Academic Futures/Financial Futures Online Strategy Working Group

As you are aware, in 2017, CU Boulder embarked on Academic Futures. One of the primary recommendations from our institutional stakeholders related to improving the experiences for our faculty and students as they relate to our online and distance educational offerings. More specifically, our community has told us they want educational excellence regardless of modality.

Thanks in large part to the work done by our Academic Futures/Financial Futures working group, we have determined much of the road map regarding how to establish that single entity where our faculty and students, both on campus and beyond, and can engage with online pedagogy. We now are at a place where we must determine how to get from our current state of operations to our future state.

To that end, we are charging you with chairing an online working group to examine and make recommendations to:

1. deliver innovative, pedagogically appropriate online course content and experiences to students that projects the best value of a CU Boulder educational experience, and that aligns with the Boulder campus culture of excellence and entrepreneurship, our academic strengths, and our reputation
2. eliminate barriers that serve to diminish the experiences of students and faculty who engage in CU Boulder online educational experiences
3. develop an aggressive model for the growth of our online offerings
4. improve the coordination of campus processes in order to leverage our unique academic strengths for the purposes of entering new spaces and expanding our mission, and projecting CU Boulder value beyond the boundaries of the Boulder campus
5. be cognizant of and ensure alignment of the campus efforts with the President’s system online priorities.

In addressing the charges above, we ask that you focus on the necessary functions, activities, and levels of effort that will be required to optimally support the following:

• Undergraduate Offerings, both on and off campus;
• Graduate Offerings, both on and off campus;
• Pedagogical innovation and research that support our mission moving into the future.

Finally, as the Chairs of this online working group, it is our expectation that you will work with the chairs of the other working groups on a Working Group Executive Committee.  This Executive Committee will be charged to work with the Provost and COO to ensure alignment of the efforts of the Online, Continuing Education, and Infrastructure Working Groups.

We are requesting your report and recommendations by no later than October 25, 2019.

• Scott Adler, Graduate School
• Nate Bindel, Continuing Education
• Tracy Jennings, Leeds School of Business
• Daniel Moorer, College of Engineering and Applied Science
• Harsha Gangadharbatla, College of Media Communication and Information
• Scott Battle, Continuing Education
• Quentin McAndrew, Office of Strategic Initiatives

Co-Chairs

• Robert McDonald, dean of Libraries and senior vice provost for Online Education
• Sara Thompson, dean and vice provost, Continuing Education

Ex Officio

• Katherine Eggert, Office of the Provost
• Aisha Jackson, Office of Information Technology

As you are aware, in 2017, CU Boulder embarked on Academic Futures. One of the primary recommendations from our institutional stakeholders related to improving the experiences for our faculty and students as they relate to our online and distance educational offerings. More specifically, our community has told us they want educational excellence regardless of modality and to have a single, main-campus organization to support online pedagogy.

Thanks in large part to the work done by our Academic Futures/Financial Futures working group, we have determined much of the road map regarding how to establish that single place where our students and faculty can engage with online pedagogy. We now are at a place where we must determine how to get from our current state of operations to our future state. As part of this transition we must examine the evolution of Continuing Education so that it can continue to flourish and be at the cutting-edge in support of CU Boulder’s mission and educational offerings.

To that end, we are charging you with chairing a Continuing Education Working group to:

1. Envision a new future for the Continuing Education as an incubator and innovation space, and make recommendations that focus on new programs and opportunities that will position CU Boulder to project its value to constituents beyond the boundaries of our campus, and that will serve to support the core mission of the campus.
2. Examine and make recommendations for how the functions currently housed in Continuing Education (CE) should best be organized to flourish in support CU Boulder’s mission:
   
   1. administrative homes in auxiliary and/or main-campus general funded entities should be considered;
   2. possibilities for programmatic synergies, both within and outside of CE, should be a primary focus.

In considering your recommendations, please know that you should not be constrained by our current organizational structures or operations. For example, I encourage you to consider the future hotel and conference center, future possible executive education offerings, and potential partnerships with industry.

Finally, as the Chairs of this Continuing Education working group, it is our expectation that you will work with the chairs of the other working groups on a Working Group Executive Committee.  This Executive Committee will be charged to work with the Provost and COO to ensure alignment of the efforts of the Online, Continuing Education, and Infrastructure Working Groups.

We are requesting your report and recommendations by no later than October 25, 2019.

• Scott Battle, Continuing Education 
• Nate Bindel, Continuing Education
• Suzanne Classen, Continuing Education 
• Stacy Forsyth, Continuing Education 
• Mary Kraus, Undergraduate Education 
• David Meens, Continuing Education
• Ruth Moore, Continuing Education
• Ted Rockwell, Continuing Education
• Frances Draper, Strategic Resources and Support
• Robert McDonald, Libraries 

Co-Chairs

• Sara Thompson, Continuing Education
• Armando Pares, Continuing Education

Ex Officio

• Jon Leslie, Strategic Relations and Communications

As you are aware, in 2017, CU Boulder embarked on Academic Futures. One of the primary recommendations from our institutional stakeholders related to improving the experiences for our faculty and students as they relate to our online and distance educational offerings. More specifically, our community has told us the want educational excellence regardless of modality.

