Organizational Models For Leading And Administering Blended Or Online Programs

Concurrent Session 6
Streamed Session Blended Equity and Inclusion

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Brief Abstract

As leaders are re-examining their programming post-inoculation, including incorporate new course modes and programming modes, including expanding blended and online programs, they are seeking answers to key strategic questions.  Leaders are determining how they can build capacity and better support processes and procedures to ensure quality programming.  This capacity building and quality depend greatly on the organizational structure (units, reporting lines, staffing, cross-functional teams) and activities (e.g., faculty development, instructional design support, learning technology administration) that take place on campuses.  This session reviews the research on organizational models to support quality blended and online learning and brings in leaders in our field to discuss their own experiences in creating a capacity to support quality.

  

 

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Alexander Case, Online Learning Consortium Inc.

Alexander (Alex) Case is the OLC Associate Vice President of Strategic Partnership and Grants. In this capacity, he is responsible for growing OLC’s reach in the areas of grants, strategic partnerships, and consulting. Alex brings a diverse array of experience to this position from federal civil service, K-12, and higher education leadership roles. He is eager to affirm OLC’s thought leadership while managing multifaceted relationships with institutions, organizations, associations, foundations, and corporate partners. He is also committed to charting our community’s growth in the K-12 and international sectors. Prior to joining the OLC, Alex served as the Interim Director of Student Services (Dean of Students) and Associate Director of Instructional Design and Development for the Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) Online program. NOVA is a member of the 24-school Virginia Community College System (VCCS) and is among the largest community colleges in the nation. There, he oversaw creation and maintenance of an online portfolio of 400 online asynchronous courses spanning all academic pathways, offered in over 1,200 sections per semester, and serving 23,000 students per year. He was also involved in his state system’s work to extend program completion outcomes state-wide via the Online Virginia Network and oversaw his entire online program portfolio’s learning management system conversion. Alex began his education career in the K-12 sector where he was a social studies teacher, curriculum developer, and school-based administrator for a decade. His final role was as principal of socio-economically and racially diverse high school where he led 2,600 students and 350-person multigenerational staff on a three-building campus in Fairfax County, Virginia. He successfully led his school out of accreditation with warning status in one year, oversaw the development of a governor’s career and technical education academy, and deepened its Blue Ribbon Award-winning fine and performing arts center. Prior to teaching, Alex held positions in training, business management, and strategic planning for the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency. Alex completed his B.A. in history, political science, and secondary education from the University of Mary Washington (Fredericksburg, Virginia), instructional design coursework from George Mason University (Fairfax, Virginia), a M.Ed. in Education Leadership from the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, Virginia), and is presently completing a dissertation towards a Ph.D. in Education at George Mason University.

Co-presenter: Tanya Joosten, National Research Center for Distance Education and Technological Advancements (DETA) and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Tanya Joosten, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist, the Director of Digital Learning Research and Development, and advisor to the Provost for innovation projects at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Dr. Joosten leads the National Research Center for Distance Education and Technological Advancements (DETA). She is nationally recognized in her work in blended and online learning as an Online Learning Consortium (OLC) Fellow and works to guide strategic digital learning efforts on campus, across the UW System, and nationally as an advisor to the Provost, a member of the University of Wisconsin System Learning Technology Executive Council, and a member of several national boards and committees. Currently, Dr. Joosten leads a national research initiative supported by the U.S. Department of Education working to provide access to research models and methods, facilitating innovate processes of data collection, and encouraging the replication of research across institutions through the DETA Research Toolkit to identify key instructional and institutional factors that influence student success with particular attention to underrepresented students. Dr. Joosten has a background in the social sciences hailing from the field of communication. Her notable keynotes include eLearning Asia, ITC eLearning Conference, and SACS COC President’s event, and her ideas have been highlighted on plenary panels at the UW-Madison Annual Distance Teaching and Learning conference and the OLC International Conference for Online Learning. You can find her ideas and work cited in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Forbes, U.S. News World and Report, and more. Recent interviews with Dr. Joosten are available on ResearchInAction and TOPcast available on iTunes. Her book on social media is available from Wiley Publishing, she has authored numerous articles, chapters, and encyclopedia entries on human and social interactions and digital learning, and she often writes invited blog posts and magazine articles for organizations, such as EDUCAUSE, WCET, Inside Higher Ed, and Pearson. Dr. Joosten previously worked as the Director of the Learning Technology Center leading faculty development and engagement initiatives, pedagogical and technological innovation projects, core learning technology oversight, and blended and online program development.

