Strategic Planning Rationale

The CeL’s first academic and fiscal year was an overwhelming success.  The new eLearning fee allowed the unit to grow and to provide new funding for eLearning student support units and for new eLearning course sections.  However, there is still much to be accomplished and the time is right for a comprehensive strategic planning process to inform our future direction.   

Public higher education institutions are facing unprecedented budget challenges and criticism for escalating tuition costs and student loan debt.  Many are pointing to eLearning as a potential strategy for meeting these challenges. There has been a lot of interest in MIT and Harvard’s “EdX” initiative involving open courseware and Berkeley has recently joined the project.  In addition, many are experimenting with massively open online courses (MOOCs) and some, like Western Governor’s University have developed methods for awarding credit for competency as an alternative to traditional seat time.  The Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, has publicly stated that he would like to see models like Western Governor’s become the norm rather than the exception.  It is important then, that all these potentially “disruptive innovations” be considered as we think collectively about the future of eLearning at FAU.