Guidelines for New Online Degree and Certificate ProgramGrants

  1. Background/rationale

CU Online has been charged with assisting CU Denver and Anschutz Medical Campus schools and colleges in growing their online degree programs. The key finding of the Online Visioning Task Force (OVTF) was “The University is not meeting the needs for online and hybrid programs for current students, self-identified prospective students, and market-identified potential. These students are either not enrolling or are enrolling elsewhere where they perceive programs better meet their needs. It is apparent we do not offer many of the online degrees students are seeking and the online degrees we have do not have the characteristics they are seeking and competitors provide.”

Not only will more courses and degree programs help meet continued student demand, but having more online degrees will enable us to expand the number of out-of-state students we serve. Out-of-state students are a potentially significant new source of enrollment growth and revenue. However, out-of-state students are typically only interested in online courses if they lead to a degree. A second benefit of increasing the number of online degrees is that it will position us better to respond to an increasingly competitive market. Online courses are not a novelty anymore. Most colleges and universities have online programs. Competition exists and is likely to continue to increase. We have very few complete degree programs available and this puts us at a competitive disadvantage.

  1. What degree programs are eligible?

CU Online is currently contacting schools and colleges where research has indicated a large need for new programs. Areas of interest include:

  • Full Degrees with
  • National demand
  • Internal demand
  • Growth opportunity
  • Workforce/market demand
  • Low-residency or hybrid degrees
  • Minors
  • Certificates
  • Innovative bundles of courses (i.e., courses listed as State of Colorado Guarantee Transfer courses)
  • New degrees to be offered online
  1. Approval

The proposal must be approved by theprogram chair and thedean of the school and college offering the degree.

  1. Development grants
  • New Course development grants: $4,000 will be provided to support development and delivery of each new online course required to offer the online program. Faculty may take this as a stipend or have the funds transferred to a development account for any use that would benefit their online teaching. CU Online will provide faculty with technical support and training.
  • Courses for which an online section has already been developed are not eligible for the course development subsidy. However, faculty teaching those courses are eligible for the training and technical support.
  • Program Coordination: $5,000 will be provided to compensate the faculty member assigned to coordinate the project within the school/college and CU Online.
  • Marketing Assistance: CU Online will assist with marketing research, design of print and web materials, building a program webpage, and deploying web technologies to assist with marketing.
  1. Commitments every program must make
  • The school/college offering the online degree/programmust commit to offer all the courses required in the major and sufficient electives on a schedule that would permit a student to complete an undergraduate degree within 4 years and a masters’degreethat allows the student to complete

12 credit hours per semester. Sufficient courses are available online to satisfy the CU Denver undergraduate core curriculum. The program is encouraged to offer courses during the summer semester. If those core requirements change, every effort will be made to assure any new requirements are also available online.

  • The school/college offering the online degree/program must commit to offer the degree/program for 5 years and not discontinue the degree/program without the provost’s approval.
  • The program must commit to assigning a faculty member to coordinate the project (above).
  • The program coordinator will identify the faculty who will be developing and teaching each course in the program. If more sections of that course are offered or the faculty is no longer delivering that course, the course will be made available for other faculty to use.
  • The program coordinator will coordinate with CU Online to determine training needs and schedule for faculty and will coordinate with faculty receiving grants to develop new courses concerning their participation in seminars and workshops about developing and teaching online courses.
  • During the course development process and first semester the course is offered faculty receiving grants to develop new courses must agree to successfully complete the Online Skills Mastery (OSM) course and participate in a Peer Review of the newly developed course. The Peer Review will be conducted no sooner than after the midterm of the first semester the course is offered.
  • The school or college is responsible for quality standards and may require additional quality standards and may designate someone to work with CU Online to develop quality standards and common course elements, if any, for development and delivery of the online courses. They will work with program developers and CU Online to determine how to implement them.
  • The program coordinator will develop curriculum advising materials for students.
  • The program coordinator will coordinate with the marketing manager of CU Online to determine marketing needs and schedule for the program. The program coordinator will complete and return the Marketing Plan Questionnaire provided by CU Online and meet with the marketing manager of CU Online to discuss the questionnaire and marketing prospects and approve the marketing plan with a target date of to launch the marketing campaign ______.
  1. Commitments CU Online will make:
  • CU Online will provide an agreed upon stipend to faculty for new course development to support them with their development and delivery of each new course required to offer the online program.
  • CU Online will provide faculty with technical support and training.
  • CU Online will assist with marketing research, design of print and web materials, build a program webpage, and deploy web technologies to assist with marketing.
  • CU Online will work with the program coordinator to secure necessary UC Denver leadership approvals.

New Online Degree Proposal

Brief Background Narrative:(include a general overview of program, and comment on the relation to unit/college academic plans and the capacity of the unit/college to undertake the project)

Name of the Degree Program:

Current number of students and market potential:(Number of students you would be prepared to admit into the degree)

Degree requirements: (including courses required for the degree, number of electives necessary to complete the degree, and other special requirements)

Admission requirements. Transfer student issues/requirement:

List of required courses and electives already available online:

List of required courses and electives you need to develop for online delivery:

Course development and course delivery timeline and faculty who will develop these courses.(see sample grid)

Course # / Course Name / Instructor Name / Instructor Title / 1st Semester Offered

Contact person(s) for this proposal: (Name, address, phone, email)

Approval Signatures:

______

Program Coordinator, Date

______

ChairDate

______

DeanDate

.