Advancing Online Education - Executive Summary - November 2017

November 2017

Advancing Online Education in Minnesota State

A strategy for online education
Executive Summary

Executive Summary

The full report titled, Advancing Online Education in Minnesota State, was prepared by the Online Strategy workgroup, an ad hoc workgroup chartered by Minnesota State’s Leadership Council. The ad hoc workgroup convened from January 2017 through August 2017 and was comprised of appointees from each of Minnesota State’s collective bargaining unions. The final report was submitted to the Minnesota State Leadership Council for review and adoption in October 2017.

The complete report includes a total of forty-two (42) action steps aligned with fifteen (15) distinct strategies that support four broad goals to (1) collaborate across institutions in ways that increase (2) access to and the (3) quality of online opportunities that remain (4) affordable for students compared to other higher education providers.

Addressing all forty-two actions included in the full report would be an unmanageable undertaking for Minnesota State and its institutions in the short-term. The authors of this report have identified and prioritized nine (9) action steps campuses should consider over the 2017-2018 academic year, with an intention to begin implementing action steps during the 2018-2019 academic year.

The authors believe now is the time for Minnesota State and its institutions to take decisive action to support online education in ways that ensure we can continue to meet the educational needs of the students we serve.

How were the recommendations in this report developed?

In fall 2016, each Minnesota State campus submitted responses to a set of open ended questions that asked campuses to describe how they were currently addressing issues related online education. Campuses were also asked to provide feedback and/or suggest what Minnesota State could do collectively to support online education efforts. These questions were divided into four broad categories of access, quality, affordability and collaboration.

Responses to this questionnaire were analyzed by the Organizational Effectiveness Research Group (OERG) at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

The ad hoc workgroup was provided with the analysis from the OERG, the raw data responses from each campus, and a qualitative dataset provided as context to common, and often erroneous assertions made about the state of online education at Minnesota State campuses. Data included were demographics of students enrolled in online courses, the performance of these students, the levels and fields of study by students enrolled in online courses, and the number of online course offerings that currently take place throughout Minnesota State.

Additional reports, resources and data from national associations, like EDUCAUSE were also made available to the workgroup for consideration.

As the workgroup considered strategies that could advance online education, they were asked to use the primary and secondary sources listed above to support the fifteen (15) strategies that were developed. The workgroup then developed a set of action steps they believed should be pursued in order to advance each corresponding strategy.

Each action step was further categorized for its potential to positively impact student outcomes, compete against other higher education providers, and/or its potential to make online education more efficient or effective. The intention of categorizing these action steps is to help align each action step with is intended purpose.

How is Online Education defined in this report?

The term “online education” has been used as a blanket phrase for a number of fundamentally different educational models. For the purposes of this report, online education is defined as instruction that is unconstrained by the physical location of the student, campus, course, program, or instructor and often supported by technology.

Strategies and action steps were developed in ways that define students participating in “online education” as having any of the following characteristics:

• Students who enroll in online courses or programs may reside near or far from the campus(es) providing the course(s) or program(s).

• A student’s course load may include offerings where attendance is required in person or where an instructor and students are not required to be in the same physical location.

• Students may enroll in one or more individual online course offerings provided by one or more institutions to that may or may not satisfy degree/program requirements.

• Student may pursue a certificate, program, or degree where a substantial number of courses, perhaps all, are taken without being in the same geographic location as others.

The authors of this report agree that institutions should continue to explore and pursue a variety of models for delivering education, but this report does not address or offer strategies for each of these. Each model of education engenders a specific method used to approach education and is accompanied by its own list of strengths, weaknesses and opportunities.

Considerations for Implementing Action Steps

Minnesota State institutions have their own history of defining and organically growing “online education.” For meaningful progress to occur, the authors of the report have recommended prioritizing action steps that can make substantive improvements to the existing ways we operate, rather than attempting to “wipe the slate clean” and make large transformational changes on behalf of all Minnesota State institutions. Such transformational changes are hard to accomplish in the short-term and frequently run counter to the historical missions of public, non-profit entities like Minnesota State institutions. Such innovations are not discouraged within Minnesota State; instead, the workgroup believes individual institutions are best positioned to pilot such experiments as they can nimbly adapt to the changing needs of students.

Rather than attempting to implement each of the nine action steps individually, the workgroup has identified complementary action steps that can be linked and worked on collectively by goal areas.

Prioritized Action Steps

Items to be reviewed 2017-2018 with implementation to start during the 2018-2019 Academic Year

Access: Our online education strategy must ensure students have broad access to higher education across the state

Strategy 1: Ensure all student have online access to high quality support services.

The Online Learning Consortium suggests that students enrolled in online education experiences should have access to “three areas of support including academic (such as tutoring, advising, and library); administrative (such as financial aid, and disability support); and technical (such as hardware reliability and uptime, and help desk).”1 While many campuses provide access to these services at a space on campus, students enrolled in online courses or programs often have unequal access to these services when participating at a distance. It is true that some campuses have developed ways to support students at a distance, but often do so under special circumstances and not as something that is a common practice. It is important for students at a distance who participate in online courses and programs to receive comparable support services as their peers who are on campus. As a system, students have access to a handful of statewide services, include tutoring services through Smarthinking and test proctoring sites. Awareness of these services and variability of how campuses offer these services continues to be an issue for students and faculty members.

