University Teaching as E-Business?
Research and Policy Agendas

Case Study: UMassOnline (UMO)

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NB: These draft case studies, compiled by Shannon Lawrence, are an internal resource for the University Teaching as E-business? research project. Originally released in October 2001, they were updated in March 2002. They were gathered from numerous sources, including news articles, press releases, scholarly reports, and company websites. In many cases, information presented herein was taken directly from The Chronicle of Higher Education's longitudinal series of articles on Information Technology and Distance Education, which represents the single best source for information about this evolving universe.

UMassOnline, the web-based learning portal for the five-campus University of Massachusetts system, provides online courses, certificates, degree programs, and corporate and professional education opportunities. UMassOnline (UMO), launched in February 2001, has more than 6,000 enrollments in 25 campus-based online degree and certificate programs (see Table 1), making it the largest distance learning organization in New England.

Products/Services

UMassOnline is an outreach effort of the University of Massachusetts campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell and Worcester), which are fully accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. UMassOnline brings together all the online academic resources of the campuses in the University of Massachusetts system, but doesn’t grant degrees. Degrees are awarded from the individual campuses. Each campus has its own registration process and fee structure, and fees vary by program depending on whether the course offered is noncredit or for credit and the level of that credit (i.e., undergraduate or graduate).

UMassOnline focuses on the needs of Massachusetts and the region, but is marketed without regard to region. UMO’s target audience is a wide range of working professionals, military personnel, stay-at-home parents, people with disabilities, human resources managers looking for new opportunities for employees, and UMass alumni. Any person with a high school diploma or its equivalent (GED) may register for noncredit, undergraduate, or graduate courses. Students must have a bachelor's degree to be admitted to a graduate degree program. Some courses may require prerequisite college-level work. Students may enroll in courses before being formally admitted to a degree program, though enrollment does not imply acceptance into a degree program. Students may take courses simultaneously at any of the UMass campuses, though they may encounter different policies, procedures, academic calendars, and fees. Course credits are not automatically transferable from one campus to another. Credit earned by successfully completing UMass courses from one campus can, in most cases, be transferred to other campuses, colleges, and universities at the discretion of the accepting campus or school. Student services are provided by the campus in which the student enrolls. UMassOnline students receive the same benefits as their on-campus peers.

Courses at UMassOnline are taught by resident UMass faculty, adjunct professors, and experienced real - world professionals. The courses meet the same stringent academic requirements as traditional on-campus courses. Online courses include exercises, projects, and collaborative assignments as well as tutorials and courses with audio lectures, photo materials, discussions, chat rooms, readings, illustrations, and video. Academic advising, library facilities, textbooks, and more are available to online students. UMass courses are rigorous and require students to complete work by set deadlines. UMassOnline courses generally follow the campuses’ standard academic calendars and begin in early fall, spring, and summer.

Interaction with the instructor is an important aspect of a quality online education. Instructors answer e-mail questions, participate in online discussions, and personally evaluate assignments. Instructors also update course content to insure that courses stay on the cutting edge. Instructors keep scheduled "office hours" each week. Students communicate with other students and the instructor through e-mail and threaded discussions.

UMassOnline is taking a major step in building its eLearning technology infrastructure and expanding its capacity for delivering educational programs over the Web by building and hosting a dual platform eLearning "utility." UMassOnline will use software from Prometheus and IntraLearn to create a portal allowing students to manage their online courses. The software will also help professors develop virtual classrooms for their own courses.

"The decision to build and host this world class system internally gives us control of our distance learning destiny, as well as the capacity to rapidly respond to faculty and student needs," says Jack Wilson, UMassOnline CEO. "UMassOnline selected learning management systems (LMS) from Prometheus and IntraLearn because they can be hosted internally, have superior features, functionality, and ability to be customized, as well as receiving high ratings from our cross-campus selection team" (Press Release, 1 October 2001). IntraLearn, based in Northboro, MA, has a three-year tenure as UMass Lowell's eLearning platform of choice. Prometheus, based in Washington, DC and developed by The George Washington University, is new to the UMass system, but received high marks from the faculty for its customizable interface and community source code.

Governance/Management

Dr. Jack M. Wilson, a leading national authority on distance learning and higher education innovation, is the chief executive officer of UMassOnline. Besides managing one of the most highly respected higher education technology initiatives in the country, Dr. Wilson teaches an Introduction to eBusiness course to 60 - 120 students per semester for the graduate MBA and Information Technology programs. About half of those students meet with Dr. Wilson in a classroom while the other half take the class live online from their homes and workplaces across North America.

UMassOnline has developed a draft set of principles that vest course approval authority in existing campus governance processes, requires programs to be sponsored by a lead campus, rewards faculty for developing distance learning courses, and demands high quality teaching. Because the increasing involvement of University faculty is critical to the success of distance learning, UMassOnline is designing a new training program for faculty across the system, taught by UMass faculty and targeted at faculty who have an interest in online education.

Finance/Strategy

UMassOnline is a completely not-for-profit entity, as an arm of the University of Massachusetts. Jack Wilson says that could change. "We decided that it made sense to be able to get the kind of fast start that we wanted and to take advantage of the various things going on at different campuses, but we plan to re-examine that decision from time to time. Our key goal is to take a high-end approach, and we didn't want to compromise that by going ahead and fund raising. Fortunately, we didn't need to do that -- the state has put up sufficient venture capital" (Carr, 9 March 2001).

UMassOnline has really achieved a surprising level of consensus support combined with a healthy amount of controversy. Wilson describes UMass’s approach as "ecumenical," emphasizing "we don't want to hammer it all into one mold. Just looking at the range of programs that we are starting with;, we are including various types of technologies and interactions. We are not calling it asynchronous learning as many do. We will have asynchronous learning, but also live learning. And as time goes by, we will adjust our models" (Carr, 9 March 2001).

The University of Massachusetts has been a leader in distance education for over 25 years. In 1975 UMass was among the first to send out videotaped engineering courses and one of the seven founding members of National Technological University. UMass has been delivering education via the Web since 1995. Additionally, the US Army has recently selected UMassOnline as one of its partners to deliver e-learning to military personnel around the world.

References

• Carr, Sarah. "New Head of UMassOnline Says the 'Student Experience' Can Be Preserved." The Chronicle of Higher Education, 9 March 2001. http://chronicle.com/daily/2001/03/2001030901u.htm
  
• "National Distance Learning Innovator to Lead UmassOnline." UMassOnline Press Release, 29 January 2001. http://www.umassonline.net/news/shownews.cfm?news_ID=5
  
• "UMassOnline to Build Online Education Platform with Prometheus and IntraLearn." UMassOnline Press Release, 1 October 2001. http://www.umassonline.net/news/shownews.cfm?news_ID=7
  
• "UMassOnline Launches Twelve New Online Degree and Certificate Programs." UMassOnline Press Release, 5 September 2001. http://www.umassonline.net/news/shownews.cfm?news_ID=6
  
• "UMassOnline Opens as New England Leader." UMassOnline Press Release, 8 February 2001. http://www.umassonline.net/news/shownews.cfm?news_ID=4