Rutgers Division of Continuing Studies External Review Self-Study

Division of Continuing Studies EXTERNAL REVIEW SELF-STUDY

September 2018

Table of Contents Preface ............................................................................................................. i Charge Letter from the Committee .................................................................. 1 Charge Response

1. Scope of Responsibilities ............................................................. 8

2. Educational Technologies and Pedagogy ................................. 20

3. Credit-bearing Programs ............................................................. 42

4. Summer and Winter Sessions ..................................................... 52

5. Noncredit Programs ..................................................................... 66

6. Service to the University ............................................................. 80

7. Overall Performance Goals and Success .................................. 92

8. Leadership .................................................................................. 102

9. Funding Model ............................................................................ 110

10. Accessibility ............................................................................. 120

11. Planning .................................................................................... 126

12. Additional Comments/Supplemental Information ................. 132

• Supporting the Future of Lifelong Learning at Rutgers ...... 133

• DoCS Units ........................................................................ 134

• Overall Organizational History, Mission, Vision .................. 134

• Economies of Scale ........................................................... 135

• Partnerships ....................................................................... 136

• Facilities and Infrastructure: Benefits of New Building ........138

• Appendices ......................................................................... 140

PREFACE In adopting the Land Grant College Act of 1862, the United States embraced a bold and hopeful vision for higher education: college would no longer be reserved for a wealthy few. Dedicating money from the sale of public lands, the act directed each state to designate a college devoted to the “liberal and practical education of the industrial classes.” Embracing that land-grant mission transformed Rutgers from a tiny men’s college into one of the most diverse public research Universities in the nation. Today, that optimistic vision of college-for-all serves as both a guiding compass and powerful engine that drives the Division of Continuing Studies (DoCS) to embrace and support the dignity of all lifelong learners.

DoCS meets the educational and practical needs of learners ranging from ages four to over 100. It meets learners wherever they are in life, offering flexible courses on campus, online and in a hybrid format. DoCS embraces often-underserved populations of learners: returning college students completing undergraduate degrees, midcareer professionals retooling skills, government officials obtaining job-specific certifications, and retirees looking for enrichment classes and social connection.

Created in 1996 by a directive from University President Fran Lawrence, DoCS has continually supported Rutgers’ core academic missions of research, teaching and service. What began as an initiative to coordinate all the continuing and distance education at Rutgers has grown into a thriving and diverse division of 20 units and 150 employees providing lifelong learning education that spans preschool programs to continuing professional studies to retirement enrichment.

DoCS takes pride in the many ways it has become interwoven into the larger fabric of Rutgers, providing visible and behind-thescenes support for students, faculty and staff. DoCS generates significant revenue for the University, the vast majority of which is continually reinvested in the core academic Rutgers programs.

This reinvestment leads to the development of higher quality research, teaching and service as well as greater student support.

DoCS business acumen produces strong return on investment and reinvestment.

And it is done with outstanding customer service, vibrant partnership with faculty and staff, dedication to innovative technology, economies of scale and, most significantly, with cost savings by eliminating duplication of effort. DoCS is the living embodiment of the land-grant mission, a charge that Rutgers will always champion. DoCS looks forward to continuing to reach the most diverse populations, and to providing constant support to the Rutgers community.

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CHARGE LETTER FROM THE COMMITTEE

Charge Letter from the Committee Rutgers University is undertaking a review of its Division of Continuing Studies (DoCS) with the goal of determining its value and effectiveness for the University, its students and the broader community of learners seeking education and training.

DoCS maintains a broad portfolio. It provides support services for three different types of degree-seeking learners: (1) currently matriculated Rutgers students at the graduate and undergraduate level, (2) adult learners seeking credit-bearing courses to contribute to either bachelors or master’s degrees, and (3) fully online students who are enrolled in completely online degree programs or students who take individual online courses. DoCS does not offer credit-bearing courses—these are offered by the academic units. It does, however, offer noncredit, non-degree courses and programs.

DoCS is also responsible for pedagogical aspects of educational and instructional technology initiatives at Rutgers, including issues concerning selection and availability of learning management systems and related technologies and training in online education. These initiatives are relevant to both the resident undergraduate community and to distance learners.

DoCS also administers summer and winter sessions for the Rutgers-New Brunswick campus, as well as the evaluations of undergraduate and graduate teaching throughout the University.

Some of the activities of DoCS are administered by DoCS staff, while others are carried out in conjunction with various faculty or academic units.

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CHARGE LETTER FROM THE COMMITTEE

Elements of the Charge 1. Scope of Responsibilities DoCS has a wide variety of responsibilities and provides support services for a diverse community of learners, from currently matriculated undergraduates to distance learners, working professionals and retirees. A major focus of this review is the question of whether and how such a broad scope is the appropriate structure for serving the needs of the University (including matriculated students), as well as the diverse and broad communities of learners who engage with DoCS. Please comment on the strengths and weaknesses of this broad scope of responsibilities, including:

a) Would it be valuable to separate the activities that

concern matriculated undergraduates from those that

serve communities of learners outside Rutgers?

b) What are the benefits of combining the wide array of types of activities that DoCS handles within the same administrative unit?

c) Are there alternative structural arrangements, such as those that are used by other comparable institutions, that Rutgers should consider adopting?

d) How does DoCS integrate and collaborate with programs across Rutgers schools and units? Please assess the impact and effectiveness of collaborations.

2. Educational Technologies and Pedagogy DoCS has become the central unit for providing advice, training and pedagogical support for tools for educational technology for courses offered to Rutgers matriculated students as well as non-matriculated students. These tools are used by Rutgers faculty and instructors in developing hybrid and online courses, online programs and distance learning initiatives as well as enhancing education in traditional classroom environments.

While this model may be similar to that at some peer institutions, it differs from that found at others—for example, those institutions

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CHARGE LETTER FROM THE COMMITTEE that have centers dedicated to improving education where educational technology is one of the responsibilities of these centers. Please provide an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the model used at Rutgers, including issues such as:

a) How effectively are the educational needs of the diverse community of learners, including matriculated and non-matriculated students and distance learners, served by the current structure?

b) What is the adequacy of the avenues of

communication with other units of the University in

deciding what products, training and services to offer, including the ability of faculty to have input regarding these choices, and the processes used to make

final decisions?

c) What is the logic and rationale used to choose technological tools and options, and the processes used to assess and evaluate the choices, including

consideration of outcomes and consideration of how

well the choices address the needs and goals of students and teachers?

d) What are DoCS’ contributions to the diverse

community of learners (matriculated; distance; online)?

e) What are the tools, services or innovations that would be valuable but are not currently available?

3. Credit-bearing Programs DoCS does not offer credit-bearing courses but provides pedagogical support for such courses in collaboration with other Rutgers units.

a) Please evaluate the effectiveness of these collaborations and the strength and effectiveness of

the communication and coordination between DoCS and the representatives of the units.

4. Summer and Winter Sessions DoCS administers the summer and winter sessions for the Rutgers-New Brunswick campus only.

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CHARGE LETTER FROM THE COMMITTEE

a) Please comment on how well DoCS coordinates

and communicates with the academic departments in terms of ensuring the quality of course offerings.

b) What are the strengths and weaknesses of

administering summer and winter sessions by DoCS in contrast to by academic units?

c) How effective are DoCS’ procedures for recruiting and enrolling non-Rutgers students?

5. Noncredit Programs DoCS offers a variety of noncredit programs, including certificates, boot camps, programs for older learners and programs for specific professional groups (including but not limited to continuing education credits). Please evaluate these programs on the following issues:

a) Describe the goals, benchmarks and outcomes: recruitment, enrollment, methods used to evaluate learning outcomes, and other metrics of success, including employment of graduates.

b) What is the nature and effectiveness of process used

by DoCS or administrative oversight units at Rutgers to

identify and address areas of overlap between DoCS’ programs and related programs administered by other

units at Rutgers, such as specialized master’s

programs or other programs for adult learners? How

are areas of overlap identified and are overlaps addressed effectively so as to avoid unproductive competition, ensure that potential students are advised

appropriately and maximize benefits both to the

potential students as well as to the University? c) Describe the nature and effectiveness of processes used to decide on programs to offer, and to select

and evaluate instructors, including consultation with University faculty or administrators.

d) What processes are in place, and how effective are they, to set and enforce standards for academic quality?

e) What mechanisms exist to seek and incorporate

expertise of faculty in creating and conducting the programs or activities?

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CHARGE LETTER FROM THE COMMITTEE 6. Service to the University Please evaluate the nature and quality of DoCS’ service to the University for any major areas of its activities not covered by the above. a) Also include the processes in place for communicating

with faculty and administration to identify new areas of potential collaboration and service (e.g., areas involving Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences).

7. Overall Performance Goals and Success Given the specific performance goals of DoCS as set by the University and by DoCS, how successful has DoCS been at achieving the stated goals?

a) Please evaluate the procedures used by Rutgers to monitor and evaluate DoCS, including decisions about creation of programs, setting of costs and fees (outside and inside Rutgers), choosing instructional staff and evaluating outcomes?

b) What are the overall benefits to the University, its students and the broader community of learners?

8. Leadership Please comment on the effectiveness of DoCS’ leadership team and administrative structure.

9. Funding Model Please comment on the effectiveness of DoCS’ funding model, including procedures for monitoring fiscal soundness; identifying, realizing and evaluating new revenue-generating programs; cost to the University; and benefits to the University.

10. Accessibility How well is DoCS meeting accessibility goals and national standards (e.g., QualityMatters.org) for its programs and for the on-campus programs for which it provides support services?

11. Planning Please comment on DoCS’ long-range plans, as well as the

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CHARGE LETTER FROM THE COMMITTEE process for developing such plans, including the coordination between DoCS and other units of the University.

Additional Comments/Supplemental information Please add any other comments you may have on DoCS and its role in the University that are not covered by the above items.

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DIVISION OF CONTINUING STUDIES

1. Scope of Responsibilities

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SCOPE OF RESPONSIBILITIES DoCS has a wide variety of responsibilities and provides support services for a diverse community of learners, from currently matriculated undergraduates to distance learners, working professionals and retirees. A major focus of this review is the question of whether and how such a broad scope is the appropriate structure for serving the needs of the University (including matriculated students), as well as the diverse and broad communities of learners who engage with DoCS. Please comment on the strengths and weaknesses of this broad scope of responsibilities, including:

a) Would it be valuable to separate the activities that concern matriculated undergraduates from those that serve communities of learners outside Rutgers?

b) What are the benefits of combining the wide array of types of activities that DoCS handles within the same administrative unit?

c) Are there alternative structural arrangements, such as those that are used by other comparable institutions, that Rutgers should consider adopting? d) How does DoCS integrate and collaborate with programs across Rutgers schools and units? Please assess the impact and effectiveness of collaborations.

Driven and Trusted to Serve Lifelong Learners The phrase “tried and true� refers to something that has been used in the past and worked well and is now trusted. This is the embodiment of the Division of Continuing Studies, a partner in the Rutgers community that has provided outstanding service dedicated to the academic mission, all with integrity and commitment. Lifelong learning is a mission for the staff at DoCS, a higher calling to reach out to underserved populations and to inspire them on their path to knowledge. Moreover, DoCS was established intentionally by presidential action and its formation was strategic and purposeful. In addition to being the only University-wide unit with a lifelong learning focus that coordinates access to resources on all campuses and all Chancellor areas, and serves with a University-wide mission and mandate, DoCS is also a model of efficiency, operating with business acumen and constant oversight. The benefits of combining the wide array of activities that DoCS handles begin with economies of scale to provide cost-saving academic support services for faculty and students across the lifespan that is unmatched by

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SCOPE OF RESPONSIBILITIES any other unit at Rutgers. Additional benefits include market and entrepreneurial expertise that yields significant revenue generation for the University. DoCS is a “learner-centric” organization where most of the programmatic activity is selfsupporting and revenue-generating. For the investment, DoCS helps return over $210M for the University, over 85 percent of which goes back directly to the various schools and departments across Rutgers. Finally, the DoCS wide array of activities directly address several priorities in the University Strategic Plan.

Our scope is large because our mission is vast, and so is our dedication to the Rutgers community.

Would it be valuable to separate the activities that concern matriculated undergraduates from those that serve communities of learners outside Rutgers?

It would not be valuable to separate activities concerning matriculating undergraduates from other communities of learners for several reasons.

Services provided by DoCS to matriculating UGs benefit from the economies of scale and breadth of services, support, technologies and innovations that DoCS provides to all other learners across the lifespan. Absent these activities that are supported by DoCS, Rutgers University and matriculating undergraduates would not be well-served in a cost-effective manner. In short, there would be a significant financial investment required to duplicate the infrastructure that DoCS has created. Moreover, DoCS has long-term experience in serving these constituent groups and that expertise would need to be replicated.

Separating matriculating UGs from other lifelong learners is an artificial distinction and creates artificial barriers, especially in light of higher education demographic trends and increasing demand for cost efficiencies, greater use of coordinated instructional technologies and more innovation in instruction.

DoCS was created intentionally by an act of the University president in 1996 to serve students across the lifespan, especially in online courses and other distance education technologies. Increasingly, matriculating undergraduates have become a more significant share of the population of online learners served.

DoCS is able to serve matriculating UGs across the University and, especially at the off campus higher education centers, is able to coordinate programmatic offerings from all campuses so

10 “DoCS has been a terrific partner.

As a scholarly community built around service and social innovation, the Honors College has drawn on DoCS for major video production, summer program support, assessment, teacher training, and promotion help.

The DoCS team has been responsive, creative, and costeffective.”

- Matt Matsuda Academic Dean, New Brunswick Honors College, Professor of History

SCOPE OF RESPONSIBILITIES as to more effectively serve students.

The University Strategic Plan calls for prioritizing and integrating technology (p. 14), noting that the distance learning models supported by DoCS are being included as part of current academic offerings and will increasingly play a role with the changing demographics of undergraduate students. The Strategic Plan also calls for a more flexible and timely response to trends in the workforce and student demand (p. 15), which is one of the core competencies within DoCS. Both of these Strategic Plan priorities provide grounding and strong support for DoCS continuing to serve matriculating undergraduate students.

What are the benefits of combining the wide array of types of activities that DoCS handles within the same administrative unit?

DoCS was established intentionally by presidential action and its formation was strategic and purposeful. The benefits of combining the wide array of activities that DoCS handles are many, beginning with economies of scale in providing academic support services for faculty and students across the lifespan that is unmatched by any other unit at Rutgers. Additional benefits include market and entrepreneurial expertise that yields significant revenue generation for the University. Finally, the DoCS wide array of activities directly address several priorities in the University Strategic Plan.

DoCS is the only University-wide unit with a lifelong learning focus that coordinates access to resources on all campuses, to all Chancellor areas, and serves with a University-wide mission and mandate.

DoCS specifically addresses Strategic Priorities that are outlined in the University Strategic Plan (p. 35 and following). DoCS plays a key role in addressing the priority, Envision Tomorrow’s University, especially through the efforts of Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) and Continuing Education programs that engage with business communities (p. 36).

Another strategic priority that the DoCS wide array of activities supports is Effective and Efficient Infrastructure and Staff (p. 44).

A third strategic priority, Financial Resources Sufficient to Fund our Aspirations, is probably the best known historical attribute of DoCS. In short, the University invests in DoCS through cost-pool support at approximately $9M and for that investment, DoCS

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SCOPE OF RESPONSIBILITIES helps return over $210M for the University, over 85 percent of which goes back directly to the various schools and departments across the University. All of the other operational costs are supported by self-supporting activity. DoCS is also able to subsidize and underwrite activities that support the academic mission of the University that no other unit at Rutgers would support. For example, Rutgers Makerspace has no direct line of University funding and yet is supported by DoCS and serves over 1,500 students with nearly 4,000 visits each academic year, representing nearly every academic discipline. Students use Makerspace, for example, for capstone course projects, yet there is no tuition or fee support that flows to Makerspace related to this activity. There are numerous other examples that underscore the value that the large, robust, efficient and expert infrastructure at DoCS benefits the University.

Market-Responsive and Market-Driven DoCS is a “market-responsive” and “market-driven” organization where most of the programmatic activity is self-supporting and revenue-generating. DoCS brings that expertise to all areas of its wide array of activities. In fact, it was this market expertise and entrepreneurial predilection that President Fran Lawrence sought to leverage when he established DoCS. While he probably could not have envisioned the current state and future prognosis for higher education, the model that he established has served the University well. DoCS shares this market expertise and entrepreneurial guidance with all units throughout Rutgers who voluntarily choose to take advantage. DoCS does not conscript or command any units, schools or departments that are outside of DoCS to participate. However, as the testimonials in this document illustrate, many have found the expertise, guidance and service of DoCS to be invaluable for accomplishing their respective mission, generating additional revenue and developing new enrollments in programs.

DoCS has adopted new technologies and research tools to help the Division more effectively operate a successful business by using data to assess market demand and competition, determine pricing and program details, conduct extensive market research, develop detailed business plans and multi-modal marketing plans and improve its bottom line within a traditional higher education environment. Tools employed include: Google analytics, Google AdWords, Tableau, Salesforce CRM. These are some of the benefits of combining the wide array of types of activities that DoCS handles within the same

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SCOPE OF RESPONSIBILITIES administrative unit.

Are there alternative structural arrangements, such as those that are used by other comparable institutions, that Rutgers should consider adopting?

There are alternative structural arrangements, such as those used by other institutions, that Rutgers should consider. Most obvious and first and foremost is the establishment within DoCS of degree-granting capability to serve the non-traditional adult learner audience that is the mainstay of the majority of DoCS-originated programming. Many other institutions have established a degree-granting school to address the needs of non-traditional students. These schools are often called a School of Professional Studies or School of Continuing Studies. While most notable among private universities, public universities have begun establishing these schools too.

A dedicated school that serves non-traditional learners typically leverages the resources, expertise, services and infrastructure of a unit like DoCS to serve learners across the lifespan in credit and noncredit programming. These dedicated schools are market-facing, market-responsive, market-driven and revenue generating. Vice President Richard Novak participates in two groups of Continuing Education Research Deans where this model is predominant. Some of the schools in this select, invitation-only group include: Brown University, Harvard University, New York University, Northwestern University, University of Pennsylvania, and McGill University, all of which have these aforementioned schools in some form or fashion.

