In 2020, in a matter of weeks, hundreds of thousands of courses were transferred from face-to-face delivery to online delivery due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Colleges were at different levels of readiness for such a transformation. This book’s purpose is to help institutions be prepared for online learning, whether or not in response to a crisis, by clarifying the tasks required by administrators to support online learning experiences offered to students at geological distances from the brick and mortar of an institution. As Ormond Simpson says in Chapter 13, “Everything in this book is ultimately aimed at turning out successful students.” Undeniably, educational institutions are complicated and supporting student success with online learning involves managing multiple tasks that require collaboration and cooperation with people in departments across an institution from academic units and Information Technology to the Registrar’s office. Distance learning policies, processes, evaluation systems, and business models frequently evolve, making adaptability and flexibility critical attributes of distance learning administrators.
To manage the complexity, educational institutions across the nation are creating new positions in e-learning leadership, often at the vice-president or vice-provost levels. Frequently, as with me in 2011, those applying for such positions have been faculty members and researchers who have never served in administration. They need rapid access to an overview of perspectives to consider and tasks to be accomplished or maintained. To gain the administrative skills I needed to build an effective office, I studied a number of invaluable books and articles: Kaye Shelton, and George Saltsman’s book, An Administrator’s Guide to Online Education (2005) served as my indispensable guide and helped me prioritize tasks and challenges.
That book needs an update. Much has evolved in the realm of distance learning since 2005, including policies, technologies, professional development programs, and design and evaluation approaches. Although other books have addressed advances made since that book was published, no single book has systematically compiled comprehensive guidelines for addressing the issues that distance learning administrators currently face. This book was compiled to do just that by providing up-to-date theoretical insights as well as practical guidance regarding how leaders in distance learning might affect positive change.
The book is designed to benefit a broad readership of those interested in educational leadership, be they students, e-learning instructors and administrators, or those who supervise e-learning administrators. Graduate students studying educational technology and/or educational administration and leadership are sure to benefit from its contents. The book will also provide guidance to those who are already in or are moving into administration of e-learning in colleges, universities, or PreK-12. Chief information officers (CIOs), provosts, school superintendents, and K-12 principals might refer to the recommendations in order to lead those in charge of distance learning at their institutions.
The pioneers who, in the 1990’s jumped onboard as explorers and developers of the new paradigm in education were the first to design, develop, and teach online courses and build online degree programs. Some later stepped into administering institutional transformation as change agents. And now, in large part due to the Covid-19 crisis, we see that our hard work as pioneers and change agents put online-education solidly in the mainstream.
This book is useful due to contributions by those pioneers of the first generation to deliver or administer distance learning through online delivery as instructors, practitioners, leaders on a campus, or administrators of learning technologies. They share their experiences and wisdom here regarding what it takes to lead a campus in planning, delivering, and managing quality online courses and programs. Most are leading scholars and administrators who have invested their passion in quality education in higher education institutions. Each of the authors in this book informed each other and other distance educators as distance learning entered the mainstream. They contribute their insights based on years of experience as they broke ground in the new field of online learning. They provide comprehensive guidance to a person stepping into administration who needs to have access to an overview of all that is involved in distance learning administration.
Authors provide advice regarding what needs to be done to effectively administer online learning. Each chapter includes stories from personal experiences and activities that stimulate thought for current and future distance learning administrators. Authors have embedded questions, self-checks, prompts, or activities to help readers relate the concepts covered to their current or hypothetical experiences.
A special thanks must go to Yusra Visser and Ray Amirault who were to write the chapter on foundational theories. However, during the writing of this book, Yusra died. She was a distance learning pioneer whose contributions to the field and cheerful, loving nature will be long remembered. Regretfully and with sorrow we do not share her contribution which was incomplete at her passing. A previously published chapter on the topic by Anthony Picciano, another pioneer in the field, provides an overview of foundational theories for online education in Chapter 5.
Chapter 1, “Status of Online Learning,” introduces the story of growth of online learning and different modalities and formats involved. It informs readers of issues of institutional and faculty readiness as well as predatory practices that highlight the important role that online program management currently plays.
