Distance Education Survey Results

Transcription

1 Disance Educaion Survey Resuls Trends in elearning: Tracking he Impac of elearning a Communiy Colleges March 2010

2 In Focus: The Year in Review 2009 The pas year has been evenful elearning programs framed by significan challenges and opporuniies. Highlighs included: One of he wors economic recessions in decades many communiy colleges have experienced near-record increases in suden enrollmens while enduring significan budge and saff reducions due o reduced sae and local funding. Announcemen of he American Graduaion Iniiaive proposal by Presiden Obama which included $500 million o creae free online courses and he prospec of funding innovaive iniiaives and collaboraions. The bill is sill pending in Congress and may be los due o efs o reduce he defici. Sill, communiy colleges and disance educaion programs have been lauded heir efs and he door has been opened o evenual increased funding communiy colleges and disance educaion programs. Compleion of he rule-making phase he Higher Educaion Opporuniies Ac panels in Washingon, D.C. revised definiions and provided direcion regional accrediaion agencies regarding how hey should ence he provision wihin he Ac. Increased concerns abou financial aid fraud and abuse involving disance educaion sudens. The inspecor general s office he U.S. Deparmen of Educaion has increased monioring and invesigaion in response o a few visible cases. Many programs celebraed heir enh anniversary offering classes and degrees via disance educaion echnologies. ic 2009 Disance Educaion Survey Resuls

3 Survey Hisory The Insrucional Technology Council (ITC) esablished he annual disance educaion survey in response o he growing need naional daa relaed o disance learning program creaion and developmen and key issues relaed o faculy and sudens. Disance educaion praciioners have used daa from he U.S. Deparmen of Educaion and he annual series of repors by Sloan-C, bu he landscape seemed o lack a reliable source of longiudinal daa gahered on a regular basis. The ITC survey was designed o fill ha gap in daa. In Fall 2004, members of he ITC board of direcors, med a commiee o creae a se of relevan quesions, devise a survey insrumen, and creae a sraegy conducing a naionally-based annual elearning survey. The board capped he number of quesions asked, o allow respondens o complee he survey in a reasonable ime frame. Their main goal was o rack daa and rends longiudinally o generae daa regarding real and relevan problems facing emerging and esablished elearning programs. They inended o relay naionally-relevan daa o elearning program adminisraors and campus leaders. The ITC board esed is firs survey in Spring Since many insiuions do no gaher or repor inmaion in he same way, he inaugural resuls showed some respondens had a difficul ime answering some of he quesions. The board adjused he quesions and disribued a revised insrumen o ITC members in Fall In Fall 2006 ITC disribued he survey o members of he American Associaion of Communiy Colleges (AACC). Subsequen surveys have included ITC and AACC members. How he Survey was Conduced elearning praciioners have developed and reviewed he survey quesions o ensure he daa and inmaion generaed is of value o elearning adminisraors and faculy. The quesions were divided ino four caegories general inmaion, adminisraive, faculy and sudens. ITC ed he survey o is member represenaives (usually he direcor of he disance learning program) a more han 400 insiuions, and o he 1,200 members of he American Associaion of Communiy Colleges. Duplicaes were eliminaed. The response rae was approximaely 17 percen. The compleed surveys were reviewed o ensure a represenaive sample of ITC- and AACC-member insiuions paricipaed, confirming an accepable response rae (226 ou of 1,200) wih an accepable disribuion based on size and locaion of insiuions submiing compleed surveys. For all percenages included in his repor, no answer responses are no lised consequenly, daa will no always equal 100 percen. Typically, he disance educaion adminisraor compleed he survey on behalf of his/her insiuion each insiuion. A longiudinal review esablished a srong coninuiy amongs compleers 70 percen of he annual submissions have come from he same campuses during he six years of he survey. Disribuion of Resuls The preliminary resuls were presened a ITC s annual meeing a elearning 2010 in F. Worh, Texas on Feb. 20, ITC will disribue he repor a he American Associaion of Communiy Colleges Annual Convenion in Seale, Washingon on April 17-20, Fred Lokken will presen is findings a ITC s sponsored um, and Disance Educaion - Dealing wih 21s Cenury, on April 18, ITC will mail a prined copy o he presidens of all communiy colleges. ITC will pos an elecronic version on is Web sie a Trends in elearning: Tracking he Impac of elearning a Communiy Colleges 1