Several large public universities also belong to this group and many of them also have a degree granting unit, such as the University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin and Georgia Institute of Technology. Notably, Pennsylvania State University has a model similar to Rutgers where online and continuing education are under the same umbrella. Penn State World Campus, while much larger than Rutgers, serves a similar function to TLT in DoCS. University of Wisconsin Extension has been moved to the University system structure and includes continuing education, outreach, e-learning, business and entrepreneurship, broadcasting and media innovations and conference centers. While Rutgers does not have a University System office, there are central services that serve the entire University, such as DoCS. As noted above, the infrastructure of DoCS allows for a very efficient model to serve learners across the lifespan and,

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SCOPE OF RESPONSIBILITIES

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in the DoCS structure, across multiple units with dedicated missions and constituent groups. The other alternative structural arrangements that are used by other comparable institutions would include adding to the DoCS portfolio to take advantage of the existing infrastructure as opportunities for economies of scale and leveraging expertise. For example, UC Irvine Continuing Education has responsibility for Career Services. University of Wisconsin Extension has added competency-based education (CBE) on behalf of the University. These are but two examples of additions that could be considered for DoCS. There are others.

How does DoCS integrate and collaborate with programs across Rutgers schools and units? Please assess the impact and effectiveness of collaborations.

DoCS works with every one of the 30 schools and colleges at Rutgers University, across all Chancellor units, in a wide variety of ways. Sometimes, DoCS is simply a service unit, providing services, such as in online learning or video production. In other cases, DoCS lends its infrastructure to schools and colleges to support their programmatic activity. DoCS is able to use the economies of scale of its infrastructure to provide service at a price point that is far below market-rates and a fraction of what it would cost a school, college or Chancellor unit to replicate.

DoCS also has many collaborative programs with the degree granting schools and colleges, such as the Gifted and Talented initiative with the Graduate School of Education or the PreCollege Engineering Summer Camps that are developed and run collaboratively with the School of Engineering. Additional examples are provided elsewhere in this report. The impact and effectiveness of these collaborations can be seen in the numbers of students served, the greater extent of the University outreach, increased revenue opportunities for the University and leveraging of infrastructure across multiple programs for a cost-effective approach to new programming.

A second primary example of how DoCS integrates and collaborates with programs across Rutgers schools and units is the administration of the off campus higher education centers, part of Rutgers statewide initiative and service. Full details on this program are provided in section 3 (Credit-bearing Programs.)

Briefly stated, DoCS has been operating higher education centers for 20 years, beginning with Brookdale Community College. These are formal partnerships where Rutgers has a physical presence on select community college campuses and offers degree completion undergraduate education and selected masters. There are now 6 HECs, with the latest one just

“I doubt very much that we could be successful in offering quality education for offcampus students without the type of support provided

by DoCS. We look forward to continuing to work with them in the future.�

- Paula B. Voos Professor and Vice Chair

SCOPE OF RESPONSIBILITIES formed by a request by Rutgers Camden to DoCS to take over the administration of the Camden County College partnership.

DoCS provides full time staff, one stop services for students, represents all campuses and all degree completion programs and selected masters at locations. DoCS intentionally describes itself as the Switzerland model for higher education centers, serving as neutral territory where service to students comes first and students are protected from inter-campus bureaucracy and politics. The success of the administration of the HECs by DoCS was highlighted in the team report for Rutgers most recent Middle States re-accreditation visit. This is an integrated and collaborative model where all schools and colleges are invited to participate in any of the locations. DoCS relieves the academic units of the administrative burden of managing a remote location and remote students.

Economy of Scale and Partnership Across Rutgers A similar model exists in the online degree program area.

Details are provided in section 2 (Educational Technologies and Pedagogy.) DoCS, through TLT, works with all campuses and schools across the University. DoCS is able to leverage infrastructure and economies of scale to lower both the cost and burden of participation. DoCS also handles many central services that would be extremely difficult for individual schools and colleges, such as state authorization for degree-seeking students residing outside of NJ, ADA compliance through Universal Design that is built into online courses, technology pedagogical support and interfacing with Office of Information Technology (OIT) to represent academic needs of online, hybrid and technology supported instruction across the University.

Evidence of the impact and effectiveness of collaborations in the online area can be seen in the growth of online enrollments and degree programs. Online enrollment growth is at nearly 20 percent year over year. DoCS, through TLT, is supporting 95percent of all online course enrollments at Rutgers.

In addition to working in some way with all 30 schools and colleges across Rutgers, DoCS also integrates and collaborates with many major units at Rutgers. DoCS works closely with OIT, and the DoCS director of technology is a member of the OIT leadership planning group. VP Novak is a member of the International Advisory Committee (IAC) of Rutgers Global and DoCS collaborates with Rutgers Global on several programs, some of which are originated by DoCS and some are originated

by Rutgers Global. DoCS has a 20 year-long strong connection with Rutgers Libraries, originating in integrating library services

15 “As a leader of the largest administrative unit at the University, I was accustomed to developing programs on my own. I now work extensively with DoCS instead. I am saving money by working with an inhouse resource that knows the business and understands the culture.�

- Antonio Calcado, Executive Vice President of Strategic Planning and Operations and Chief Operating Officer of the University

SCOPE OF RESPONSIBILITIES for online students beginning in 1998. This collaboration has continued to this day and VP Novak has for many years served on the Academic Advisory Committee for the Rutgers Libraries.

That structure is being re-evaluated by the Rutgers Libraries and in the interim VP Novak maintains close contact with the Rutgers Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian.

Most recently, VP Novak has been appointed to the faculty advisory group for the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research and has been appointed to the steering committee of the new Rutgers Catalyst program, a Universitywide collaborative effort around aging and gerontology. DoCS has been working extremely closely with University Institutional Planning and Operations and VP Novak meets regularly with the Executive Vice President for Strategic Planning and Operations and Chief Operating Officer. The most recent major initiative that is engaging DoCS and IPO is the conversion of an existing University building into a Lifelong Learning Center that will be occupied by DoCS and will provide classrooms for many continuing education programs, a faculty “one stop” center for course support, training rooms for faculty instruction in educational technologies, and back office operations for DoCS. Leading University-wide Collaboration DoCS has led in University-wide collaboration in noncredit continuing education. VP Novak has chaired a Continuing Education Coordinating Council for 25 years with representatives from 40+ departments of continuing education across the University. This group has met continuously for 25 years from 6 to 10 times a year to better coordinate Rutgers efforts in continuing education. This is a voluntary association; VP Novak and DoCS have no jurisdiction over individual school continuing education efforts. Rather, this group has served to raise the needs and concerns of lifelong learners across the University, work collaboratively to find solutions to shared problems, such as parking, technology support, transcripts, financial aid, career services, and, on behalf of the group, VP Novak has been able to advocate on behalf of Continuing Education to University Administration.

Evidence for the effectiveness of this model can be found in the growth in voluntary adoptions of DoCS systems, the growth in the number of registrations that come through ANCOR, an online registration system managed by DoCS for continuing education.

DoCS has also been able to document the extent of continuing education activity across the University in what is termed a “modified decentralized system.” Without this work by DoCS,

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SCOPE OF RESPONSIBILITIES Rutgers University would have no idea how many CE programs, providers or participants exist. Through the work of DoCS, the University is able to verify over 200,000 enrollments each year in continuing education programs.

As noted above, the infrastructure that DoCS has developed over time, building upon the intentional and purposeful establishment by the University President, has enabled DoCS to be a solutions provider for all academic units across the University. As such, DoCS has developed conference planning services, program planning services, video production services with three price point levels, facility management for siting programs, and investment and management of marketing of all continuing education on behalf of the University through booths at major conventions, business showcases and print and radio advertising. DoCS has been intentionally outward facing on behalf of all lifelong learning at Rutgers, while maintaining a high degree of service to internal Rutgers units. Further evidence of the impact and effectiveness of this work is the continued growth in enrollments in Rutgers continuing education, increased brand recognition throughout the region and the increased adoption of the DoCS infrastructure services by those units that wish to begin continuing education without having to invest in and create an infrastructure.

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SCOPE OF RESPONSIBILITIES

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DIVISION OF CONTINUING STUDIES

2. Educational Technologies and Pedagogy

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EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGY DoCS has become the central unit for providing advice, training and both technical and pedagogical support for tools for educational technology for courses offered to Rutgers matriculated students as well as non-matriculated students.

These tools are used by Rutgers faculty and instructors in developing hybrid and online courses, online programs and distance learning initiatives as well as enhancing education in traditional classroom environments. While this model may be similar to those found at some peer institutions, it differs from, for example, those institutions that have centers dedicated to improving education where educational technology is one of their responsibilities. Please provide an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the model used at Rutgers, including issues such as (a) how effectively the educational needs of the diverse community of learners, including matriculated and non-matriculated students and distance learners, are served by the current structure; (b) the adequacy of the avenues of communication with other units of the University in deciding what products, training and services to offer, including the ability of faculty to have input to these choices, and the processes used to make final decisions; (c) the logic and rationale used to choose technological tools and options, and the processes used to assess and evaluate the choices, including consideration of outcomes and consideration of how well the choices address needs and goals of students and teachers; (d) DoCS’ contributions to the diverse community of learners (matriculated; distance; online); (e) the tools, services or innovations that would be valuable, but are not currently available.

Distance Learning & the Founding Charter of DoCS When the Division of Continuing Studies was established by presidential action in 1996, it was directed to provide leadership in two primary areas where Rutgers was underperforming in rapidly growing fields. First, DoCS (founded as the Division of Continuous Education and Outreach) was asked to coordinate noncredit continuing education. Second, DoCS was tasked with the role of leading, coordinating and expanding distance education activity across the University. Initially, this distance education activity included both classroom-based videoconferencing as well as online learning.

In both noncredit and distance education, DoCS was specifically asked to fill a leadership vacuum that was increasingly placing Rutgers at a competitive disadvantage with its AAU peers. DoCS’ role in noncredit education is covered in section 5 (Noncredit Programs.) This section examines the strategic role DoCS has

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“ I am always amazed at how helpful the group has been. On a real-time basis, the staff has been able to help me solve problems and even prevent problems I did not realize I would run into.”

- Bruce Ruck, Pharm.D., DABAT Faculty, New Jersey Poison Information and Education System

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGY served for more than 20 years at Rutgers as a learner-driven center of innovation and leadership in distance education.

Combining Academic & Administrative Organizational Models In terms of organizational structure, instructional technology and design at peer institutions, especially within the Big Ten, tends to be organized in one of two major categories:

•

Housed within the administrative/IT side of the University organization. Notable examples include Penn State University and University of Maryland University College.

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Reporting to an academic officer. Among these are Ohio State University and the University of Illinois.

Of those reporting to an academic officer, only the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning at Illinois is directly associated with a major online degree-granting unit (Illinois Online).

Through TLT and DoCS, Rutgers has chosen an organizational model that combines the advantages of each model.

•

To ensure academic leadership and alignment, DoCS reports to the University’s Chief Academic Officer, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Barbara Lee. In addition, TLT is led by Associate Vice President for Online Programs Antonius Bittmann who is a tenured faculty member and whose work at Rutgers includes the development of Mason Gross Online for the Mason Gross School of the Arts.

•

To promote administrative efficiency and innovation, TLT’s alignment within DoCS ensures distance learning is managed with both the insights of a user-driven, strategic business unit. Further, it is driven by the entrepreneurial instincts of an organization created specifically to deliver distance learning into the mainstream at Rutgers—and to ensure the needs of all nontraditional learners are clearly defined in the University’s focus.

TLT is purposefully not aligned with any individual academic department, school or college. Rather, like DoCS as a whole, it represents a central University resource with the mission to

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EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGY provide unbiased, evidence-based support for faculty, students and nontraditional learners across all Rutgers campuses. Any affiliation with a local academic unit would limit the Universitywide vision, mission and support role TLT provides. TLT is structured to provide rapid, responsive service to all academic units at Rutgers, assisting faculty in their primary roles as researchers and instructors.

Strengths of the Organizational Model Through TLT, DoCS provides a strategic, responsive and efficient administrative structure that addresses the diverse needs of both credit and noncredit learners. Because it is housed within DoCS, TLT delivers these unique insights that would not be available in another administrative home:

•

Academic leadership is supported by experienced, learner-focused support staff and administration with a University-wide mission. TLT is led by Associate Vice President for Online Programs Antonius Bittmann, a tenured faculty member who led the development of Mason Gross Online for the Mason Gross School of the Arts. In keeping with DoCS’ University-wide service mission, TLT is purposefully not aligned with any individual academic department, school or college.

Through DoCS, TLT reports directly to the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs.

•

There is a natural and consistent focus on the needs of nontraditional learners. Online learning was long considered a marginal, if not suspect, activity by many academic leaders across the nation. In contrast, online learning was one of two founding duties at DoCS, and serving nontraditional learners is the very heart of DoCS’ mission.

•

Innovation is a core competency and priority for DoCS. Nationwide, CE units serve as incubators where innovative programs, partnerships and technologies can be evaluated safely before they are considered for adoption by the wider University. This role as an “early adopter” is precisely why distance learning was assigned to DoCS more than 20 years ago. It has never wavered in its commitment to identify and evaluate new technologies and more effective distance learning solutions for the purpose of meeting pedagogical needs and more impactful teaching

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EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGY

and learning. Yet, DoCS and TLT never pursue technology for technology sake; researched and adopted technologies always respond to an educational need.

•

Proven business skills are employed at both the operational and strategic levels. At the University’s request, DoCS assumed management and re- engineered the operations of several CE units—the University Inn, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI-RU) and iTV Studio—to achieve financial selfsufficiency. DoCS has applied its negotiation and financial insights on multiple distance learning fronts to benefit faculty and staff, including:

P

Re-engineering the organization model for instructional design and support. DoCS conceived, proposed and implemented the development of a single, cohesive “one stop shop” for instructional and help desk support. This single “platform agnostic” team model reduced the inherent inefficiency of four redundant units organized to support different learning management systems.

P

Providing for an efficient mechanism to achieve, on behalf of the entire University, the complex, time-intensive function of ensuring compliance with the idiosyncratic distance learning rules and regulations imposed by the 50 states.

P

Providing free access to eCollege learning management system for students and instructors in hybrid and face-to-face classes. Starting in 1999, DoCS used its purchasing and negotiating power as an early adopter of the eCollege LMS to provide no-cost access to hundreds of thousands of students over more than 15 years.

•

Online learning and noncredit education enjoy natural, symbiotic advantages within DoCS. By connecting the University’s largest noncredit registration platform to its major learning management

24 “The level of service I have received since, and continue to receive, has been exceptional. All the team members have been competent, and super nice, going above and beyond what is required to help out.

I feel like I have my own personal help desk team. The TLT team is awesome!”

- Marta Pulley, Instructional Technology Specialist

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGY

systems, TLT has radically lowered barriers to continuing education students participating in distance learning. Both the need and the solution were identified because DoCS serves both audiences.

•

Administrative partnerships enable rapid response and low-cost (and no-cost) support for learning and development needs of Rutgers staff and faculty.

Mobilizing its staff on short notice, TLT was able to provide no-cost training to thousands of University employees on the use of new Cornerstone administrative software. DoCS’ instructional television arm, iTV Studio, has rallied countless times on short notice to support University-wide distance learning needs, from creation of the first Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to capturing President Barack Obama’s commencement address, the capstone of the University’s 250th anniversary celebration.

Weaknesses of the Organizational Model The weaknesses of the Rutgers organizational model for distance learning are the predictable and understandable outcomes of a leadership model that promotes voluntary adoption of best practices rather than dictating top-down, onesize-must-fit-all directives to faculty and students. The voluntary adoption model relies upon consensus solutions to build economies of scale over time. In this model, the demonstrated success of pluralities of “early adopters” lead to “early and late majorities” of users. Those majorities provide the large numbers of users that provide the economies of scale to continuously reduce the cost-per-user. Users adopt the solution because their peers have proven its success, not because of University dictates.

In a directive model, there is a possibility that those economies of scale might be achieved more quickly. Dictates can be implemented in months while the DoCS consensus model is more commonly built over a few years. However, Rutgers has a long—and sometimes loud—history of user friction associated with “monopoly” administrative systems that erodes support, confidence and cost-effectiveness of dictated solutions. Rutgers faculty and departments understandably cherish their freedom to manage the classroom experience as they see fit. At Rutgers, administrative solutions and organization structures that respect that freedom offer a more strategic long-run orientation than the potential short-term gain of more rapid implementation achieved

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EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGY by mandating solutions.

Like many other administrative support units at Rutgers, TLT faces a communication challenge. To ensure faculty and staff are not flooded with unsolicited administrative announcements, University leadership limits access to faculty and staff emails and distribution channels, such as Rutgers Today or the once-defunct but soon-to-be-resurrected Faculty and Staff Bulletin. Those restrictions constrain TLT’s ability to communicate continuously with both faculty and staff about innovations, best practices and support services. Notably, however, those communications barriers would not be overcome by making changes to the management structure of TLT. It requires a change in University communication policies.

Questions Raised by the Charge (a) how effectively the educational needs of the diverse community of learners, including matriculated and nonmatriculated students and distance learners, are served by the current structure; and (d) DoCS’ contributions to the diverse community of learners (matriculated; distance; online) DoCS itself does not offer any for-credit education. Rather, it supports the faculty who serve a wide range and variety of learner populations:

• Traditional residential students in for-credit and noncredit programs and courses

• Fully online degree students anywhere in the U.S., and abroad, many of them enrolled in “Rutgers Online,” and students enrolled in “singleton” fully online courses

•

•

Hybrid students (i.e., those enrolled in programs, courses and other activities that include both face-to-face and fully online instruction) Students across the University’s five different learning management systems (Canvas, Moodle, Sakai, Pearson LearningStudio/eCollege, and Coursera).

(The Blackboard population is supported by the Rutgers-Newark campus.)

• Traditional and non-traditional students seeking degrees or additional skills and credentials

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EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGY

•

Rutgers Statewide: students enrolled in Rutgers degree completion programs at currently six New Jersey Community Colleges (Brookdale Community College in Lincroft; Atlantic Cape Community College in Mays Landing; Mercer County Community College in West Windsor; County College of Morris in Randolph; Raritan Valley Community College in North Branch; and Camden County College in Blackwood).

