Strong Financial Performance

University of Illinois at Chicago

From the Margin to the Majority

An Interview with Dr. Larry Pawola, MBA, Program Director, Operations and Curriculum, University of Illinois at Chicago

INTRODUCTION

Dr. Larry Pawola has been around the block. A veteran faculty member with a wide range of education and experiences, he has performed many roles over the years, but none as exciting or impactful as his current role of directing the University of Illinois at Chicago’s MS in Health Informatics program. Dr. Pawola’s pride in the program is infectious and an example of how program success can elevate an entire college’s performance. Compass is proud to be a part of UIC’s success, and while this success story is categorized in the Financial Performance area, it unquestionably spans all six of our expected outcomes when partnering with an academic institution: extraordinary academic outcomes, enrollment quality and quantity, outstanding retention, rewarding experience for faculty and students, preserved and enhanced brand integrity, and strong financial performance.

INTERVIEW

COMPASS KNOWLEDGE GROUP (CKG): Dr. Pawola, where does this story begin? Can you give us a sense of the history of your program; some of the defining moments of its formation?

DR. LARRY PAWOLA (LP): Online learning is not new at UIC. We were definitely early adopters. Our foray into online was really enabled by a grant from the Sloan Consortium in 1997. That grant enabled the university to develop some blended learning courses. At that time, we were delivering on campus courses that were imbedded in the MBA and MPH programs, but that year our department decided it was time to develop our own identity as a full graduate program. Ultimately our core courses became fully online by 2002, and in the next few years we became one of three approved CAHIIM graduate programs nationally. That was an important distinction for us as we worked within the UIC structure to become designated as an online program. But in the fall of ‘05, our enrollments were flat, with only 11 grad students and another 16 certificate students. We knew we were missing a tremendous opportunity. We felt like we could have 500 students, and we wanted 500..

CKG: How did you overcome those enrollment challenges?

LP: Healthcare information technology, pharmacy, and higher education are small industries. Everyone knows everyone, and in our case, I knew Bill Riffee from the University of Florida’s PharmD program. He was presenting at a conference in March of ‘06, and we renewed our friendship there. We started talking about his enormous success in delivering doctoral programs online, and I then found out that he and our Dean, Toby Tate, were old PhD student buddies. That opened our world to the existence of companies like Compass that help universities be successful in online academic programs. Within a month or so, we met Gloria Pickar and Cindy Wheatley from Compass, and by November they completed a feasibility study that evaluated several of our graduate programs. We also invited Bill to present distance education opportunities at our fall faculty convocation; he led a discussion of how we could incorporate some of the techniques he had used into our programs. He shared with us how the whole thing really works. And here we are. We partnered with Compass in December of ‘07, and since then we have grown from 27 students to over 300 at the beginning of the 2009 fall semester. We always knew we had a great graduate degree program, but we didn’t quite know how to get it out there and how to attract qualified applicants and convert them into students. Compass has taken care of that.

FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

CKG: So, Larry, what has the financial impact been?

LP: Well, keep in mind that the University ‘ like many universities ‘ has had its share of budget woes. Still, we have the utmost support of our Dean and the University Administration. The success of our distance learning program really benefits the University as a whole, and a portion of our revenues support distance education throughout the campus. University administration asks for updates, we give them, and every time there are big smiles around the room. The revenues we generate benefit everyone. There are plans to invest our revenues not only back into our health informatics programs but also to hire new faculty in the College, bring in new technology to enhance our teaching, and many other uses. Administrators around the university are noticing us, and our success has unquestionably helped the university’s position in a number of ways.

CHALLENGES

CKG: So far, that is a nice story, but I’m sure it wasn’t easy. What were some of your challenges?

LP: No, it has not been easy. For every success there has been a hurdle. Perhaps the biggest challenge was ramping up. Even though you know you must, you don’t anticipate how much work it is going to be. It stresses systems and people, and if those people aren’t in it with you, it won’t work. Our people were. We assembled a great team here at UIC, we have a faculty that wanted to do this, and a great Dean who permitted us to run with the project. My colleague, program director, Rosemary Walker, and I have been well supported by our Dean and all of the College’s and University’s administrative and student service areas that touch our program. Compass helped out a lot during the feasibility assessment by bringing many of these things to light. They gave us a list of challenges to address, a task list, a list of resources we would need, and financial pro formas. During the development process, they kept us on task and instilled quality to our efforts. Compass was a huge help but again, until you go through it, you just aren’t ready for how much work it is.

SURPRISES

CKG: So, have there been any pleasant surprises?

LP: Given the leap in enrollments, one would have expected some drop off in student quality. But that has NOT happened. Our students are much better than they were before. Our enrollment quality is far, far better than what we had in the past. Another area of surprise is student advising. We had our hands full previously with advising, so I can’t imagine how the faculty would have delivered on advising over 300 students. I never thought of how critical the advising process really was, especially to distance students. Compass follows up with our students regularly and has added a personal touch to this relationship with the University. This has helped tremendously with our student satisfaction and retention.