4 2009 SURVEY RESULTS GENERAL INFORMATION Insiuions Surveyed. More han 96 percen of respondens idenified hemselves as Associae s Colleges (88.21 percen) or Associae s Dominan Colleges (8.21 percen). Disance Educaion Enrollmen Growh. Respondens were asked o repor comparaive enrollmen rends in disance educaion from Fall 2007 o Fall 2008 (he mos recen full year of available daa). Campuses repored a 22 percen increase disance educaion enrollmens subsanially higher han overall naional campus enrollmens, which averaged less han wo percen naionally. The Sloan Foundaion repored a 17 percen growh in disance learning enrollmens in is sudy, Learning on Demand: Online Educaion in he Unied Saes, The 2009 resuls indicae a robus growh paern disance educaion. Respondens repored several reasons he increase in enrollmens: 42 percen cied he downurn in he economy 39 percen cied ypical growh disance educaion classes 16 percen cied new enrollmen iniiaives 3 percen no response Direc Repor Line. In 2009, 74 percen of respondens indicaed hey repored o he vice presiden of academic affairs or an academic dean an increase of six percenage poins from he 2008 survey. More han six percen of respondens indicaed hey repor direcly o he presiden (up from four percen in 2008), and 1.56 percen indicaed hey repor o a library adminisraor (down from 3.1 percen in 2008). Non-credi Offerings. Sixy-six percen of campuses repored hey offer noncredi online classes (up wo percen from 2008). The sligh increase may reflec he realiies of he worsening naional economy. These classes can be used o obain specific job skills as he unemployed reool new career pahs. Normally, noncredi online classes are offered as a componen of communiy educaion or business oureach divisions. How o remain innovaive and leading edge as (he) program grows and becomes insiuionalized. BUDGET CUTS!! Since our program is a virual one, he awareness of he college adminisraors and governing board needs o subsanially improve o ensure he program efficacy. 2 ic 2009 Disance Educaion Survey Resuls

5 ADMINISTRATIVE QUESTIONS. Respondens ranked he challenges heir disance educaion program faces heir scores have remained subsanially unchanged since ITC added wo new challenges in 2009: adequae assessmen of disance educaion classes and compliance wih HEOA requiremens disance educaion. Offering adequae assessmen ranked hird while he low ranking of Higher Educaion Opporuniies Ac (HEOA) compliance likely reflecs ha mos disance educaion adminisraors are unclear as o wha he accrediing agencies will expec of hem. Char 1: Greaes of Disance Educaion Programs Range responses 1 = greaes challenge 8 = leas challenging Challenge Suppor saff needed raining and echnical assisance Adequae suden services disance educaion sudens Adequae assessmen of disance educaion classes (new quesion) Operaing and equipmen budges Adequae adminisraive auhoriy Faculy accepance Adequae space raining and echnical assisance Organizaional accepance Compliance wih HEOA requiremens disance educaion (new quesion) 9 Suden accepance Learning Managemen Sysem Usage. In 2009, 51 percen of respondens indicaed hey use Blackboard/ WebC/Angel (27.4 percen Blackboard, 9.7 percen WebCT and 13.7 percen Angel). This is down from 56 percen jus Blackboard/WebCT repored in Thiry-hree percen of respondens indicaed hey were considering swiching LMS plams in he nex few years his has been consisen he pas four years of he survey. Sixy-hree percen repored hey do no plan o swich LMS. Seveny-seven percen indicaed hey resric he number of LMS plams he campus will suppor a number ha has unchanged in he pas several years. The repored LMS usage disribuion is repored in Table 1. The able reflecs daa he 2007, 2008 and 2009 response years. The mos significan changes during his hree-year period reflec Blackboard s purchase of WebCT and Angel. Trends in elearning: Tracking he Impac of elearning a Communiy Colleges 3