• Training programs for Rutgers employees

•

Special online certificate program on how to teach effectively online. This four-course TLT program is available to participants (instructors and students) in and outside of Rutgers, with partial tuition remission granted to military veterans.

DoCS, and TLT in particular, is a significant resource for all faculty, students and staff using instructional technologies for educational or training purposes. Its 24/7/365 Help Desk is open to anyone at Rutgers. Similarly, TLT’s instructional design and multimedia production services are available to all Rutgers faculty interested in improving the quality of their online courses.

Faculty interested in gamification, badging, achievements and/ or increasing the student immersion experience can work with Game Research and Immersive Design (GRID) to add that to their courses.

Moreover, all incoming degree-seeking students complete online placement exams for math and English, and online tutorials for Academic Integrity, which are all offered on a TLT-administered learning management system (currently Sakai).

TLT’s Course/LMS Migration services are in increasing demand by faculty and administrators. As faculty are changing their LMS preferences, gravitating more and more toward Canvas as their LMS of choice, thousands of courses need to be migrated. The vast majority of these migrations is handled by TLT personnel in close collaboration with LMS vendors, which provide migration tools (e.g., Pearson and Canvas), and the faculty themselves.

As a consequence of Pearson’s sun setting of eCollege, vast amounts of historical eCollege course data needs to be archived.

The task of archiving course data has fallen to TLT as well; no other unit at Rutgers would have been equipped to take it on.

Furthermore, State Authorization Services are offered and fully funded by DoCS on behalf of the entire University. Working with

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EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGY

28

the compliance director at Pearson, DoCS ensures that Rutgers is fully authorized to provide online education to students in most U.S. states.

Considering the depth and breadth of services provided, DoCS is the only unit at Rutgers with the long-standing track record, expertise and resources needed to assist learners Universitywide and across the full spectrum. This effort requires a large organization with a broad range of staff specializations that is unique at Rutgers. While most support functions for students in for-credit education are carried out by other Rutgers offices (e.g., Admissions, Financial Aid, Student Accounting, etc.), DoCS, and specifically TLT, provides the full infrastructure supporting use of nearly all instructional technologies employed in online, hybrid and face-to-face programs. Moreover, fully online students pursuing a Rutgers degree from a distance—most of them enrolled in “Rutgers Online”—benefit from a wide range of technologies and Pearson’s comprehensive student services augmented by TLT’s own services.

Serving a Diverse Community of Learners The vast universe of noncredit education at Rutgers, which is coordinated by DoCS, benefits from services and technologies made available by DoCS to CE providers University-wide through the Continuing Education Coordinating Council (CECC) and TLT.

•

Most notably, and in direct response to support requests from CE units, TLT led the integration of the University’s largest noncredit enrollment system with the University’s major learning management systems. For noncredit students, this created a seamless, single-sign-on experience. It enabled students to register and pay online and then immediately enter and begin their online class.

•

TLT assists multiple CE units with their digital course needs on a voluntary, as-requested and fee-for-service basis. For example, the Rutgers Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT) recently asked TLT to create “NJTR-1,” a tutorial teaching police officers how to fill out the State of New Jersey Police Crash Investigation Report. Examples of noncredit instructional support is included in Appendix Sidebar “TLT Support of Noncredit and Nontraditional Learners.”

“In desperation one evening I contacted TLT... Teaching and Learning immediately offered their assistance and helped rescue the work I feared was lost. It is great knowing that such a program is always available to help with LMS and to offer suggestions to improve classroom pedagogy.”

- Ted Alter, PhD, Faculty, MSW

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGY

•

TLT shares best practices in noncredit programming each year at its June CECC meeting, where it also demonstrates innovative educational technology tools of high value to noncredit learners and instructors. In addition, the TLT’s annual TLT’s annual Online Learning Conference has become a go-to source of guidance and insights for CE course designers, developers and instructors.

• TLT and DoCS provide the physical space and personnel support to enable in-person proctoring as required by some online programs.

•

In addition to serving Rutgers faculty and students, TLT has recently made major contributions to University-wide noncredit staff training. Most notably, the instructional design team created a total of five fully online tutorials to help all Rutgers populations learn and navigate the University’s ambitious new Cornerstone system.

Challenges of Serving Diverse Learners at Rutgers The decentralized structure of noncredit education at Rutgers, where more than 40 CE units manage their own budgets and programs independently, creates natural challenges for serving nontraditional learners. In addition, the multitude of learning management systems continues to consume financial (especially technology licensing) and staffing resources that could be saved or more efficiently used in a single-LMS environment. Relatedly, the Blackboard community, however small (less than 10 percent of all Rutgers students using an LMS), essentially remains a self-contained entity. That presents a barrier to achieving full standardization of services University-wide.

For noncredit online programming, the LMS situation is even more confounding. The number of noncredit learning management systems at Rutgers is unknown. At this time, no centralized data exists that would shed light on the exact number of programs, courses, enrollments or technologies used. This is problematic not only for delivering a consistent “Rutgers Experience” but also for maintaining regulatory compliance, especially in regard to state authorization and accessibility. A mandate for a single LMS that includes noncredit programs would promote greater data transparency and address these problems. Similarly, Rutgers would benefit from a single Student Information System that accommodates all forms of learning,

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EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGY for-credit and noncredit. Aside from managing technology issues, a single all-encompassing SIS would help the University manage regulatory compliance and data reporting across all student populations. (b) the adequacy of the avenues of communication with other units of the University in deciding what products, training and services to offer, including the ability of faculty to have input to these choices, and the processes used to make final decisions.

From the inception of online learning in the 1990s, DoCS has engaged faculty input and solicited feedback from faculty and students to guide decision-making and performance improvement.

•

Prior to the selection of a learning management system in 1998, Continuous Education and Outreach (the predecessor of DoCS) established three Universitywide faculty committees to establish benchmarks for LMS features and other support requirements before Rutgers began offering online courses.

•

The extensive representative consultation process for the establishment of the Managed Program has been detailed in the sidebar. Once the Managed Program contract was signed and DoCS was charged with implementing the contract, weekly meetings with Pearson, facilitated by DoCS, were held with representatives of the major University offices, such as Registrar, Financial Aid, Student Accounting, and representatives of each of the schools that participated in the program. Once the Managed Program was well underway, beginning in year two, weekly meetings were changed to monthly meetings. Currently, there are monthly meetings of the program directors.

•

When DoCS was faced with choosing a replacement for eCollege, extensive consultations were done with faculty and administrators of Rutgers online programs and colleagues from peer institutions and other institutions around the country. Presentations were made by the leading vendors and recommendations were sought from faculty users of current technology.

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EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGY

•

Finally, all tech decisions that are implemented by DoCS are for voluntary adoption by faculty, and identification of technology solutions are usually the result of responding to faculty or school requests.

By way of example, the contract with Morneau Shepell for psychological counseling for students is the result of responding to a request by the Managed Program directors for such services and selection included their active involvement in the decisionmaking process.

TLT, as a central University resource, is very young, having been formally introduced to the University community in July 2017. TLT is in the process of developing new mechanisms and procedures to solicit input from faculty, students and administrators on all campuses regarding training, service and technology needs.

An effective model for such input has been established with the group of the Managed Program directors, who represent the 11 degree programs subsumed under Rutgers Online. This group of academic leaders and coordinators regularly meets with TLT to provide feedback on existing services and technologies, as well as exchange best practices in fully online education. As a next step, TLT welcomes the formation of several additional advisory bodies, both at the decanal and end-user levels, to provide input on products, training, and services. (c) the logic and rationale used to choose technological tools and options, and the processes used to assess and evaluate the choices, including consideration of outcomes and consideration of how well the choices address needs and goals of students and teachers: TLT employs a user-driven process that actively gathers information from faculty, students and staff to help guide technology decisions. To that end, TLT invests staff time to maintain multiple “listening channels” to identify needs, challenges and wants among current and potential users. Those same channels are then employed to advise TLT in evaluating and selecting the educational technologies to solve those issues.

Through this user-driven process, technology decisions are based on a wide variety of factors and inputs that include: • Structured opportunities for faculty input. As mentioned above, the Managed Program directors serve as an advisory group to “Rutgers Online” that is intimately involved in making decisions on

technologies, services and programs specific to

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EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGY

Rutgers Online. Two major recent improvements were made in direct response to the concerns and input of the Rutgers Online directors: 1) addressing the great delays in processing of financial aid documentation for fully online students, DoCS underwrote a new position of Senior Financial Aid Counselor dedicated exclusively to fully online students, and 2) when the directors pointed out a pressing need for more and better mental health counseling for the online student population, DoCS partnered with Morneau Shepell to offer these services to Rutgers online students (as well as 1,000 degree completion students under Rutgers Statewide and another 700 students in noncredit programs).

Representatives of TLT also participate in meetings of two SAS (Rutgers-New Brunswick) committees: the SAS Online Education Steering Committee and the SAS Online Faculty Forum. The SAS Online Education Steering Committee deliberates on policy questions, faculty compensation issues in online education and instructional technology options. And the SAS Online Faculty Forum discusses mainly pedagogical concerns.

• Formal surveys. Using Qualtrics or SurveyMonkey, TLT regularly solicits input from faculty University wide on their training needs and makes adjustments to training offerings based on the results of survey data. Most recently, TLT broadened the surveys to invite faculty input not only on training but also current and future technology needs.

• Recommendations of power users. An important source of actionable feedback, especially on instructional technologies, has been the group of

“power users”—schools, departments and instructors

making extensive use of a particular technology or tool (e.g., Mason Gross School of the Arts, School of Arts and Sciences, and School of Communication and Information). Having gained much practical

experience with their technologies, power users can provide detailed and valuable assessments of the

strengths and weaknesses of a specific technology.

They tend to be more aware of technology shortcomings and glitches, having tested a broader

range of technology applications. Such data, when passed on to the vendor, has on occasion led to

significant technology improvements.

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EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGY

33

• TLT product research and environmental scanning.

In addition to input by faculty, students and staff, TLT

conducts ongoing research to identify and test new technologies and stay abreast of the latest

developments (technology upgrades and newly emerging technologies), teaching trends and methodologies in (online) education. Featuring a staff

of currently 42 FTE, Teaching and Learning with Technology is the largest group of professionals

at Rutgers dedicated fully and exclusively to instructional technology and IT. Much like faculty attending academic conferences, members of TLT are

expected to attend (and sometimes present at) online education and instructional technology conferences

and training programs nation-wide as part of their ongoing commitment to professional development.

They are experts in their chosen field(s), and their

knowledge and expertise is invaluable to the academic mission of the University.

“Working with TLT has been a truly positive experience... the support that we received has been above and beyond. The TLT has very efficient instructional designers that work with you from start to finish. They follow Quality Matters, and ensure your online courses meet the highest of expectations. Thank you!!”

• Product demonstrations. Part of TLT’s ongoing

technology research is product demos of new technologies and those potentially useful for Rutgers faculty and students. Some of these demos are the

result of research findings, some come about by invitation of the vendor and others are conducted because faculty have signaled interest.

- Jennifer Tomesko DCN, RD, CNSC Assistant Professor Department of Clinical and Preventive Nutrition Sciences School of Health Professions

• Collaboration and coordination with OIT and University Procurement. When major new

technology acquisitions are considered, final decisions

to purchase are now made by OIT. Important preconditions on the path to entering a contractual

vendor agreement include OIT’s accessibility assessment of the technology and the successful

completion of a pilot program. As with the recent

examples of ProctorU and Credly, these pilots are

conducted with a selective group of faculty who

have shown interest in testing the products/services

under consideration and are willing to participate and provide feedback.

• Adoption patterns. When considering current and future technologies, adoption rates and cost effectiveness are also important considerations. TLT evaluates faculty and student adoption rates of technologies on an ongoing basis. Adoption rates— garnered from the number of faculty, courses and

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGY

enrollments making use of a particular technology— are a reflection of how useful a technology is to its user base. If usage is low, despite easy and sustained access to training, faculty and students are voting with their feet, as it were, and low usage data has to be weighed against licensing costs. In many cases, new technology options are superior to the ones that have fallen out of use, providing superior functionality and a better experience for faculty and students— sometimes even at lower cost. A case in point is CampusPack, once a third-party integration to add blogging capabilities to eCollege for faculty and students. In the transition from eCollege to Canvas, a decision was made to abandon CampusPack because Canvas provided far superior functionality and a much smoother user experience. Canvas obviated the need for CampusPack, which became an expense that was no longer justifiable.

At times, technology decisions must be made quickly to respond to or prevent a serious emergency. For example, COHLIT (one of three staff units to form TLT later that year) was notified by Pearson in January 2017 that the company was sun-setting its eCollege platform. Unofficially, company representatives issued stern warnings to COHLIT to migrate all eCollege users to a different learning management system as soon as possible due to an increasing likelihood of system failures in the near future.

It was a dire situation posing great risks and there was no time for extensive faculty consultations. The future functionality of “Rutgers Online,” which had all been designed on eCollege, and countless “singleton” eCollege courses were suddenly at stake, and a competitive solution had to be found quickly. Following an intensive comparative analysis of all major learning management systems, and in consultation with the Managed Program directors, Canvas emerged as the system most appropriate for “Rutgers Online.” As another emergency replacement, BigBlueButton was acquired after Adobe Connect began to show inexplicable data losses. This decision was made in consultation with stakeholders from all campuses. Lastly, two Moodle upgrades had to be performed to avert a rapidly worsening situation with the University’s obsolete Moodle installation. The first, which replaced the framework of the existing software version, occurred in December 2017. And the second was implemented on August 18, 2018, addressing the deteriorating application linking Moodle 2.8 with the Banner SIS by upgrading the Rutgers Moodle instance to the latest version (3.5).

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EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGY

The Story of “Rutgers Online” TLT supports a total of 31 fully online degree programs (15 on Canvas and 16 on Moodle). Of these, 11 fall under the “Rutgers Online” brand, which is the focus of this section.

Rutgers Online was proposed by DoCS and approved by President Barchi in 2012 as a strategic growth initiative to markedly increase online enrollments and attract out-ofstate students who otherwise would never receive a Rutgers education. Marketed nationally and on a continuous basis, Rutgers Online degrees are offered by schools in RutgersCamden, Rutgers-Newark and Rutgers-New Brunswick.

University-wide Review Process & Faculty Participation Rutgers Online was a strategic inflection point in the history of online learning at Rutgers. In the fall of 2011, the University administration made a strategic decision to pursue “growth to scale” for online degree programs across the University. To provide the multi-million-dollar risk capital as well as the scalable administrative capacity to jumpstart that growth, DoCS recommended initiating a publicprivate partnership model. Proposed during the tight budget years following the Great Recession, the model proposed engaging a third party, known as an Online Program Manager (OPM), to provide the marketing risk capital, regulatory approvals and instructional design support that Rutgers was unable to fund.

The University moved cautiously and deliberately before adopting the OPM model over an 18-month review process that produced a 29-page request for proposals (RFP) that was collectively reviewed by and with:

P the University chief academic officer, chief

financial officer, chief information officer and other

35 18

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGY top central administrative leadership

P advice and consent of a 15-member committee, representing all campuses of the University,

composed predominantly of faculty, many with academic administrator appointments. The committee contributed to the development of the 29-page RFP.

P University procurement and University counsel staff

P full and final approval of the president.

The 15-member committee unanimously recommended Pearson, a global education company, as the most qualified partner.

The University Office of Purchasing and the Office of General Counsel then negotiated a 7-year contract, with the possibility of two 1-year renewals. The RFP and contract negotiations proceeded during a presidential transition at Rutgers, and President Barchi signed the agreement as a strategic initiative of his first year in office in 2012.

Implementing Rutgers Online DoCS was assigned the responsibility of implementing the contract, known as the Pearson Managed Program (PMP.) In the model, all academic decision-making and control rest with the faculty, and departments elect to participate on a voluntary basis.

Participation is available equally to departments on all Rutgers campuses.

Under the agreement, Pearson shoulders all up-front costs for promoting online degree programs through extensive advertising and recruitment of students for the programs. Students are screened and pre-qualified before they are conveyed into the Rutgers admissions process. The OPM partner is paid through a share of the tuition revenue of students enrolled in the program.

TLT supports the schools, departments, faculty and students in this program through instructional design, helpdesk, various instructional technologies, faculty training and other support services.

The managed program concept has encountered critics within the faculty, and at times, there also has been criticism of Pearson’s performance by schools participating in the

36

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGY Pearson Managed Program. Some commentators have failed to recognize, or have chosen not to differentiate, between the presidential-level decision to pursue the partnership and the role of DoCS and TLT in implementing it. That misperception, which complicates efforts by of DoCS and TLT to grow the program, is amplified when faculty concerns about the performance of Pearson are conflated with DoCS’ role in managing the partnership.

Metrics of Success–Online Learners in all 50 states Through PMP, Rutgers currently serves a combined total of approximately 1,500 students (headcount), and the University instructs fully online students in all 50 states. Rutgers has added hundreds of new students who never come to campus and millions of dollars of new revenue from tuition from these new students. Unlike online courses taken by on-campus students, where there is no new revenue, fully online students who would otherwise never enroll in Rutgers represent a wholly new revenue stream. Also, national advertising has increased brand awareness of Rutgers and has generated growth in applications for on-campus degree programs as well. In addition, as a result of this initiative, Rutgers is authorized in every state as well, although not every online degree offered is authorized in every state.

A Crowded Market Grows Ever Tighter Since the PMP was implemented, the national market for online degree programs has become even more crowded and competitive. In this environment and during years of budget scarcity, a partner with the ability to make multi-million-dollar risk capital investments has enabled Rutgers to grow its online presence and markedly expand fully online degree programs.

Those risk capital investments include: market research, national marketing, enrollment coaching, executive coaching, instructional design, and clinical student placement services to state authorization. These services enable Rutgers faculty and staff to perform all academic functions. TLT, in turn, serves as the University’s point of contact for the day-to-day operations of Rutgers Online. Rutgers Online support from TLT (formerly called COHLIT) includes coordinating and facilitating all operational processes and procedures between the University and various campus offices, and providing technology and IT systems support, as well as Help Desk and instructional design services.

