open.suny.edu 2017 ANNUAL IMPACT REPORT

open.suny.edu 2017 ANNUAL IMPACT REPORT

STRATEGIC PLAN FAST FACTS: 4 THEMES 7 GOALS I am pleased to share this inaugural Open SUNY Impact Report with you, our colleagues, campus partners, and online learning champions. When we launched Open SUNY in 2014, we set a vision to build and expand upon more than 20 years of experience with the SUNY Learning Network to support a SUNY wide strategy for scaling online learning across the system. Open SUNY is about increasing access for NYS citizens to a SUNY education, improving completion rates for students enrolled in SUNY programs, and ensuring success for SUNY graduates. We know that Open SUNY serves both fully-online students as well as students who are blending online courses with on-campus courses to speed their time to degree or access a broader range of course offerings. In Fall 2016, 46% of SUNY students took one or more online courses because of conflicting family or work responsibilities. 1 38 INITIATIVES 53 PROJECTS In 2016 we launched a three year strategic plan focused on facilitating strategic growth in online learning and in serving post-traditional students with more online programs, building the capability of our campuses to ensure quality in online learning, cultivating best practices across the system, and promoting financial sustainability for online learning at the system level as well as on our campuses. Campus-facing services from Open SUNY are designed to support one of three target audiences Online Students and those who support online students, Faculty who teach online and those who support faculty who teach online, and Campus Leaders who are responsible for advancing online learning at the campus level. We also aim to serve NYS Employers in providing programs to support their workforce development and continuing education needs. In the past year we have become more diligent about quantifying the work we do and demonstrating the impact Open SUNY has had across the system and for our campus partners. This report highlights some of our accomplishments from the past year and the impact we are beginning to have on Students, Faculty, and Campuses. We are proud of our accomplishments to date and hope you enjoy reading about them! Kim A. Scalzo Executive Director of Open SUNY 1 Based on responses from Fall 2016 Open SUNY COTE Online Learning Survey, which was taken by students from multiple SUNY campuses between December 1, 2016 and January 14, 2017. N = 1,348 for the question reported above.

SUNY IMPACT ONLINE COURSES ONLINE PROGRAMS FALL 2016 ENROLLMENT ALL campuses offered online courses 22,190 online course sections 2 Course Sections by Term 25.6% Summer 33.4% Fall 6.1% Winter 34.9% Spring 43 campuses offered online programs 3 524 online programs 72 Open SUNY+ programs 13.9% of online programs 56,224 students took some, but not all online courses +3.5% change from Fall 2015 24,206 students took all online courses +5.4% change from Fall 2015 177,441 students took at least one online course in 2016-2017 +4% increase from 2015-16 FACULTY 4,055 faculty taught at least one course online in Fall 2016 +5% change from Fall 2015 2 Based on SIRIS Term Section Submissions for Summer 2016, Fall 2016, Winter 2017, Spring 2017. Statutory campuses not included. 3 Online programs data as of September 2017. See open.suny.edu for current listings. 3

GOALS: FACILITATE STRATEGIC GROWTH Align incentives, investments, and SUNY policy with the Completion Agenda to enable growth in online-enabled academic offerings in order to meet the demands of students and NYS employers. Support development of high impact enrollment marketing and strategic partnerships to increase enrollments and improve retention. Strategically invest in promoting innovation and collaboration across the System to advance Open SUNY 2.0 in support of the Completion Agenda. Strengthen our ability to assess, demonstrate, and communicate the impact of Open SUNY services and initiatives on the SUNY Excels Metrics and in support of campus online learning goals. FACULTY SUPPORTS Quotes from 2017 Campus Satisfaction Survey: I find the [Open SUNY] COTE Summit very informational and the networking with peers quite beneficial. It is always reassuring to find that you re not alone in the trials and tribulations experienced back home on your campus. There is never a shortage of advice and suggestions for solutions. I have personally availed myself to one of your certificate programs (ID), and found it extremely helpful. I have no doubt that your other programs are just as well designed. STUDENT SUPPORTS $716K Quotes from 2017 Campus Satisfaction Survey: Readiness is a critical indicator to student success and the SM tool allows our Concierge to work with students individually to get them ready for online education. The Concierge model was integral in our creating a concierge position at our college. The HelpDesk is a lifeline. They solve problems quickly and efficiently and are very courteous. Starfish facilitates communication between students and instructors and that is VERY important in the online environment. We are a small school and having SUNY run our help desk allows us to offer much higher quality support than we could provide on our own. awarded to campuses to support instructional innovation (IITG) 4