6 Table 1: LMS Usage 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% % 10% 5% 0% Blackboard WebCT Angel Moodle Desire2Learn Accessibiliy Compliance. In 2008, 73 percen of respondens indicaed ha mos or all of heir online classes were in compliance. In 2009, 54 percen repored ha mos, or all, of heir classes are in compliance his reflecs a nearly 20 percen drop from he previous year. Tweny-one percen indicaed ha a leas some of heir classes were in compliance. Online Degrees. Respondens indicaed wheher heir insiuion offers an online degree program. The survey defined an online degree as a leas 70 percen of coursework need o complee he degree is available online. Seveny-five percen of respondens repored hey offer a leas one online degree a number ha remained virually unchanged from Table 2 offers a percenage breakdown by degree ype. We need one cenral faculy developmen cener supporing faculy in effecive insrucional design, use of Blackboard and oher educaional echnologies, assessmen of he qualiy of heir online courses, help wih improving online course qualiy and help wih rapidly changing echnologies. We also need more saff in he sysem disance educaion area. 4 ic 2009 Disance Educaion Survey Resuls

7 Table 2: Online Degrees Offered by Degree Type 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% AA Degree AS Degree AAS Degree AGS Degree BA Degree BS Degree Course Evaluaion. Respondens indicaed how heir insiuions evaluae disance educaion classes: 90 percen use suden evaluaions 64 percen use some ype of adminisraive review 58 percen use peer evaluaion, and 60 percen use campus sandards/bes pracices. Daa has been consisen his quesion he pas several years. Programs face several challenges as concerns course evaluaion. Many sruggle o ge enough sudens o complee online evaluaions. Programs also repor ha online faculy end o be evaluaed less ofen han faculy in face-o-face classrooms. elearning is increasing and has a good self-supporing budge, while ohers a he college are geing laid off due o lack of sae-suppored dollars. I makes i challenging o have a dynamic and growing program wihin a larger environmen of budge cus and layoffs and even poenial college closure. Trends in elearning: Tracking he Impac of elearning a Communiy Colleges 5

8 Course Enrollmen Caps. Eighy-five percen of respondens indicaed hey cap online class enrollmens a figure ha had no changed during he previous hree surveys. The ypical enrollmen cap by class ype also remained he same. 27 sudens an inroducory mah class 25 sudens an inroducory English composiion class 30 sudens an inroducory poliical science class Class Hosing. The survey daa confirmed ha more colleges ousource he hosing services (ex. servers) heir online classes compared o previous years o a hird pary or as par of a consorium perhaps reflecing budge and saffing reducions a a growing number of insiuions due o he economy. 40 percen said hey own and mainain heir own servers (down from 50 percen in 2008). 36 percen ousourced heir server needs o a hird pary, such as a learning managemen sysem provider, publisher or IT provider. 20 percen shared servers wih ohers, such as a sae sysem, disric or consorium (up from 10 percen in 2008). Ousourcing Seleced Services. In 2008, ITC added a new quesion concerning he ousourcing of various suden services. Surprisingly, many respondens failed o answer his quesion, suggesing a large number do no ou-source any disance educaionrelaed services on heir campuses. For hose who did respond: 80 percen repored hey were using he same number of ousourced soluions services. 18 percen repored hey increased heir use of ousourced soluions services. wo percen repored hey reduced heir use of ousourced soluions services. Course Conen Developmen. Colleges can use heir own faculy, insrucional designers and adminisraive saff o develop heir own online course conen, use maerials offered by a exbook publisher, or purchase conen from a online course conen provider. Mos develop heir own. 75 percen develop heir own conen. 18 percen use publisher conen. five percen conrac or license maerials from a conen provider. Mos Difficul Classes. Respondens idenified classes hey have found o be difficul o offer online various reasons, such as faculy resisance and/or pedagogical challenges. This lis has no changed he duraion of he survey. The mos difficul classes lised include: Lab-based science Speech Clinical requiremens Fine ars Nursing Mah Indusrial echnology Foreign language Compuer hardware Course Equivalency. Accrediaion sandards require ha disance educaion courses, conen, and rigor be equivalen, or beer, ha hose offered faceo-face. Niney one percen of respondens indicaed heir online classes were equivalen or superior o heir face-o-face classes (82 percen equivalen, nine percen superior). Only eigh percen said heir online classes needed improvemen compared o heir college s face-o-face radiional course offerings. 6 Managing growh and inegraing disance educaion ino insiuional sraegic planning. Geing deparmens o buy in on expanding he number of online secions available o sudens. ic 2009 Disance Educaion Survey Resuls

