We will showcase a large R1 University’s unique process of creating consortial degrees across multiple campuses and share strategies for facilitating faculty collaboration and innovation.
Our institution is a multi-campus public university that collectively offers 120 online degrees. Several of these are consortial degrees that are taught by faculty from multiple campuses. In this presentation, we will showcase how our process for creating online collaborative degrees. We will outline our process and share valuable lessons learned along the way. Coordinating the online consortial degree creation process requires dedicated and consistent efforts from multiple stakeholders, and the entire process is coordinated by two central offices—the Office of Collaborative Academic Programs (OCAP) and eLearning Design Services (eDS).
Our approach seeks to protect and advance the academic integrity of the degree, permit broad sharing in the opportunities presented by online education, and take advantage of the scale, resources, reputation, and diversity of offerings. In this sense, it takes lessons from approaches that have not worked, and instead develops a new strategy that is based on extensive coordination and collaboration in academic programs and finance in fully online educational programs. This approach has developed over time and will undoubtedly continue to do so.
The collaborative degree model leverages the eLearning Design and Services team who work closely with faculty to support online course design and development. The
instructional design team bring expertise in curriculum development and instructional teaching methods tailored to the online learning environment.
Additionally, the instructional designers pair with faculty working on the collaborative course builds to ensure that pedagogically appropriate online tools are used to enhance the educational experience for the students. The designers and faculty plan and develop courses using a backward design approach aligned with the Quality Matters standards as a guide to ensure high quality online courses.
In its first five years, our collaborative model has begun to meet several of its initial goals by:
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Leveraging our online programs special strengths, with the objective of being a unique, selective provider nationally and globally.
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Developing collaborative online degrees has fostered growth in net enrollment especially in popular disciplines with strong student demand, with the objective of being the leading major-university provider of high-quality online degrees, especially in the upper Midwest.
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Creating a number of access degrees with the objective of supporting IU’s access mission and numerous “stackable” credentials in response to market demand.
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Delivering online degrees that increase retention and degree completion, and reducing time to degree (through expanded offerings, convenience).
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Providing a wide variety of newly developed and re-designed online course offering to provide faculty and students with a platform for innovative education
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Utilizing established university processes and student service providers to offer a high quality online educational experience.
Come along as presenters walk-through the collaborative degree model from the initial program planning to sharing methods for effectively collaborating with a diverse faculty development team, instructional designers, and instructional technologists. By taking part in this session, you will discover processes and strategies that the team uses to develop online degree and certificate programs. Look behind the scenes of this innovative development process. The session will also give examples of how various faculty development teams have partnered across the University to development high quality, innovative online degree and certificate programs. Participants will leave with strategies, tips, and resources to encourage greater institutional and faculty collaboration at their own institution.