Developing an eLearning Annual Report for Business Management.

1. Developing an eLearning Annual Report for Business Management. Southeast EDUCAUSE 2010, Atlanta, GA S. J. (Sandy) Schaeffer, III, EdDAdvanced Learning CenterFedEx Institute of TechnologyUniversity of Memphis

2. A typical eLearning Conversation… Question:How much eLearning is happening on your campus? Answer:A lot. (But what does “a lot” mean?)

3. Role Play, need volunteers for: • Provost • CIO • President • Dean of Distance Education • VP of Business & Finance • Director of T&L Center • Faculty Senate Rep

4. Abstract While the role of eLearning is growing rapidly on many campuses, understanding its impact on enrollment patterns, finances, and student success is difficult (if even being pursued.) The University of Memphis has initiated an effort to generate an ongoing “eLearning Annual Report” to be used for business planning and executive decision-making. This session will be a critical exploration of the first year of this long-term effort.

5. In other words… What is the state of eLearning on my campus?

6. Session Objectives: • Background of the study (locally & nationally). Why? • Review initial set of annual report study questions. • Study results for Year #1 in the form of an Executive Overview. • Critical analysis of this study as a group. (You will be actively involved.)

7. Why worth pursuing? • Locally (U of Memphis) • Rapid growth of fully online programs, but happening mostly “bottom up” and not “top down.” • Little understanding of potential impact on faculty workload and support needs, student enrollment patterns, and information technology resources. • Certainly not haphazard, but occurring without benefit of a carefully controlled rollout model. • Nationally • Comparison to recent (2009) Sloan-C annual reports (Online Learning as a Strategic Asset) that identified significant gaps between campus’ efforts to plan for rapid growth in online learning and the reality of what is actually occurring.

8. About the U of Memphis • ~21,000 students • ~900 FT Faculty (700-900 PT faculty) • 80%+ commuter students • Public / State-Supported • Research (R1) institution

9. Stakeholders: • Provost • CIO (Information Technology) • Faculty Support Services • Student Services / Enrollment Services • Academic Departments • Individual Faculty Members • Financial Planning (Business & Finance) • Physical Campus Planning • Who else????

10. Basic Design of Study(Big Picture Objectives)

11. ? Research Questions: ? ? • Who is using eLearning on the UoM campus (faculty, students, etc.) • How much are they using eLearning resources? • What eLearning resources are being used? • How is eLearning impacting: faculty, students, departments, colleges, the entire campus? • What factors are influencing the level (up or down) of eLearning on the UoM campus? • How does the UoM level of eLearning usage compare relative to other institutions (regionally, nationally, etc.)? • Where is eLearning headed: locally, nationally, internationally? • Where do we want to go with eLearning as an institution in the future?

12. Critical Analysis: (your help) • Validity of the effort? • In general? • Specific results in this report? • Stakeholders: • Who should be study audience? • Who should contribute? • Study design? • Most useful components? Least? • What was left out that should be in? • Relevance beyond my campus? • Do other campuses care? • How to generalize?

13. Summary of First-Year’s Findings (Results)

14. Highlighted Findings: • Five studies were conducted: • Enrollment Patterns (O/L v. Total) • Online Syllabus Availability • LMS Usage by Instructors • O/L Program Faculty Needs • Students & Technology

15. Study #1: O/L Enrollment Patterns • Purpose: Track growth in fully-online enrollments as a percentage of total campus enrollments. • Method: • Longitudinal study with the baseline set in the Fall semester of 2007. • Extracted data from Registrar reporting system.

16. O/L Enrollments at U of Memphis: • Notes: • Summer 2008 is missing • Summer 2010 is estimated

17. O/L Enrollments at UoM:

18. Study #1 Discussion (Enrollment Trends) • Trend is clearly upward. • Summer sessions show strong spike. • UoM “branded” programs have passed state collaborative in local enrollments. What does this mean to:- CIO?- Registrar?- Other?