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EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGY DoCS Investments Build Rutgers Infrastructure for Online Student Support To accommodate growth of the program and increasing demands on some campus offices, DoCS has most recently underwritten a full-time Financial Aid position to serve fully online learners across all Rutgers campuses. In addition, DoCS is broadening the student support services for fully online students through an innovative contract with Morneau Shepell to offer mental health counseling to fully online students outside of New Jersey. This is a groundbreaking development that puts Rutgers Online at the forefront of online education providers nationwide. Due to federal licensure restrictions barring mental health coaching across state lines, these services were previously available to Rutgers students only through Rutgers CAPS via a referral network. This system was limited by staff capacity issues, likely leaving much of the existing needs for counseling unmet. With its national (and global) network of counselors, Morneau Shepell is able to help Rutgers students wherever they reside.

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EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGY (d) DoCS’ contributions to the diverse community of learners (matriculated; distance; online); The response to this question posed in item (d) is included above in a combined response to items (a) and (d). (e) the tools, services or innovations that would be valuable, but are not currently available.

DoCS and TLT leadership are eagerly awaiting a final decision by the “LMS Committee” to select a single LMS for all of Rutgers.

Among other benefits, a single LMS would:

• provide greater unity and consistency in online, hybrid, and face-to-face learning than can be achieved

through a mix of systems, however well administered

• reduce instructional technology and training costs, and

• contribute much to creating a more cohesive community of Rutgers learners and teachers.

Additionally, a single Student Information System capable of accommodating both for-credit and noncredit instruction would simplify many IT processes and procedures that are cumbersome in the current multi-system environment.

Helpful also would be automatic account creation and selfmanagement of student rosters in Canvas. Due to the limited number of FTEs allowed by contract with Canvas/Instructure (20,000 FTEs), automatic account creation is not possible at this time; all faculty interested in teaching on Canvas must request that their students be loaded into the system. Currently, the University has 67,000 FTEs according to IPEDS. If the University adopts Canvas as the single LMS, any future agreement with Instructure will include all FTEs, enabling the University to load all faculty and students by default.

For Further Reading Please see the Appendix section for a description of individual units within TLT, as well as partnerships with other Rutgers schools. The Appendix includes additional detail on:

• TLT organizational structure and service units

• University-wide services provided by TLT

39 “Working with TLT has been a truly positive experience... the support that we received has been above and beyond. The TLT has very efficient instructional designers that work with you from start to finish. They follow Quality Matters, and ensure your online courses meet the highest of expectations. Thank you!!”

- Jennifer Tomesko DCN, RD, CNSC Assistant Professor Department of Clinical and Preventive Nutrition Sciences School of Health Professions

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGY

• TLT Partnerships Across Rutgers

• Innovative technologies implemented by TLT

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DIVISION OF CONTINUING STUDIES

3. Credit-Bearing Programs

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CREDIT-BEARING PROGRAMS DoCS does not offer credit-bearing courses but provides pedagogical support for such courses in collaboration with other Rutgers units. Please evaluate the effectiveness of these collaborations, and the strength and effectiveness of the communication and coordination between DoCS and the representatives of the units.

Opening Doors to Rutgers Rutgers Statewide has made the dream of a Rutgers degree a reality for students who need flexibility in learning, a campus near their homes and evening classes that fit a work schedule.

Through Rutgers Statewide, the Division of Continuing Studies has opened access to Rutgers and the promise of a bachelor’s degree by extending a Rutgers education to six community college partner locations. This partnership reduces costs for students and increases access to a Rutgers education, as the over 1800 students who have graduated with a Rutgers degree through this program will tell you. This program has directly met a goal in the University’s Strategic Plan to “affirm our commitment to access as the keystone to providing an exceptional, affordable educational experience for students who have the potential to succeed.”

Rutgers Statewide, a partnership between Rutgers and state community colleges, vividly answers the call of the Strategic Plan to “engage in collaboration and encourage partnerships across all disciplines, both within the University and with public, private and academic institutions throughout the State and around the world.” Responding to a New Jersey State Department request for creative partnerships between four-year and twoyear institutions of higher education, Rutgers created Higher Education Centers (HECs) in partnership with six community colleges to delivery degree completion programs to areas of the state that do not have access to a state four-year college education. At the HECs, DoCS provides programming from 14 different schools located on the four University campuses.

The Division of Continuing Studies has facilitated the delivery of these credit-bearing courses from 1998 to the present. The proof of the success of the Rutgers Statewide program is found in the numbers:

• Over the course of the HECs existence, over 1,800 students have graduated with a Rutgers degree.

• The program has expanded from one to six statewide locations.

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CREDIT-BEARING PROGRAMS

•

During the 2017-18 academic year (Fall/Spring), the HECs hosted 260 credit courses and 36 programs, served over 1,000 students and graduated 271 students—155 with honors.

•

In addition, these outreach programs annually generate over $10 million tuition dollars for the participating schools—revenue that would otherwise be unrealized.

• The program has furthered partnerships between 14 schools at Rutgers and students at these sites.

In addition, DoCS has assisted with the development of multiple programs in the credit venue outside of the HECs:

•

Starting in the fall 2017 semester, the School of Communication and Information entered a partnership with the Division of Continuing Studies to utilize the Rutgers iTV Studio, a business unit within Continuing Studies. The Rutgers iTV Studio is the only fully HD on-campus television and broadcast production facility within the University. This partnership presents a unique opportunity to allow SCI students an access pathway to a professionally run and staffed production studio. SCI is provided access to a premiere, professional resource conveniently located for our New Brunswick and Piscataway students, and DoCS helps to support one of the University’s core missions of providing access to educational services through this agreement.

•

The Center for Executive Leadership in Government (CELG) was asked to participate in the launch of an Executive MPA (EMPA) with Rutgers-Camden in 2011. Initially serving the South Jersey student market, and now serving students throughout the state, Rutgers-Camden identified the opportunity to launch a graduate program for mid-career professionals.

Given DoCS expertise in launching and managing off-campus programs, the Rutgers-Camden Graduate School sought a partnership to enable a successful, financially stable and sustainable program. All of these goals have been met.

44 “My experience has always been positive. I have come to rely on DoCS as a partner at Rutgers that makes Raritan Valley Community College a better institution, making my students and my counties more successful.”

- Michael McDonough, Ph.D. President, Raritan Valley Community College

CREDIT-BEARING PROGRAMS

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Response to the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education Study: The Capacity of New Jersey’s Higher Education System, adopted March 1998 Rutgers’ first partnership with a community college resulted directly from the recommendations of the Capacity Study of New Jersey’s Higher Education System, as reported in 1997. The Higher Education Restructuring Act of 1994 mandated this study.

The New Jersey Commission of Higher Education formed a blueribbon task force to evaluate the capacity of the state’s higher education system.

The Commission concluded that there was no need to “establish, close or consolidate higher education institutions in New Jersey.”

But it did identify specific capacity issues to be addressed. “The northwest (e.g., Sussex and Warren counties), southeast (e.g., Atlantic and Cape May counties) and coastal (e.g., Monmouth and Ocean counties) regions were recognized as having limited access to postsecondary degree programs, and all were projected to have growth in the college-age population.”

The Commission strongly suggested the establishment of multi-institution centers by two- and four-year institutions. The study also concluded that distance learning and instructional technologies should play a critical role in addressing the capacity and access issues.

Rutgers responded to these recommendations through the following outreach efforts, establishing Higher Education Centers partnerships with these community colleges:

• Brookdale Community College (Fall 1998)

• Atlantic Cape Community College (Fall 2006)

• Raritan Valley Community College (Fall 2009)

• Mercer Community College (Fall 2013)

• Camden County College (Fall 2013)

• County College of Morris (Fall 2014)

Within DoCS, Rutgers Center for Off-campus Initiatives (Rutgers Statewide) manages baccalaureate degree completion programs at six community college partnership locations. Rutgers Statewide works closely with academic and administrative units at Rutgers-Camden, Rutgers-Newark and Rutgers-New Brunswick to facilitate the effective operation of these programs.

DoCS’ collaborative efforts ensure that students attending these

“Thousands of Brookdale Community College students over these past two decades have benefited greatly through this partnership. We are proud to say that, largely due to this partnership, Rutgers University continues to be the top choice of students who transfer after Brookdale.”

- David Stout, Ph.D. President, Brookdale Community College

CREDIT-BEARING PROGRAMS Statewide locations receive all the academic and student support that Rutgers University has to offer.

Academic Affairs The on-site staff communicate with academic departments on a regular basis, working effectively every semester to coordinate the operations of these departments at each off-campus location.

This coordination includes the multi-year planning of course sequences and scheduling to ensure that students are able to complete the required curriculum in a timely fashion. Statewide staff provide on-site academic advising and registration services to all off-campus students. With information gathered from that process, they assess student academic needs and will in turn request coursework specific to the major, minor and graduation requirements from participating academic units from RutgersCamden, Rutgers-Newark and Rutgers-New Brunswick.

Statewide staff also work with department chairs to resolve specific degree completion issues students may face for their particular major. Examples: * Statewide staff, with the approval of the Undergraduate Director of the Psychology program at Newark, regularly enter RutgersNew Brunswick’s online course, 01:830:101 General Psychology, as a course substitution in Degree Navigator for 21:830:101 Principles of Psychology for off-campus students who may need to complete that course (21:830:101 is not regularly available in an online format). Approval for similar substitutions are sought as needed. * Statewide staff worked with the Chair of the Political Science Program at Rutgers-Camden to ensure that 50:790:102 Political Issues, which was added to the curriculum but which has no transfer equivalent at the community colleges and cannot (by rule) be offered off-campus, will be offered online every September. * Staff at the Atlantic Cape location worked closely with the Associate Dean and Director of the RN to BS Nursing program for the School of Nursing-Camden to help transition their offcampus program into an RN to BS Express degree completion program. This required extensive planning, facilitated by Statewide and in coordination with the School of NursingCamden and Atlantic Cape Community College, to review curriculum changes at the 2-year and 4-year institution levels to guarantee a seamless transfer and degree completion process

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CREDIT-BEARING PROGRAMS for students. Statewide staff also collaborate with on-campus advising offices to strategically align advising initiatives and other related curriculum requirements.

Statewide senior staff and managers of academic programs serve as proxy for Dean’s offices from all three regional Universities and are often the first line of contact for students and faculty when issues of academic integrity or student disciplinary action are raised. Statewide staff ensure that issues are properly referred to the corresponding Dean’s office.

Administrative Services Statewide staff work regularly to bridge the distance between off-campus students and essential administrative offices from each regional campus—i.e. Financial Aid, Student Accounting or the Registrar. Contact information and procedures for each of these offices are included in all of our new student orientation programs. Additionally, Statewide staff help students connect with these offices as the need arises. For example, DoCS staff frequently work with students who have been dropped for nonpayment as they reach out to both Financial Aid and Student Accounting to rectify their term bill. Staff then reach out to the Registrar on students’ behalf to ensure that their courses are properly reinstated. Statewide staff regularly work with the Registrar’s office to generate special permission numbers, record exchange registration grades, process course scheduling changes, process declarations of major/minor, unit of registration changes, student record and transcript updates, etc.

Students who are completing their degrees at Statewide locations encounter the same challenges related to Student Accounting and Financial Aid that on-campus Rutgers students face during their time at the University. Statewide staff frequently communicate with Student Accounting to help resolve issues with students, including but not limited to, term bill corrections/ adjustments, financial holds and past due balances, assistance with refund requests, billing code issues and attendance acknowledgements. Statewide staff must also frequently contact the regional Financial Aid offices to shepherd students through a variety of issues they encounter when applying for aid. This includes, but is not limited to, requesting updates to student financial aid packaging status, resolving misunderstandings about additional documentation requested by the Financial Aid office, requesting searches for students who have applied for aid but are not appearing in the FAMS system, resolving issues with student aid that has been awarded but not applied to the

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CREDIT-BEARING PROGRAMS student’s term bill, updating scholarship information/status, and requesting follow-up information for summer financial aid application status.

Student Services Rutgers students at each Statewide location have full access to the same slate of resources available to all undergraduate students. This includes the University Library System, Learning Resource Centers, Career Centers, Disability Services, Military and Veterans Affairs, EOF, Identity and Access Management.

Rutgers Statewide staff work directly with these offices at each regional campus to effectively support students at all Rutgers Statewide locations. For example, this includes, but is not limited to:

• Arranging for the delivery of Rutgers Library books to off-campus locations.

•

Helping to connect students with the Rutgers Office of Disability Service. Statewide staff regularly work with ODS to deploy and enforce all accommodations, whether it is arranging for distraction-free testing environments, finding and hiring a notetaker or distributing digital voice recorders.

• Working to connect off-campus students to University Career Services.

• In the past we have arranged multi-day career seminars hosted by Rick Hearin.

• Staff have also worked the Camden Career Center

to create remote services specifically for off-campus

students. https://cc.camden.rutgers.edu/finding-jobs- internships-campus-students

• Coordinating with the Office of Military and Veterans Affairs to ensure students who are eligible for veterans’ benefits receive them.

• Conducting required semesterly advising meetings with EOF students and forwarding those reports to the regional EOF Offices.

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CREDIT-BEARING PROGRAMS Recruiting and Admissions Rutgers Statewide staff typically serve as the primary recruiters for the six locations and in doing so have an important relationship with the University Undergraduate Admissions Offices on all three regional campuses. Statewide staff continually follow up with Admissions concerning prospective students as they move through the various stages of enrollment, from applicant, to admit to admit-coming. Statewide staff also coordinate a number of Instant Decision Days at multiple off-campus locations throughout the year with the support of Undergraduate Admissions. As students complete the admissions process and enroll at one of the six Statewide locations, Rutgers Statewide staff interact with all the various offices that marshal students through the enrollment process.

This includes:

• the Office of New Student Programs-Camden, which

Statewide staff consistently communicate with to update student transfer credit evaluations.

• the School of Arts and Sciences Transfer Center, to coordinate updates for off-campus students from SAS-

NB

•

the University College Community in New Brunswick handles the transfer evaluations for students from both the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and the School of Management and Labor Relations

• the Office of Academic Services from Rutgers NCAS

• and the Office of Academic Programs and Services from the School of Criminal Justice.

Facilities While Rutgers Statewide leases space from our community college partners at select off-campus locations, the Division maintains its own 22,000-square-foot building on the Mays Landing campus of Atlantic Cape Community College. In order to successfully operate this facility for the benefit of Rutgers students, Statewide staff work directly with University Facilities in Camden and New Brunswick on a variety of issues, including but not limited to, HVAC difficulties, elevator maintenance, material data services reporting for on-site hazardous materials, and ADA

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CREDIT-BEARING PROGRAMS compliance as related to building standards and upgrades. This facility serves as the primary classroom instruction location for approximately 300 degree-completion students, it is the southern location for the MSW Intensive weekend program and it is also used for noncredit courses.

To effectively serve nearly 1,000 Rutgers students across New Jersey, Statewide staff continually work together on a daily basis with a significant number of Rutgers academic departments, administrative offices and student support services at RutgersCamden, Rutgers-Newark and Rutgers-New Brunswick.

Maintaining regular communication with on-campus units is essential to the success of Rutgers Statewide and each student enrolled in off-campus degree completion programs. Navigating the complexities of Rutgers University can often present a variety of challenges for new and continuing students and the dedicated staff of Rutgers Statewide work hard to ensure that any difficulties students may face are resolved by strategically collaborating with all the necessary members of the Rutgers community.

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DIVISION OF CONTINUING STUDIES

4. Summer and Winter Sessions

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SUMMER AND WINTER SESSIONS DoCS administers the summer and winter sessions for the New Brunswick campus only. Please comment on how well DoCS coordinates and communicates with the academic departments in terms of ensuring the quality of course offerings. What are the strengths and weaknesses of administering summer and winter sessions by DoCS in contrast to by academic units? How effective are DoCS’ procedures for recruiting and enrolling nonRutgers students?

Record Enrollments and Award-winning Programs The 2017 New Brunswick Summer Session once again posted record-high summer enrollments, generating record-high revenues to support the academic mission of the University. This is the result of assembling the right team, analyzing enrollment trends to identify the right course offerings, and implementing savvy marketing strategies and outstanding customer service.

With over 15,000 students and more than 27,000 course registrations, Summer Session has become a well-oiled machine of efficiency, cost savings and revenue generation for all participating Rutgers-New Brunswick schools. The DoCS New Brunswick Office of Summer and Winter Sessions provides the heavy lift of administering, marketing and publicizing the programs, managing instructor appointments and payroll, and coordinating with each school and academic department throughout the year, to assure a quality program and excellent experience for students. Schools at Rutgers reap the benefit of these programs without having to shoulder responsibility for the administration and marketing costs of managing their courses.

DoCS shares responsibility for the success of the summer and winter terms with the academic departments that choose the courses to offer and instructors to hire, thus maintaining excellent course quality. Schools gain from the economies of scale and operational expertise that DoCS provides, and the University benefits from DoCS’ market research, consistent marketing message and single point of contact. We are a good steward for the schools, helping to make Summer and Winter Sessions a time of vibrant learning and cost-effective revenue generation.

This structure has served us well: Our Summer Session was third among the Association for University Summer Sessions (AUSS) member institutions in student headcount and credits in 2017. The Winter Session is a smaller but fast-growing program, with over 1,900 students participated in Winter Session 2018.

Comment on how well DoCS coordinates and communicates with the academic departments in terms of ensuring the quality of course offerings.

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SUMMER AND WINTER SESSIONS

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Shared responsibility for quality. Because Rutgers uses a hybrid model for planning and conducting Summer and Winter Sessions, DoCS shares responsibility for their success with the academic departments. It is the academic departments that decide which courses to offer and which instructors to hire. The Office of Summer and Winter Sessions makes recommendations based on data analysis and market research, but ultimately the program content and quality are the province of the academic units. Our primary responsibilities include:

• market research

• data analytics relative to student preferences and graduation needs

• communication and coordination

• effective marketing

• accurate course information

• timely and accurate instructor payroll

• excellent customer service

• summer and winter student co-curricular, cultural, and recreational activities and events

• accurate and timely data reports

Communication and Coordination with Academic Units DoCS New Brunswick Office of Summer and Winter Sessions does an exemplary job of coordinating summer and winter programs through year-round communication with academic schools and departments. This includes: • Setting schedules: Prepare class meeting schedule options and set program start and end dates and

registration deadlines (in cooperation with Registrar, Scheduling, and Student Accounting).

