A major initiative this past year has been the redesign of several IU Online programs. These Programs of Scale (ProS) are key to supporting IU’s strategic plan, IU 2030. They give students greater access to an IU education, ensure we are providing the support students need to succeed, and further improve the design of online coursework.
IU Online worked with campuses and departments to identify eight academic programs with the potential for meeting a high level of student demand. Departments offering undergraduate degrees in business administration, data science, informatics, mathematics, criminal justice, psychology, and nursing agreed to participate. The Fairbanks School of Public Health at IUPUI joined at the graduate level with its Master of Public Health.
After kickoff meetings with campus leadership, we partnered with campus faculty to redesign some 50 courses. Faculty worked with us to create eight-week sections, improve course design, and include reminders within the course encouraging students to take advantage of such student services as advising and success coaching.
So far, this initiative has made significant progress. The first eight-week courses in fall 2023 saw 538 enrollments. By offering the second eight-week entry point, we were able to enroll an additional 118 students in ProS programs. In a pulse text survey, 73 percent of students were highly satisfied or satisfied with these new course designs. In a follow-up pulse survey of students in second eight-week courses, student satisfaction rose to more than 80 percent.
Going forward, we will work with faculty to facilitate better communication about the courses and to more clearly explain how they work. Faculty had many good things to say about the experience, but there are things we have learned that will help us build on this initial success.