19. Study #2: Availability of O/L Syllabi • Purpose: Estimate the extent to which an O/L syllabus is available in all courses. (High-level baseline study conducted for disaster planning.) • Method: • Survey of 40 department chairs across five colleges (A&S, Business, Engineering, Communication/Fine Arts, and Education).

20. Availability of O/L Syllabi: Fall 2009 • Notes: • 10% reported plans to eventually require O/L syllabi for all classes while another 10% reported no plans at all.

21. Availability of O/L Syllabi: Fall 2009

22. Study #2 Discussion (O/L Syllabi) • It is clear that availability of O/L syllabi is not universal. • Wide variance among colleges and disciplines in availability level. • Variety of technologies used. What does this mean to:- Provost?- Department Chairs?- Students?

23. Study #3: LMS Usage by Faculty • Purpose: Measure the extent to which instructors actually use the campus LMS in any way as a part of instructional activity. • Method: • Baseline study of five (5) selected programs from Arts & Sciences. Visual examination for evidence of any usage of six (6) LMS tools.

24. LMS Usage by Faculty: Fall 2009

25. Study #3 Discussion (LMS use by faculty) • Campus LMS is clearly not universally-used on campus (but does not reflect extent to which other O/L technologies are used instead.) • Those that are using LMS are concentrating in sharing content. (Low use for assessment and grading.) • What does this mean to:- Faculty Support Center?- Other?

26. Study #4: Faculty Needs in O/L Pgms • Purpose: Explore impact of online programs launching in AY 2010-11. • Method: • Qualitative/quantitative survey of eighteen (18) academic programs that will be launching fully online programs in the 2010-11 academic year. Data collected through survey instrument and f2f interviews in Spring 2010.

27. O/L Program Needs Survey: Spring 2010

28. Impact of new programs on enrollment patterns: • FY 2010-11 • Assume 90 sections at 20 each • 1,800 additional O/L enrollments • 25% growth over Spring 2010 • FY 2011-12 • Assume 60 sections at 20 each • 1,200 additional O/L enrollments • 41% growth over Spring 2010 (cumulative)

29. Study #4 Discussion (new O/L pgms) • O/L programs will touch ~75 FT faculty. Reasonable to estimate that ~10-15% of all FT faculty will have taught fully O/L by 2010 as a result. • New programs could lead to 2X increase in O/L enrollments. • Faculty skill needs expanding well beyond basic LMS use. What does this mean to:- CIO? Provost?- Other?

30. Study #5: Students & Technology • Purpose: Exploration of our students and their use of technology personally and in coursework. • Method: • Extraction of U of Memphis data from ongoing participation in ECAR study on UG students and technology. • 2009 Datahttp://www.educause.edu/Resources/TheECARStudyofUndergraduateStu/187215

31. UoM ECAR results (2009)

32. Reported use of technologies in classes:

33. Students & Mobile Learning:

34. Study #5 Discussion (students & tech) • UoM students generally follow national patterns. • Mobile internet device (iPhone, Blackberry, etc.) ownership is very high. • A strong majority have experienced technology in their coursework and prefer classes with technology. What does this mean to:- Individual Faculty?- CIO?- Other?

35. Critical Analysis: • Validity of the effort? • In general? • Specific results in this report? • Stakeholders: • Who should be study audience? • Who should contribute? • Study design? • Most useful components? Least? • What was left out that should be in? • Relevance beyond my campus? • Do other campuses care? • How to generalize?

36. References • Allen, E., & Seaman, J. (2007). Online Nation: Five Years of Growth in Online Learning. Sloan-C Publications Website. • APLU-Sloan (2009a, August). Online Learning as a Strategic Asset, Volume I: A Resource for Campus Leaders. Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. • APLU-Sloan (2009b, August). Online Learning as a Strategic Asset, Volume II: The Paradox of Faculty Voices: Views and Experiences with Online Learning. Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. • U.S. Department of Education (2009). Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning.

37. Follow-Up Information & Inquiries:S. J. (Sandy) Schaeffer, III, EdDemail: sandy.schaeffer@memphis.eduphone: 901.678.5715