9 Services and Technology Suppor In addiion o offering he same academic rigor and conen in heir online courses, regional accrediing agencies require insiuions offer disance learning sudens equivalen suden services and suppor. Wih growing numbers of online sudens, campuses are recognizing he need o inroduce or expand heir virual services and suppor. The 2009 survey resuls confirmed daa from previous years -- colleges have consisenly increased heir ef o offer online sudens a broad array of services. However, commens from respondens affirmed ha budge cus have impaced heir abiliy o offer some services virually. Many repored reducions had occurred as a resul. See Char 2 below: Char 2: Saus Repor: Suden Services and Technology Suppor Service/Technology Currenly offer Plan o offer in nex year Plan o offer in wo or more years No plan o offer Audio/video sreaming 74% 4% 11% 6% Campus esing cener disance educaion sudens 76% 1% 5% 13% Dedicaed Web sie disance educaion program and sudens 90% 4% 1% 1% Disance educaion-specific faculy raining 90% 4% 1% 1% HelpDesk and echnical suppor disance educaion faculy 91% 2% 2% 1% HelpDesk and echnical suppor disance educaion sudens 89% 5% 1% 1% Online admission o insiuion 85% 5% 5% 1% Online counseling and advising services 57% 21% 13% 5% Online inmaion and applicaion financial aid 86% 7% 3% 1% Online library services and resources 94% 1% 0% 1% Online paymen of uiion and fees 87% 4% 3% 3% Online plagiarism evaluaion 54% 13% 9% 20% Online regisraion classes 91% 2% 1% 1% Online suden course evaluaion 87% 4% 4% 1% Online suden organizaion, Web sie and services 44% 14% 17% 20% Online suden orienaion disance educaion classes 70% 17% 5% 4% Online exbook sales 73% 9% 4% 9% Online uoring assisance 65% 13% 8% 10% Campus Web poral 62% 9% 12% 13% Audio Podcasing 63% 13% 9% 11% Vodcasing 53% 17% 14% 11% Trends in elearning: Tracking he Impac of elearning a Communiy Colleges 7

10 Disance Educaion Fees. Fory percen of insiuions repored hey charge sudens an addiional percredi fee o ake disance educaion classes, similar o he 2008 daa he minimum colleced was $2, he maximum was $80, wih a median average of $22. Some campuses are beginning o inegrae relaed program coss ino exising budges, reducing he need a separae fee. Oher campuses shif new coss ono sudens o make up budge shorfalls. The issue of wheher o assess a separae suden fee is ied closely o he insiuion s culure and he number of fees already assessed o sudens. COURSE FORMATS IN TECHNOLOGY-MEDIATED INSTRUCTION In 2008, he ITC survey inroduced several quesions concerning blended/hybrid and Web-faciliaed courses. The survey defined a blended or hybrid course as one ha blends online wih face-o-face delivery 30 o 79 percen of conen is delivered online, wih online discussions and some face-o-face meeings. A Webfaciliaed course (also known as an Web-enhanced or Web-assised course) is a face-o-face course ha uses he Web o faciliae aciviies one o 29 percen of conen is delivered online. Insrucors ofen use a course managemen sysem or Web page o pos he syllabus and assignmens. Type of Course Formas Offered. Respondens idenified he ypes of echnology-delivered credi courses offered by heir insiuion by specific ma. The percenages were essenially unchanged from 2008 (noe ha respondens could idenify more han one ma). 75 percen offer compleely online classes 15 percen offer blended/hybrid courses one percen offer cable/elecourse courses 1.4 percen offer oher ms of elecourse classes hree percen offer ineracive video (IAV) courses more han one percen offer audio courses Blended/Hybrid Courses 53 percen coninue o increase he number of blended/hybrid courses each erm 20 percen offer abou he same number of hese courses each erm eigh percen are beginning o offer hese classes he firs ime one percen are reducing he number of hese courses each erm hree percen do no offer blended/hybrid courses Managing an appropriae mix of delivery ypes so suden needs are me, faculy alen is bes-uilized, and insrucional coss remains under conrol. Faculy say hey do no have ime raining. There are few incenives hem o ge raining. Collecive bargaining agreemens make raining requiremens/evaluaion difficul. Lack of faculy undersanding of online eaching pedagogy and bes pracices. 8 ic 2009 Disance Educaion Survey Resuls