Co-presenter: Michael Torrence, Motlow State Community College

Michael Torrence, Ph.D. serves as the President of Motlow State Community College. The college has campuses in Smyrna, Tullahoma, McMinnville and Fayetteville, Tennessee. President Torrence has spent his career embracing the use of technological literacy as a platform to increase student engagement and success. He has served in roles in support of online, accelerated, and mode neutral learning, engaged with TNeCampus and as a Tennessee Board of Regents statewide team leader for the integration of Emerging Technology and Mobilization in the areas of Gaming, VR, AR, and MR into teaching and learning. He has trained faculty, students, executives, and community members and developed immersive curriculum focused on STEAMB (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art/Aviation, Mathematics, and Business) for all grade levels and utilized these platforms teaching undergraduate and graduate students in his own classes where VR and entrepreneurship have become a norm. Currently, through researching and developing a platform for OER through support of Hewlett-Packard and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he hope to utilize the findings to support workforce development and student success. He earned a doctor of philosophy degree, with a major in exceptional learning, at Tennessee Tech University, and master of arts and bachelor of arts degrees at South Dakota State University, both with a major in English. President Torrence, a veteran, served in the U.S. Air Force.

Co-presenter: Mary Niemiec, University of Nebraska | University of Nebraska Online

Mary Niemiec is the Associate Vice President for Digital Education and Director of the University of Nebraska Online. In her role at the University of Nebraska, she coordinates the system-wide collaborative initiative that pulls together the 150 plus online programs offered by the four campuses of the NU system. She has worked in the areas of higher education continuing, online, and blended learning for more than twenty years. In addition to her University responsibilities, she represents and serves the University within the state of Nebraska and nationally by serving in leadership roles in various professional organizations. She currently serves as President for the Board of Directors of the Online Learning Consortium. She also serves as a member of the Nebraska Information Technology Commission’s Education Council and a member of the Policy Committee for UPCEA. She was named an OLC Fellow in 2011.

Co-presenter: Pam Holt, Milwaukee Area Technical College

P. Pamela Holt is the Director of Curriculum, Instructional Support and Educational Technology at the Milwaukee Area Technical College. Prior to this position she lead the curricular change for the medical degree program at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Her educational pursuits include a masters in educational technology with a concentration in online learning for adults. She is currently pursuing a doctorate of education, specializing in curriculum, learning and leadership at Northeastern Univ.

Extended Abstract

Even before the COVID-19 Pandemic forced quick pivots to remote teaching and learning, one-third of all undergraduate students were enrolled in online classes and thirteen percent were learning exclusively online.  Perhaps even more striking, online course enrollments in 2019 increased for the fourteenth straight year, even as overall enrollments have declined. This growth has been concentrated in public institutions since 2012, with online enrollment growth in public institutions surpassing both private non-profit and private for-profit sectors for the first time in 2015-16. Despite this marked growth in online learning, research on how institutions can and did  build capacity and administratively support processes and procedures to ensure quality online programming was shockingly limited. The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) and its partners at the National Research Center for Distance Education and Technological Advancements (DETA) at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee have been examining factors driving decisions about organizational models for leadership in online learning, to better articulate strategic decisions necessary in the field and communicate best practices out as part for OLC’s engagement in the Every Learner Everywhere (ELE) network 

Clear examples of how organizational structures influence leadership over online learning initiatives in higher education emerge from the literature. Capacity building and quality depend greatly on the organizational structure (units, reporting lines, staffing, cross-functional teams) and activities (e.g., faculty development, instructional design support, learning technology administration) that take place on campuses.  This session reviews the research on organizational models to support quality blended and online learning and brings in leaders in our field to discuss their own experiences in creating a capacity to support quality. Specific variances and organizational leadership structures will be highlighted from research and practitioners at two-year institutions, four-year institutions, online higher education systems, and minority-serving institutions with the goal of weighing those differences to reflect more deeply on how institutions can effectively design, develop, and deliver high-quality instruction online.