Deploying Online Learning Effectively and Advantageously for the Institution

Abstract

Online learning is widespread in higher education, and as institutional leaders gain experience with online learning, they are beginning to recognize its potential contribution to institutional matters such as enrollment growth and learning experience enhancement. One factor in realizing online learning’s full potential is how it is structured. ECAR research shows that a centralized approach provides more efficiency and is usually more cost effective for the institution as a whole because resources can be pooled to provide the best services for general use. At Coppin State University, a proposed online management degree program in 2011 prompted the leadership to consider online learning’s role with respect to the institutional mission, and Coppin’s administrators decided to deploy a centralized, institutional online learning environment that fortified student performance in an online setting. This case study highlights how this centralized approach fostered effective deployment practices that resulted in a robust institutional online learning environment, involving course design best practices, a faculty certification program, supportive faculty policies, and an assessment system.

Citation for this work: Pirani, Judith A. “Deploying Online Learning Effectively and Advantageously for the Institution,” (Case Study). Louisville, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research, July 2013, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.