11 Web-assised/Web-enhanced/Web-faciliaed Courses 77 percen repor hey coninue o increase he number of hese classes each erm seven percen offer abou he same number of hese classes each erm wo percen do no offer hese classes 14 percen did no respond o his quesion Ineracive Video (IAV) Courses. Given he growh of and focus on online courses and degrees, many surveys have overlooked more esablished echnologies such as ineracive video classrooms. Respondens described heir use of IAV. 40 percen have deacivaed heir IAV nework or have never offered IAV courses five percen are offering he same number of IAV courses each erm 25 percen are reducing he number of IAV courses each erm 26 percen are coninuing o increase he number of IAV courses each erm FACULTY QUESTIONS. ranked he greaes challenges hey face as relaed o faculy. During he pas six years, addressing faculy workload issues has remained heir major challenge. In 2009, recruiing faculy moved up o he number hree spo. Commens from respondens confirmed heir growing difficuly finding and raining qualified faculy. There is remarkable consisency in all of he rankings wih some shifing in he middle range. See Char 3. Char 3: Greaes Face Regarding Disance Learning Faculy Range responses 1 = greaes challenge - 7 = leas challenging Challenge Workload issues Training Compensaion Technical suppor Buy-in o online insrucion Recruimen Inellecual propery/ownership issues There is a limied pool of qualified adjunc insrucors in his area of he sae. Recruiing faculy disance educaion classes when enrollmen growh is so grea. Finding enough faculy o each online. Trends in elearning: Tracking he Impac of elearning a Communiy Colleges 9

12 Faculy Training. Sixy percen of he respondens indicaed faculy paricipaion in raining programs disance educaion was mandaory a figure consisen wih daa colleced during he pas hree surveys. Those who responded yes, were asked o idenify how many hours of raining were required a number ha coninues o increase. 70 percen require more han eigh hours of raining 20 percen require less han eigh hours of raining 10 percen require exacly eigh hours of raining Teaching Raios Online Insrucion. Respondens repored ha full-ime faculy each 64 percen of disance educaion classes par-ime faculy each 35 percen. This raio has remained essenially unchanged he pas hree surveys and aligns wih he hisoric full-ime/par-ime faculy percenages seen radiional face-o-face classes a mos communiy colleges. Respondens found creaing hiring pools of qualified par-ime faculy increasingly difficul and indicaed hey had reached a sauraion poin recruiing full-ime faculy (ex. hose who wan o each online). Our faculy have recenly come ogeher in a collecive bargaining uni. They have decided ha faculy should have conrol when and how a course should be delivered. This sruggle is jus now coming o a head. 10 ic 2009 Disance Educaion Survey Resuls

13 Faculy Locaion. Survey daa has consisenly esablished ha campuses are willing o look beyond heir curren eaching alen o recrui faculy o each online. Iniial work-relaed barriers (ex. worker s comp coverage) have been addressed by many saes. Since adminisraors can no longer recrui full-ime, radiional, face-o-face faculy who already each on heir campuses o each online, many look o recrui faculy saewide, regionally, or naionally. There, hey are more likely o find faculy who have already been rained o each virually and have a proven rack record. Limiing he Number of Classes Taugh. Only 28 percen of he respondens limi he number of online class secions a full-ime faculy member can each each erm. Sixy-six percen allow flexibiliy. An emerging challenge adminisraors in his regard relaes o increased faculy union ineres in online eaching/eaching loads. STUDENT QUESTIONS Nearly all of he respondens repored a seemingly endless supply of sudens ineresed in aking classes online. They see a need o increase he number of course offerings and o sreamline and appropriaely suppor course developmen, design, assessmen and overall qualiy o respond o increasing demand. In 2009, oriening and preparing sudens o ake classes a a disance was once again he number one challenge. Assessmen issues and echnical suppor round ou he op hree. Char 4: Greaes Sudens Enrolled in Disance Educaion Classes Range responses 1 = greaes challenge - 8 = leas challenging Challenge Orienaion/preparaion aking disance educaion classes Assessing suden learning and permance in disance educaion classes Compuer problems/echnical suppor Low suden compleion rae Providing equivalen suden services virually Compleion of suden evaluaions Cheaing Recruimen/suden ineres in disance educaion Making sure ha all sudens undersand he rigor of online courses and he ime commimen required o be successful. Making sure sudens are prepared o ake online classes. Trends in elearning: Tracking he Impac of elearning a Communiy Colleges 11