• Seeking scholarship funding: Email school deans and business managers to provide reports on the

previous year’s scholarship awards, and request scholarship funds to support Rutgers students and pre-college

“Ms. Beasley’s office was invaluable as we worked to revamp and upgrade our Gifted and Talented programs.

Her office also provided many of our teachers the opportunity to experience valuable professional development activities that improved their professional skills.”

- John Anzul, Ed.D., Superintendent of Schools, Oradelle Public School District Oradelle, NJ

SUMMER AND WINTER SESSIONS

Summer Scholars registered for their units’ courses in the upcoming summer/winter term.

• Confirming minimum return on investment: Email

school deans and business managers to confirm their desired minimum return on investment for the

upcoming year and run financial pro forma analyses to determine course costs and break-even enrollment numbers.

• Soliciting course information: Email all academic departments, soliciting course proposals for the

coming Summer/Winter Session.

• Providing enrollment trend reports: Email

department-specific enrollment trend reports to academic departments to help guide program planning.

• Sending reminders: Follow up by email and phone to remind administrators to submit course proposals by deadlines.

• Proofing course information: Review summer/winter course proposals (start and end dates, meeting dates and times, number of contact hours) and reach out to department administrators to correct information before it is approved for uploading to the online University Schedule of Classes and Web Registration System (Webreg).

• Identifying offerings to highlight: Email department

administrators, asking for recommendations on new or special course offerings to highlight in digital and

print Winter/Summer Session marketing.

• Soliciting instructor information: Email departments

to ask administrators to enter summer/winter instructor names and proposed compensation into Departmental Interactive Course Editing System (DICES); • Sending reminders: Follow up by email and phone

to remind department administrators to enter summer/

winter instructor names and proposed compensation into DICES. • Reviewing/approving instructor compensation:

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SUMMER AND WINTER SESSIONS

Review instructor salary proposals to assure alignment with winter and summer instructors bargaining unit agreement (WSI - Winter/Summer Instructors); set and approve compensation levels.

• Hiring instructors: Send appointment letters (contracts) to instructors and enter into the payroll system.

• Managing high-enrollment course sections: Monitor registrations and reach out to academic departments to request additional sections or higher enrollment ceilings for courses nearing full enrollment.

• Providing instructor professional development workshops: Invite instructors directly and through their academic departments to attend best practices

workshops to prepare them for teaching in the

intensive, short summer and winter terms; conduct

face-to-face workshops before each summer and

winter term; and videotape workshops and make

them available online for instructors who cannot attend the live sessions.

• Providing workshops for departmental administrators:

Offer well-attended workshops on using DICES to

new and experienced academic department administrators periodically throughout the year.

• Managing low-enrolled courses: Reach out to

academic departments two to three weeks before

classes are set to begin to make decisions about how

to handle low-enrolled courses: cancel them, offer instructors reduced salaries or run sections at a

loss (at the department’s discretion); negotiate reduced

salaries as appropriate and in compliance with WSI bargaining unit agreement; and notify instructors and

students at least one week before classes begin.

• Preparing data reports: Analyze enrollment, cancellation and course offering trends over multi year periods and prepare department-specific reports for future planning.

• Providing an annual report: Prepare, print and

distribute a Rutgers-New Brunswick Summer and

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SUMMER AND WINTER SESSIONS Winter Sessions Annual Report to senior leadership, school deans and academic department chairs.

Please note: the above summarizes communication with academic schools and departments. Administering the summer and winter sessions also requires the Office of Summer and Winter Sessions to coordinate ongoing communication with:

• Administrative offices (including the Registrar’s Office, Student Accounting, Scheduling, Payroll, HCM, Financial Aid and Academic Labor Relations)

• Center for Teaching Advancement and Assessment Research (CTAAR) for course evaluations

• Winter and Summer Programs directors at Rutgers Newark and Rutgers-Camden

• The Winter and Summer instructors’ union

• Instructors and students

Further, DoCS New Brunswick Office of Summer and Winter Sessions plans, implements and evaluates integrated print, digital, social media and face-to-face marketing campaigns to communicate with prospective summer and winter session students, including our own matriculating graduate and undergraduate students.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of administering summer and winter sessions centrally by DoCS, as opposed to decentralized administration by the various participating academic units?

Strength: Hybrid structure. Summer and Winter Sessions programs are purposefully centralized administratively and decentralized programmatically, capitalizing on the broad administrative and marketing strengths of the DoCS New Brunswick Office of Summer and Winter Sessions and the discipline-specific expertise of the academic departments. Each does what it does best.

• Research. Academic research in the field supports this structure as more effective than either total decentralization or total centralization (see Heikel, 2000 and Kops & Lytle, 2010).

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SUMMER AND WINTER SESSIONS • Success. This structure has served us well: Our

Summer Session was third among the Association for University Summer Sessions (AUSS) member

institutions in student headcount and credits in 2017.

The structure and operational expertise of the New

Brunswick Office of Summer and Winter Sessions has

enabled the program to grow significantly without encumbrances to the University. Over the past ten

years (2007 to 2017), the Rutgers-New Brunswick

Summer Session grew by 18.36 percent in student headcount and 20.44 percent in course registrations.

Winter Session growth has been even more dramatic:

from 2008 to 2018, student headcount grew by 126.2 percent, and registration increased by 123.5 percent.

This did not happen by accident but only through

careful planning, review, analysis and assembling the

right team to carry out the work.

Our approach also yields a positive student experience: in our annual survey of 2017 Summer Session students, we found that 89.11 percent of respondents grade their summer learning experience at Rutgers as “excellent” or “good,” and that 94.33 percent would recommend the program to their friends. Winter Session students’ ratings were similar, with 88.46 percent of respondents rating their learning experience at Rutgers as “excellent” or “good,” and 91.93 percent recommending the program to their friends.

Strength: Centralizing administration. By centralizing administrative coordination of summer and winter sessions, we simplify coordination and messaging across units, benefit from economies of scale and provide specialized business and operational expertise. Benefits include: • Single point of contact. We coordinate programs

efficiently, with a single point of contact for

communication with academic and administrative colleagues and students.

• Specialized team. We maintain a specialized, collaborative and student-centered team that is alert to

student needs and market changes and well-versed in policy and operations:

º Providing excellent face-to-face, telephone

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SUMMER AND WINTER SESSIONS

59

and email customer service and problem- solving for students, instructors and academic and administrative colleagues; º

º

Staffed to appoint and process payroll for 1,300 summer instructors accurately and on time; Familiar with the Winter and Summer Session Instructors’ bargaining unit contract and compliant with agreement salary terms and union reporting requirements;

º Providing individualized reports on multi-year enrollment trends to assist departments in planning their summer programs; º

Conducting ongoing and regular data analysis by a data specialist to identify courses that students need as well as multi-year enrollment trends and return on investment of various promotional strategies;

º Developing and maintaining a robust social media marketing presence on behalf of the

entire summer and winter session offerings.

• Consistent messaging. We present a unified, consistent marketing message to internal and

external audiences: º

Provide a single, central website to help prospective summer students find information on courses, costs, deadlines, and student activities and events in one place;

º

Collaborate with the summer and winter sessions at Rutgers-Camden and RutgersNewark to design and implement common digital and print marketing messages;

º

Provide an annual report to brief University leadership and our academic partners on programming innovations, enrollment trends, and quality of student experience.

• Economy. We benefit from economies of scale by

“I do not think I can put into words the benefits of partnering with DoCS. Without the guidance and support of this team of individuals, our district’s vision and commitment to making gifted education a priority would not have come to fruition... the partnership transformed Gifted Education in our district. “ - Rita Route Supervisor of Student Enrichment & Advanced Learning Programs Paterson Public Schools

SUMMER AND WINTER SESSIONS

sharing costs across all New Brunswick units, as well as sharing select marketing costs across all three campuses.

Strength: Nesting summer and winter terms within DoCS. Excellent leadership, cost-effective centralized marketing, meeting planning and registration services, and technology support are just a few of the important benefits that DoCS provides the New Brunswick Office of Summer and Winter Sessions.

• Leadership. VP Richard Novak provides

forward-thinking, mission-driven, values-centric,

transparent leadership to the Division, with particular support for innovation, collegial collaboration and

professional development, both within DoCS and across the University.

• The centralized DoCS marketing unit provides: º Writers to prepare and distribute press releases to help promote our programs to the campus and larger communities; º

º

Photographers and videographers to capture still and video images of our various programs, events and activities to use in our annual reports and internal and external print and digital marketing; Social media support (tweets, Facebook posts, etc.) leading up to and during special programs, events and activities;

º Templates and proof-reading services to

assure that we are complying with Rutgers identity rules; º

Opportunities to share in discounted advertising “buys” across multiple offices, including bill boards, NPR radio advertisements and print inserts;

º

Shared access to and management of technology tools like enterprise-level Salesforce for customer relationship management and GoToMeeting for

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SUMMER AND WINTER SESSIONS

•

delivering on-demand marketing webinars.

The centralized IT at DoCS group provides selection, purchase, installation and trouble-shooting of computers, printers and other technology for our office, as well as training for our staff on new tools.

• The centralized DoCS Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) unit provides our office with: º

Excellent training and coaching to help our summer and winter instructors design online courses and implement technology tools in hybrid and face-to-face courses;

º

Training and coaching to assist our own team in using Canvas and other online learning tools to support the DoCS Mentoring Program managed through our office;

º New Media Center videographers for

recording YouTube commercials and

testimonials to promote our programs.

• The Rutgers iTV Studio produces and records: º

Professional-grade archival records of our high-profile events, including interviews with Janis Ian, Daniel Handler, Chris Bohjalian and other special guests;

º

Events, including the annual RutgersNew Brunswick Writers’ Conference, “An Evening with Stephen Sondheim,” and “An Evening with Daniel Handler” for archival, educational and marketing purposes.

• DoCS meeting planning resources we have come to rely upon include: º

The services of a professional meeting planner, Dana Bernstein, in researching alternative event sites and negotiating venue contracts;

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SUMMER AND WINTER SESSIONS º The noncredit ANCOR registration system and technical support; º

The provision of the Rutgers Continuing Education Center site for our Rutgers Gifted Education and Rutgers-New Brunswick Writers’ Conferences, with staff support for on-site management of events.

Weakness: Decentralization of scholarships and grants.

Under the Responsibility Center Management budget model, the DoCS New Brunswick Office of Summer and Winter Sessions no longer has authority to make important financial decisions that impact the student experience and program improvements: • Scholarships. Under the RCM budgeting model,

the DoCS Summer and Winter Sessions’ scholarship funding decisions are made by individual academic

units—and so scholarship awards are not available for all courses offered in the summer term, and no

awards are available in winter. º This results in a confusing and unfair situation for eligible students, negatively

impacting the student experience. º We recommend a return to centralized funding. In the interest of enhancing

the student experience and recruiting pre-college students and equalizing

eligible student access to financial support for

their studies, we recommend centralizing

scholarship decisions in the DoCS Office of

New Brunswick Summer and Winter Sessions.

•

Program Development Grants. Under RCM, the DoCS Summer and Winter Sessions Office is no longer authorized to fund program development or delivery model grants to summer/winter instructors or academic departments. This is a function that cannot be addressed adequately at the individual school level:

º

º

Schools vary in size and revenue reserves, so only “rich” departments might consider this kind of innovation.

Under RCM, schools tend to compete rather

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SUMMER AND WINTER SESSIONS than cooperate and are unlikely to fund grant opportunities for the greater good. Âş Thus, decentralization may to lead to a

reduction in innovation and new program development. Âş

We recommend a return to centralized funding for program development/delivery model grant programs to enhance program currency and quality.

How effective are DoCS’ procedures for recruiting and enrolling non-Rutgers students?

Campaigns. The DoCS New Brunswick Office of Summer and Winter Sessions plans and conducts cost-effective, integrated digital, print, social media and face-to-face marketing campaigns targeting prospective summer and winter students, assessing impact and adjusting campaigns on an ongoing basis. We find that these campaigns are very successful in recruiting visiting students for our summer term and pre-college students for eventual matriculation at Rutgers.

Visiting Student Enrollment. In Summer 2017, 1,215 visiting students enrolled in Rutgers-New Brunswick summer courses, taking a total of 1,949 courses and earning 5,719.5 credits. By contrast, Winter 2018 visiting student registration is lower, with 53 visiting students registered for 53 courses, for a total of 158 credits. The smaller size of the visiting student population in winter is due to the variation in winter break schedules across universities: students at institutions with shorter winter breaks are not available to participate in our winter term. Credits per student are lower in winter because students are restricted to just one course of no more than 3 credits in the short winter term.

Taken together, these winter and summer visiting students represent a tuition revenue stream of nearly $2.2 million annually.

Recruiting Pre-College Students. In Summer 2018, 116 pre-college students took academic credits alongside college students through the DoCS New Brunswick Summer Scholars Program. We have found that over 26 percent of Summer Scholars who participated in 2014 and 2015 subsequently matriculated at Rutgers.

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SUMMER AND WINTER SESSIONS Summer Academies. The DoCS Office of Summer and Winter Sessions also conducts one-week noncredit residential summer academies in pre-engineering and leadership for high school students ages 16-18. Of the 80 pre-engineering students who participated in this program in Summers 2016 and 2017, 59 percent (47) applied and 36 percent (31) were admitted to Rutgers.

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DIVISION OF CONTINUING STUDIES

5. Non-Credit Programs

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NON-CREDIT PROGRAMS

67

DoCS offers a variety of noncredit programs, including certificates, boot camps, programs for older learners and programs for specific professional groups (including but not limited to continuing education credits). Please evaluate these programs on the following issues:

a) Goals, benchmarks, and outcomes: recruitment, enrollment, methods used to evaluate learning outcomes and other metrics of success, including employment of graduates. b) Nature and effectiveness of process used by DoCS or administrative oversight units at Rutgers to identify and address areas of overlap between DoCS’ programs and related programs administered by other units at Rutgers, such as specialized master’s programs or other programs for adult learners. How are areas of overlap identified and are overlaps addressed effectively so as to avoid unproductive competition, ensure that potential students are advised appropriately and maximize benefits both to the potential students as well as to the University? c) Nature and effectiveness of processes used to decide on programs to offer, and to select and evaluate instructors, including consultation with University faculty or administrators. d) What processes are in place, and how effective are they, to set and enforce standards for academic quality? e) What mechanisms exist to seek and incorporate expertise of faculty in creating and conducting the programs or activities?

DoCS Unique Noncredit Leadership Role Noncredit programs: DoCS offers a variety of noncredit programs, including certificates, boot camps, programs for older learners, programs for specific professional groups (including but not limited to continuing education credits).

Along with more than 40 continuing education units at Rutgers, DoCS offers a variety of noncredit programs. Unlike any other CE unit at Rutgers, however, DoCS serves a unique

“DoCS has built a sense of community for all continuing education programs at Rutgers. DoCS facilitates the opportunity for continuing education programs to learn from each other and identify how we can better serve our audiences.”

- Mitchel A. Rosen, PhD Director, Center for Public Health Workforce Development, Rutgers School of Public Health

NON-CREDIT PROGRAMS and strategic University-wide leadership role. Established by a presidential initiative in 1996, it is the only organization at Rutgers charged with coordinating the activity of those disparate CE units to provide a unified voice and direction for lifelong learners and the faculty and staff who serve them. The charge to the CAPR review team includes only DoCS’ role as one of 40 providers; it omits that University-wide leadership role which turns out to be much more significant in terms of the overall picture of Rutgers Continuing Education.

Filling a Leadership Vacuum Providing University-wide CE leadership was a primary driver for the founding of DoCS in 1996. Founded as the Division of Continuous Education and Outreach (DCEO), it was specifically tasked with filling a leadership vacuum that had been inadvertently created when Rutgers disbanded its University Extension Division in 1982. The University Extension Division (a wholly separate entity from the 104-year-old land-grant Cooperative Extension unit that continues to operate today at Rutgers) had provided state-funded faculty and administrative positions dedicated to noncredit continuing education through a highly centralized model. The University’s 1982 reorganization, however, eliminated that subsidized CE funding model. Instead, mandating that noncredit CE become financially self-supporting, it discontinued state-funding for CE faculty and eliminated both the Division and its administrative staff.

That change produced costly unintended consequences. Without University-wide coordination, each individual CE began operating wholly independently—without any thought to sharing services or aligning content. For example, as CE units began computerizing their operations, units routinely were duplicating systems and services, literally wasting tens of thousands of licensing dollars.

DoCS was created, in part, to help fill that leadership void, and it assumed two strategic and complementary roles to advance the mission and reach of lifelong learning at Rutgers.

Modified Decentralization Structure First, it conceived and founded the Continuing Education Coordinating Council (CECC) to provide a “modified decentralized” administrative structure to support, coordinate and document the activities of more than 40 independent CE units around the University. In this role, DoCS provides an open and voluntary forum to address the common needs of units serving nontraditional learners. Through the CECC, DoCS also takes

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NON-CREDIT PROGRAMS a leadership role in reducing wasteful duplication of services.

To that end, DoCS provides CECC units voluntary access to centralized administrative services, systems and solutions.

More than 30 CECC units, for example, choose to employ a DoCS-managed noncredit registration platform rather than pay licensing, maintenance and support fees for their own systems.

This “modified decentralized” structure provides the economiesof-scale and cost-efficiency of centralization without coercing units to use mandated systems against their will.

Second, DoCS develops and delivers noncredit programs and services to audiences not served by other units. DoCS’ two largest programs, for example—the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI-RU), which serves learners over the age of 50, and the Center for Government Services, which provides statemandated training for local government offices—became part of DoCS precisely because no CE unit or school was willing to shoulder the risk of managing a financially self-supporting CE program for those audiences. Where gaps are identified in subject areas or audiences, DoCS offers a targeted selection of noncredit courses, including intensive programs that serve the unemployed, career changers and career advancers. The second function—as a direct provider of CE programming—is the only role identified in the charge to the committee, which states: “DoCS offers a variety of noncredit programs...”