CAMPUS SUPPORTS Consequently, thousands of institutions must contact Open SUNY has been working with the Office of and work with as many as 54 states and territories, Academic Programs and the Office of Institutional and, sometimes, with multiple regulatory agencies Research and Data Analytics to align program in those states. That process is inefficient, costly, development needs with occupation projections and not effective in supporting access to high quality data. An online tool was created to help provosts, distance education throughout the country. NC-SARA deans, and other academic planning staff determine establishes a state-level reciprocity process that will which occupations are most in-demand in NYS support the nation in efforts to increase the educational and in the USA. attainment of its people. 4 Membership in NC-SARA is voluntary, but SUNY encourages membership for States and territories regulate higher education within any campus that plans to enroll out-of-state students their borders, with varying requirements for out-ofstate institutions that want to do business in the state. in online programs. As of August 2017, 19 campuses have joined. 5 29 active MOOC courses in Coursera 6 8,471 students completed MOOC courses in Coursera 22,870 student program inquiries submitted through Open SUNY website 7 7,974 enrollments in courses using Open Educational Resources (OER) across nine campuses who reported data for 2016-17. Degree Levels Sought by Students in Program Inquiries 16% Certificates 24% Associate s 30% Bachelor s 28% Master s 3% Doctorate 4 Quoted from SARA Overview and Update presentation from http://nc-sara.org/content/presentation. 5 See NC-SARA website for current listing of members. 6 Coursera data as of August 2017. 7 Navigator leads data as of August 1, 2017. 5

GOALS: CULTIVATE BEST PRACTICES Document, research, create, share, and endorse/ promote student, faculty, and campus service models to accelerate system-wide progress in achieving the Completion Agenda. STUDENT SUPPORTS Through SUNY s Early Alert s PIF project, campuses have received funding to expand the use of Hobsons Starfish across the system. The investment in an early alerts tool signals our commitment to identifying and helping students overcome barriers to success. Open SUNY facilitates a mentor model whereby seasoned user campuses mentor campuses newer to the tool. A rich community of practice is emerging around use cases, integration, communication plans, and faculty engagement. In 2016-17, there were 6 mentor campuses and 7 new instance campuses. Additional campuses are joining as mentors and new instance campuses in 2017-18. Early Alerts Project Cohort 1 Kickoff 90% of campuses with online programs have online orientation 8 85% of campuses with online programs offer online tutoring 7 68% of campuses with online programs use an online readiness assessment 7 10,495 Open SUNY HelpDesk tickets received from students this year 9 NUTN Award for OSCQR rubric 8 Missing data from Schenectady County Community College and Suffolk County Community College 9 HelpDesk data Aug 1, 2016 to July 31, 2017 6