14 Compleion Raes. Since he incepion of online insrucion, adminisraors have deal wih he issue of lower suden reenion or compleion raes han radiional face-o-face insrucion. During he early years, reenion/compleion could easily fall below 50 percen. However, colleges have progressed in addressing his challenge in 2009 adminisraors repored ha he average reenion or compleion rae online classes was 72 percen, compared o 76 percen radiional face-o-face courses. Based on six years of daa, he rend in online reenion has coninued o improve. Tradiional/Non-Tradiional Sudens. Many expec he millennial generaion o dominae online classes given heir repuaion being ech-savvy and echnology-obsessed. However, he survey confirmed ha older sudens are nearly as likely o ake an online class as he millennial sudens. 52 percen Tradiional (18-25) 47 percen Non-radiional (26+) Gender. Survey daa has consisenly confirmed ha more females han males ake online classes. If anyhing, he gap seems o be widening. The gender breakdown suden enrollmens disance educaion classes is: 63 percen Female 36 percen Male Suden Demand. The 2009 survey paricipans repored on heir success meeing anicipaed suden demand disance educaion classes he percenages are consisen wih hose seen in percen repored demand is exceeding heir disance educaion class offerings 28 percen repored demand is being me Suden Auhenicaion. When i passed he Higher Educaion Opporuniies Ac in Augus 2008, Congress required colleges o creae processes ha esablish ha he suden who regisers in a disance educaion course or program is he same suden who paricipaes in and complees he program and receives he academic credi. In is corresponding regulaions, he Deparmen of Educaion required accrediors o ensure colleges auhenicae sudens using a secure login and pass code, procored examinaions, or any new or oher echnologies and pracices ha are effecive in verifying suden idenificaion. Survey respondens repored a high level of compliance wih his requiremen: 91 percen currenly require auhenicaion 3 percen do no currenly require auhenicaion Geing sudens o read inmaion abou disance educaion classes and undersanding here is a basic knowledge of compuer skills needed o be successful. 12 ic 2009 Disance Educaion Survey Resuls

15 Observaions and Trends The ITC survey is in is sixh year. Coninuiy in a number of response areas emerges and he survey confirms ha many disance educaion programs face similar challenges. Observaions Demand disance educaion by communiy college sudens coninues o grow-a an acceleraed rae. The growh rae disance educaion has been double-digi some ime. The 22 percen enrollmen increase, repored he academic year in his 2009 survey, represens a significan increase over (which had experienced an 11 percen increase over he previous year). This growh far oupaces ha radiional suden enrollmens (which averages less han wo percen-from Sloan-C: Learning on Demand: Online Educaion in he Unied Saes, 2009). Mos programs coninue o deal wih double-digi increases in enrollmen and sruggle o recrui faculy and offer addiional secions o mee he ever-increasing suden demand. Older, non-radiional sudens are araced o online classes and degree programs since hey fi ino heir busy schedules o offer a soluion career advancemen and/or change. As online insrucion coninues o maure, disance educaion adminisraors see he coninuing need o address course qualiy and design, faculy raining and preparaion, he need course assessmen, and improving suden readiness and reenion. However, some programs repor a push-back from heir senior adminisraors, faculy, or faculy represenaives. Programs are challenged by a lack he saff and resources o be successful. Growh in he use of blended/hybrid and Web-assised/Web-enhanced/Web-faciliaed classes coninues. Respondens repor a robus increase in he use of boh blended/hybrid and Web-assised/Webenhanced/Web-faciliaed mas. A variey of reasons are cied, bu i is anicipaed ha increased usage will coninue. The gap beween disance learning and face-o-face suden compleion raes has significanly narrowed. Compleion raes have jumped o a repored 72 percen, jus below he 76 rae face-o-face classes. This marks a significan improvemen from he 50 percen repored in he early years of disance educaion. Virual suden services and echnology suppor services remain a prioriy on mos campuses. Progress coninues o be made. The 2009 survey confirmed colleges are coninuing o increase he array of virual services hey offer online sudens. No only do sudens see hese services as more convenien, bu colleges ofen find hey are more cos-effecive han radiional campus-based services. The learning managemen sysem (LMS) marke remains volaile. The mergers of Blackboard-WebC and Blackboard-Angel have fosered some uncerainly. The ITC survey has repeaedly confirmed ha approximaely one-hird of elearning programs are considering swiching heir LMS. Daa also suggess ha he ineres in open-source soluions coninues o be fla. Trends in elearning: Tracking he Impac of elearning a Communiy Colleges 13

