Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/337193
20 July/August 2014 BizEd CARTH E R /TH I N KSTOCK Tool For Schools The Sloan Consortium has cre- ated the Quality Scorecard to help administrators measure the effectiveness of their schools' online programs. Using the score- card, educators can input informa- tion regarding different areas of their programs, from teaching to technology. The rubric then offers indicators of how well a school is performing in each area. "Colleges also use the score- card to help with accreditation," says Kathleen Ives. "They can use it as part of their strategic planning." For information, visit www. sloanconsortium.org/quality-score card. To learn about the Sloan Consortium's conferences and webinars for online educators, visit www.sloanconsortium.org. Tool For Schools The Sloan Consortium has cre- ated the Quality Scorecard to help administrators measure the effectiveness of their schools' Try just one new tool. It's easy for faculty to feel overwhelmed by the avalanche of the new online tools as they hit the market. But Means stresses that innovative online teaching is not about try- ing everything—just one or two things at a time. "Sometimes faculty think, 'I'll never catch up, so I'm not trying anything.' But I advise them to pick just one thing, and use it well. At the end of the semester, if it worked, keep it. If it didn't, drop it." Join the community. Traditional higher education often fosters what Means calls an "isolationist atti- tude." Although face-to-face fac- ulty have their courses externally approved and evaluated, they often don't talk to anybody else about how they teach. Online education has compelled educators to con- nect and collaborate. "It helps to talk about how to engage students in discussion or apply a concept," says Means. "This mindset also spills over into their on-campus courses. Teaching content online helps them realize how they can better organize and present their material face to face." Lobby for support. One major challenge to online educators is one of resources, says Ives: Some schools don't invest in the neces- sary infrastructure because they don't appreciate the effort it takes to design and deliver online and blended courses. If schools want these programs to thrive, Ives stresses that they need to invest in instructional designers, dedicated tech support, and ongoing training to help faculty hone their online teaching skills. Faculty need that support, she adds, so they can focus less on "acting as their own technology troubleshooters" and more on creating dynamic online classrooms, inspiring meaningful discussions, and integrating multi- media effectively. Who's Doing Online Right? For schools looking around the industry to see these best practices at work, there are several good models. Ives points to Penn State's World Campus, where "the admin- istration has made sure online is part of the school's mission and vision." In addition, World Campus lets students know what they're getting into before they enroll. On its website, the school explains the nature of its online classroom and platform, interac- tions with faculty, and time com- mitment required. It also offers a student orientation webinar and a readiness assessment tool, which helps prospective students deter- mine how prepared they are for the online classroom. Weise is impressed by Univer- Univer- sityNow, a San Francisco-based startup that calls itself a social ven- ture whose mission is to "make a quality college education available and affordable to people every- where." So far, UniversityNow has launched two regionally accredited online schools, Patten University and New Charter University. Pat- ten University offers a competency- based MBA program with six concentration options, including finance, general management, healthcare, human resources, sales management, and strategic leader- ship. Under the UniversityNow tuition model, undergraduates pay US$350 per month; graduate stu- Less than 25 percent of academic leaders who believe MOOCs are viable for higher ed 66 percent of chief academic officers who say online education is critical to their institutions' long-term strategies— a 4.6 percent decrease from 2012.