FACULTY SUPPORTS CAMPUS SUPPORTS The aim of the Open SUNY Course Quality Review Institutional Readiness (IR) is a three-part campus (OSCQR) Rubric and Process is to assist online consulting engagement process designed to help instructional designers and online faculty improve the campus leadership teams assess their readiness quality and accessibility of their online courses, while for delivering quality online learning programs. It is also providing a system-wide approach to collect data facilitated by expert leaders in online learning, using a that informs faculty development, and supports large nationally recognized standard for quality. The process scale online course design review and refresh efforts culminates in the development of an Implementation systematically and consistently. Plan, written by key campus constituents and approved by the campus president. 55 SUNY campuses use the Open SUNY OSCQR rubric 10,228 Open SUNY HelpDesk tickets received from faculty/staff 11 291 course sections were refreshed using the OSCQR rubric 10 In Spring 2017, an impact study was conducted to determine how the Institutional Readiness process has impacted campuses and to ensure that the process is effectively meeting campus needs. The participants, from 12 campuses, noted that the process positively influenced changes in campus resource allocations, organization or governance structures, policies and procedures, technology infrastructure, and/or other campus planning processes. 50 campuses expressed interest, began, or completed the Institutional Readiness process 12 15 campuses have completed an Enrollment Planning Roundtable 13 12 campuses completed the Institutional Readiness process and submitted their Implementation Plan 12 Participants at the 2017 Open SUNY Summit 10 Based on the respondents from a campus survey. 11 HelpDesk data Aug 1, 2016 to July 31, 2017 12 Cumulative since the creation of the Institutional Readiness Process (as of August 2017) 13 Cumulative since the creation of the Enrollment Planning Roundtable (as of August 2017) 7

GOALS: BUILDING CAPABILITY Provide competency development pathways aligned with Completion Agenda priorities for faculty, staff, and campus leaders involved in online learning. Cultivate engaged communities of practice. STUDENT SUPPORTS Open SUNY staff facilitate a monthly meeting of the Concierge community during which topical issues are raised, and best practices and common and divergent approaches to support student success are discussed. The role of the concierge was developed to help online students navigate degree pathways, and find a place within the broader University community. Open SUNY Concierges play a hybrid role of advisor, mentor, and coach and become a single point of contact who help learners navigate campus culture and resources. The Concierge role is guided by principles and best practices documented in the Open SUNY Concierge Guide, the content for which is collaboratively written by campus partners and Open SUNY student supports professionals. Keynote speaker Stephen Downes and Alexandra Pickett at the 2017 Open SUNY Summit 142 concierges in the Concierge Community of Practice 50 campuses in the Concierge Community of Practice 2017 Cohort of Online Teaching Ambassadors 8

FACULTY SUPPORTS CAMPUS SUPPORTS In November 2016, the Online Learning Consortium Open SUNY sponsored a recently completed research (OLC) announced a partnership with Open SUNY, study by Shea and Bidjerano (2017), in which data from which was initially focused on providing access the SUNY community colleges was used to compare to Open SUNY s online instructional designer course and program level outcomes between students certificate program through the OLC Institute. In who have taken online courses and those who have addition, OLC members now have access to the not. See http://www.sunyresearch.net for the findings. OSCQR rubric, Open SUNY s course-level quality rubric, for reviewing and improving the instructional design and accessibility of online courses. This mutually beneficial partnership gives Open SUNY the opportunity to reach the larger OLC community of SUNY Learning Commons, the current platform used national and international online teaching and learning to support SUNY communities of practice, had 38 practitioners, and facilitates collaboration for the active groups and 499 users this year. As we transition continuous improvement of our tools and competency to Facebook Workplace as the new platform, these development offerings. numbers are expected to grow. 87% of campuses have used SLN/Open SUNY competency development materials to train faculty 15 140 attendees at the 2017 Open SUNY Summit 225 faculty/staff attended competency development trainings offered by Open SUNY this year 394 badges were issued by Open SUNY 20 campuses have the Open SUNY+ program designation Online Faculty % of Faculty Who Taught at Least One Online Course 14 SUMMER 2016 33.7% FALL 2016 11.7% WINTER 2017 62.0% SPRING 2017 12.6% 14 Data provided by SUNY Office of Institutional Research & Data Analytics. 15 Based on the respondents from a campus survey. 9

