Online Course Scheduling Committee Benchmark & Recommendations Report, Spring 2008 Page 2 Benchmarking & Recommendations Report Written by Brian Parry, committee chair with contributions from committee members: Kate Leach, Sandra Johnson, & Casey Joshlin ONLINE COURSE SCHEDULING COMMITTEE The online course scheduling committee was charged with generating guidelines that will provide the best course scheduling for online courses and students. PROFILE OF BENCHMARK INSTITUTIONS Four institutions were researched for the purpose of establishing benchmark data on online scheduling trends. These four colleges were chosen because of the tradition of using these same institutions as benchmark comparisons for San Juan College s School of Extended Learning. Caution should be used in comparing these benchmark institutions to San Juan College because of the differences in school missions, demographics, and populations of enrolled students. 1) Rio Salado this is a Maricopa Community College located in Tempe, Arizona. With 10 satellite locations, Rio Salado enrolls over 60,000 students annually. All courses taught through Rio Salado are fully online, and the degrees offered are Associates and Certificates. 2) Valencia Community College a large public school centrally located in Orlando, Florida with satellite campuses interspersed throughout the city. Over 21,000 full-time students are enrolled at Valencia. Courses are offered both online and face-to-face. 3) Florida Community College a very large public school found in Jacksonville, Florida and throughout the southeast coast of Florida. Over 64,000 students are enrolled annually at Florida Community College. The degrees offered are Associates with some Bachelors programs provided through other state colleges. Courses are offered both online and faceto-face. 4) Sinclair Community College an enrollment over 24,000 students, Sinclair Community College is a single campus college located in downtown Dayton, Ohio. Courses are offered both online and face-to-face. 2
Online Course Scheduling Committee Benchmark & Recommendations Report, Spring 2008 Page 3 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS A profile of online scheduling options was compiled in order to provide an idea of how San Juan College compares to the chosen benchmark institutions. BENCHMARK COMPARISON SHEET Online Scheduling Sesions (checked if institution provides) Open-enrollment San Juan College Rio Salado Valencia Florida Community Sinclair 4-week 5-week 6-week 7-week 8-week 10-week 12-week 14-week 16-week Total Schedule Options 3 5 5 3 5 *It may be difficult to compare SJC to Rio Salado because of population size differences and mission statements. Rio Salado is exclusively an online school. ANALYSIS Strengths: 1) San Juan College is aware of the broad, online schedule options offered by other institutions. Some efforts are being made to meet a more diverse set of online course schedule sessions. Weaknesses: 1) As is evident from the data in the general observations section, San Juan College is falling short of the number of online schedule options available. In fact, even though San Juan College is offering some 8-week course options, only five of the approximately 119 online courses are offered on an 8-week session. All the 3
Online Course Scheduling Committee Benchmark & Recommendations Report, Spring 2008 Page 4 remaining online courses are 16-week course offerings (with the exception of the Veterinary Technology courses, which are all 12-week options and restricted to permission only registration). Opportunities: 1) By exploring and implementing more alternative online schedule options, San Juan College can benefit from lower attrition rates among existing students and higher enrollment numbers among potential students. Threats: 1) There may not be enough potential students in the Four Corners area to warrant additional online course scheduling options. RECOMMENDATIONS Findings on online student retention and scheduling options Schroeder (2006) found that online students differ from face-to-face students in three major areas: (1) online students are overwhelmingly employed either full or part time; (2) evidence points to a higher than national average percentage of single parents; and (3) a high percentage of online students are returning to studies, and therefore, are older than face-to-face students. For these reasons, online students desire and appreciate flexibility in their course studies more than any other factor. The person-environment fit theory predicts that congruence between the person and the social environment results in satisfaction (Witt & Handal, 1984). Satisfied students achieve their academic and personal goals more fully than those students who are not satisfied with the institution or its environment. Furthermore, Indiana Wesleyan University (Tweedell, 2006) claimed 87% first year retention rates for an online program with satisfied students. Seeking to discover ways in which online programs can increase satisfaction levels with online students, Seidman (2006) came up with the following recommendations: o Match length of class to the time needed to accomplish learning outcome. Some courses lend well to shorter schedule options. In general, contentbased courses work better in shorter time frames than skill-based courses. o Offer more classes in 4-8 week modules. When students are engaged in intensive classes with the end in sight, retention and satisfaction goes up. o Give students different start and end options. Instead of commencing all courses at the beginning of the semester, offer more options from different times throughout the semester. San Juan College needs to offer more online schedule options. San Juan College largely adheres to a traditional schedule of 16-week course offerings. As of Spring Semester 2008, only 4% of online courses provided by San 4
