases and library resources, and city & county personnel who were available to web conference with the team. They quickly discovered that there was an organization in Ireland specializing in making playgrounds “fun”. After an initial email exchange, the team used Google+ Hangouts to meet with the Irish organization and receive feedback on their plans and designs for the playground renovation.

One time when Chris was at home with her daughter who was under the weather, two team members texted her with questions and were able to send photos and video clips for her to respond to. It allowed the team members to continue being productive because they were easily able to connect with her and get her feedback on the spot.

In order to keep their professor, peers, and community stakeholders informed of their progress on the project, the team set up a blog using WordPress. Every day, team members posted progress reports with photos and video clips uploaded from their phones to their collaborative blog. Related, each team set up a YouTube channel. Via this channel, the team members shared their progress-report video clips, but also shared a weekly reflective 1-2 minute journal sharing what they had learned that week. The professor and other students commented on these video clips, sharing their own insights.

9 In order to assess the quality and viability of the design proposals and models, teams were required to present their work to a review panel of community members, city and county representatives, and playground designers. Because not everyone was able to be physically present for the review (e.g., the playground designers were located in Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Dallas), the team created a video presentation (uploaded to YouTube), then created a web page that provided access to the video presentation and all other supporting design documentation, and sent the web page link out to the reviewers a week prior to the review. At the time of the review, the team used Adobe Connect to present their work to the review team and receive feedback. After revisions and a final presentation to the review panel who approved the design, the team was then able to move into the next phase of the project. The students’ assessment was based on having the review panel approve the design (regardless of how many iterations were required).

Persona 1: Smart, curious, active

This student is choosing UCD because they like the possibilities presented by Denver and the quality/price value at UCD. A high achiever in high school, this student is seeking the opportunity to meet other students with whom to collaborate and befriend on campus and, especially, for the intellectual challenges posed by classroom discussions and projects. The student is already planning on a professional career or, at least, more school.

Persona 2: Moderately bright, somewhat curious, locally bound

This student is choosing UCD because they want or need to stay in the area. Money is tight, so they will need to work and possibly live at home for part of the time. They need to convenience of the downtown campus and they hope to push their abilities at a more challenging school (e.g. than Metro). They vaguely think about what’s after college, and they have some idea that UCD may provide them with more options (and entrees) than other schools. This student’s needs the guidance and affirmation that can come from in-class learning.

Traci and Dan

The Executive Master of Public Administration is a degree program serving mid-career professionals who typically hold mid- to upper management positions in public service (government and nonprofit) organizations. The students are busy doing important work, and they have tough schedules. Their backgrounds and occupational choices are very diverse and their career experiences very rich. They benefit enormously from the time they spend together, no doubt learning more from one another than they do from their professor.

Traci entered the program last year. A career Foreign Service Officer, she holds a high level position in the US Embassy in Oslo, Norway. Obviously, she cannot attend class in Denver, at least not on a regular basis. Online classes make up much of her curriculum; she also interacts with other students using Adobe Connect, conferences with other students to complete assignments online, and in May will attend an intensive (hybrid) seminar for four days in Denver, later completing the course from Norway.

Dan is a career firefighter, now in the management ranks of a Denver metro area fire district. He has a highly variable schedule, making it difficult for him to attend weekly class meetings. He has thoroughly enjoyed spending time with other executive students in the Executive MPA intensives, offered twice annually, but he, too takes courses online. He wants to keep up with friends, like Traci, on a regular basis so that they can continue to share career experiences and thoughts.

Carmine

Carmine is a 38-year-old single mother who lives with her three children in the San Luis Valley. As a staff nurse at the local hospital, she has reached the top of her career ladder and is looking for some career advancement. Carmine’s nursing education is typical of student from a rural setting. She has always wanted to be a nurse and

10 started her nursing education in a LPN program. In her area, this was the quickest route to getting a job and helping to pay for her education. She waited 9 months before she was accepted into the LPN program because of the long waitlist. After working for a few years, she was able to save some monies to start her Associate Degree program at the local college. She was very lucky to have her sister babysit her new baby. It took longer than expected to complete her Associate degree as her husband lost his job and she needed to work more. Upon graduation, she started as a staff nurse at the local hospital. While she raised her family, her dream was to receive her BS in nursing. She was lucky that there were now online options for an RN-BSN program. She liked the online option because of the convenience and the flexibility of the program. Her biggest hurdle was the pre-requisite courses that were necessary to start the program. It was difficult to find and enroll in these courses. She wished she had known more about these pre-requisites when she was in her Associate Degree program.