In both its role in coordinating University-wide CE activity and as a direct provider of CE programs, DoCS serves learners across their lifespan, and it is the only unit at Rutgers dedicated by mission to serving lifelong learning and serving all campuses of the University. These programs and audiences served are highly varied. On a self-supporting basis, they reach children as young as 4 in pre-school reading programs and as old as 100 in its Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

a) Goals, Benchmarks and Outcomes: recruiting, enrollment, evaluating learning outcomes and other metrics of success, including employment of graduates º Recruiting & Enrollment: DoCS employs a learner-centric model for program recruiting and development. Programs are developed in response to articulated needs of learners and based upon market research provided

by UPCEA and other educational market research companies, such as Eduventures,

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EAB, Hanover Research and others. In addition to its annual participation in UPCEA’s Marketing and Enrollment Management Benchmarking and Consulting Service, DoCS also has employed—and has shared with CECC members—best practices from the Educational Advisory Board (EAB), Eduventures and Hanover Research. To stay current on stateof-the-art strategies for recruitment and enrollment, DoCS participates actively in the development and documentation of best practices through the Hallmarks of Excellence from UPCEA, and its marketing staff participate in the content development and planning of the Marketing Enrollment and Management Seminar (MEMS) Conference, the largest annual professional development event for CE enrollment and marketing practitioners.

º Learning Outcomes: For its noncredit programs, DoCS employs assessment and evaluation

strategies that align with the process managed by the Center for Teaching Advancement and Assessment Research (CTAAR) at Rutgers, a unit of DoCS. With information collected directly from participants, the assessments include both quantitative and qualitative data about program effectiveness in meeting learning objectives, instructional quality and support services. Program coordinators in DoCS may choose to employ a standardized form, but many of them elect to customize

assessment forms to better match the specific needs of individual programs and audiences.

Examples of both standardized and customized evaluation forms are attached. Results from the evaluation process are used to inform program

improvement and program design modification. º Employment of Graduates: For many CE programs and students, employment of graduates is not a relevant metric of success.

Here’s why: the vast majority of participants in professional development CE programs already are employed. In fact, their registration fees are typically paid by their employers as an

investment in talent development. For two other

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large segments of CE learners—K-12 students in enrichment classes and participants age 50 and older in Osher Lifelong Learning Institute leisure study—employment rates are also not relevant.

º In contrast, employment metrics are a more meaningful outcome metric for students served

by Workforce Development (WFD) unit within the Center for Continuing Professional Development at DoCS. The WFD unit serves

approximately 420 participants who enroll

with funding provided by the NJ Department

of Labor to assist unemployed workers retool their skills by obtaining nationally

recognized noncredit certifications. b) Nature and effectiveness of process used by DoCS or administrative oversight units at Rutgers to identify and address areas of overlap between DoCS’ programs and related programs administered by other units at Rutgers, such as specialized master’s programs or other programs for adult learners. How are areas of overlap identified and are overlaps addressed effectively so as to avoid unproductive competition, ensure that potential students are advised appropriately, and maximize benefits both to the potential students as well as to the University?

Reducing Duplication through Coordination & Cooperation For the specialized master’s program identified in the charge, DoCS provides operational and administrative support only.

Academic decisions for that program rest with the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs.

To reduce duplication in noncredit programming, DoCS created the Continuing Education Coordinating Council (CECC) as an open and voluntary forum to identify, discuss and resolve areas of potential overlap and competition among the more than 40 CE units. To quantify the scope and volume of noncredit programming, DoCS implemented and manages the only University-wide system for reporting for noncredit course activity.

That reporting documents more than 7,100 programs serving more than 84,600 individuals who accounted for more than 188,000 registrations in noncredit programs in 2017-18.

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NON-CREDIT PROGRAMS In the normal course of operations, independent CE units tend to “stay in their lanes” as they focus program development on core areas of competence and for audiences traditionally served.

The School of Social Work’s Office of Continuing Education 400 programs each year rarely overlap, for example, with content offered by the School of Dentistry or the Center for Government Services. Not surprisingly, however, with 7,100 programs offered by more than 40 units, boundaries between “lanes” sometimes do become blurred. For example, for nearly 70 years, DoCS’ Center for Government Services (CGS) has offered noncredit certification courses for local government officials, including public works directors. Yet, many of those same public works directors also complete a separate Recycling Certification offered

by Office of Continuing Professional Education (OCPE) based at the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station as well as Highway and Traffic Management certificate programs offered by the Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Technology (CAIT) based at the School of Engineering. In each of those cases, those CE units developed specific program content that were natural extensions of CGS’s certification.

c) Nature and effectiveness of processes used to decide on programs to offer, and to select and evaluate instructors, including consultation with University faculty or administrators.

Modified Decentralization in Program Planning In keeping with the intent of the modified decentralized organizational structure of the CECC, neither DoCS nor any other central authority at Rutgers is empowered to grant “monopoly status” to any single CE unit. For that reason, despite 70 years of history serving municipal government employees, in the modified decentralized model, CGS lacks the authority to prevent other units from developing specific content to serve them as well. In this case, CGS leadership saw the additional certificate programs offered by OCPE and CAIT as sufficiently complementary rather than duplicative, so they did not oppose their development.

Those lanes become even less clear with leadership, management and communication topics that cut across every segment of the workforce. In these cases, multiple CE units offer courses in leadership, management and supervision.

They typically differentiate programs by featuring content and applications that have the highest value and relevance to

72 “As public officials, we all know the impact of the Center for Government Services. I don’t have to sell it to anybody because its reputation speaks for itself.”

- John McCormac Mayor of Woodbridge Township

NON-CREDIT PROGRAMS their core audiences. Yet, the modified decentralized model recognizes that this type of content overlap is a natural and predictable outcome of CE units operating independently to serve their audiences.

In a limited number of cases, CE units will compete directly against each other. To resolve these cases productively, DoCS uses the open and voluntary forum of the CECC to seek cooperation rather than competition. It considers these questions:

1. Which unit delivered the program first? Intentional

duplication of an existing program offered by another CE unit is actively discouraged, although DoCS has no authority to prohibit it. In these cases, intended

delivery of a program is assigned less weight than programs that already have been developed, promoted and delivered.

2. Does a new and duplicative program target either a topic traditionally served by another CE unit or content considered a core competence of another

unit? That unit with the relevant program history and

tradition is typically assigned a higher weight in these cases.

3. Is there an opportunity for cooperation between

the two units that can produce a more attractive

outcome for both? For example, can the program content of one CE unit be promoted at little or no cost to the audience of the competing CE unit to enable both?

The CECC is the chief vehicle employed to identify areas for both program growth—and to avoid overlap. Through the CECC, DoCS shares insights about CE market needs and opportunities.

Emerging trends in CE markets, demographics and programs are covered as the first agenda item of every CECC meeting, and one meeting each year is devoted to guest presentations

by CE market research experts. To provide a structured method for identifying and quantifying areas of program opportunity, the CECC presented and shared a Portfolio Analysis tool for use by all CECC members.

Ensuring Proper Advisement of Students & Promoting CE Success Stories

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NON-CREDIT PROGRAMS As a tangible service made available at no cost to CECC units and done on behalf of all CE at Rutgers, DoCS maintains a continuing education call center and routes more than 1,800 phone and web-based inquiries per year to CE units. DoCS also promotes events and news of CE units through its Lifelong Learning website and its Twitter and Facebook social media streams. It produced a business-oriented brochure featuring notable CE success stories and descriptions of programs and services provided by each CE unit. To benefit both students and the University, DoCS has coordinated actively with the leadership of University Communication and Media (UCM) to highlight success stories of CE instructors and students as well as the CE units that support them. DoCS represents all CE units at various business and career fairs. Finally, DoCS assumes the costs of providing a major presence at the two major conventions held in New Jersey each year: the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) and the New Jersey League of Municipalities (NJLOM).

These two events draw tens of thousands of participants and thousands visit the Rutgers CE booth where print and digital information is made available on hundreds of CE programs offered at Rutgers.

d) What processes are in place, and how effective are they, to set and enforce standards for academic quality?

e) What mechanisms exist to seek and incorporate expertise of faculty in creating and conducting the programs or activities?

As part of its effort to promote consistent quality in Universitywide CE programming, DoCS manages the University’s primary unit for assessment of instructional effectiveness and outcomes, the Center for Teaching Advancement and Assessment Research (CTAAR). To promote voluntary adoption of University best practices for assessment, CTAAR director Gary Gigliotti has shared his department’s assessment tools and insights with CECC members. To promote sharing of best assessment practices among and within individual CE units, DoCS has collected and distributed evaluation forms from CECC members.

For every noncredit CE program it delivers, DoCS employs a structured process to ensure it develops and delivers quality programs and services across all its noncredit CE operations.

Modeled upon the International Association of Continuing Education and Training (IACET) process and performance

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NON-CREDIT PROGRAMS metrics, it includes eight interdependent factors designed to provide consistent quality in program development, instruction and outcomes. The variables are organized into three broad categories: administrative structure and organization; program planning and development; and evaluation and assessment.

Because quality assurance is both a continuous and iterative process, the variables are naturally interdependent. For example, the needs assessment research informs both the program development and evaluation criteria, and evaluation data informs the next round of needs assessment and program development.

1. Organizational Focus on Lifelong Learning 2. Administrative Systems & Support 3. Needs Identification 4. Learning Outcomes 5. Qualified Planning and Instructional Personnel 6. Content and Instructional Methods 7. Assessment of Learning Outcomes 8. Program Evaluation

Administrative Structure and Organization 1. Organizational Focus on Lifelong Learning: Best practice requires that a CE provider must have a

dedicated administrative unit or group with written, assigned responsibility (documented at Rutgers through organizational charts and University Human

Resources position classification forms) for planning, delivery, assessment and accounting of CE programs and services. That dedicated focus ensures that the needs of nontraditional, lifelong learners remain at the center of strategic and operational priorities.

Without that dedicated focus, lifelong learners may be

viewed as an ancillary function with resources that depend on the changing interests and priorities that accompany leadership changes.

2. Administrative Systems & Support: Quality program delivery requires information systems that support and document key performance indicators (KPIs) of the diverse programs and services offered by CE units. That includes registration and student record

systems to document both registration and financial

information as well as provide a record of program completion. Best practices require that noncredit student record information must be maintained in

perpetuity along with the ability to provide it

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NON-CREDIT PROGRAMS upon request.

Program Planning and Development 3. Needs Identification: Because it embraces a learner- centered development process, DoCS begins CE

content development with the needs of the learner. It

assesses and identifies needs through multiple channels:

• surveys of current and prospective students

• recommendations of advisory committees

• insights of faculty and subject matter experts

from the field, consistent with Standard 3 of the Middle States Commission on Higher

Education Standards of Excellence (see: https://

www.msche.org/standards/#standard_3)

• quantitative and qualitative research provided by organizations and individuals identifying the needs of nontraditional learners.

4. Learning Outcomes: DoCS program planners and

instructors are required to provide clear, written statements of intended learning outcomes that are based on needs assessment data for the target

audience. To our knowledge, most non-DoCS CE

providers at Rutgers follow a similar process.

5. Qualified Planning and Instructional Personnel:

In conformance with Middle States Accreditation

guidelines, DoCS recruits subject matter experts from three primary sources: full-time faculty, part-time Rutgers faculty and other appropriate professionals

who meet Middle States criteria, which requires that they are:

• rigorous and effective in teaching, assessment of student learning, scholarly inquiry, and

service, as appropriate to the institution’s mission, goals, and policies;

• qualified for the positions they hold and the

work they do;

• provided with opportunities, resources, and

support for professional growth and innovation;

• reviewed regularly and equitably based on

written, disseminated, clear, and fair criteria,

expectations, policies, and procedures.

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NON-CREDIT PROGRAMS 6. Content and Instructional Methods: The unique needs of adult and nontraditional learners are incorporated into the content, and instructional

methods are aligned with the intended learning outcomes of each program.

Evaluation and Assessment

7. Assessment of Learning Outcomes: Procedures, tools and reporting are in place to assess achievement of

the learning outcomes identified during the needs assessment and program planning phases.

8. Program Evaluation: Each learning program is

evaluated, and the results are shared with the program planning and instructional personnel.

DoCS follows the Middle State Commission on Higher Education Accreditation standards for designing and developing programs and other student learning experiences, which include the following criteria:

• designed, delivered, and assessed by faculty (full-time

or part-time) and/or other appropriate professionals

who are: º rigorous and effective in teaching, assessment of student learning, scholarly inquiry, and

service, as appropriate to the institution’s mission, goals, and policies; º qualified for the positions they hold and the

work they do; º provided with and utilize sufficient opportunities,

resources, and support for professional growth and innovation; º reviewed regularly and equitably based on

written, disseminated, clear, and fair criteria,

expectations, policies, and procedures.

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DIVISION OF CONTINUING STUDIES

6. Service to the University

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SERVICE TO THE UNIVERSITY Please evaluate the nature and quality of DoCS’ service to the University for any major areas of its activities not covered by the above. Also include the processes in place for communicating with faculty and administration to identify new areas of potential collaboration and service (e.g., areas involving Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences).

A Tradition of Service to the University DoCS provides service to the University in a wide variety of ways, in various modes and in multiple locations. Some examples are covered elsewhere in this document. This section focuses on several DoCS units and examples of individual contributions of service.

The Division of Continuing Studies is uniquely positioned outward, existing to assist all of Rutgers schools and to further the academic mission of the University. In addition to the outward focus, DoCS units like Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) and Center for Teaching Advancement and Assessment Research (CTAAR) have supported and transformed teaching at Rutgers. CTAAR is the core repository and provider of critical data for promotion, tenure packages and teaching reviews of faculty.

From assisting faculty members with their design projects through the magic of our Rutgers Makerspace, DoCS is a technological leader, an innovation incubator and a place for faculty to test ideas and assumptions in an interdisciplinary environment. DoCS also facilitates student innovation and entrepreneurship; Makerspace was created with a faculty advisory board in 2013, now serving over 1,500 students with nearly 4,000 visits in the last academic year, representing nearly every academic discipline.

DoCS has also spearheaded a Universal Design Committee that brings the entire faculty community together to develop best practices for accessible online content. DoCS is a connector, a facilitator, an essential part of the team and the first one to answer any call for assistance from the Rutgers family. With quality services, from faculty partnerships with Makerspace to providing comfortable housing at the Rutgers University Inn & Conference Center for departments hosting international students, DoCS is constantly striving to identify new areas of potential collaboration and service, and bring those to fruition.

Center for Teaching Advancement and Assessment Research (CTAAR)

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SERVICE TO THE UNIVERSITY Under the leadership of Professor Gary Gigliotti the center has operated since 1992 and its activities can be understood in four major categories.

•

Instructional Technology Support: CTAAR has played a major role in assisting instructors in the use of technology to improve teaching and learning. As the TEC in New Brunswick, we offered workshops in web pages use and design, and later more advanced forms of instructional technology, from eBooks, podcasting, Photoshop and support for Sakai. We work closely, too, with the Teaching Assistant Program to offer workshops particularly geared to graduate students teaching at the University. CTAAR joined the Division of Continuing Studies is to create a more efficient and effective team to provide technological support as the University creates more hybrid and online courses and programs.

•

Pedagogy and Assessment: CTAAR offers a myriad of workshops on pedagogy and assessment, usually at the request of deans and departments or programs.

This includes our participation in the Rutgers Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (RASTL), which was born from a Carnegie Foundation on the Advancement of Teaching grant obtained jointly by the Graduate School in New Brunswick and CTAAR. CTAAR staff, including the executive director, consult directly with departments and faculty on a number of pedagogical issues and assessment issues. Professor Gigliotti works directly with the Senior VP for Academic Affairs assessment councils— the Executive Council on Assessment, the Assessment Councils on Learning Outcomes and the Assessment Council on the Student Experience. The ECA oversees all assessment activities in the University. The ACLO and the ACSE conduct yearly reviews of all units in the institution covering assessment practices for student learning outcomes, and general assessment of non-curricular activities that enhance the student experience. CTAAR is also the liaison for the American College and University Educators pilot project that is being offered in AY2018-2019 through the Senior VP for Academic Affairs, to the Camden, New Brunswick and RBHS campus locations.

• CTAAR operates the Student Instructional Ratings

82 “Thanks to you everyone else at the New Media Center, Scarlet Media, and ITV who welcomed our Rutgers Future Scholars. When we debriefed the students, they all said the visit was the highlight of their week. You even beat their getting to handle 19th century Japanese swords in our special collections.”

- Jill Nathanson Reference & Instruction Librarian

SERVICE TO THE UNIVERSITY

system for the University. The Student Instructional Ratings Survey (SIRS) has been in existence since 1992, with the first University-wide use in 1994.

Professor Gigliotti was the architect and manager of the system since 1992 when he became the director of the, then called, Teaching Excellence Center (TEC) in New Brunswick. There were three TEC offices in 1992, one in Camden, one in Newark and one in New Brunswick, but the New Brunswick office was given responsibility for the SIRS. The use of the SIRS has expanded dramatically over the past 25 years, and the format for its distribution and administration has changed from a paper form distributed in the classroom to an online system that reaches across the institution. As an example of the magnitude of the SIRS process, over 10,000 course sections are surveyed each fall and spring (Fall 2017 and Spring 2018 data) with approximately 85 percent of the surveys done in an online format. SIRS is also used during the summer and winter sessions. As of last year, faculty using the SIRS survey tool can ask their own questions if they like, beyond the ones usually found on the survey.

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Staff Computer Literacy: For 15 years CTAAR has stewarded the responsibility to provide workshops and consulting services for staff members in the use of various office software, such as MSWord, MSExcel and MSAccess. The demand for these services has grown rapidly, and since the integration of RBHS this growth has accelerated. Our workshops of this kind are given routinely to staff from Facilities, Public Safety, RBHS units and Chancellors offices; requests continue to come from administrative units across the University.

•

Last year, with the support of DoCs and the Senior VP for Academic Affairs, CTAAR piloted the use of lynda.com training services for about 500 staff throughout the University. The project relied on a system of office liaisons that coordinated the use of lynda.com with other CTAAR offerings. CTAAR staff created ‘playlists’ that guided the new users. The success of that project, and the use of lynda.com services in a few others units, has led to the full licensing of lynda.com to the entire University student body, faculty and staff starting in Fall 2018. CTAAR will

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SERVICE TO THE UNIVERSITY continue to support the use of lynda.com by creating

more and more comprehensive training ‘playlists’ as

curricula for new users in various areas of training.

