Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology

I had a chance to sit down with Dr. Bill Kelly before his presentation regarding his vision for online courses and their direction in the next 5 years. The abbreviated session that we had was fantastic and so is the podcast from later in the day. While you are downloading the podcast, check out the set of accompanying session notes.

An online course in popular music uses material developed by Kelly. Fixed-term instructors work with the students, answer questions, and grade. In terms of money and practicality, there needs to be an incentive/reward to:
Department heads
Departments
Individual instructors

Currently pay instructors $4,500
8 sections/semester; $36,000/semester to generate 1,200 enrollments
cost per student enrollment $30
cost per credit hour $10
Next year increasing instructor cost to $5,000 and adding a course manager for $30,000.
Cost per enrollment will increase to $51.99, credit hour/$17.40.

Instructors are paid well, so there is good retention; less time training instructors.

From a department head standpoint, it is like heaven. It generates lots of enrollments, predominantly because it’s online. It’s convenient; it fits in students’ schedule.