Innovation in Higher Education Collaboration: Lessons Learned and Future Prospects

1. Serving More with Less Susan PowersIndiana State University Hilarie Nickerson University of North Carolina Phil MossOklahoma State Regents for Higher Education

2. MERLOT at ISU

3. Support of Laptop Initiative • Main focus at this time • Goes active Fall 2007 • Address “how to use in the classroom” questions of faculty • Blended initiatives to appear “as one”

4. Faculty Development • Introduction to MERLOT • How to Use MERLOT • Using MERLOT in the classroom • Extended faculty development with other MERLOT work

5. Not Without Challenges • Difficult to ascertain level of university support • Balancing faculty and administration in MERLOT approaches • Just “one more thing”

6. Perspectives from North Carolina Hilarie Nickerson UNC Teaching and Learning with Technology Collaborative

7. UNC 16 campuses 200,000 students 10,000 full-time faculty NCCCS 58 campuses 200,000 FTE (800,000 headcount) 6000 full-time faculty Public Higher Education

8. Collaboration, Part 1:Intra-System Initiatives • NCCCS Common Curriculum Project • Shared curriculum standards • Common course library • Standard course description format

9. Collaboration, Part 1:Intra-System Initiatives • UNC Information Technology Strategy Project • Teaching and Learning with Technology Collaborative • Shared Services Alliance • Office of Coordinated Technology Management

10. Collaboration, Part 2:Linking UNC and NCCCS • Driving factors • Evolution of distance / e-learning • Need to support simpler student transitions between institutions • State finances Legislative mandates

11. Evolution ofDistance / e-Learning • Correspondence courses • Telecourses • Videoconferencing • NCREN, NCIH • Course and learning management systems • Digital content repositories

12. SupportingStudent Transitions • Goal to establish uniform and high quality access, opportunity, and service • Agreement to establish and abide by standards • Alignment of technical and procedural solutions

13. Working Togetherin New Ways • General education articulation agreements • 2+2 programs in specific disciplines • Additional partners for PreK-20 expansion • Department of Public Instruction • NC Virtual Public School • LEARN NC • Teacher professional development, AP courses • Web Academy • Cumberland County

14. Legislative Involvement • E-Learning Commission report • PreK-20 focus • Develop high quality instructor training and support tools • Develop student support resources • Establish North Carolina Learning Object Repository (NCLOR), library of sharable digital content

15. Legislative Involvement • SB622 • 2+2 NCCCS / UNC initiative • Develop online resources for education programs • $1 million recurring for NCCCS, $1 million for UNC • Later: Recurring for UNC also?

16. NCCCS / UNC Plans for a Learning Object Repository • Initially, use SB622 2+2 funding to establish focused LOR • Resources for online 2+2 education programs • Expand to become full NCLOR (PreK-20) • Join SREB SCORE initiative • SREB: Southeastern Regional Education Board • SCORE: Sharable Content Object Repositories in Education

17. NCLOR Behind the Scenes • LMS independent • Accessible by both commercial and open source LMS products • Scalable, with aggregate FTE / enrollment licensing • Conform to existing protocols and standards • Cataloging, metadata, retrieval, sharing • Accessibility, intellectual property • ID management, security • SREB SCORE, IEEE, SCORM, CORDRA

18. The Oklahoma State System of Higher Education

19. 40% % CHANGE: above avg MO % CHANGE: above avg CURRENT: above avg CURRENT: below avg WY RI 30% MD DE AL KY 20% KS IL WV CT NE NV TX SD MI TN 10% MA MT NJ GA OR NM Percent Change, FY 1991 - 2004 NY MN AR ME CA IN US OK AZ 0% OH PA VA VT IA NC CO HI WI NH LA AK MS Notes: FL -10% 1) Figures are adjusted for inflation, OK ID UT public system enrollment mix, and state ND cost of living. 2) Funding and FTE data are for public non-medical students only. -20% WA SC % CHANGE: below avg % CHANGE: below avg CURRENT: below avg CURRENT: above avg -30% 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Indexed to the U.S. Average in FY 2004 Total Educational Revenues per FTE by State: Percent Change and Current Standing Relative to U.S. Average OK Source: SHEEO SHEF

20. The Oklahoma Challenge “… by working together, faculty can provide higher-quality learning experiences in more cost-effective ways…The product of this work would be a toolkit of teaching processes/ materials for voluntary use by faculty across Oklahoma colleges and universities…

21. The Plan • 2 Disciplines • A specialized, low-enrollment discipline (Ecology) • A general, high-enrollment discipline (Mathematics) • 2 Levels of “Granularity” • Big (Course Level) • Small (Learning Objects/Modules)

22. IMPROVING QUALITY AND REDUCING COSTS:Redesigning Campus Learning Environments

23. REDESIGN in Oklahoma • East Central University • Rogers State University • University of Central Oklahoma • Connors State College • Oklahoma City Community College • Tulsa Community College

24. Academic Efficiency The 99% Solution • Restructuring small fraction of courses (~1%) • Modules/Learning Objects  all courses • Smaller increases in efficiency possible per course, but in a much larger number of courses. • Less resource intensive & more flexible than redesign

26. INBRE

27. Questions?