College of Information Sciences and Technology The Pennsylvania State University Associate Director, Online Education Shaun C. Knight

How About Our Online BS Program?

IST WC Collaboration with IST Campuses/Colleges Secured instructors and developers for course offerings and development through FA Representation includes instructors (multiple in some cases) from the following locations: Penn State York, Penn State Beaver, Penn State Worthington Scranton, Penn State Allegheny, Penn State DuBois, Penn State New Kensington, & Penn State UP. Looking for more bench strength as we grow.

Identified Demand of the IST WC Degree Program Multiple markets for the 4 IST WC offering: –Lower and mid-level information technology professionals between the ages of 20 and 40. –Information technology novices seeking careers in information sciences. –2 IST WC current students and graduates who are now able to “roll into” the 4 IST WC program. –Number of individuals holding IST like occupations totaled more than 1,000,000 in 2006 with an expected increase of 80% by 2016 (BLS, 2008).

Enrollment Impact and Student Flow The 2 IST with the (G BUS) continues to have little impact on the residential offering 4 IST WC- Integration and Application option is having no impact to date on residential offerings- all admits for the 4 IST WC at this point are all new (no previous affiliation with PSU) The new population of students unable to enroll through resident instruction for 4 IST major at Penn State are seeking to participate in the online 4 IST WC program rather than going to other competing institutions –Bottom line- We are now attracting the potential students we were losing to other schools since we did not have a 4-year IST WC offering

2/4 IST WC Course Enrollments Student population has grown 50 percent from year to year semester based Diversity of students enrolled in IST WC courses continues to be strength for the program. Enrollments in IST courses from AY (386) will more than double (est. 750) in AY IST course offerings will have grown from 5 courses in 2005 to 30 courses in 2011 Enormous growth with little marketing effort –This is about to change

Who Do We Target This Year? Past students who completed the AD program.. rolling them over!; paid advertisements online and print ads in technology journals and media. Military, military, military, and military –Many military members move from assignment to assignment and lose the ability to transfer credits from one institution to another –Our online degree makes this a non-issue, we will market the ability to take a course online anywhere in the world –Our Penn State and College of IST reputation will enable us to be an online college of choice with the military community –Great commercial showing PSU WC abilities

Some Glimpse into the Future of the AD/BS World Campus Offerings Will have full compliment of BS courses online in Planning to roll out development of SRA courses in 2010 to provide an additional Support of Major option for WC BS program. Will begin evolving a more diverse Support of Option offerings for IST WC BS students in Begin the process for determining viability of an SRA and BA major in IST offered via the WC. Marketing of programs will become more geographically and demographically dispersed.

Questions We Face as We Grow How/who do we continue to market this program to continue to strengthen enrollments into our programs? How can we get the Statewide Faculty more involved in this endeavor? What needs and development opportunities should be be seizing upon as we grow this program? How do we ensure that our WC programs are comparable to RI experiences? How do we continue to positively mold the perception of online degrees as a respected option for professionals? How do we continue to differentiate ourselves form our competitors when we go to market our programs?

Questions?