The Center for Mathematics, Science and Computer Education (CMSCE)

•

CMSCE, established in 1984, is charged to systematically contribute to the improvement of mathematics, science and computer education programs in New Jersey schools and in schools throughout the nation. It provides K-12 teacher professional development in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) while conducting and facilitating related research. In doing so, it supports the public outreach and research missions of Rutgers. To date, approximately two-thirds of all New Jersey school districts have been serviced

by CMSCE. The CMSCE fosters collaboration among educators, business leaders, practitioners and researchers by facilitating, brokering, proposing and managing interdisciplinary, externally funded projects to build and evaluate evidence-based models in STEM teaching and learning. Importantly, it has been a University-wide center in order to reach across Rutgers departments, colleges and campuses to pursue interdisciplinary STEM projects. It joined the Rutgers Division of Continuing Studies (DoCS) in September 2015. Becoming a unit within DoCS afforded numerous advantages, including:

º oversight by the Vice-President of Continuing

Studies who holds an authentic interest and

expertise in its continuing teacher education programs º the administrative integration of the CMSCE

with other like-oriented units such as the DoCS Makerspace, Center for innovative Education, and Game Research and Immersive Design, facilitating numerous collaborations

(e.g., Maker Certification program, externally funded projects, etc.) º the financial efficiency of shared resources such as technology and computer support (from

DoCS Teaching and Learning with Technology)

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SERVICE TO THE UNIVERSITY and accounting services (from the DoCS

Business office).

The CMSCE facilitated numerous interdisciplinary grant proposals and successfully attracted and managed six grant-funded projects within two to three years of joining DoCS. These initiatives involved a diversity of colleges and departments in Rutgers— New Brunswick, Newark and Camden including the Graduate School of Education (GSE), the School of Arts and Sciences (both SAS-New Brunswick and SAS-Newark), the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Mason Gross School of Arts, the School of Engineering, the School of Communication and Information, the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, and others.

•

One recent project was a Math-Science Partnership grant funded by the New Jersey Department of Education (2016-2018) in order to help science teachers with the significant task of retooling for New Jersey’s recent adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The project represented a broad, interdisciplinary collaboration among the Rutgers CMSCE, GSE, SAS-NB, and a consortium of partnering schools including nine high schools and 10 middle schools in 10 local school districts. The collaborating partners developed a two-year teacher professional development (PD) program that (a) enabled and empowered the best science teachers in participating districts (MSP “Ambassadors”) to re-design and implement science curricula and instruction to align with the NGSS; and (b) provided empirical evidence of the effectiveness of the professional development program. To accomplish these goals, the CMSCE hosted a two-week summer institute in August 2016, and continued the program with four PD days in partnering school districts during the 2016/17 academic year. The PD workshops were led

by Rutgers faculty from the GSE and SAS-NB as well as experts from the CMSCE. In the second year of the program, participating teacher ambassadors were trained to lead professional development workshops on NGSS alignment to other teachers in their district. Ambassadors led these “turnkey” workshops during the 2017-18 school year and received supplemental professional

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SERVICE TO THE UNIVERSITY

development on creating NGSS-aligned assessments led by the CMSCE in the summer of 2018. One notable deliverable was the revisions of all related creditbearing pre-service science education courses at the GSE. The project was made possible by the CMSCE’s leadership on the proposal to the NJ-DOE, and its management of the project.

Rutgers Makerspace

•

In 2013 DoCS convened faculty from across the University to create a Makerspace to enhance the teaching and learning experience at Rutgers. With feedback from faculty, students and staff, DoCS designed and created Rutgers Makerspace—a 10,000-sq.-ft. innovation laboratory where students from all academic disciples can have training and access to a wide array of design software, manufacturing tools and equipment to create just about any product prototype they can imagine.

Members of the Makerspace founding faculty advisory board include Matt Matsuda (Honors College), Mike Lawton (SEBS), Donna Fennell (SEBS), Richard Mammone (RBS), Mor Naaman (SCI, left RU), Waheed Bajwa (Electrical and Comp Engineering), Alberto Cuitino (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering), Richard Ludescher (SEBS), Jeffrey Robinson (RBS), Leon Fraser (RBS), Manish Parashar (CompSci), Jennifer Senick (Bloustein), Richard Martin (Computer Science, SAS), Ivan Seskar (WINLAB), Thomas V. Papathomas (Biomedical Engineering), and Barbara Turpin (SEBS).

Makerspaces have become another decision point for prospective students choosing an undergraduate institution and this makerspace facility places Rutgers as a leader among its peer institutions serving over 1,500 student users representing nearly every academic discipline. DoCS centrally manages the safety and use training of all students, faculty and staff using the Makerspace equipment, tools and machines. Working closely with Rutgers Environmental Health and Safety, DoCS has developed policies and procedures to ensure a safe and operable innovation environment where novices can learn and be ready to use complex manufacturing grade fabrication equipment.

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SERVICE TO THE UNIVERSITY

•

School of Communication and Information (SC&I): For over a decade DoCS has been closely involved in supporting the Information Technology and Informatics capstone course at SC&I through Rutgers Makerspace. The interdisciplinary facility serves as the environment where SC&I faculty teach students to build a company and a viable product in a semester, giving students real world experience with entrepreneurship. Students ideate, develop, design and manufacture a prototype with the tools and training at Rutgers Makerspace. Approximately 300 students have participated in the ITI Capstone project at Rutgers Makerspace. During one capstone project, students created a company and a product dubbed “Slingshot.” A team of 19 students in the capstone project targeted gender disparity in technology fields. Students created a product to attract female youth ages 11-14 to high-tech fields by introducing them to technology and design concepts through story-based design projects. The team built a product where a small metal box unlatches to reveal a miniature computer, display and cables, along with instructions to create a spy camera to help solve a story-based problem. Students met weekly at Rutgers Makerspace to align parts ordered from manufacturers into a prototype and to build out the story and instructions for their target customer group.

A hardware team built the prototype briefcase. A software team created an interface that supports a Scratch computer language program that the girls can program to operate the spy camera.

•

School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS): SEBS has incorporated Makerspace into existing courses and new degree requirements. In August of 2019, DoCS, in partnership with SEBS, will launch an expanded 30,000-sq.-ft. Makerspace Lab facility at the former Agriculture Museum on the Rutgers Cook campus. The facility will be open to all students across Rutgers with a central Universitywide safety and use training system developed and managed by DoCS. The facility will be one of the premier academic makerspaces in the nation with faculty advisory board guiding its development and use. DoCS will manage the University-wide safety training and machine access as SEBS will lead the academic integration of maker curriculum. This will

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SERVICE TO THE UNIVERSITY

allow a greatly expanded makerspace for use by the University community by incorporating additional fabrication, programmatic and innovation spaces that will be open to the broader central New Jersey community through fee-based memberships.

•

A Rutgers EMS employee visited Makerspace for the first time. Within 24 hours, they learned design software tinker-cad, designed and printed a small device to attach to their EMT training dummy to simulate patients with colostomy bags.

•

Rutgers Capital Planning employees are fabricating 3D-printed high-resolution scale models of Rutgers projects. Their first effort was to produce a 6-inch detailed model of the Weeks building, complete with interior walls and windows. This has previously been done by an outside vendor adding thousands of dollars to capital planning projects.

Osher Lifelong Learning Program (OLLI-RU)

•

Through the Osher Lifelong Learning Program (OLLIRU), DoCS offers over 300 enrichment courses to over 2,000 members of the aging population in central New Jersey. Courses are taught and taken by many members of the Rutgers retired faculty and staff community. OLLI-RU provides meaningful lifelong engagement and opportunity to distinguished faculty and staff beyond their transition from formal employment with the University. OLLI-RU has a single advisory board that has 12-15 community members, many of whom are retired Rutgers faculty and staff.

The advisory body has several subcommittees that coordinate with the staff team.

DoCS sees itself as core to the University, supporting the tripartite mission of the University of Teaching, Research and Service. DoCS is especially dedicated to serving the academic mission of the University, as highlighted in the DoCS Academic Service document. Service to the University includes service on key University task forces and committees. A non-exhaustive illustrative list follows.

Vice President Novak has served or is currently serving on the Middle States Steering Committee, the University-wide and New Brunswick Campus Strategic Plan committees, the RCM

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SERVICE TO THE UNIVERSITY Advisory Committee, the International Advisory Committee for Rutgers Global, Rutgers Libraries Advisory Committee, the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, Rutgers Corporate Engagement Center, Rutgers Committee on Sponsorships, Endorsements and Paid Advertising, faculty marshal for University Commencement for 25 years, and the President’s Administrative Council.

Professor Gary Gigliotti also served on the Middle States Steering Committee and directs CTAAR, noted above. Warren Nevins, DoCS IT director, serves on the University OIT leadership committee. Deborah Sousa, DoCS CFO, serves on several University financial and budgetary advisory committees.

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SERVICE TO THE UNIVERSITY

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DIVISION OF CONTINUING STUDIES

7. Overall Performance Goals and Success

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OVERALL PERFORMANCE GOALS AND SUCCESS Given the specific performance goals of DoCS as set by the University and by DoCS, how successful has DoCS been at achieving the stated goals? Please evaluate the procedures used by Rutgers to monitor and evaluate DoCS, including decisions about creation of programs, setting of costs and fees (outside and inside Rutgers), choosing instructional staff and evaluating outcomes? What are the overall benefits to the University, its students and the broader community of learners?

Pillars of Excellence DoCS benchmarks its performance against the best practices of the continuing education profession within the context of higher education. Those practices are outlined in seven “pillars of excellence” identified in “Hallmarks of Excellence in Professional and Continuing Education,” published by the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA).

The pillars of excellence are:

1. Internal Advocacy

2. Entrepreneurial Initiative

3. Faculty Support

4. Student Support

5. Digital Technology

6. External Advocacy

7. Professionalism

Founded in 1915, UPCEA is the nation’s oldest and largest association for continuing education professionals. In Hallmarks, UPCEA “challenges current CE leaders to measure their progress” against those seven pillars and “challenges their institution’s leaders to do likewise.” DoCS was instrumental in the development and crafting of the seven pillars. Specifically, VP Novak was one of the authors of the Hallmarks, and DoCS adheres to them in the following ways.

1. Internal Advocacy: The Hallmarks note that CE leaders must “broadly build credibility, alliances, and partnerships” specifically because CE should reflect “all facets of the University that further the University’s mission and purpose.”

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OVERALL PERFORMANCE GOALS AND SUCCESS DoCS embraces and meets this pillar on multiple fronts. First, it serves as the collective voice of more than 40 CE units across the University, and it collaborates with all 30 schools on all Rutgers campuses. Through its continuous coordination with all CE units, it enables the disparate voices of many to become the clear, strong voice of one. Second, DoCS is the only Universitywide unit at Rutgers dedicated to serving lifelong learners and advocates for nontraditional learners whose needs have fallen through the gaps of 40 independently operating CE units.

To identify those needs, DoCS constantly scans the higher education environment to identify emerging trends and needs affecting nontraditional learners and the units that serve them.

Third, through its own initiative and dedicated staff time, DoCS is the sole source of information that documents the collective CE activity of more than 200,000 registrants annually. Those numbers would not be known without DoCS staff taking the time to collect and report the information. There are no central University systems that can collect or compile these data. DoCS advocacy has opened access for those noncredit students to classroom space, ecommerce, online programming, parking, financial aid and career services. Finally, and counterintuitively, strong internal advocacy begins with the quiet act of listening rather than the reflexive inclination to raise your voice to be heard above others. To understand the needs of CE directors and their staff, DoCS conducts a biennial needs assessment that drives the agenda and priorities of the CECC. The commitment to advocacy is perhaps best demonstrated by the University-wide “listening tour” conducted in 2016 and 2017 by VP Novak. With the goal of understanding the needs, challenges and motivations of each dean at Rutgers, VP Novak made in-person visits to all 30 deans with an agenda that asked two simple questions: What more can we do to help you? Are we doing anything that causes you any concern that we need to fix?

2. Entrepreneurial Initiative: The Hallmarks note that CE units commonly serve as incubators for innovation within the University, so CE leaders “must embrace innovation, experimentation, and new initiatives” and CE staff “must have the skills and imagination to facilitate responsible change.”

DoCS has met this pillar since its inception. More than 20 years ago, DoCS led the early University initiative into distance learning with self-funded investments in hardware, software and talent development to serve the early innovators. It created the highly popular annual Online Learning conference to create a vibrant, sharing community among those entrepreneurial innovators.

Begun by VP Novak in the winter of 2010, the conference will

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OVERALL PERFORMANCE GOALS AND SUCCESS celebrate its 10th anniversary in March 2019. To ensure that the pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunity conformed with the letter and intent of University regulations, DoCS shouldered the administrative responsibilities of a 16-month procurement process to select the University’s distance learning online program manager on behalf of the University president. As distance learning moved from the “entrepreneurial fringe” to mainstream use at Rutgers—and in higher education more broadly—DoCS led the movement toward both quality assurance and universal access. In quality assurance, DoCS joined and implemented “Quality Matters” (see: https://www.qualitymatters. org/). Quality Matters is an international organization that is recognized as a leader in quality assurance for online education.

Quality Matters promotes quality standards in online course design through the development of current, research-supported, and practice-based quality standards and appropriate evaluation tools and procedures. As a membership organization, its success is evidenced by the fact that over 1000 organizations and institutions from higher education, K-12 secondary, educational publishing, continuing and professional education arenas are members of QM. Quality Matters also leads a peer-review process to evaluate and improve online course design. In terms of accessibility and universal access, Dr. Antonius Bittmann chairs the widely representative Committee on Accessibility and Universal Design. To reduce information management costs, DoCS provided the risk capital and spearheaded the initiative to provide voluntary access to a single noncredit registration system that is used by CE units processing more than 70,000 registrations per year.

3. Faculty Support: The Hallmarks note that academic excellence is the “lifeblood of any educational enterprise,” so CE leaders must “build a strong cadre of faculty enveloped with the tools to succeed.”

DoCS continually seeks to meet this standard by inviting faculty participation and support in nearly every facet of DoCS operations. In distance learning, DoCS convened a committee of faculty members to provide in-depth review and recommendations for its selection of a University-wide online program manager (OPM). In managing summer session operations, DoCS solicits voluntary participation from both faculty and department heads continuously from early January through late December to identify and support their goals and needs. In noncredit programming, the content development process begins with a search for a faculty member to serve as the content coordinator and subject matter expert.

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4. Student Support: The Hallmarks note that serving the wide diversity of CE students requires “a deep understanding of the adult learner” and nontraditional audiences served by CE, which “must be strong advocates for those services that foster learning and student success.” This benchmark aligns with the core mission DoCS has embraced since its founding. The needs of the learner are at the heart of DoCS’ mission statement: “Through learner-directed programs and compassionate service, DoCS seeks to provide memorably valuable educational opportunities wherever and whenever learners seek them.” Here, too, DoCS actively and continuously listens to better understand the needs of nontraditional learners. It convenes more than 15 advisory committees and panels comprised of the learners it serves. It surveys students to gather both qualitative insights and quantitative data about the intensity, direction and extent of student needs. DoCS Summer Session incorporated 1,537 survey respondents to ensure learner student needs informed development of the content, format and options of its awardwinning Writers Conference.

5. Digital Technology: The Hallmarks note that “technology is integral to the modern CE unit, so “its leaders must provide a technological environment that is current, dependable, and capable of enhancing education, administration, and outreach.”

DoCS has been a technology leader and innovator since its inception in 1996. From its founding and continuing today, DoCS has consistently employed a “voluntary adoption” model to maximize the impact of technological innovation and to minimize implementation costs without coercing faculty or staff into adopting a single solution. The economics of technology adoption has an undeniably clear cost function: per-user costs drop dramatically as the number of users rise because fixed costs are divided over an ever-rising base of users. For many organizations, the simplest way to increase the number of users is to mandate adoption of a single technology. However, like most higher education institutions, Rutgers proudly values its tradition of independent inquiry, and many faculty and staff understandably chafe at mandates that restrict their options to design and deliver educational programs as they see fit. It is those opposing forces—the natural cost advantage of achieving wide-spread adoption of new technologies against the academic freedom values of higher education institutions—that drive DoCS’ model of voluntary adoption. In place of coercion, the voluntary adoption model relies on the natural process of the Technology Adoption Lifecycle pictured below. In that process, innovators

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OVERALL PERFORMANCE GOALS AND SUCCESS and early adopters test—and then either adopt or reject— new technologies through their usage patterns and shared recommendations. Economies of scale are achieved as early majority users follow those shared recommendations to achieve the threshold level (popularized as the “tipping point” by Malcom Gladwell) when a technology achieves widespread adoption in an open marketplace. DoCS founded the Rutgers Online Conference in 2009 to help reach that tipping point among faculty considering participating or expanding their instruction in distance learning.

6. External Advocacy: The Hallmarks recognize that CE must “extend its mission and message far beyond campus walls” and its “leaders must serve as an authoritative voice to external stakeholders in government, industry, local communities, and elsewhere.”

Through its active volunteer work with external stakeholders, DoCS is recognized as an authoritative voice precisely because its learner-centered focus never waivers from the needs of the constituents it serves. External advocacy requires an empathetic and in-depth understanding of stakeholders needs, and DoCS continuously engages in active listening through external advisory boards that provide a structured process for needs assessment and identification. DoCS chairs and leads advisory committees in these areas: The Center for Government Services convenes 11 advisory committees that include program instructors, affiliate organization appointments and industry-leading practitioners in the following areas.

• Affordable Housing Professionals Education Committee

• Assessment Administration Education Committee

• Educational Facilities Management Education Committee

• Financial Management Education Committee

• Municipal Clerks Education Committee

• Planning and Zoning Education Committee

• Public Housing Authority Education Committee

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• • • •

Public Purchasing Education Committee Public Safety Education Committee School Transportation Education Committee Tax Collection Education Committee

Rutgers Innovation Education convenes three external advisory boards: Customer Experience Management Advisory Board, Big Data Advisory Board and Design Thinking Advisory Board.

Rutgers Makerspace was created with a faculty advisory board that included Matt Matsuda (Honors College), Mike Lawton (SEBS), Donna Fennell (SEBS), Richard Mammone (RBS), Mor Naaman (SCI, left RU), Waheed Bajwa (Electrical and Comp Engineering), Alberto Cuitino (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering), Richard Ludescher (SEBS), Jeffrey Robinson (RBS), Leon Fraser (RBS), Manish Parashar (CompSci), Jennifer Senick (Bloustein), Richard Martin (Computer Science, SAS), Ivan Seskar (WINLAB), Thomas V. Papathomas (Biomedical Engineering) and Barbara Turpin (SEBS).

