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July 2008

A newsletter for higher education executives to ensure financial and strategic success in their online learning initiatives.

Current and Future Topics

Assessing Online Education Financial Models
Bridging the Expectation Gap between Faculty and Administration
The Many Strategic Byproducts of Online Programs
Hitting the Moving Target of Online Education
Leveraging Online Learning to Achieve Your International Education and Study Abroad Goals
The Complex Business Side of Online Education
The Dangers of Short-term Marketing

Welcome to the inaugural issue of this unique newsletter written by online education thought leaders and strategists for higher education executives. We appreciate your interest in joining an elite group of forward-thinking academic executives. Every six weeks or so, we will publish a new set of articles and news-worthy stories about success in the online learning arena. Below are brief descriptions of the types of articles you will find in our newsletter, as well as an introduction to our principal authors. We hope that you will enjoy the articles, white papers, and case studies you will find here, and that you will share this site with colleagues who are involved in or curious about distance learning. The goal of this series is to help your organization at the highest levels handle the many challenges of establishing successful programs in a highly competitive marketplace, all the while strengthening your organization’s mission.

Dr. Gloria Pickar

Dr. Pickar is the President and Chief Academic Officer of Compass Knowledge Group. With over 35 years of higher education experience, Dr. Pickar is a former college dean and distinguished author of a bestselling textbook in nursing.

The Increasingly Complex Business of Online Learning Gloria Pickar, Ed.D.

I have watched the online learning business evolve from a select group of pioneering schools and support organizations to a mega-trend and highly competitive industry. It has grown from an era where you had to convince students of its virtue and safety, to an era when any marketing whatsoever would generate enrollments, to now where you must do everything well in order to compete for the most qualified students. In the articles to come, I will break down the business side of this industry for you, identifying the pain points, the overall processes one must implement, and the financial models that you should keep in mind as you invest in this area. Things are changing quickly in this market; you do not want to be working with outdated information. For example, a large number of institutions have built online enrollment projections on an outdated conversion metric. The result has been public embarrassment and a serious revenue shortfall neither of which inspires confidence in an institution. As we work through these articles, we will in fact prepare you to accomplish the opposite: a truly successful program that has excellent academic outcomes, financial contributions, and brand-building capabilities.

Dr. Cynthia Wheatley

Dr. Wheatley is the Vice President for Academic Partnerships with Compass Knowledge Group. She has 15 years experience as both a faculty member and an organizational consultant. She has presided over 20 online program launches and has expertise in instructional design and change management.

Some Tips for Bridging the Gap Between Academic and Administrative Expectations of Online Programs Cynthia Wheatley, Ph.D.

I have watched countless highly successful programs in online education trip over misunderstandings or disagreements caused by a gap in expectations of what the online programs would do for the organization. On one side, we have faculty who concentrate on academic outcomes. On the other side, we have administration who concentrate on administrative, financial, and strategic outcomes. One method that I have used in bridging this gap is to sit with the faculty and define their expectations, sit with administrators and define theirs, and then bring the two groups together to discuss the overlapping areas. My overriding observation in doing this is that faculty tend to define their expectations around their fears of the unknown and the inherent ambiguities that surround the academic administration of new things. Administration tends to build their expectations around financial contributions of potential programs. Merging these two expectations is quite possible, but it requires a methodology. In my upcoming articles, I will share a methodology for bridging the strategic and the practical side of online learning across the institution.

Dr. Fredrick R. Snow

Dr. Snow has served in academia as university President, Vice President, Dean, and Tenured Faculty. He was the Founding Dean of the Online Graduate Programs of Norwich University. These programs are often cited as industry examples of academic rigor, financial success, retention, and effective marketing.

The Strategic and Financial Outcomes You Should Expect From Your Online Programs Fredrick R. Snow, Ph.D.

I have seen many different outcomes, both good and bad, of online programs. Most organizations start with a focus on the financial, only to leave a tremendous amount of strategic and long-term benefit on the table. By knowing what these other outcomes are and learning how to build them out, organizations can truly capture the institution-changing pedagogy that now seems so new. And in the process, they can bring all stakeholders successfully to and away from the table. There are ten major outcomes and that I will discuss in the next several articles. They are:

Strong academic outcomes in an online environment.
Preserved reputation in the market.
Enhanced reputation in the market, even for Tier 1 schools.
Strong net financial performance.
Strong incoming enrollments, with well-qualified students.
Organizational capability in all things technological.
Organizational capability to meet the expectations of future residential students.
Productive and rewarding student and faculty experiences.
Outstanding retention rates.
Much more effective international programming and study abroad outcomes.