GOALS: Provide cost effective services to campuses and System Administration. Develop and manage relationships and contracts with service providers so that campuses can access services centrally with competitive pricing. The Open SUNY Support Services HelpDesk and Applications Services teams strive to continually assure that their services evolve to meet the needs of the SUNY community. Both units have reached out to internal and external sources to investigate what may be implemented in our service offerings to increase satisfaction and value to campuses and plan to make changes to the 2018-19 Service Level Agreements based on the feedback obtained through this process. Open SUNY is in the process of procuring a CRM solution in order to improve our communication with users who depend on our services. The implementation of a solution will refine our internal communication processes to ensure that our campus representatives receive consistent and appropriate information. In October 2016, Open SUNY hired an Impact Analyst to assess the effectiveness of Open SUNY services, oversee the data collection activities across Open SUNY, and determine how online learning impacts the SUNY Completion Agenda. As part of the Open SUNY s continuous improvement efforts, we launched the Campus Satisfaction Survey, which will be conducted annually going forward. The Campus Satisfaction Survey was emailed to a broad sample of Open SUNY constituents to understand how faculty, staff, and administrators in various campus roles perceive online learning support services and Open SUNY s current service offerings. PROMOTE FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY For the cost of approximately 10-25% of one FTE, participating campuses receive 76 hours a week of support coverage for students, faculty, and campus staff. For the cost of 1/10th of an FTE, campuses have access to a dedicated LMS administrator team. 37 campuses currently supported by the Open SUNY HelpDesk 33 campuses currently supported by Application Services Open SUNY has handshake agreements with four different proctoring services, and campuses who choose to use one of those services can save 10-30% on their contract. Through Open SUNY, all campuses with online programs have access to the SmarterMeasure online readiness assessment tool, and 21 campuses have campus-specific accounts within the Open SUNY license. Since 2014, over 4,000 students have completed the assessment using this tool. Through Open SUNY, all campuses with Open SUNY+ programs have access to NetTutor online tutoring service at no cost. Through the SUNY-wide contract with Hobsons, 25 campuses receive a 30% discount on the Starfish Early Alerts platform. 10

ONLINE LEARNING DETAILS Online Course Sections: Academic Year 2016-17 16 21,379 100% Community Colleges 10,761 50% Technology Colleges 1,562 7% Comprehensive Colleges 6,068 29% Doctoral Degree Granting Institutions 2,988 14% Remedial / Continuing Education 347 2% Lower Division 13,553 63% Upper Division 4,691 22% Graduate 2,788 13% Online Programs 17 524 100% UG Certificates 61 12% Associate s 263 50% Bachelor s 59 11% Advanced Certificate 64 12% Master s 76 15% Doctoral 1 <1% 50% Online 71 14% 75% Online 53 10% 100% Online 400 76% Fall 2016 Total Student Enrollment 18 100% No Online Courses 362,638 81.9% Some, but Not All Online Courses 56,224 12.7% All Online Courses 24,206 5.5% Fall 2016 Online Enrollment 18 Online Status by Some, but Not All All Online Demographics Online Courses Courses Undergraduate 94.3% 78.7% Graduate 5.7% 21.3% Full-Time 81.9% 24.8% Part-Time 18.1% 75.2% NYS Resident 92.4% 93.0% Non-NYS Resident 7.2% 7.0% Female 59.8% 68.0% Male 40.2% 32.0% White 60.7% 66.8% Non-White (including unknown) 39.3% 33.2% Traditional Age (<24) 73.1% 31.1% Adult Learners (25) 26.9% 69.0% Taught Some, Online Status by Faculty Taught All but Not All Rank: Fall 2016 19 Online Courses Online Courses Full Professor 23.9% 9.3% Associate Professor 21.6% 4.8% Assistant Professor 20.6% 8.1% Instructor / Lecturer 18.1% 50.8% Teaching Assistant 0.0% 0.2% Unknown 15.7% 26.8% 50% Online 71 14% 75% Online 53 10% 100% Online 395 76% open.suny.edu 16 Data from SIRIS Term Section Submissions for Summer 2016, Fall 2016, Winter 2017, Spring 2017. Statutory campuses not included. 17 Online programs data as of August 2017. See open.suny.edu for current listings. 18 Data from SIRIS Term Section Submissions. Only includes Home Institution Students. Statutory campuses not included. 19 Data provided by SUNY Office of Institutional Research and Data Analytics 11

2017 ANNUAL IMPACT REPORT open.suny.edu