Chapter 2, “Leadership for Online Learning,” describes in detail specific skills of operational and strategic leadership. In addition, the importance of leading with knowledge, humility, and a broad perspective are emphasized and operationalized.
Chapter 3, “Barriers in Online Education and Strategies for Overcoming Them,” enumerates interpersonal, pedagogical, and technological barriers to adoption of online education that must be addressed by distance learning administrators. It then describes strategies for overcoming barriers.
Chapter 4, “Legalities, Policies, Ethics, Accreditation, and Institutional Support,” provides multiple links to resources for becoming knowledgeable regarding the government mandated rulings such the Higher Education Act, the Clery Act, and the Online State Authorization Rule. The importance of familiarity with accreditation standards is also emphasized.
Chapter 5, “Foundational Theories,” introduces a theoretical, multimodal model integrating the principles of social constructivism, the community of inquiry model, connectivism, and online collaborative learning. The chapter provides examples of which aspects of the model would or would not be used under certain circumstances.
Chapter 6, “Analyzing Your Context,” provides a detailed account of key components in distance learning systems and shows how they align with distance learning functions. Authors distinguish five levels of organizational effort for analyzing gaps, desired results, and needs of faculty members to encourage improvement and innovation.
Chapter 7, “Managing the Course Development Process,” identifies components of the administrative process for developing online courses: Environment, Standards and Evaluation, Roles and Responsibilities, and Operations. Within each of these components are specific decision items with examples to allow online/distance administrators to create and manage a course development process that is appropriate for their institution.
Chapter 8, “Course Designs for Distance Teaching and Learning,” describes administrative strategies for working with faculty members to grow distance learning offerings of courses and programs. Professional development offerings in course design for instructors are described.
Chapter 9, “Engaging Faculty in Online Education,” provides guidance for engaging instructors, including ways to identify faculty readiness standards and key indicators of excellent online teaching. The chapter describes different professional development strategies and models and discusses ways to incentivize and compensate course developers and instructors.
Chapter 10, “Quality Assurance,” describes how Sloan-C’s five quality pillars for online education help to assure that online education is at least equal to the quality of education in face-to-face courses. The pillars are access, learning effectiveness, student satisfaction, faculty satisfaction, and cost effectiveness.
Chapter 11, “Recruitment and Marketing,” provides proven, detailed, concrete steps for your institution to follow to recruit students and market programs, including how to (a) get support and funding, (b) identify your prospective student audience, (c) establish your brand and archetype, (d) engage with your target audience, (e) plan and execute changes to your website and marketing strategy, and (f) test, measure, refine, and improve your marketing strategy.
Chapter 12, “Student Support,” explores the role of student affairs and support services in distance learning environments including students’ support needs; the importance of on-boarding students; the role of the library and librarians; and the role of financial aid, tutoring, career services, and co-curricular programming.
Chapter 13, “Student Success,” describes the problem of high drop-out rates in higher education and the roles that course design and academic and non-academic student supports play in student retention and success. Specifically, appropriate course workload and structure are discussed as well as strategies to motivate students and provide for learning readiness.
Chapter 14, “Support Technologies,” provides distance learning administrators with guidance in selecting relevant technologies to design, organize, and deliver an engaging distance learning experience, use authentic tools and strategies to design and assess learning, curate and produce media, and apply technologies to personalize learners’ experiences.
Chapter 15, “Your Distance Learning Community,” emphasizes networking and connecting with other online educators. The chapter lists, describes, and provides contact information for the major professional associations, scholarly and trade journals, and social media sites for those interested in online/distance learning, teaching, design, and management.
Chapter 16, “Ramping up Distance Learning in a Crisis: Lessons Learned from Covid-19,” shares the New Mexico State University Academic Technology team’s model for anticipating needs and providing support during the Pandemic response to emergency campus closure and rapid transfer of face-to-face courses to online course delivery.
Chapter 17, “Conclusions,” reiterates the motivating purpose for the book. The chapter highlights overarching themes discussed by several authors. enumerates many of the tasks that authors recommend focusing on, and introduces important tasks not covered in depth.