CeL Progress Report

The Center for eLearning was established in April 2011 and is located in building 4, instructional services.

CeL Positions:

Assistant Provost for eLearning
    Executive Secretary
Director of Instructional Design
    (4) Instructional Designers
Director of Digital Media
    Coordinator, Public Relations & Events (not yet filled)

CeL 1001: eLearning designer/facilitator certification

At the time of its inception, the CeL had only three instructional designers. In order to effect maximum impact on eLearning productivity and faculty development with such a small staff, it was decided that a robust eLearning development and delivery certification program would be rolled out. In this way, the small instructional design staff could serve many more faculty members in lockstep as opposed to serving a smaller number on an individual, drop-in basis. Several goals informed the structure of the program.

First, the decision was made to focus on high-quality online
course production in this inaugural program due to the desire to add student enrollment options without taxing the already limited classroom space on campus.

Second, we wanted participating faculty to be committed to taking an intense program that allowed them to experience life as an online student while learning how to best design and deliver their new online courses.

Finally, we wanted to have the capacity to accept and train all faculty members over a period of 5 years. In order to do that, we needed to train approximately 70 faculty members per semester including summers. The task force had recommended that faculty be required to undergo training prior to teaching online, but we see this currently as a long-term goal.

Recruiting for the program is done via a call for proposals. A stipend of $3000 is offered to faculty members willing to complete the training, develop a new online or mostly online course, and teach the new course at least once on overload within the three semesters immediately following program completion. The CeL funds both the stipend and the overload payment. The requirement to teach the course at least once on overload is important in that it assures that enrollments represent new revenue rather than merely shifting enrollments from traditional courses to the online environment. For this reason, the CeL encourages and funds continued overload teaching of these newly generated courses.

 

Total completers:

Fall 2011: 53
Spring 2012: 38
Summer 2012: 25

Total completers to date (Fall11-Summer12):  116

Total new eLearning courses generated to date: 116
Total new eLearning sections offered to date: 38
Total tuition revenues generated to date (Spring 12-Summer 12): $855,315

Total participants enrolled for Fall 2012: 50

eLearning fee

FAU’s eLearning fee of $37/credit hour was implemented in Fall 2011. The eLearning fee generated approximately $2 million in 2011-2012 and
allowed the CeL to become fully auxiliary funded:

• Returned E&G funding to Provost
• Returned differential tuition to Provost

eLearning fee revenues fund:

a) eCollege
b) 50% funding for Blackboard mobile
c) Faculty stipends
d) Faculty overloads
e) GTAs for eLearning sections with high enrollment
f) CeL staff
g) The CeL provides funding to FAU units that support eLearners (CLASS, testing & proctoring, writing center, Math tutoring center, etc.)
h) Quality Matters
i) Sloan-Consortium membership and workshops
j) Program specific seed money
k) eLearning conference travel
l) eLearning marketing