16 Trends During he pas en years, online programs have been characerized by rapid growh, cross-divisional, doing-i-differen ypes of programs, greaer program efficiency by doing more-wih-less, leading-edge professional developmen faculy in he use of insrucional echnology, and adaping o millennial generaion learning syles and hinking abou dialog and inrospecion in academic deparmens. As online programs maure and become increasingly viewed as mainsream programs wihin he campus bureaucracy, hey risk of losing several of hese program characerisics ha made hem sand ou. On he oher hand, being acceped ino he adminisraive srucure can improve chances increased budges, saffing, space and prioriy. A number of key rends (suppored by 2008 survey responses) include: Online classes may represen he only growh in suden enrollmen a mos insiuions. Online classes will increasingly arac millennial sudens due o heir echnology base. Online classes will coninue o be he change agen campuses, allowing updaing and improving levels of services sudens and faculy. Disance educaion programs have seen an acceleraing move away from IT operaions o he academic side of he insiuion (vice presiden of academic affairs or academic dean). Creaing a seamless relaionship on campus remains a significan challenge as radiional adminisraive unis coninue o feel hreaened by he rapid growh of he online program on heir campus. Conrol issues have emerged, wih an increasing number of debaes over wheher he disance educaion should be organized in a cenralized vs. decenralized fashion on campus. Disance educaion course qualiy is coninuously improving as more insiuional resources are redireced here. Programs focus on qualiy, consisency, assessmen and reenion. Many colleges have increased heir use of blended/hybrid and Web-assised/Web-enhanced/Webfaciliaed courses. Mos adminisraors already auhenicae disance learning suden access o online courses. 14 ic 2009 Disance Educaion Survey Resuls

17 Is Your Online Program Typical? Online course adminisraors always wonder how heir program compares o hose a oher insiuions. Is i ypical or consisen wih naional rends? Six years of survey daa allows us o provide a generalized composie. Noe ha individual programs ha do no reflec hese generalized characerisics can be highly successful i ofen depends on he culure of he insiuion and how well hey are able o work heir magic o serve heir sudens. The ypical online program: 1. Is he primary source enrollmen growh is insiuion. 2. Does no offer enough classes o mee suden demand. 3. Increases access o higher educaion. 4. Is aracing an increasing number of nonradiional (younger) sudens. 5. Repors o he academic side of he insiuion (dean or above). 6. Is under-saffed, working in cramped condiions, and has an inadequae budge. 7. Offers approximaely 160 online classes/class secions each semeser. 8. Has become a significan change-agen, promping increased faculy raining and professional developmen, rehinking how we each, and providing a caalys inegraing echnology ino insrucion, 9. Ofen leads he insiuion in dealing wih issues of assessmen, design, rigor, course qualiy and learning. 10. Sruggles o obain undersanding, accepance and suppor from campus leaders, who ofen lack direc experience wih his mehod of eaching and learning (someimes a generaional disconnec). Trends in elearning: Tracking he Impac of elearning a Communiy Colleges 15

