Abstract:

A glance at the aggregate statistics for online learning in postsecondary education leaves no doubt that it is a blazing success. Nearly a third of all college students are taking at least one course online and overall online enrollment numbers increased by over 6 percent year-on-year, even though total college enrollment decreased slightly. It would seem that this increasingly popular mode of delivery must be an essential part of every institution’s strategic goals, especially since numerous studies have indicated that administrators strongly encourage and endorse online learning. But there is a paradox here. For nearly two decades studies have indicated that while more than two-thirds of administrators favor distance learning, a roughly similar percentage of full time faculty members, about 70%, are neutral or non-supportive. If the faculty, who are responsible for determining both the academic content and the delivery method, are not strongly supportive, it seems difficult to imagine a successful strategy-centered growth trajectory in on-line education, no matter how much it is favored by students and administrators.

We examine four aspects of this apparent paradox. First, we recap the major favorability/neutral/unfavorability findings since the early 2000’s, concentrating particularly on the Babson reports from 2003 through 2017 and the Inside Higher Education/Gallup reports from 2014 through 2019. For full time faculty the favorability percentage has varied between 25 and 35 percent, with lowest numbers always for tenured faculty. Favorability ratings for administrators since 2003 have been in the range of 70 to 80 percent, recently even higher.

Next, we analyze some of the reasons for the apparent disconnect between faculty and administrators’ goals for online learning. First, administrators may view online learning as a potentially attractive revenue source through using technology to lower unit costs and recently have introduced partnerships with On Line Program Management (OPM) vendors to broaden offerings and enrollments. Second, faculty concerns about the added time required to prepare an online course and doubts about the effect on promotion and tenure can affect favorability. Third, since many of the online learning sections are taught by instructors who are not tenured or tenure track, full time faculty may view on line courses as somehow diminished in quality or value. Fourth, the media hype for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) with the accompanying idea of potentially diminished need for full time faculty may be a factor, even though MOOCs have not been successful in accomplishing this so far.

As a third contributing topic we provide some examples of large, respected institutions which have been able to implement online learning successfully with high levels of senior faculty participation, like Arizona State University, Georgia Tech and Rio Salado Community College. These and others like them provide exemplars for possible solutions.

Finally, we suggest several specific, implementable approaches to improving the participation rates of senior faculty in online learning, approaches which do not require major investments in outside contractors like Online Program Management (OPM) and which can ultimately have positive effect on the institution’s bottom line.

Keywords:

Strategic Focus of DL, Favorability Metrics, Faculty Satisfaction, OPM.