Last year, two online learning administrators shared their process for addressing critical questions related to online program development and institutional support amid shifting campus leadership. This year, the story continues as online program development begins to ramp up at their institution. They will quickly review where they were last year and catch you up to the current strategies for growing online educational options at their institution.
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) is the flagship campus of the University of Tennessee System and the largest single provider of higher education in the state. In the past months, the university has started ramping up online program approval and development, while the final changes in senior level leadership are almost resolved. With the engagement of an Online Program Management (OPM) provider and the formation of the Online Programs Advisory Committee, there are many pedagogical and operational decisions to be made, such as how to tackle the design, development and delivery of online degree programs at the undergraduate level when the previous focus was on graduate and professional programs. We will discuss these decisions along with how Online Programs continues to work with the Office of Information Technology towards a united goal of more educational opportunities for the residents of Tennessee and beyond.
Critical Questions:
How can faculty and academic leadership play a role in defining the direction of the university?
How can academic support units keep the focus on student learning and success while growing online educational options? How do institutions continue to move forward in online program development while keeping students’ costs low and the quality of their educational experiences high? How does the introduction of OPM services impact an institution’s current online education ecosystem?
Meeting the Challenge:
Two online learning administrators, the Director of Online Programs and the Executive Director of the Office of Information Technology (OIT) Support, will address those critical questions. They have been working independently and collaboratively to strengthen existing areas within their respective offices, and establish new, more effective resources and procedures. These administrators will present the results of their collaborations and share examples of how their partnership and process improvements are having a positive effect across campus.
Goals of the Presentation:
During the session, the administrators will briefly touch upon the past and detail what changes have occurred in the last year while presenting success stories of their collaboration. The main goals of the presentation are to share strategies, facilitate an exchange of ideas through discussion, and empower attendees to adopt and apply new tactics (or modified versions) at their own institution. The presentation is meant to engage the audience and will include a short activity in which attendees reflect on and answer the following questions:
- What has been the biggest challenge related to growing online education at your institution and how have you overcome it?
- Does your institution work with an OPM? If so, how has that impacted the pedagogical and operational functions of online and distance education?
- If you could change one thing about how online learning is currently organized at your institution what would it be and how would you execute the change?
The main ideas to be presented in this session will focus on the importance of campus partnerships and the need for flexibility and adaptability while maintaining comprehensive support services for online teaching and learning.