Building An Online School From the Ground Up
- + How to manage your new online education venture, and
- + How to be successful.
| Two Models to Choose From | |
Virtual universities come in two models. First there is the new, stand alone online university; one that will have a very difficult road ahead getting established. The other is a stand-alone and/or an integrated online program development at an established traditional university. Regardless of the intent, getting established is a difficult and arduous road.
This seems particularly poignant when the motivation is to keep up with another school or schools or to naively start a virtual campus just to increase revenue and allegedly make huge profits. Attempts by major schools to do just that have usually fallen flat on their face. Many reasons can account for this. Mostly they are simply defined as internal struggles usually driven by traditionalist faculty unwilling to change. Thus, there is faculty resistance, student resistance, and administrator resistance, all reacting to-the negativity by faculty who may have not a clue as to the ultimate benefits to the student, themselves or the the school.
On the other hand, administrators trying to be all things to all people, go about pleasing no-one when they start bundling up successful on-ground classes with virtual classes. These so-called blended classes usually provide inept online faculty. Couple that up with the administrations selection of the wrong course/learner management system because they themselves have never taken an online class to know better, and you have the makings of a financial disaster waiting to happen. |
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| Success or Failure | |
Individuals and organizations with a desire to educate online often have little or no guidance in the proper protocol and the measures that are sure to permit such training to stand out. Thousands of organizations and many more individuals attempt to start online programs and even virtual universities. Few are successful. The reasons as noted can both be simple and complex, but one thing is certain, there is a right way and a wrong way.
Toss into the mix the confusion over what kind of online programs to initiate. For example traditional faculty will argue for blended courses i.e. part in the classroom and part online. Most will make the online classes available to students who are capable of sitting in the classroom missing the point of why one adopts online classes in the first place. And thirdly there are those who construct online classes like they were in a social network or chat room losing the effectiveness and the extraordinary opportunities that online delivery and instruction provide. All of these are in some ways lacking in taking advantage of the full potential of online classes and the impact they can have on the growth and development of the university itself.
The first question almost always never asked by those considering expanding or adopting more online classes should be: How many new students can we attract to our online education that we otherwise might never have attracted without it? |
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| Getting Started | |
If your school or your organization have ever thought about starting a virtual university, either as a stand alone or as a new contingency to existing on-ground programs, you are going to need assistance. The Academy's trained specialists are seasoned veterans. We have experienced the trauma and dealt with the uncertainty of how exactly one must proceed to establish a viable and exceptional virtual online program, its delivery system and exceptional classes. + How to get started,
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