Initiated by a Gates Foundation grant, ASU and the Boston Consulting Group have conducted a study designed to support the creation of innovative, healthy, self-sustaining higher education environments for high quality, affordable digital teaching and learning financial structures, enabling scaled online and blended learning.
The work of the Scaled Digital Learning ROI study has been driven by a desire to expand educational opportunity through digital learning. While the three main pillars of the study are grounded in expanding access, managing economics, and improving outcomes, the goal of the study has been to understand how digital learning can support expanded postsecondary opportunity regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic status.
The Scaled Digital Learning ROI study’s cost-benefit framework seeks to illustrate how student access, academic outcomes, and student and institutional economics are impacted by different implementations of digital learning. We have therefore focused our research around a variety of modalities; fully online programs, online courses, mixed-modality courses, use of adaptive technologies or OER. The framework of this study is designed to compare digital learning implementation with face-to-face delivery.
Through a six month journey, a deep analysis was conducted across six exemplar institutions; three 2-year institutions and 3 4-year institutions. In addition we were fortunate to expand our research to understand challenges being faced in digital teaching and learning with several emerging institutions. We took at look at foundational subjects common to all institutions; which modality offers the best overall return on investment, what types of impact does digital learning have on students, how can institutions drive academic outcomes through high-quality digital learning, what strategic choices can help an institution implement digital learning in a fiscally sustainable manner, and what contextual factors influence the ability to scale digital learning.
This panel will feature an in-depth discussion of preliminary research findings and observations through the eyes of case study participants (Individuals to be defined at a later date) examining the risks, threats, costs and benefits involved in pursuing development in this space. The panel will emphasize learnings and address query founded in the study’s motivation to optimize access, outcomes, and economics. From the viewpoint of a portfolio approach to digital implementation the panel will discuss motivations and outcomes around access as it pertains to improving access for students with work/family obligations and understand how to expand into new markets to grow revenue, how to improve outcomes in general education courses and provide support for progression and performance through programs, as well as evaluating economics as they relate to reduction in overall institutional building and maintenance costs along with a focused drive to offset costs of education to the student.
The culmination of this project, using a comprehensive evidence base on costs and benefits of implementing digital learning at scale, will result in an ROI Guidebook and toolsets designed to empower leaders with actionable information and activities to better analyze and scale their institutions’ online programs.
Panel Discussion;The findings of this project have reinforced the potential of digital learning to significantly expand postsecondary opportunity for socioeconomically diverse students.
There are specific strategies that can maximize the ROI of digital learning and enhance the quality of any online offering and we want to ensure that these insights do not exist in a vacuum, but rather that they are relevant and easily accessible to the broader field. Our end goal is to create a user guide on how to scale high quality digital learning while managing costs.
Setting the stage: Understanding ROI (5 minutes)
How do institutions think about ROI and how often is this lens applied to digital learning in particular?
How do you think about ROI across your portfolio of offerings and where do you decide to index more or less on the dimensions of access, outcomes, and economics?
Do you usually think of ROI from an institutional or student perspective? How do you balance these views?
Leadership and engagement (10 minutes)
What level of leadership should drive the digital learning portfolio in order for it to be most effective?
How has having centralized operations helped you to enhance your ROI or scale more easily? How do you think about ROI across your portfolio of offerings and where do you decide to index more or less on the dimensions of access, outcomes, and economics?
What strategies have you used to effectively engage faculty members?
Operational drivers (10 minutes)
What measures have you put in place to drive up the quality and outcomes of your digital learning offering?
What capabilities does an institution need to deliver digital learning with strong ROI?
What is your philosophy on 3rd party partnerships? When do you use them and in what areas?
Financial drivers (10 minutes)
What are the most impactful levers you can pull to lower costs/optimize economics? How do you build a sustainable economic model?
How do student economics impact the implementation decisions you make and what measures are you taking to reduce student costs?
How should an institution think about investments in quality (e.g., instructional designers, quality assurance, etc.), in terms of weighing upfront financial commitments and changes from status-quo vs. long-term outcomes benefits?
Concluding thoughts & Audience Questions (10 minutes)
Where do you see digital learning heading and what are the next steps your institution is taking to optimize ROI?
What does success look like at your institution?