THE STATE OF ONLINE EDUCATION IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS

AND ADMINISTRATION PROGRAMS

PRESENTATION ATNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF

SCHOOLS OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND ADMINISTRATION (NASPAA)

CONFERENCE, 2011Augustine Hammond & Martha Ginn Augusta State University

CONTEXT OF THE STUDY Considering placing the MPA program at

Augusta State University online Search for information on the state of online

education in Public Affairs and Administration Little and inconsistent information

This presentation is based on: Content analysis of MPA online programs’

websites and Survey of accredited Public Affairs and

Administration programs with support from NASPAA (Response from 96 schools)

SUMMARY RESULTS 96 out of the 270 NASPAA affiliated

institutions (~ 36%) completed the survey Our respondents appear relatively

representative of NASPAA member programs in terms of institution type 76% of NASPAA members are public

institutions vs. 81% (n=78) of our respondents

23% of NASPAA members are non-profit institutions vs. 19% (n = 16) of our respondents

It also reflected significant geographic diversity

SUMMARY RESULTS 18 of the 51 schools listed on NASPAA’s website

as offering online courses or programs (35.3%) completed the survey

Through the survey, we identified 44 additional schools that offer online courses or programs.

We visited program websites for every NASPAA listed school We identified 33 schools with online courses

and programs in addition to 51 schools listed by NASPAA

A total of 84 schools with online courses and programs

Comparing our list from the content analysis with our survey, we identified a total of 127 MPA programs that offer some form of online education

SUMMARY RESULTS We were able to successfully identify and

collect information on program websites from 121 of the 127 schools

Of the 96 schools that completed the survey about a third, 34 (35.4%), do not offer any courses with online components

The remaining offer some form of online education: 17 (17.7%) offered hybrid or blended

courses 22 (22.9%) offered both fully online and

hybrid courses 23 (23.9%) offered fully online courses

program

SUMMARY RESULTS 19 schools offered programs that could be

completed fully online (15 with entire MPA/MPP degree online and 4 with entire MPA/MPP certificate online)

Thus, almost a fifth offer fully online degree, almost half offer courses completely online and about a third offer no online courses

NOTE: Figure on schools with no online course may be underestimated (might elected not to complete the survey because it is about online)

Schools with fully online courses may also offer traditional on campus classes

SUMMARY RESULTS Combining website analysis with survey,

we identified 57 schools that offered complete degree

programs or certificates entirely online 11 of these programs (not necessarily the online component) are not NASPAA accredited

Another 41 offered courses fully online but students cannot complete an entire degree program online (many offered hybrid courses with courses offered completely online)

29 schools offered hybrid courses

RATIONALES FOR NOT GOING ONLINE

14 out of the 34 schools (41%) without online component were currently considering online courses in the future BUT 19 schools (56%) have no plans for exploring the idea

Of the 39 schools offering online courses, 30 (76%) indicated that they do not want to take the entire program online.

Schools not currently offering online courses/programs identified several reasons for not going online The most common was skepticism about

quality (58% & 63%), though literature suggests there is no real difference in the quality

RATIONALES FOR NOT GOING ONLINE Others reasons were:

Faculty unwilling to teach online courses (33%); supports Allen and Seaman’s (2007)

Start-up costs, faculty workloads and resources (33% & 30%); supports Allen & Seaman; Jones (2008)

Limited demand (30% & 17%); market saturation?

Despite skepticism about the quality, schools with online components indicated their programs were seen as rigorous, challenging and well regarded with NASPAA accreditation increasing the prestige

RATIONALES FOR GOING ONLINEOnline degree (n=19)

Online courses (n

= 41)

Considering (n =

12)

Increase enrollment/reach more students

79% 66% 67%

Increase revenue 16% 32% 42%

Compete with other similar schools

10% 37% 58%

Physical space concerns on campus

16% 10% 8%

Other (please specify) 42% 51% 33%NOTE: check all that apply question; % in each sample indicated that response categoryMost popular motivation for entering the field of online education is to increase enrollments and reach more students. Online format allows schools to reach students that would otherwise be unable to take coursework due to geographic limitations, work/home constraints, and even physical impairmentsMotivation to compete was not very prevalent for schools with online programs but it was for both schools offering online courses and those considering online courses. Are schools with online degree more established in providing online courses (and competition is not an issue)?

