Emerging Technologies Consulting

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the increase in enrollment in online courses.  Today, Inside Higher Ed offers a story along the same lines, focusing on the effort it takes to get those courses online and to make them attractive to students.  One of the attractions of online courses that I mentioned before is that they are usually cheaper than classes held face-to-face.  In part, this is because faculty are sometimes not remunerated appropriately for their efforts.  Despite the fact that it often takes more time to develop and teach a course online, faculty are sometimes paid less or not paid any extra for teaching a course online. Another way these courses are kept cheap is by enrolling more students than one would in a traditional class.  This works for some types of  classes, but most people are discovering that class limits are not so much about the number of physical seats, but the amount of time faculty can devote to working with students.  Faculty are still willing to teach these courses because they want to offer different learning opportunities for their students.  Online courses offer greater flexibility and attract different types of students.

What I hear over and over again in working with faculty who are putting part or all of their courses online is how much time it takes, especially in the up front development of courses.  Some schools offer summer programs with stipends and staff support to help faculty develop their courses.  Others offer small grants or course releases during the semester the new course is being taught.  Still others simply offer a top-notch support staff that does a lot of the time-consuming work of developing the course, with the faculty member serving in more of a consultant role.  Increasing pay for faculty or rewarding them monetarily for teaching online is good incentive if a tough sell during tough times.  But if online enrollments are increasing, the money brought in through these increased enrollments should more than make up for it.