Digital Education Support for Online Undergrad Course Development Jon Harbor Director, Digital Education Associate Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning

What is “Digital Education” (the administrative unit, in STEW) 18-person unit, formerly part of PEC, administration for: Self-supporting professional and online programs Masters programs (residential, hybrid, and online) Non credit and CEU courses and programs Development of online sections of undergrad courses* to increase access for campus-based students Compliance and Accessibility External Partner and MOOC contracts and relationships DE strategy development for the university (AP4DE) * There are no plans to develop fully online undergraduate degree programs at PUWL

Undergrad Online Course Support - History Indiana College Network (ICN) – PU students taking online courses at other universities, in part because we had capacity problems, 4,000 enrollments/yr, became very costly.

Undergrad Online Course Support - History Indiana College Network (ICN) – …. PEC program – expand access and remove need for ICN $ and instructional design to develop an online section of selected f-2-f courses, then instructional subsidy to teach the online sections (in addition to f-2-f). Co-funding model. Now >70 DE online courses, 20,000+ annual enrollments; ICN zero 70% of Spring 2016 graduates had taken at least one online class at Purdue Online and f-2-f sections of the same course have similar grade distributions These are generally-funded courses that are typically part of load Most online courses taught with no subsidy

The Challenges Continued strong interest in new UG online course development across campus – access, flexibility, pedagogy, summer. Budget model subsidizes development and subsidizes teaching online sections. Over time costs rise, budget fixed

The Challenges Course demand changes – enrollment decline in some courses 600 300-400 200-250

The Challenges Section-based model reduces # courses supported and gives highly variable subsidy per student; a disincentive for scalable pedagogy Course B: $285 per student Course A: $14 per student

The Challenges To continue offering support to develop new online versions of courses, we need to change the financial model. Strong interest in new UG online course development across campus – access, flexibility, pedagogy, summer. Many requests to develop new courses. Budget model subsidizes development and also subsidizes teaching the online sections. Over time cost rises, budget fixed Course demand changed – enrollment decline in some courses Section-based model reduces # courses supported

Proposed Solution – for Discussion A) Sunset support where enrollment declined Where total course enrollment in the last three AY semesters (sum of f-2-f and online) is < total course enrollment prior to the addition of online Support ends; can propose redesign = 15% of supported courses Re-evaluate each fall B) Tie subsidy to enrollment C) Limit duration of subsidy

Proposed Solution – for Discussion A) Sunset support - where enrollment has declined B) Tie subsidy to enrollment change from uniform $6,000 per online section teaching subsidy, to: $40 /sch in online sections max of $24,000 /course/semester (200 online students, 3cr). 10% of supported courses currently >$24,000 50% of supported sections have enrl limit <50. at $40/sch, 50 stdts, 3cr = $6000 30% of supported sections have enrl limit <30 C) Limit duration of subsidy

Proposed Solution – for Discussion A) Sunset support - where enrollment has declined B) Tie subsidy to enrollment C) Limit duration of subsidy Limit subsidy to three AY semesters after design, and each redesign (this is current practice now, but was not prior to 2015)

What would this do Move to a sustainable model: continue instructional design and financial support to develop online versions of f-2-f courses continue to provide financial subsidy for teaching the online section the first three times continue to provide financial and instructional designer support to redesign online versions Legacy courses with enrollment < pre-online moved off support More courses subsidized, some at a lower subsidy level; Incentive for small section sizes removed New courses moved off support or refreshed every couple of years, so that additional courses can be developed and launched

Dept. Head input You have this in a handout What have we missed? What do you like / not like about this? What modifications or other ideas do you suggest? Additional feedback to jharbor@purdue.edu