A decade. That's how long it's been since IU Online was established. I thought it might be time to step back and review where we were and take a peek at the future.
The beginnings seem distant now, not just because of the passage of time, but also because of the fog of the intervening pandemic. Back in 2012, we couldn't even count how many online programs, courses or students IU had. Online students were often expected to muddle their way through services that were built for in-person students (yes, in those days we had students who were told to come to campus to get services), and we saw increasing competition as campuses spun up programs independent of each other. It was the time when the MOOC was going to revolutionize (and some might say undermine) higher education, and predatory practices by a handful of online providers drew increased regulatory attention and undermined trust in online education.
With the establishment of the Office of Online Education (OOE), eLearning Design and Services (eDS), and eventually the Office of Collaborative Programs (OCAP), IU established its collaborative model of online education. OOE would serve as coordinator of the various academic units that were making fast progress in designing and delivering online education. Were all programs going to be collaborative? Absolutely not, but we needed more intentionality in IU's pursuit of online education.
Whether it was facilitating the increasing levels of regulatory compliance, creating dashboards to monitor online program growth and success, assisting in the instructional design of courses, bringing faculty together to design programs, or creating and promoting a single IU Online brand, these three offices (with aid of the campuses and offices like USSS, UIRR, IU Studios, University General Counsel, OCSS, UTO, and UITS) established a framework and foundation for online education that fostered growth without creating internal competition or separation from our traditional education. In 2020, this remote learning framework, fostered by IU Online, provided a solid foundation for IU's response to the pandemic.
Enrollments Continue to Be Strong
Thankfully, we saw a return to the campus this fall. Yet, even as students again walk our halls, share our classrooms, and live a more "normal" life, expectations remain high for online education in both fully online programs and in the overall educational experience at IU.
Overall this spring, 52 percent of IU students (that's 44,354) are taking at least one online class. This percentage is larger at the regional campuses, but it is still substantial at all of our campuses, indicating that both our faculty and students have an appetite to retain elements of the convenience, flexibility, and quality that is delivered through IU's online courses. The number of students in online programs (213 programs this spring) continues to grow over prior spring terms. This spring, about 8,000 students study in these programs.
Concerns on the Horizon
While most of this is positive news, there are areas for concern.
- Changes to IU's funding mechanism for online education has reduced support for marketing, leading to declines in new students in many of our online programs.
- Many other institutions, some of which are also large publics, are investing heavily in online education and particularly in marketing. For instance, the University of North Carolina's Project Kitty Hawk infused $97M into UNC's online education. IU is going to face more and more pressure to attract students to online programs as other such programs are launched.
- The increasing demand for quality in online education means that any institution providing online education must "up its game" to satisfy student expectations. These expectations require us to provide not only cutting-edge knowledge, research, and training in our classrooms, but also sophisticated course designs that make classes easily accessible, navigable, and functional across multiple platforms (including cell phones). Quite simply, courses must be on par with all the other apps that students are using in their day-to-day life.
Responses to Regulation
After a few years of regulatory calm, we are now seeing a fair amount of activity on the compliance front. Last fall, OOE worked with OCAP, USSS, and academic departments across the university to collect information about state licensure requirements for their programs. This collaboration led to the development of communication campaigns and a licensure look-up website to inform students about a program's ability to meet licensure requirements in their state. Because of this work, the university is strongly positioned to meet Department of Education and NC-SARA requirements regarding licensure disclosures to students.
In January, the US Department of Education issued a letter that revised the federal definition that accrediting agencies (like the Higher Learning Commission) would use in assessing online programs. In March, NC-SARA and C-RAC released the 21st Century Guidelines for Online Education, an update to the guidelines that have been in place for the past 10 years. Both of these documents represented significant changes to the regulatory landscape surrounding online education. It is still unclear how these updates will be implemented and what the timeline is for colleges and universities to become compliant with them; but it is obvious that additional change is on the horizon, and we have been actively watching and communicating with our regulatory body liaisons to understand what we must do to ensure compliance.
Finally, as the world transitioned to a more business-as-usual mentality in fall 2021, the regulations that had been suspended during the first year of the pandemic were reinstated. This included the requirements that campuses monitor the amount of online courses students can use to complete programs. As the first year of the pandemic grows more distant, we are retaining more online coursework than in prior years. We are working with campuses to make certain that all IU programs remain in compliance with federal, state, and accreditor expectations.
Planning for the Future
With 10 years under our belt, the time is right to formally review the structure of online education at IU. Therefore, Interim Executive Vice President Susan Sciame-Gesiecke sponsored an external review of IU's approach to online education. In the fall, a steering committee conducted a search for a partner and selected Deloitte to lead the external review. At this point, all interviews and data collection has been completed, and Deloitte is now analyzing it and writing its report, which will be delivered to President Pamela Whitten toward the end of February. Learn more about the external review.
In addition to the work with Deloitte, we continue to monitor and explore best practices that are being shared among our colleagues. These include reports such as "After the Pivot" from the Big Ten Academic Alliance and the 2021 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report: Teaching and Learning Edition. We also stay in regular contact with our partners EAB and Eduventures to discuss changes in the landscape surrounding online education and market opportunities.
As in prior years, we will continue to share what we learn with the larger university community. Through various events like the IU Online Conference, the Continuing the Conversation webinar series hosted by Gina Londino-Smolnar, and the IU Online Speaker series, we hope to welcome voices from across IU and outside of IU to strengthen our online courses, programs, and services. In addition, we're implementing "online office hours" with members of OOE and OCAP to provide greater availability of our team to university faculty and staff.
I hope that you will join us at the above events and help us on this journey to make IU an even stronger and more recognized leader in online education. In the meantime, enjoy the articles in this newsletter and thank you for all you do to make IU a great place to be, both in person and online!