ENROLLMENT PATTERN AND FEES Given that reaching more students is the most

common motivation, it was useful to evaluate whether schools feel they successfully met that goal. No school reported decline in enrollment

when offering classes online The modal category for enrollment pattern

for both online courses and degree was modest increase – online offerings helping to reach more students

Only 5% of online courses reported dramatic increase in enrollment vs. 26% of online degree – Dramatic increases in enrollment more likely with entire program online?

ENROLLMENT PATTERN AND FEES 13 of the 19 schools with online degree

provided estimated enrollment (in their online programs) for Fall 2010 Enrollment ranged from 10 to 140 (M = 56)

students – Appears there is demand for the programs

11 out of the 19 indicated 20% or less of their students lived out of state; 2 schools indicated 80% or more lived out of state and the rest (6) fell in between these two extremes – regional or national competition for students

Website analysis revealed some schools (15) charged an additional fee for online coursework; ranging from $25 to $925 (M = $175, SD = $270); wide disparity

ENROLLMENT PATTERN AND FEES 41 schools provided in-state tuition costs

per credit hour for both regular classes and online classes; charged online courses slightly higher (M = $25.68) but the difference was not statistically significant.

17 schools that provided out of state tuition costs per credit hour for both regular classes and online classes; Charged online courses slightly lower (M = $34.70) but the difference was not statistically significant

NOTE: Not all schools listed their tuition and fee policies with regard to online education, so our estimates are plagued my missing data values

OTHER ISSUES: TECHNOLOGICAL CONCERNS Scholars (e.g. Jones, 2008; Perreault et al.,

2002; Vernon et al., 2009) have concerns about technology in online education but our respondents (schools with online degree and courses) did not indicate technological resources and problems as being major concern However, infrastructural development and

system upgrades seem to be slight concern – Artifacts of recent budgetary restrictions?

Percentage wise, online degrees do have more “slight problem” with technology than online courses – Most likely a function of frequency of use

NOTE: Problems with IT support for students and faculty mostly likely not captured (Directors’ perspectives)

OTHER ISSUES: TECHNOLOGICAL CONCERNS Blackboard and Blackboard owned products

(e.g. WebCt) was overwhelmingly favored product in online platforms Used by over 75% of schools offering online

degrees and courses Other less common platforms were E-College,

Desire to Learn, and Moodle Both schools offering online degrees and

courses reported using wide range of instructional methods, reinforcing the idea of flexibility But narrated PowerPoint lectures and

written lectures (supported by discussion boards) seem to be the more preferred method

OTHER ISSUES: STUDENT SERVICES Schools that offer entire degree online

indicated providing the following online services: Academic advising (68%; n = 13) Financial advising (26%; n = 5) Academic support such as tutoring (26%;

n = 5) Career placement and career support

services (32%; n = 6)

OTHER ISSUES: FACULTY AND STAFF Contrary to expectation, only 2 schools with

online degrees indicated employing administrative staff dedicated exclusively to their online programs

Only 5 schools indicated hiring additional faculty or staff (1 to 4 FT positions) to accommodate their online program; 1 school hired 10 part time instructors

Interestingly, the online degree degrees indicated having smaller faculty members than those offering online courses The average faculty for online degree was

9.6 tenured/tenure track and 7.6 adjuncts (vs. 7.1 tenured/tenure track and 6.5 adjuncts) – Difference not statistically significant

OTHER ISSUES: FACULTY AND STAFF Expected that the number of faculty

members would be dependent on enrollment; schools with online degree have slightly higher enrollments (difference not statistically significant) Schools with online degree have average

enrollment of 89 full-time and 107 part-time students (vs. 71 full-time and 94 part-time students)

Schools offering online courses offered an average of 3.7 courses online per semester with average enrollment of 15 students per course

CONCLUSIONS MPA/MPP programs are not immune from the

proliferating of online education across academia As expected, there are different experiences for

schools offering online courses and those offering full online degrees including faculty size, IT infrastructural development and enrollment patterns

Schools not offered online courses or degree mostly because of Skepticism but most are considering it because

of competition – skepticism might be with fully online degree

Faculty willingness – several possible reasons but workload