Thanks in large part to the work done by our Academic Futures/Financial Futures working group, we have determined much of the road map regarding how to establish that single entity where our faculty and students, both on campus and beyond, and can engage with online pedagogy. We now are at a place where we must determine how to get from our current state of operations to our future state.  As you know, making this transition will involve not only building a coherent online organization on campus, but it will also require a thoughtful and comprehensive treatment of those elements of Continuing Education that will remain once all of the online activities transition to the new organization on campus.

Two working groups have been convened to make recommendations on what will be required to achieve the desired future states of our campus online activities and continuing education.  Those working group have not been tasked to attend to the very important operational, HR, and budgetary details that will be required to achieve the future state.  The important foundational details will be worked out by an Infrastructure Working Group (IWG) that we are asking you to lead.

To that end, we are charging you and the IWG to work with the provost and COO to:

1. make recommendations on the personnel, programmatic, budgetary, and administrative changes that must occur to smoothly and effectively make the transition from our current state to the desired future states of our campus online and Continuing Education activities.
2.  Specifically, we are charging the working group to:
   
   1. conduct a comprehensive analysis of the current organizational, programmatic, and financial/budget structures of our online and continuing education activities;
   2. make recommendations for the design and development of the necessary physical, programmatic, personnel, and budget and finance changes that are best suited to support our transition from our current to the future state (both online and CE);
   3. Among the areas to be considered may include, but are not limited to:
      • Incentives, budget structures, and financial sustainability
      • IT infrastructure
      • Administrative support
      • Human resources
      • Faculty and student support
      • Marketing

Finally, as the Chair of this infrastructure working group, it is our expectation that you will work with the chairs of the other working groups on a Working Group Executive Committee.  This Executive Committee will be charged to work with the Provost and COO to ensure alignment of the efforts of the Online, Continuing Education, and Infrastructure Working Groups.

We are requesting your report and recommendations by no later than December 2, 2019.

• Nate Bindel, Continuing Education
• Katherine Erwin, Human Resources
• Susan Szpyrka, Budget and Fiscal Planning
• Jon Leslie, Strategic Relations and Communications
• Aisha Jackson, Office of Information Technology
• Ann Schmiesing, Office of the Provost

Chair

• Gwen Pomper, Strategic Resources and Support

The Academic Futures Committee made clear its admiration for the wonderful work being done on campus in teaching and technology, online and distance learning.  It also made clear its belief that the time has come for the campus to define what it wants to do in this area of our educational work.  The goal set by Academic Futures is the “Coordinated Use of State-of-the-Art Technology to Create a CU Boulder-Specific Strategy for a Spectrum of Education Modalities from Blended Learning to Online and Distance Education.”

This Task Force is thus charged outlining that strategy, with defining the CU Boulder version of teaching and technology, online and distance learning.  Guided by the key idea of “Teaching Excellence, Independent of Modality,” the Task Force should provide us with our guiding philosophy for this important effort.

Academic Futures calls upon the provost to “Charge the Schools and Colleges and their faculties and deans with the accountability and academic oversight for all of their online and distance education courses, degrees and certificates offered, as well as for developing a path that leads to enhanced technology use in the classroom.”   With this charge comes the responsibility to ensure that enough courses are available online to enable our students effectively and flexibly to participate both as residents and remotely.  The Task Force should provide the guidelines this transition.

Some specific questions arise from the work of the AF committee:

1.  Academic Futures calls for a support hub to provide the training and support necessary to move forward with technology and teaching, online and distance education. What campus needs should this hub meet?  What is the guiding mission of the hub?  Where should it be located?
2. What budgetary and administrative impediments exist to our success in teaching and technology, online and distance learning?
3. How should we think about the different groups we can serve through teaching and technology?  What do we need for our residential students?  How can we reach students in Colorado who cannot attend in person?  How can we reach international students?  What should be our approach to offering online professional graduate offerings?

• Chris Braider, Chair and Professor, French and Italian
  College of Arts & Sciences
• Donna Caccamise, Assoc. Dir./Assoc. Research Professor
  Institute of Cognitive Science, Research & Innovation Office
• Robert Erickson, Professor and Interim Chair of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering
  College of Engineering and Applied Science
• Orrie Gartner, Director of Operations
  OIT
• Karen Gebhardt, Director of Online Economics Programs, Economics
  College of Arts & Sciences
• Dirk Grunwald, Professor and Director of Applied Computer Science, Computer Science
  College of Engineering and Applied Sciences
• Lonni Pearce, Senior Instructor/Assoc. Director for First-Year Writing, Program for Writing and Rhetoric
  College of Arts & Sciences
• Emma Rinzler, student
  Leeds School of Business
• Geoffrey Rubinstein, Director of Online Learning
  Division of Continuing Education
• Jeremy Smith, Professor of Musicology
  College of Music

Chair

• Robert McDonald, Working Group Lead
  Dean of University Libraries 

Ex Officio

• Jeff Cox, Professor of English and Humanities
  College of Arts & Sciences
  Former Vice Provost and Assoc. Vice Chancellor for Faculty Affairs, convener of Academic Futures
• Emily CoBabe-Ammann, Director of Strategic Projects
  RIO
  Facilitator of Academic Futures
• Aisha Jackson, Associate Director of Tech Applications
  OIT
  Online workstream lead, Financial Futures