Online Course Scheduling Committee Benchmark & Recommendations Report, Spring 2008 Page 5 Juan College were of the 8-week variety. The remaining 96% were all on a 16-week schedule. Of the Benchmarking schools, all of them have more scheduling options, and the number of courses offered in each of the scheduling options is significantly higher than the meager number of offerings provided by San Juan College. The most popular scheduling option is for 8-weeks. All of the benchmarking schools offer courses on an 8-week schedule. Strategy for implementing recommendations. Prior to the initiation of more online schedule options, San Juan College should gather data from current online students, inquiring about their preferences for online course schedule options. A couple of years ago, a similar effort was completed on behalf of face-to-face course offerings at San Juan College. Yet, no data has driven the scheduling of online courses at San Juan College. San Juan College should also gather data from residents of San Juan County meeting the profile of typical online students. This survey research could be accomplished through an insert mailing with the Communicator. Based on the results from the data inquiry, San Juan College should provide more online schedule options which reflect the consensus of the results. Caution should be taken in the implementation of more online schedule options. For example, even though research has demonstrated that online open enrollment courses are very successful, robust enrollment numbers are necessary to support such a scheduling alternative. Of the benchmarking institutions, Rio Salado is the only one to offer open enrollment. However, Rio Salado enrolls over 60,000 students, who are all taking fully online courses. Financial aid considerations should be considered when scheduling students. During advisement, advisors will need to verify that students are enrolled in sufficient hours based on their award. Additionally, if the student is at risk of failing and potentially losing their financial aid, a decided benefit of shorter courses comes from the student having adequate time to register for and complete another course within the same semester time frame. Higher enrollment numbers would result from the selection of general education courses which require prerequisites to be offered in 8-week periods. For example, English 111 could be offered the first eight-weeks of the semester and English 211 could be offered in the second eight-weeks of the semester. This architecture is often referred to as stacked classes. Math, psychology, and biology are other possible disciplines which would function well with serial, eight-week course offerings (please note that students taking shortened courses should have the number of courses taken per session limited accordingly). Flexible scheduling options such as block scheduling 8, or 4 week courses should be followed through with advisement to be sure that students are moving properly through the program. Pre-enrolling students is another consideration. If a student has missed enrollment for the current semester, pre-enrollment would allow SJC to capture the student. Advisors can obtain the student s information and class preference and pre-enroll for 5
Online Course Scheduling Committee Benchmark & Recommendations Report, Spring 2008 Page 6 the following semester. Time for completion of financial aid and transcript submissions can take place with less risk of the student s interest waning as they wait for the next registration time period. The student s enrollment is acquired and the student is now more engaged for the next semester. Datatel emails reminding the student of the semester s start date could be generated automatically. This consideration would require greater flexibility for payments through the business office, but would allow more time for deans to schedule faculty based upon real student numbers and less on projections. Cohort groups of students may be enrolled in programs designed with basic academic courses offered to satisfy requirements but within a program designed to match the discipline of the profession. Students move through the program together and support each other in an online learning community. Students feel more comfortable with a peer support system. Online stacked cohort groups have worked at SJC in the Vet Tech and PTA programs and should be looked into as an additional scheduling option for students in other areas. From a planning perspective, the program coordinator would need to find faculty willing, for example, to teach four week courses that could be started each month within a cohort architecture. 6
Online Course Scheduling Committee Benchmark & Recommendations Report, Spring 2008 Page 7 APPENDIX References of Recommendation Citations Seidman, A. (2006). Retention strategies for online student success. Paper presented at the Conference for Retention Strategies for Online Student Success, Vail, CO. Tweedell, C.B. (2006). Retention initiatives and strategies for student success. Paper presented at the Conference for Retention Strategies for Online Student Success, Vail, CO. Witt, P.H., Handal, P.J. (November 1984). Person-environment fit: Is satisfaction predicted by congruency, environment, or personality? Journal of College Student Personnel, 25, 503-508. 7