| Burks
Oakley of UIUC asked the Sloan-C listserv about scaling quality higher education to include all learners who are motivated to pursue it:
"What are the issues related to scaling online learning, what are the barriers preventing this, and what are the breakthroughs needed to drive online learning to a new level?"
Ray Schroeder of UIS responded:
As you well know, the issues are legion and still evolving!
My top ten are:
1) Technical support
of online class development
2) Pedagogical support
of online class development
3) Faculty compensation and tenure/promotion process recognition
4) Extending student services (placement, counseling, advising, activities,
networking) online
5) Extending library services
online
6) Marketing programs
7) Developing virtual laboratories to emulate physical labs
8) Technical support for distant students and resident/distant online
faculty members
9) Assuring continuity of service
(server backups/alternative paths to/from the
Internet)
10) Implementing a controlled growth plan that allows for steady (not
out of control) expansion
When scale is small, support is not a problem, agrees Victor
Kobayashi of UH. However, increasing scale challenges certain traditions:
The problem reflects
how bifurcated the academic side is from the
fiscal/support/service side of an institution, especially a very large
one, that bifurcated itself with the need for division of labor as it
scaled up in the "traditional" way.
Increasing scale can motivate
the academy's greater appreciation of itself as
a community focused on common goals. Scalability
demands integration, Kobayashi reasons; the academy
becomes integrated when everyone-learners, faculty,
staff, administrators and leaders-contributes to
the matrix for software systems that include ALN
students and courses, especially in distance learning.
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