Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Education Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

Full-Text Articles in Education

Business Issues In Online Education, Stephen Schiffman Jul 2012

Business Issues In Online Education, Stephen Schiffman

Stephen Schiffman

What are the key business issues institutions are trying to solve in sustaining and growing their online programs? What “value-adding” attributes of online education are as perceived not just by individual learners but more generally by customers and markets? These are some of the topics explored in the report “Business Issues in Online Education” (forthcoming in Elements of Quality Online Education: Engaging Communities, Volume 6 in the Sloan-C series) funded by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and based on my conversations this past year with over 50 interviewees at 25 online programs at eleven prominent not-for-profit higher …


The Olin Curriculum: Thinking Toward The Future, Mark Somerville, David Anderson, Hillary Berbeco, John Bourne, Jill Crisman, Diana Dabby, Helen Donis-Keller, Stephen Holt, Sherra Kerns, David Kerns, Jr., Robert Martello, Richard Miller, Michael Moody, Gill Pratt, Joanne Pratt, Christina Shea, Stephen Schiffman, Sarah Spence Adams, Lynn Stein, Jonathan Stolk, Brian Storey, Burt Tilley, Benjamin Vandiver, Yevgeniya Zastavker Jul 2012

The Olin Curriculum: Thinking Toward The Future, Mark Somerville, David Anderson, Hillary Berbeco, John Bourne, Jill Crisman, Diana Dabby, Helen Donis-Keller, Stephen Holt, Sherra Kerns, David Kerns, Jr., Robert Martello, Richard Miller, Michael Moody, Gill Pratt, Joanne Pratt, Christina Shea, Stephen Schiffman, Sarah Spence Adams, Lynn Stein, Jonathan Stolk, Brian Storey, Burt Tilley, Benjamin Vandiver, Yevgeniya Zastavker

Stephen Schiffman

In 1997, the F. W. Olin Foundation of New York established the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Needham, MA, with the mission of creating an engineering school for the 21st century. Over the last five years, the college has transformed from an idea to a functioning entity that admitted its first freshman class in fall 2002. This paper describes the broad outlines of the Olin curriculum with some emphasis on the electrical and computer engineering degree. The curriculum incorporates the best practices from many other institutions as well as new ideas and approaches in an attempt to address the …


Aln Business Models And The Transformation Of Higher Education, Gary Miller, Stephen Schiffman Jul 2012

Aln Business Models And The Transformation Of Higher Education, Gary Miller, Stephen Schiffman

Stephen Schiffman

The ways institutions have structured their initial innovation with online learning vary greatly. Initial business model decisions present different challenges in terms of how institutions will integrate online learning. This paper looks at several common business models and the opportunities and challenges that each presents to institutions that want to fully integrate online learning.


Business Models For Online Learning: An Exploratory Survey, Karen Vignare, Christine Geith, Stephen Schiffman Jul 2012

Business Models For Online Learning: An Exploratory Survey, Karen Vignare, Christine Geith, Stephen Schiffman

Stephen Schiffman

Despite the rapid growth in the adoption of online learning, there is a dearth of detailed information on effective business models, business strategies and effective practices on which to build sustainable online education programs. A survey instrument was developed as an initial attempt to define business models and business strategies for online learning. The survey results yielded some interesting data about which online learning financial models seem to have more or less "control" of which business functions. The sample was a convenience one and as such will require further filtering of data. It is also clear that more needs to …


Identifying Successful Business Strategies For Distance Learning, Christine Geith, Stephen Schiffman, Karen Vignare Jul 2012

Identifying Successful Business Strategies For Distance Learning, Christine Geith, Stephen Schiffman, Karen Vignare

Stephen Schiffman

Despite the rapid growth in the adoption of distance education, and asynchronous learning networks in particular, there is a dearth of detailed information on effective business models, business strategies and effective practices on which to build sustainable online education programs. What has been published on the business side of online education tends to focus on the costs and economic models, the growing for-profit sector, and new organizational approaches such as spin-offs and virtual university consortia. There are very few detailed, descriptive studies focused on the business models, strategies and effective practices of online education in U.S. degree-granting institutions.