Don't Starve the Staff of Online Programs

The excerpts and comments here are triggered by a viewpoint at insidehighered.com. Hey, even the title for this post comes from that same source ...

First, a paragraph that will certainly address one of the leading concerns at our campus here:

[L]aunching an online degree program is not as simple as hiring adjunct professors and teaching courses that have been used in a physical campus setting. To do it right, you need a good learning management system, faculty who are experienced and effective online teachers, training and instructional design support, IT support and online tutors.

So, with the adjunct issue out of the way, now on to the rest of the story, to use the late Paul Harvey's phrase ...

The author makes a case for "coaches" who can appropriately guide students, troubleshoot their support issues, and make the online environment a wonderful learning place for students. I am reminded of a comment made at one of the sessions we attended while at the WCET in Phoenix: student support for online students cannot be located only in the physical world--but that has to be online as well. Which means that the registrar, or the financial aid people extend their services in the online realm too. The author writes:

At Tiffin University, we began using success coaches with our at-risk students on campus in the fall of 2007. In the fall of 2008, we took our best practices for on campus learning and applied them to online learning, when we created Ivy Bridge College of Tiffin University , an online associate degree program that offers students mentoring and support and transferability to most four-year colleges and universities.

Whether a student lives in Maine or Oregon, he or she has a success coach to help them make the transition from high school to college, and to keep them on track toward that associate degree and transfer to a four-year college or university.

In the first place, I hope the usage of "Oregon" is rhetorical, and that students from Oregon are not actually ditching the various online programs here in favor of online classes at Tiffin U.

Second, which is the main reason for this posting, are such discussions going on anywhere at WOU? I mean, for instance, when we have a CJ program that is online .....