Name: Lisa Rickard

Research question: What impact does the addition of online courses have on a traditional academic department?

Byrd, J., Mixon, P. (2012). Revenues and e-learning: Do universities need an online presence? Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 34(6), 601-609. Retrieved from http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/1360080X.asp

This article examines the possibility that e-learning can generate revenue for public universities in order to make up for reductions in state funding in the recent economic downturn. Universities also face an increased financial burden as they strive to meet the instructional needs of an expanding student body, and the authors speculate that the addition of online courses will reduce universities’ dependence on public funding and restructure them in to a profit making entity. The authors are affiliated with the College of Business and the Center for International Economic Development at Troy University in New York. The article is published in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal, and its reference list includes articles from a variety of scholarly journals and books, all published within the last decade. The authors hypothesize that offering online courses will generate revenue via tuition and fees from increased student enrollment as well as increased state appropriations to cover improvements in facilities and infrastructure needed to develop online courses. They analyzed information from the Department of Education and the Southern Regional Education Board. Results of this analysis produced some surprising conclusions that did not support their hypothesis entirely. E-learning revenue caused a negative offset as students who might enroll in traditional classes opted for online coursework. Conversely, marginal students who might not enroll in traditional classes but chose to enter post-secondary education via the online route enhanced overall university revenue. Finally, e-learning, at least in its early stages, decreased state appropriations and had a negative effect due to the time and resources needed to develop and manage online courses. This article will be helpful in estimating the effect, negative or positive, that the addition of online course offerings will have on an academic department.

This article was found in ERIC.

Konetes, G. (2011). Distance education’s impact during economic hardship: how distance learning impacts educational institutions and businesses in times of economic hardship. International Journal of Instructional Media, 38(1), 7-15. Retrieved from http://www.adprima.com/ijim.htm This article was found in Educational Research Complete.

Lei, S., Govra, R. (2010). College distance education courses: evaluating benefits and costs from institutional, faculty, and student perspectives. Education, 130(4), 616-631. Retrieved from http://www.projectinnovation.biz/education_2006.html

This article was found in Professional Development Collection.

Schiffman, S., Vignare, K., & Geith, C. (2007). Why do higher-education institutions pursue online education? Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 11(2), 61-71. Retrieved from http://sloanconsortium.org/publications/jaln_main

This article examines responses to a question included in the Sloan Consortium’s 2006 national survey of online learning that explores the reasons why an institution of higher education engages in online learning. Respondents ranked nine common reasons, identified by the authors’ previous research, on a Likert scale. This article is in a scholarly journal, and its reference list includes articles from other scholarly journals as well as proceedings from international conferences. Two of the authors, Karen Vignare and Christine Geith, are director and assistant provost/executive director respectively of Michigan State University’s MSU Global, the university’s entrepreneurial business unit that works with academic departments within the university and worldwide to design and develop effective online programs. Responses from 738 institutions who are currently offering online learning were analyzed across three domains: type of institutional control; Carnegie classification; and enrollment size. The authors identified several interesting differences when examining responses in the various domains. However, regardless of domain, the two main reasons that institutions cited for offering online courses were attracting students from new geographic areas and contributing to extension efforts (57% and 46% of respondents respectively). The authors acknowledge that survey bias exists because only responses from institutions already offering online education were analyzed. They also suggest that the two most common reasons cited may be obscuring underlying revenue-related reasons that the institutions may not be comfortable discussing. The information in this article will be useful in helping to determine what factors an institution or academic department might consider before offering online courses.

This article was found in Education Research Complete.

Simonson, M. (2008). Teaching and Learning at a Distance. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon/ Pearson.