Teach Online or Wither: Leveraging Technology to Increase Enrollment, Capacity, and Revenues

Arthur F. Kirk, president of St. Leo University, writing in University Business magazine: "But you need online courses and online programs. Traditional and non-traditional students increasingly demand—and often require—them. The time may have passed for the "big growth" strategy, but if you want to protect what you have and hopefully grow it, you need to be online, now! Since 2002, online education grew by a compounded annual rate of 19.7 percent. It grew 12.9 percent in 2007, according to Sloan data. During that same period, overall collegiate enrollments grew at a 1.6 percent annual rate . . . What is required? The first component of success is institutional commitment. Far too many schools falter because of vocal pockets of faculty resistance and lack of strong leadership. Smaller private not-for-profit colleges remain the least likely to offer online classes or programs. Yet a majority of them embrace a mission to educate working adults and/or depend upon those students to balance budgets. While chief academic officers generally believe that faculty accept the value and legitimacy of online courses, fewer than half of private college CAOs believe their faculty do so . . . Those opinions ignore mountains of data that demonstrate no differences in learning outcomes between online and classroom courses. They also ignore the National Survey of Student Engagement, in which "distance education" students reported being more engaged than traditional students. Negative faculty opinions run counter to those of business leaders. According to Excelsior College/Zogby International's online survey of business executives, among those familiar with online programs, '83 percent strongly believe that degrees earned via online programs are viewed favorably compared with those earned in a more traditional way.'

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 14–16: Baltimore, MD
• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA