Plugging into the classroom: UC seeks financial footing in shift toward online education

The University of California is increasingly shifting toward online education, following incentives from state leadership and in step with a growing trend nationwide.

Since discussions began in 2010, online education at the UC has gone through several identity changes, some forced by budgetary issues, others by lack of feasibility.

Originally proposed as a program that would allow students to get a bachelor’s degree wholly over the web, the aim of UC online education has significantly narrowed. In the 2011-2012 school year, UC Online offered 13 courses for undergraduate students.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s current state budget proposal earmarks $10 million for the UC to spend on online education, but does not detail specifics on how to spend the funds.

University officials are continuing to puzzle over what the UC’s brand of online education will look like – but now, with millions potentially on the line, there is added urgency.

 

Searching for its footing

UC Online Education is the University’s systemwide program to develop “UC-quality” credit-offering courses for undergraduates. It is also in charge of cross-campus enrollment for its developed courses.

The program launched in 2012 with the goal of offering online alternatives and easing overcrowding for undergraduate courses, according to its website.

Course development for UC Online starts with a faculty member going to the program with an idea or previously taught class they believe can translate well to an online course, said Shelly Meron, a UC spokeswoman. UC Online then helps to put them in touch with instructional designers to help them design their vision, she added.

The program has garnered criticism in recent months, including at the January regents meeting, for its largely unsuccessful attempts to attract non-UC students to take and pay for the program’s courses.

The officials of the program originally expected it to raise almost $7 million from external sources, to fund itself. But when it only received one grant – of $748,000 – the UC was forced to take out a $6.9 million loan, according to Daily Bruin archives.

Officials originally planned to raise revenue from non-UC students to bridge the budget shortfall, but the rise of free or inexpensive massive open online classes has drawn prospective students away.

UC Online spent $4.3 million in marketing to non-UC students, who have to pay up to $2,400 for a course any UC student can take for no additional cost.

The marketing efforts have not yet paid off, as fewer than 10 non-UC students had signed up for UC Online as of January.

Chancellor Gene Block said in an interview with the Daily Bruin Editorial Board earlier this year that he does not think online education will save money because to do it well, there still needs to be an in-class presence that must be funded.

“You won’t replace, for example, the chemistry professor by offering introductory chemistry online,” Block said in the interview. “You’ll probably displace the professor from the lecture room into more discussion sections.”

Block added that faculty also have other purposes besides teaching, including moving their field forward by doing state-of-the art research and scholarship.

Benjamin Antieau, a mathematics professor at UCLA who said he would dislike teaching online courses, said if the UC Online program relies on faculty initiative to develop courses, he thinks some incentive should be given to faculty to help encourage course development, like extra teaching credit.

UC officials could try to reach out to more departments to find courses and faculty who are receptive to putting courses online, if they want to expand the UC Online program.

He said he thinks any additional funds should be used to develop traditional methods of education, as opposed to online education.

“It seems to me if people are willing to spend money to develop (a virtual campus), then we might as well spend money and hire more teachers and have smaller classes,” Antieau said.

 

‘Sprinting ahead’

Brown has been pushing for online education in all three branches of the California higher education system, including at meetings of the UC Board of Regents, of which he is an ex-officio member.

Though the budget earmark for online education is broadly worded in Brown’s budget proposal, there are some suggestions for where the money should go, like cross-campus enrollment for online courses, said Paul Steenhausen, an education analyst for the California Legislative Analyst’s Office, which provides nonpartisan analysis and policy advice to the state legislature.

“After that $10 million got allocated, the UC started sprinting ahead, and we did not at the time have a clear plan,” said UC Regent Jonathan Stein. “We just knew we had $10 million and a mandate from the governor to get it done.”

Stein said the push from Sacramento has encouraged the UC to take proactive steps forward in its own plans for online higher education.

Since early this year, the UC has held meetings to engage administrators, faculty, experts in online education and students in the decision-making process for spending the funds.

Still, UC Online is not counting on receiving significant funds from the state budget to develop the program further, Meron said.

She said UC Online is still trying to figure out a business model that will work with the program.

“If this money (in Brown’s proposal) materializes then that’s great and I think it’ll really help us see our vision through,” Meron said. “But until that budget is passed, I don’t think people want to count on money that isn’t yet in our pocket.”

Stein said the general consensus at the online education planning meetings is to focus on a hybrid – a combination of online and in-class courses – rather than online-only courses, a focus he feels is positive.

“I think students have, from the beginning, said that they support online technology that supports but does not replace their in-class experience,” Stein said. “Other than that there is still a lot of unanswered questions and that all has to get sorted out in the next couple months.”

 

Regulation at the state level

Earlier this month, the Commission on the Regulation of Postsecondary Distance Education, a national commission created to examine the quality and regulation of “distance” education, has contended that there should be increased government regulation of online education for the method to be successful.

In a report released in April, the commission proposed establishing a system of interstate collaboration to increase efficiency of online and distance education. The report states that the commission recommends a system where states and institutions voluntarily work together to govern and regulate distance and online education programs. Participating states would agree on a uniform set of standards for state authorization, according to the report.

Calls for streamlined regulations like this have become increasingly common as universities weigh making the shift to online.

Brooke Converse, a UC spokeswoman said online education expansion attempts are sometimes hampered by the individual regulations that states have.

She added that the UC is working with the commission to improve interstate online education regulation and to make the University’s online education programs available across the country in the future.