Internet Learning Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2014 | Page 26

Positioning for Success in the Higher Education Online Learning Environment
at some campuses, perhaps most notably
during the failed ouster of Teresa Sullivan
as president of the University of Virginia
in 2012.
• Their Students – The digital native generation,
which lives, communicates, and
learns in an age with advanced technology
at its fingertips, and is increasingly exposed
to online learning at the K-12 level
and through services such as the Khan
Academy, are coming to college expecting
online options.
• Their Strategic Interests – Online education
is increasingly viewed as a core
attribute as evidenced by the 65.9% of
chief academic leaders in the 2013 Babson
online education survey saying online
learning is critical to their long-term
strategy; the second highest percentage
during the past decade. Further, 74% of
those academic leaders responded that
learning outcomes in online education
are the same or superior to those in faceto-face
settings (down slightly from the
previous year) (Allen & Seaman, 2014).
The way non-profits have approached
online learning has depended on what they
hoped to gain and the resources they had to
work with. In particular, they have:
• Done It on Their Own – Institutions
with the necessary human, financial, and
technological resources and a clear sense
of how online learning addresses their
strategic needs can find it preferable to
build their online capabilities with limited
outside involvement.
• Worked with Schools in Their System –
The University of Massachusetts Online,
the University of Wisconsin Extension,
and the State University of New York are
examples of a system approach, where
several schools contribute to the online
options and can share similar technology
and resources.
• Partnered with a MOOC Provider – As
of July 2014, Coursera had 52 U.S.-based
college and university partners and edX
17 U.S.-based collaborating schools.
While the MOOC model continues to
evolve with some initiatives looking
more like “traditional” online offerings,
the value in the exposure they provide to
institutions trying to establish an online
voice cannot be dismissed.
• Worked with an Online Enabler – An
increasing number of schools use a
third-party online enabler to help them
launch and manage their online program.
These firms come from a variety
of industries including publishing (Pearson/Embanet
and Wiley/Deltak), education
software providers (Blackboard),
for-profit higher education institutions
(Kaplan – Colloquy), and pure online
service plays (2U, Academic Partnerships,
Bisk). In some cases the firms are
not working with the entire institution,
but instead a specific department. The
Parthenon Group estimates that the enablers
currently bring in an estimated $1
billion a year in tuition revenue, while
the market is expected to double in four
years, according to Global Silicon Valley
(GSV) Asset Management (Howard,
2014).
Despite the rising number of
non-profit schools entering the online market,
according to higher education market
research and consulting firm Eduventures,
only a few schools dominate the market as
3% of higher education providers enroll 45%
of the total online student headcount (Eduventures,
2014). Many of those providers are
for-profit institutions, including four of the
top five in market share, as evidenced by the
following table of leading online providers
(Table 4).
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