Statewide Student Support Center (Action A) - Minnesota State will provide its institutions and their students with access to a centralized support center during extended hours managed by staff who can assist students synchronously via phone, chat, text/SMS, or web conference. Staff at this support center will supplement, not replace, the human or financial resources campuses currently provide to their students.

Strategy 5: Expand access to professional development resources and services for faculty members

As online course are developed and while faculty members teach online courses, it is critical that faculty members have on-demand access to resources like technical support and course assistance.

Statewide Faculty Support Services (Action A) - Minnesota State provide its institutions and their faculty members with access to a centralized support center during extended hours with staff that can assist faculty members synchronously via phone, chat, text/SMS, or web conference. Staff at this support center would be there to supplement, not replace, the human or financial resources campuses currently provide to their students. The mission of the support center is to be there for faculty members when they need help performing a task or function within the learning environment.

Instructional Design and Technology Services (Action C) - Establish a unit that will provide course design and instructional technology services to selected programs and courses from Minnesota State institutions.

Quality: Our online courses, programs, and services must be of consistent high quality across colleges and universities

Strategy 1: Establish and maintain a statewide approach for professional development for online education

As noted in the OERG report, “faculty members are a large part of ensuring high quality online learning.” In addition to support provided through individual campuses, it is important for Minnesota State to make available professional development opportunities to interested faculty members.

Certification for Online Teaching (Action A) - Minnesota State will design, develop and sustain a world-class statewide certification for faculty members who wish to demonstrate their competency in designing and delivering effective online courses and programs.

Strategy 2: Ensure campuses use an evidence-based and/or nationally benchmarked e.g. Quality Matters or Online Learning Consortium) tool(s) for enhancing quality in online course and program design

Formed in 2012, the Minnesota Online Quality Initiative (MOQI) serves as a central entity with the goal of promoting quality course design for those course delivered in blended and online delivery modes. MOQI accomplishes this by facilitating training sessions, sharing information on course design practices, and provides opportunities for faculty members to review the design of their course. Central to the work of MOQI is the licensed use of the nationally recognized course design rubric provided by an organization called Quality Matters (QM). The QM rubric is rooted in 21 essential evidenced based standards that promote quality in online course design. Access and use of this rubric requires an institutional subscription to Quality Matters. The cost of this subscription has been reduced for campuses as Minnesota State has subsidized the total cost. With Minnesota State subsidizing the costs associated with Quality Matters, the use of the QM course design rubric, workshops, and course design certifications have been popular among the majority of Minnesota State institutions.

Some campuses have developed their own professional development programming that replace or supplement offerings available through Quality Matters. There is some interest in finding ways to provide additional faculty learning opportunities designed at local campuses.

Course and Program Design Standards (Action A) - Provide a set of evidenced-based, peer reviewed tools or models that can be used to guide a quality assurance process for the design and development of courses and programs. Ensure each campus uses a quality assurance process for the design and development of courses and programs.

Affordability: Online education must be affordable for our students with its value proposition clearly expressed

Strategy 1: Establish system guidelines operating instructions) for setting, justifying, and evaluating differential tuition.

Online education requires different or additional services that need to be funded. Even though it may not be affordable to all students, tuition at Minnesota State campuses is not high relative to private and for-private options. System and individual colleges and universities need to position themselves effectively within the market. Many campuses are currently relying on the differential between general and online tuition as operating revenue. While more students take online courses, “brick and mortar costs” stay constant. Because students want to know why there is variability in tuition for online courses, transparency is important when setting tuition for online education. There may be benefit to a consistent approach to setting tuition.

Models for Differential Tuition (Action B) - Develop a model, formula, and/or decision tree to guide a systematic approach for how institutions determine and use online differential tuition funds.

Strategy 2: Expand the use of quality, open educational resources

Minnesota State is promoting textbook affordability for students at colleges and universities by supporting and facilitating adoption of open, low-cost, high-quality materials. We strive to do through faculty development on evaluating open textbooks and grants and programing to support campus based OER creation and adoption. OERs will make education more affordable. Certainly, faculty members reserve the right to use whatever materials that meet their needs, but faculty members should be encouraged to investigate the feasibility of using OERs when the quality and availability of materials are satisfied. If students are making decisions not to buy textbooks because they are unaffordable, students will not have access to the resources they need, when they need them.

Adopting Open Educational Resources (OER) (Action A) - Support and incentivize the creation, modification and adoption of more affordable and/or open educational resources including ancillary materials. Provide incentives when curricula are developed, programs are created, or changes are made to programs.

Collaboration: Our online education strategy must draw on our collective strengths and resources

Strategy 3: Support faculty collaboration on curriculum

The ability to drawn on our collective strengths and resources when working to develop curriculum, programs, and courses. This is particularly valuable when Minnesota State is asked to address legislative actions (i.e. - Transfer Pathways, Developmental Educations) or Board of Trustee initiatives (i.e. - Twin Cities Baccalaureate).

Collaborate on Curriculum (Action A) - Facilitate faculty to faculty collaboration on the development of curricular materials by offering space, tools, financial/human support.
Strategy 4: Identify collaborations that result in strategic advantage, based on effective campus and system academic planning

Revenue Sharing Model (Action D) - Develop a revenue sharing model used in conjunction for online courses and programs