Online Degree Programs
- The City University of New York's Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Selma Botman is interested in online degree programs. This has prompted AIT to do quite a bit of thinking on the topic.
- In its May 2001 report, the Brooklyn College Distance Learning Task Force recommended that "the College should undertake an initiative to foster the development of a coherent distance learning program. Departments and programs should be encouraged to self-select areas of study amenable to distance education and create proposals for support to develop a partly or fully virtual pilot. The proposal should include an assessment of resources required, e.g., hardware, software, technical staff." This recommendation has yet to be taken up.
- Online degree programs are a question of both academic leadership/direction and technology. Both high-quality courses and reliable technology are critical to success. Brooklyn should address a variety of issues now, in preparation for a larger number of fully online asynchronous courses; these include reliable off-campus access to the Library's e-resources and the need for a highly reliable 24/7 infrastructure.
- Before we compare ourselves to the University of Phoenix, it's important to keep in mind that the for-profit education industry is much more agile-able to shift gears based on market demand and student need-than is traditional higher ed. The for-profit sector also updates its technology more frequently.
- All this having been said, the School of Education's graduate degrees and certificates would be a wonderful place to begin to pursue the delivery of fully online programs: the University is interested in online teacher education, our School of Ed is now NCATE accredited, and Brooklyn College is renowned for its superior course sites.
- David Bloomfield's certificate program for secondary school principals seemed like an excellent place to start, and in the spring 2005 he and AIT staff developed a proposal for a fully online academic program. At the provost's request, we will be re-examining our proposal, attempting to reduce its projected cost.
- As we move forward, we try not to forget that there have been many failures-NYU and Columbia leap to mind, and whatever we do should be strongly tied to the College's mission. And of course, more new businesses fail owing to undercapitalization than for any other reason: this is another valuable lesson to keep in mind.