18 Conclusion The ITC board of direcors inends his survey o be of value o disance educaion praciioners. We srive o idenify relevan daa and o ensure is imely abulaion and disribuion. The disance educaion landscape is changing rapidly, and he need relevan daa and inmaion has never been more imporan. This is new ground mos senior college adminisraors hey are being asked o suppor new saffing, space, and budge requess ofen wih a fixed or shrinking budge. Ofen hey have lile, if any, direc experience managing disance educaion programs. College adminisraors wan o ensure hey are making he righ decisions ha will benefi heir sudens, faculy, saff and greaer communiy, and make he mos of limied resources. We hope he ITC survey has emerged as a valued and rused source of relevan inmaion. Each year ITC engages in an aggressive campaign o ge he survey ino he hands of key adminisraors and disance educaion praciioners. This repor is disribued o ITC members, communiy college presidens, aendees a he AACC annual convenion, and is he subjec of aricles in relevan publicaions. We will coninue o do our bes o empower decision makers wih inmaion hey need. To ha end, ITC offers his repor in suppor of is members and he naional online educaion communiy. Fred Lokken Chair, ITC Board of Direcors Associae Dean WebCollege Truckee Meadows Communiy College Reno, Nevada Acknowledgemens: I wish o express my appreciaion o member insiuions of he Insrucional Technology Council (ITC), and he American Associaion of Communiy Colleges (AACC) heir paricipaion in his year s survey. Special appreciaion o he ITC board of direcors, heir coninued suppor of he projec. The ITC survey commiee members, heir efs o refine opic areas and o assis in drafing several new quesions he annual survey. Travis Souza, WebCollege Coordinaor, Truckee Meadows Communiy College (TMCC), his work creaing he online survey insrumen and abulaing he resuls. Chrisine Mullins, ITC Execuive Direcor, her ousanding assisance wih his year s survey. 16 ic 2009 Disance Educaion Survey Resuls

19 Abou he Insrucional Technology Council (ITC) The Insrucional Technology Council (ITC) is celebraing 30 years of providing excepional leadership and professional developmen o is nework of elearning expers by advocaing, collaboraing, researching, and sharing exemplary, innovaive pracices and poenial in learning echnologies. An affiliaed council of he American Associaion of Communiy Colleges since 1977, ITC represens higher educaion insiuions in he Unied Saes and Canada ha use disance learning echnologies. ITC members receive a subscripion o he ITC lis serv wih inmaion on wha s happening in disance educaion, discouns o paricipae in ITC s professional developmen Webinar series, disance learning grans inmaion, updaes on disance learning legislaion, discouns o aend he annual elearning Conference, and free access o ITC publicaions and research. Visi he ITC Web sie a Trends in elearning: Tracking he Impac of elearning a Communiy Colleges 17

20 ITC Board of Direcors Chair Fred Lokken Associae Dean of TMCC WebCollege Truckee Meadows Communiy College Reno, Nevada Chair Elec Jean Runyon Dean, Virual Campus Anne Arundel Communiy College Arnold, Maryland Treasurer Nancy Ragias Regional Coordinaor Ohio Learning Nework Zanesville, Ohio Roy Barels Souh Cenral Regional Represenaive Dean, College Advancemen Wesern Texas College Snyder, Texas Michael Cachpole Inernaional Represenaive Professor Norh Island College Por Alberni, Briish Columbia, Canada Barry Dahl Vice Presiden, Technology and Connec ecampus Lake Superior College Duluh, MN Ronda Edwards Execuive Direcor, MCCVLC Michigan Communiy College Associaion Lansing, Michigan Anne Johnson Norh Cenral Regional Represenaive Dean, Humaniies, Social Sciences and Online Programming Inver Hills Communiy College Inver Grove Heighs, Minnesoa Dan Jones Execuive Dean, Cener Insrucional Sysems Developmen Coasline Communiy College Founain Valley, Calinia James Picque Vice Presiden of Insrucion Dallas Couny Communiy College Disric Dallas, Texas Jean Runyon Norheas Regional Represenaive Dean, Virual Campus Anne Arundel Communiy College Arnold, Maryland Loraine Schmi Wesern Regional Represenaive Associae Dean, Disance Educaion and Academic Technology Chemekea Communiy College Salem, Oregon Ryan Schrenk Direcor, Exended Learning Monana Sae Universiy - Grea Falls College of Technology Grea Falls, Monana Mickey Slimp Execuive Direcor Norheas Texas Consorium of Colleges and Universiies (NETne) Tyler, Texas Carol Spalding Presiden Rowan-Cabarrus Communiy College Salisbury, Norh Carolina Diane Thomas Souheas Regional Represenaive Dean, Online College Greenville Technical College Greenville, Souh Carolina Lynda Womer Associae Provos, Elecronic Campus S. Peersburg College Seminole, Florida March 2010 Insrucional Technology Council One Dupon Circle, N.W., Suie 360 Washingon, D.C Copyrigh 2010 by he Insrucional Technology Council. All Righs Reserved.