1. Affiliations
2. Governance
3. IT Strategic Plan
4. Initiatives
5. OSU Academic Directory
6. OSU Administration
7. OSU IT Resources

Information Technology Strategic Plan

Related Links Background Communications Current State Future State Gap Analysis Annual Achievement Report Academic Plan Leadership Agenda

Contents  IT Strategic Plan (pdf)  Overview  Message from the CIO  Executive Summary  Ohio State's Information Technology Vision  What Ohio State Needs: Critical Success Factors  Strategic Initiative: eLearning  Implementation  Conclusion  Appendix A: Project Participants  Appendix B: The Planning Process  Appendix C: Current State Analysis Details  Appendix D: Current State and Academic Plan  Appendix E: Technology Days Details  Appendix F: Focus Group Discussion Details  Appendix G: Future State Emerging Themes  Appendix H: Gap Analysis Details  Appendix I: Strategic Initiatives Details  Appendix J: Strategic Initiatives Funding

---

eLearning  Strategic Initiative

 Summary
 Full Description
 Benefits
 Proposed Leadership
 Metrics
 Estimated Investments/Potential Funding
 Recent Actions
 List of Strategic Initiatives

Summary
Ohio State can, according to the Academic Plan, "equal or surpass our benchmark institutions in the use of technology for teaching, learning, research, and overall effectiveness" by successfully meeting the eLearning needs of students and the citizens of Ohio and beyond. We can improve eLearning by providing targeted instructional technology support and resources and establishing a support organization with a sustainable funding strategy to ensure growth; by revising existing and initiating new eLearning policies, procedures and guidelines to assure that Ohio State can provide quality, competitive education, especially at a distance, that meets the needs of its existing and growing learner population and communicates these edicts to the academic community in a clear and timely manner; and by selecting and implementing an enterprise-level Course Management System.

Full Description

Part 1 - Successfully meet the eLearning needs of students, Ohio citizens and others. Provide targeted instructional technology support and resources to the academic community by establishing a support organization with a sustainable funding strategy to ensure growth and support.

Part 2 - Revise existing and initiate new eLearning policies, procedures and guidelines to assure that Ohio State can provide quality education competitive with peer institutions that meets the needs of its growing learner population. Communicate these edicts in a clear and timely manner.

Part 3 - Select and implement an enterprise-level Course Management System.

Ohio State's Academic Plan clearly delineates the role of instructional technology in advancing the university as a national leader and world-class institution and concludes “we must equal or surpass our benchmark institutions in the use of technology for teaching, learning, research, and overall effectiveness.” Ohio State can seek these goals by: (1) successfully meeting eLearning needs of students, Ohio citizens and others with targeted instructional technology support and resources and by establishing a support organization with sustainable funding to ensure growth; (2) revising existing and initiating new eLearning policies and procedures to assure that Ohio State can provide quality education, especially at a distance, that is competitive with peer institutions and meets the needs of its existing and growing learner population, and communicating to the academic community in a clear and timely manner; and (3) selecting and implementing an enterprise-level Course Management System.

To accomplish the first part, Ohio State and the Office of the CIO must realign internal resources and direct new, sustainable funding to build an organization that provides and coordinates support for eLearning that complements and extends the college’s initiatives. The benefits include fulfilling a majority of the eLearning goals in the Academic plan; taking full advantage of the computing power and infrastructure needed to support a broad spectrum of educational technology methodologies and practices; providing access to the requisite consultation, training and resources required for faculty to integrate technology into teaching and learning; supporting a campuswide professional instructional technology staff; facilitating opportunities for faculty and staff to partner on grants; ensuring opportunities and resources for the academic community to explore and implement new and emerging eLearning technologies; providing convenient and academically rigorous, media-rich, engaging learning opportunities for students; giving attention to students' preferences and requirements for integrated, comprehensive, personalized, online learning; providing better access to required courses with fewer closed sections and more potential to graduate undergraduate students within the predetermined time frame; expanding access to quality eLearning for nontraditional students and for business, industry, government and other educational institutions; enhancing global visibility of the university as a quality supplier and competitor in targeted distance learning markets; and fulfilling components of the university’s outreach and engagement and land grant mission.