Now as she looks to career advancement, she is more cognizant of her options and how she can best meet her learning needs. She starts her search by first looking at the career opportunities in nursing. On the web, she finds the latest projections for nursing in the State of Colorado. She becomes very interested in becoming a Family Nurse Practitioner. With the focus of healthcare on health promotion, prevention and the management of chronic diseases, this would be a very exciting new area for her and is a good fit with the new nurse practitioner practices available in the San Luis Valley. As an informed consumer, she is looking for a program that is accessible, flexible, and affordable. She expects the program to have the necessary student supports for distant learners and they can provide any necessary pre-requisite coursework. She is very interested in a program that can accommodate distant clinical experiences that are built on an interprofessional collaborative care model. Although she took online courses in the past, she is not looking for a video/Powerpoint lecture format. She wants a more active learning experience at the graduate level. She wants to be able to interact with her classmates including medical, pharmacy and dental students and with her instructors. She is willing to travel to campus for certain learning activities but is hoping that the program can provide a variety of virtual patient care learning experiences. She wants to start to build a network of colleagues that she can call upon as she starts her new role as a nurse practitioner. She also hopes she can participate in some of the webinars, lectures and other events that are accessible to campus-based students.

SK is the chief pharmacist working in Egypt at a newly built and prestigious children’s cancer hospital. The hospital has become the pride of Egypt as most of the population donates whatever they can to provide free therapy to the children in need. The hospital’s medical staff is internationally trained, has strategic partnerships with American Cancer Centers and even has received international accreditation by the American-based Joint Commission. SK himself was trained at the local university for a more industrial pharmacy career. But he is a good listener and has led his team of over 30 pharmacists to do their best to provide “pharmaceutical care” at the hospital in the manner in which his American-trained physician colleagues have suggested. He would like it if more of his pharmacy staff was prepared to pharmaceutical care when they were hired, but the only pharmacy degree offered in Egypt is the same industry-oriented bachelor’s degree that he received. So he has created regular staff training sessions during work hours to address this need. SK has a history of seeking credible educational resources outside of Egypt to better his practice. He has become a Six Sigma Master Black Belt by taking online courses. He and a few others have become Board Certified Oncology Pharmacists by taking the American-based exam. What he knows he and others are missing is the clinical knowledge and training of an American-based Doctor of Pharmacy degree. But he can’t send people to the US for four years to obtain a traditional PharmD degree, they have families and it would cost too much. He realizes the staff can hardly get a PharmD degree online, they’ll need the experience of working in the health care environment. SK knows he is doing a good job at providing care at his hospital, his physician colleagues tell him so… But the following thought nags him, “What are other pharmacists doing to improve care?”

11 Appendix 2. Downtown Undergraduates Declared Majors

College Major # Students Notes College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Biology 1016 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Psychology 663 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Pre-Engineering 447 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Pre-Medicine 417 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Economics 396 College of Arts & Media UGRD Music 383 College of Arts & Media UGRD Fine Arts 383 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Communication 337 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Pre-Business 312 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Pre-Nursing 261 Business School UGRD Accounting 247 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Liberal Arts - Undeclared 224 Business School UGRD Management 213 School of Public Affairs UGRD Criminal Justice 200 Online fall 2013 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Public Health 197 Coll Engineering & AppSci UGRD Mechanical Engineering 177 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD English 175 Business School UGRD Finance 174 Business School UGRD Marketing 174 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Sociology 170 Now Online Business School UGRD Business - Undeclared 169 College of Arts & Media UGRD Theatre, Film & Television 167 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Chemistry 165 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Political Science 161 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD English Writing Program 160 Now Online Coll Engineering & AppSci UGRD Electrical Engineering 140 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Geography 138 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Mathematics 135 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD International Studies 132 Coll Engineering & AppSci UGRD Civil Engineering 115 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD History 115 Non-Degree UGRD Non-Degree Undergraduate Level 113 Non-Degree UGRD Non-Deg H Sch Conc (MEUP Prgm) 110 Coll Engineering & AppSci UGRD Computer Science & Engineering 110 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Pre-Pharmacy 106 Business School UGRD International Business 98 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Anthropology 89 Business School UGRD Information Systems 81 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Individually Structured 78 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Pre-Physical Therapy 71 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Physics 71 College of Arts & Media UGRD Arts and Media - Undeclared 66 Coll Engineering & AppSci UGRD Engineering - Undeclared 63 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Pre-Education 63 Business School UGRD Financial Management 58 Business School UGRD Human Resources Management 51 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Philosophy 48

12 Coll Architecture & Plan UGRD Architecture 40 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Pre-Dentistry 39 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Spanish 38 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD Pre-Veterinary Medicine 21 Business School UGRD Sports Management 14 College of Lib Arts & Sci UGRD French 12