This session reports on a research study of institutional dynamics that enhance and/or inhibit success of online graduate programs in higher education. Findings indicate that institutional positioning and collaboration are major contributors to online program success. Future concerns included enrollments, shifting insertional priorities, building support networks, and establishing credibility.
Interviews were conducted with faculty from 16 institutions. The institutions represented a wide variety including state owned, private, religious affiliated, large and smaller institutions. The faculty were asked to describe a number of issues related to the status of the graduate online programs. The qualitative data were analyzed using the constant comparative approach. The data from the study generated a number of themes.
A. Program Origins: Program origins describes how and when the program began to be offered online. Different scenarios were found in this study:
1) Some programs started as a departmental decision to create selected online courses for their program.
2) In some cases, partnerships with online learning providers such as Pearson were the impetus to develop new online programs.
3) Some programs originated from the institution itself. For example, an administrator decided to make online learning as one of the priorities of the institution.
4) In contrast, some online programs started from faculty working independently to convert some courses into an online format and then later develop the online courses to the formation of an online degree.
5) Finally, some institutions started their online learning by receiving grants.
B. Curriculum Approval: Most institutions have specific policies and procedures for curriculum review and approval. The data revealed two dynamics in regards to curriculum approval:
1) The level of approval required, consisting of:
a) No approval needed. Several intuitions reported that the decision to teach online was a matter of instructor prerogative and academic freedom.
b) Informal review through the academic departmental required.
c) Formal approval through institutional curriculum committees and/or state approval.
2) The originals of the curriculum proposal, consisting of:
a) Top-down approaches where the initiative for the online program was initiated by administration.
b) Bottom approaches where the initiative for the online program was initiated by faculty.
C. Marketing and Recruiting
1) Student characteristics:
a) Motivation to seek programs is typically career related.
b) Diversity of students is a major feature of most online programs.
2) Marketing of online programs occurs through various types of channels, but generally, several types of marketing and recruiting strategies were identified including:
a) Online marketing (websites, social media, webinars, e-mail).
b) Information sessions.
c) Visiting other institutions and promoting at conferences.
d) Various forms of print media, including magazines, flyers, brochures, and mailings.
e) Word of mouth.
f) Building relationships and collaborations.
g) Recruiting targeted for specific groups of online students including: full time working adults, attend school part time, university employees, fear of online learning, and religious affiliations.
3) Hiring employees dedicated for marketing.
D. Collaboration: Collaboration is a term used to describe the process of establishing a network between different persons, groups, or entities that have a shared goal (Thomson, Perry, & Miller, 2009).
1) Non-intentional collaboration which are collaborations developed previously for different purposes but which proved beneficial in the development of the online program.
2) Intentional collaboration is an active process in which program coordinators try to build partnerships and relationships with other entities. These entities might be with:
a) Faculty inside the department.
b) Other departments within the institution.
c) Extra-Institutional collaboration.
i) Collaborations with other colleges and universities and community colleges.
ii) Non-educational collaborations between the program and organizations such as professional associations, private enterprise, or agencies of state government.
E. Institutional Positioning: Institutional positioning of a program is the perception by others within the institution regarding the value and/or status of the program. The following factors emerged as important considerations in determining institutional positioning:
1) Internal Image is the image of the program inside the institution. Specifically, internal image is reflected by how the program is perceived by administrators and faculty in other departments.
2) Institutional Priorities are the priorities for the institution, which might be identified in mission statements, policies, or through institutional support for specific initiatives.
3) Some online program faculty engage in internal marketing to improve their internal image through:
a) Representation on department, college, and university committees.
b) Distribution of newsletters and bulletins about the program within the institution.
c) Conducting conferences or other academic programs (both within and outside of the institution).
F. Institutional Support: The issue of support addresses all kinds of support provided by the institution to online programs. Many areas of support were identified. Following are the different types of support identified in this study:
1) Human resources support is that type of support that is provided by providing support personnel, such as people who are hired to do a specific job to support online programs such as recruiting, technical assistance, and program directors and coordinators.
2) IT support: almost universally technology and IT support were reported as being very good.
3) Curriculum development and instructional design support are provided by almost all institutions for curriculum development of new online courses and programs.
4) Financial support can be any support to the online program by providing money. Examples include:
a) Percentages from student tuition and fees paid to academic departments.
b) Other forms of institutional financial support.
5) Administrative support as a result of personal connections between faculty in the program and university administrators.
6) Negative issues regarding support include the following:
a) Lack of proper analyses (needs, learner, and organizational analyses).
b) Lack of incentives or promotion for faculty teaching online courses.
c) Lack of institutional support.
d) Lack of pedagogical training or instructional design support.
e) Faculty resistance.
f) International students’ issues.
g) Platform issues.
h) Student support issues.
i) Institutional bureaucracy.
G. Future Concerns: Future concerns can be grouped into four broad interrelated categories:
1) Program building,
a) Program expansion and determining optimum program size.
b) Changing program delivery methods to attract new students.
c) Seeking new markets.
d) Instituting curriculum changes to be more efficient or to enhance enrollments.
e) The perils of grant funding.
f) Intra-Instructional program promotion (institutional positioning).
2) There were three categories of concerns expressed regarding students:
a) Concerns regarding alumni.
b) Concerns regarding student enrollment.
c) Concerns about building relationships with current students.
3) Improving the current technology is another concerns for the future of online programs. Improving technology concerns can be related to the technical support, how students can cope with the sophisticated new technologies, changing platforms, and faculty training.
4) Issues related to faculty and online teaching were raised. These fell into several categories:
a) The changing nature of faculty in regards to online teaching.
b) The need for more faculty.
c) The interaction of faculty, online teaching, and institutional policies.