The university will realize the second part of this initiative by reexamining and revising existing campus and statewide policies, procedures and guidelines related to eLearning design, development, support and delivery and by initiating and instituting new ones that support, not constrain, eLearning initiatives on campus and at a distance. These policies, procedures and guidelines cover intellectual property ownership, tuition fee differentiation, admissions, registration and services for distance learning students, seat time, nontraditional course scheduling, credentialing, eLearning delivery assessment metrics and faculty incentives. Once revised, the new documents must be disseminated to and readily accessible by the academic community. When this is accomplished, benefits will include: clarity in eLearning policies, standards and guidelines; support and protection of faculty rights; improvement and streamlining of internal processes for offering and taking eLearning courses and degrees; expansion of educational opportunities for the existing and growing learner population; improvement of the university climate for eLearning; an increase of eLearning productivity and effectiveness; and assurance of quality in the online delivery of educational content.

This initiative will be closer to fruition with the evaluation, selection, and implementation of a user-friendly, feature-rich, and fully scalable enterprise-level Course Management System. A new CMS serves the growing needs of faculty who have exponentially increased their use of technology to manage course information and communications. Evolving tools, expanding needs, and escalating costs present additional reasons for pursuing solutions that streamline processes and support while laying the groundwork for the next-generation academic environment. A next-generation CMS will encourage faculty adoption and broader use of eLearning; increase capacity to scale the entire student population, including on-campus and at a distance, credit and noncredit; improve access for faculty and students with special needs; position the university to expand and coordinate campuswide enterprise solutions; improve security and reliability; require less technical support as system becomes easier to use and more stable; and improve efficiency and save money by coordinating (and possibly consolidating) the operations and support of multiple CMS servers.

Benefits

• Fulfilling most of the eLearning goals in the Academic plan
• Providing access to the requisite consultation, training and resources required for faculty to integrate technology into teaching and learning
• Supporting a universitywide instructional technology staff
• Facilitating opportunities for faculty and staff to partner on grants
• Ensuring opportunities and resources for the academic community to explore new and emerging eLearning technologies
• Providing convenient and academically rigorous, media-rich, engaging learning opportunities for students
• Providing better access to required courses with fewer closed sections
• Expanding access to eLearning for nontraditional students
• Enhancing OSU’s global visibility
• Fulfilling components of the university’s outreach and engagement and land grant mission

Proposed Leadership

• Office of Academic Affairs
• - Chief Information Officer
• Colleges/Regionals
• Office of Business and Finance
• Outreach and Engagement
• Continuing Education
• Faculty and TA Development Office
• Vice President for Research
• Ohio State Libraries
• General Council
• Office of Technology Licensing
• University Senate Council on Libraries and Information Technology

Metrics

• Better support for faculty in developing and delivering eLearning
• Increased faculty comfort with developing and sharing educational materials (OSU Poll)
• Increased faculty adoption of eLearning
• Increased student enrollment in and graduation from online courses or degree programs
• Improved quality of online offerings
• Increased accessibility to classes (fewer closed out courses) leading to increased student matriculation rates and a greater number of students graduating on time
• Increase in faculty rewards for development and creative use and research in instructional technology
• Better trained central and college and departmental instructional technology support staff
• Number of new and approved revisions of outdated policies
• Increase in the number of distance learning opportunities and increase in supporting revenue
• Less server down time
• Amount of cost savings in a better coordinated CMS operation

Estimated Investments/Potential Funding

• eLearning Support Organization
  - $736,500 for FY04 and $635,000 for FY05 annual funds
  - $600,000 cash over two years
• eLearning Policies
  - Cost of participants' time and support to develop strategy, guidelines, policies, and plan
  - Minimal cost to communicate and disseminate policy changes to academic community
• Enterprise Course Management System (existing and upgraded CMS currently unfunded)
  - $572,000 cash
  - $468,000 annual rate

Recent Actions

• CIO internally reallocated $296,000
• Repurposed $676,000 in annual funding from OIT to TELR to support eLearning
• OAA reallocated $296,150 in annual funds and $80,000 in cash to support eLearning
• CIO received $300,000 in cash for a Faculty Loan and Investment Program in FY04 new funding
• Requested for FY05: $25,000 annual funding and $75,000 cash for eLearning incentive funds
• $468,000 in annual funding and $572,400 in cash for enterprise-level course management system

back to top