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute convenes an advisory board that has more than 15 members from the membership community. The advisory body has several subcommittees that coordinate with the staff team to oversee all aspects of the program, including a curriculum committee that recommends program offerings for the 2,000 seniors served through the institute’s 300 courses.

The Pearson Managed Program implementation includes standing regular meetings of all of the program directors. While not technically labeled as an Advisory Board, this group serves that function with deep engagement in all aspects of online program development and delivery and instructional technology decisions.

7. Professionalism: The Hallmarks note that “dynamic organizations are grounded in professional integrity” and CE leaders “must exemplify an unwavering commitment to high standards of excellence, ethics, and ideals that elevate their units to the level of respect and renown expected of a thriving academic institution.”

As an organization dedicated to lifelong learning, DoCS takes understandable pride in its unwavering commitment to the lifelong learning and development of its own employees. Since its inception, DoCS has consistently and actively invested both the time and resources in professional development of

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OVERALL PERFORMANCE GOALS AND SUCCESS every employee. Led by VP Novak’s career-long commitment to leadership in the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA), the oldest and pre-eminent CE professional association, DoCS staff members have assumed notable leadership roles that “elevate the respect and renown” of Rutgers, as envisioned in the Hallmarks. Rich has served as president of UPCEA, and he has been awarded its Walter S. Bittner Service Citation for Imaginative Leadership in the Advancement of Continuing Education and Distinguished Service to the Association. Jim Morris, Associate Vice President of Continuing Education, is currently serving on the Board of Directors for UPCEA. DoCS has established mandatory professional development for all of its employees and has implemented two professional development days to assist in this process. Every DoCS unit has funds to support staff attendance at appropriate professional conferences. DoCS has set up an internal grant program to support professional development opportunities that are beyond the funding capability of any individual DoCS unit. DoCS also established its own year-long mentoring program, a formal program that includes readings, regular meetings and a project by each mentee. DoCS has 100 percent compliance with the University performance appraisal system and has enjoyed 22 years of operation without any unresolved or escalated labor grievances.

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8. Leadership

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LEADERSHIP Please comment on the effectiveness of DoCS’ leadership team and administrative structure.

Administrative Leadership with Academic Oversight DoCS is led by Vice President for Continuing Studies and Distance Education Richard Novak. VP Novak reports to Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs for Rutgers University Barbara Lee, the University’s chief academic officer. VP Novak provides executive leadership for a large and diverse Universitywide division at Rutgers that includes over 150 full-time employees in 20 distinct business units at 20 different locations.

DoCS coordinates hundreds of credit and noncredit programs, enrolling thousands of participants, reaching audiences from pre-school youth to retirees, on and off campus and online, and provides various support services to faculty, staff and students across the University. In addition, DoCS operates Rutgers University Inn & Conference Center and Rutgers iTV Studio, the University’s high-definition broadcast television studio.

VP Novak is also an associate member of the graduate faculty in the Rutgers Graduate School of Education, teaching faceto-face, hybrid and fully online courses beginning in 1993. VP Novak is past-president of the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA), the principal U.S. organization for professional and continuing higher education.

He continues to serve in various leadership roles with UPCEA. In 2004, VP Novak was presented the Walton S. Bittner Service Citation for Imaginative Leadership in the Advancement of Continuing Education and Distinguished Service to the Association by UPCEA. In April 2011, he was awarded the national Excellence in Online Administration award. In addition to two master’s degrees, he holds a doctorate in adult and continuing education from the Rutgers Graduate School of Education.

The vice president is advised and guided by an Executive Committee (EC), which provides high level oversight for all aspects of DoCS, reviews all personnel actions for full-time employees and engages as a team on all strategic plans and major initiatives of DoCS. The executive team is comprised of well-qualified and seasoned experts; each manages multiple areas of responsibility and a large portfolio.

The EC includes: Associate Vice President for Online Programs Antonius Bittmann: A tenured professor, Bittmann previously served as

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LEADERSHIP associate dean of academic affairs and director of Mason Gross online (2010-2013), after completing two consecutive three-year terms as chairman of the Music Department of the Mason Gross School of the Arts (2005-2011), Rutgers University. He holds two doctorates from the Eastman School of Music (Rochester, NY)—a D.M.A. in organ performance and a Ph.D. in musicology.

Bittmann oversees Teaching and Learning with Technology and IT at Continuing Studies. Moreover, he is the principal Rutgers point person for the University’s strategic public/private partnership with Pearson as Online Program Manager (OPM) to deliver fully online degree programs on a large scale.

Associate Vice President for Continuing Education Jim Morris: Morris leads the noncredit continuing education efforts within DoCS, especially the Center for Continuing Professional Development. A continuing education professional with over 30 years’ experience, he holds a master’s in economics. Prior to joining DoCS, Morris was the associate director of the Office of Continuing Professional Education for the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers, serving for 28 years in that office, from executive level strategic planning to award-winning program development. Morris was recently appointed to the UPCEA national Board of Directors.

Associate Vice President for Degree Completion Programs Barbara Fiorella: Fiorella oversees the Rutgers University official partnerships with six community colleges in New Jersey, offering degree completion programs on the community college campuses at designated Higher Education Centers. Fiorella brings expertise in grantsmanship and research support and experience at three prior universities before her work at DoCS. She holds a master’s in public policy.

Associate Vice President for Strategic Growth Shino John: John oversees DoCS’ philanthropic and fund-raising initiatives, Makerspace, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Rutgers (OLLIRU), Rutgers Innovation Education and Center for Government Services. John was formerly with the Rutgers Foundation, serving as associate vice president for development in major gift programs. Prior to that he served as director and assistant dean for development in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations. John holds a master’s in divinity with a focus on leadership and communication.

Assistant Vice President for Administration and Operations Robert Nolan: Nolan leads the Human Resources unit within DoCS and oversees all facilities issues for DoCS. He is the

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DoCS representative for the current DoCS building project.

Formerly associate dean in the Rutgers School of Social Work, Nolan holds a master’s in psychology.

Chief Financial Officer Deborah Sousa: Sousa provides oversight for all financial matters within DoCS, supervising a team within DoCS and working with various University budget and finance offices on a regular basis. Sousa previously worked as the vice president for administration at Bergen County Community College. She holds a master’s in business administration with a concentration in finance and financial management services.

The EC meets every two weeks.

DoCS leadership includes the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), unit leaders at the rank of director or above. The SLT meets once a month and all agendas, minutes and individual unit reports are posted on a leadership portal. Following the SLT meetings, the individual unit reports are posted on the DoCS portal, open to all employees within DoCS so that every member is kept aware of all developments and important issues across DoCS. In addition to the members of the EC, the Senior Leadership Team includes:

• Director of Game Research and Immersive Design (GRID) Richard Anderson

• Director of New Brunswick Summer and Winter Sessions and Special Projects Elizabeth Beasley

• Director of Rutgers Center for Innovation Education Stephen Carter

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Associate Vice President, Teaching and Assessment Research Gary Gigliotti, tenured faculty member and head of the Center for Teaching Advancement and Assessment Research

• Director of Information Technology at Continuing Studies Warren Nevins

• Director of the University Inn and Conference Center Deana Pagnozzi

• Director of Communications and Marketing Beth Salamon

• Director of the Center for Mathematics, Science and

LEADERSHIP Computer Education David Shernoff, tenured faculty member

• Director of the Professional Science Master’s Program Deborah Silver, tenured faculty member

• Director of the Center for Government Services Alan Zalkind Highlighting DoCS Leadership DoCS leadership is purposefully structured and has been adjusted to meet the changing needs within higher education and the market environment. DoCS leadership also determines a changing portfolio to meet market needs. The DoCS leadership structure is built to maximize collaboration within DoCS and a new DoCS building will enable most of the DoCS staff to colocate, resulting in further collaboration opportunities. DoCS has a lean administrative structure and leadership team, completes projects on time and on budget, and as noted in section 9 (Funding Model.) the team provides for significant ROI for Rutgers. DoCS has built up, over a number of years, expertise and a centralized infrastructure for budget, human resources, operations and facilities management. In addition, DoCS has developed core services for conferences and program planning, initially envisioned to support DoCS programming but now offered as a cost-effective service throughout the University.

The leadership of DoCS is collaborative—within DoCS, within Rutgers and with the various communities and constituent groups served. Throughout this report, the various existing advisory boards and committee structures and consultative bodies have been highlighted. In addition, for the last several years, the vice president has met personally with each one of the 30 deans at Rutgers to determine, in the interactions with DoCS, what is going well and can be expanded and what is not going well that needs to be corrected. Other questions refer to what services DoCS can provide that are not already being provided and what other collaborations may be possible.

Several other members of the DoCS leadership team are very involved with their respective national professional associations, often holding leadership positions, and DoCS units have received regional and national awards and recognition for outstanding programming. DoCS leadership team members have been well represented in the report and review process for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

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LEADERSHIP The vice president leads by example and continues to bring national recognition to Rutgers University through his continued engagement at the national level with UPCEA. He has led several national task forces for the Association and most recently was re-appointed to the Board of Directors and Executive Committee. VP Novak was also invited to be a member of the Research Deans Group, a collection of the CE deans and vice presidents at highly selective research universities across the United States, such as Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern, University of Washington, Brown, University of Wisconsin, Columbia and others. In addition, he was invited to be part of the ASG subset of the Research Deans group, representing a small number of large CE programs at research universities.

Promoting Strong Followership A key component of leadership is “followership� and DoCS has demonstrated exemplary work in this area too. As noted above, all DoCS members are provided monthly updates and are invited to be fully informed and engaged with developments at DoCS. For five years, DoCS has implemented 15Five, an online portal that gives every person in the organization a voice. Several question prompts are responded to by every DoCS employee and supervisors review and respond to these entries. Outside of a special summer schedule, 15Five participation is every two weeks. The vice president has also set the expectation that every DoCS member will participate in some professional development activity each year. To achieve that goal, two professional development days are held, one in the fall and one in the spring, with internal and external presenters. Each DoCS business unit has a budget for sending unit members to a conference or other learning activity. There is a funded internal grant program for larger professional development programs that may not be funded by unit budgets. DoCS also began an in-house mentoring program three years ago and has plans to introduce badging for professional development later this year. Finally, DoCS has consistently had 100 percent compliance with the University Performance Appraisal process and enjoys the absence of labor grievances.

Leadership within DoCS is intentional and is philosophically based on the concept of servant leadership, espoused by the Robert C. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. This concept is built upon the premise that the servant-leader is servant first, and that one wants to serve, first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. Larry Spears of the Greenleaf Center

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LEADERSHIP has identified 12 principles that constitute servant leadership.

They are: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, growth, building community, calling and nurturing the spirit–joy. As noted above, DoCS has been very intentional in supporting the professional growth and career progression of DoCS team members and members are reminded of the role that they play in supporting lifelong learning. DoCS members also express appreciation for the personal support received, through listening, empathy, healing and the awareness of leaders. Feedback received from DoCS members also attests to appreciation for the approach taken for new ideas and new initiatives, which includes conceptualization of the big ideas, foresight to learn from the past and the current state of higher education, and persuasion in making decisions and building consensus rather than positional authority and coerced compliance. Finally, DoCS gatherings are not just times of professional development but are also occasions of joy, where the spirit is nurtured. Gatherings always include a meal and opportunity to network and socialize.

This attitude of service, practiced within DoCS, is extended to all whom DoCS serves, and it is often expressed with the mantra, “dedicated to customer service.� This commitment to customer service permeates the entire DoCS organization, at all levels, and it originates with an orientation and dedication to servant leadership. Example after example could be cited of individual DoCS members who have gone beyond their job description and even domain of expertise to solve a problem for a student or faculty member, to connect clients to the appropriate person or solution, to see every issue through to resolution. That dedication does not just happen naturally; it is a learned and practiced behavior and one that DoCS values highly and is often noted as the reason individuals seek a position within DoCS.

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9. Funding Model

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FUNDING MODEL Please comment on the effectiveness of the DoCS funding model, including procedures for monitoring fiscal soundness; identifying, realizing and evaluating new revenue-generating programs; cost to the University; and benefits to the University.

Nontraditional Funding for Nontraditional Programs and Learners The DoCS funding model is notably effective because it efficiently and deliberately addresses the diverse needs of the disparate nontraditional audiences served by DoCS. The funding model also provides the strategic advantages of (a) diversifying funding sources and (b) continuously identifying and securing new, market-generated revenue streams. Those advantages uniquely enable DoCS to serve nontraditional audiences whose needs are central to the outreach and service mission of DoCS and Rutgers. Yet in many cases, those needs were unmet–or intentionally abandoned–by Rutgers units operating within the constraints of traditional budget models. Over its 20-year history, the DoCS funding model has enabled Rutgers to serve multiple nontraditional audiences, including retirees, students outside of commuting distance, overnight guests, unemployed workers, and emerging Makerspace entrepreneurs, that other Rutgers units elected not to serve because they did not fit within traditional budget models of the University.

Budget Math that Works: $23 in Revenue for each $1 in Cost The success of the DoCS funding model is best demonstrated by simple budget math. DoCS receives approximately $9 million from the University in cost pool support; in return, it helps generate more than $210 million in additional revenue for Rutgers. DoCS helps generate that return of $23 in revenue for each $1 in cost by extending the reach of the University to three distinct groups of lifelong learners served by DoCS staff and support services: students completing Rutgers degrees at six community college locations managed by DoCS; students completing online degrees through distance learning initiatives pioneered by DoCS; and more than 17,000 registrants served by DoCS’ noncredit programs.

The Division receives its University Cost Pool allocation to help support core academic credit activity, such as the degree completion programs on community college campuses. In addition to the allocation, DoCS generates self-supporting revenue from noncredit continuing education activity. DoCS immediately reinvests that noncredit revenue to benefit the

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FUNDING MODEL University by (a) underwriting a cost-efficient infrastructure that is available to all Rutgers CE units that choose to use it; (b) serving noncredit audiences, such as unemployed workers and retirees in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute that are not self-supporting as stand-alone constituents; and (c) providing coordination and customer support for continuing education across the University through the Continuing Education Coordinating Council (CECC.) Finally, DoCS operates several units, such as the University Inn & Conference Center, Rutgers iTV Studio and Makerspace, that other University units chose not to underwrite specifically because they were financially unsustainable at the time. In these cases, DoCS made the financial, operational and managerial changes to diversify revenue streams and restructure operations to achieve selfsufficiency today. In each case, the University has chosen to discard or defund these programs, yet they operate viably today through the diversified-revenue model created by DoCS and the business acumen located within DoCS that is needed to keep them sustainable.

Evolution of Funding Model: From Cost Center to Revenue Generator DoCS’ record of generating $23 in revenue for every $1 in cost stands in stark contrast to the original cost-only budget model envisioned when DoCS was initially established in 1996. In its original inception, Continuous Education and Outreach was designed as a cost center and service unit for the University, funded centrally. This proposed model pre-dated the University’s Responsibility Center-Management (RCM) system by nearly 20 years. DoCS’ natural focus on learner needs soon changed that cost-only model, however. Shortly after its founding, DoCS identified areas where there was a significant demand for professional development, but no Rutgers CE unit offered programs—nor had any intention to offer them—to fill that need.

To serve these unaddressed needs, to expand the impact of Rutgers CE and to potentially benefit all CE units at Rutgers, VP Novak established the Center for Continuing Professional Development (CCPD). From its inception, CCPD has operated as a self-supporting, revenue-generating unit that has grown as resources and market demand have permitted. Excess marginal revenue has been reinvested in program growth and seed funding for new initiatives. It has also operated from its inception with the proviso that it will not compete with any existing program at Rutgers. Additional noncredit, self-supporting and revenuegenerating units and programs have been added to the DoCS

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FUNDING MODEL portfolio through the years of DoCS’ existence, leading to greater efficiencies, economies of scale and more financial return for the University. These benefits have been extended to any department of the University that wishes to take advantage of these services.

The business acumen and years of experience that DoCS has amassed translates into revenue generation from disparate units, many of whom were losing money when first moved to DoCS. This revenue undergirds DoCS’ support of the academic mission of Rutgers and provides an infusion of funds that help students and programs. It is also directly connected to and in support of the University Strategic Plan and the priority of “financial resources sufficient to fund our aspirations.” In short, the work of DoCS helps to generate much-needed resources that are used to support the core academic mission of the University.

Three Primary Revenue Sources The Division of Continuing Studies receives funding from three primary sources: Continuing Education (CE) self-generated revenue for running CE classes ($11.5M); student fee revenue for our role in the Off Campus Higher Education and the Online Education Programs ($8M); and University support in the form of cost pool allocation for our support to the academic mission of Rutgers University ($9.6M). Our chart of accounts is designed so that we are able to monitor continually the effectiveness of each program by the unique coding for all transactions. We use these data as we evaluate the continuance of each program and are constantly exploring new opportunities by market research, environmental scanning and responding to expressed market demand. Cost/benefit analyses are conducted for any new selfsupporting program and strategic go/no-go decisions are made after that analysis.

Although the generation of tuition revenue is accounted for by the academic school that is enrolling students or teaching classes, DoCS is responsible for assisting in the generation of that revenue in excess of $210 million. In its academic support role, DoCS provides the technology and personnel infrastructure for online learning, off-campus instruction at six community college campuses in New Jersey, Rutgers-New Brunswick summer and winter sessions, Continuing Education and Professional Development, and the Centers for Math, Science and Computer Education and the Center for Teaching Advancement & Assessment Research. To support these efforts, DoCS generates $25.1 million in revenue through multiple

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FUNDING MODEL sources in addition to $9.4 million in cost pool funding.

DoCS Central Services includes the DoCS Executive team, Human Resources, Business Office and Information Technology teams. Cost pool funding of $3 million supports these efforts and provides for 40 FTEs. Funded indirectly from the DoCS central cost pool for $1.5 million are the following four DoCS Units: Rutgers iTV Studio, Makerspace, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Rutgers (OLLI-RU) and Rutgers Center for Innovation Education (RIE).

Costs and Benefits In terms of physical space, DoCS incurs approximately $1 million per year in lease costs for office and classroom space off campus. DoCS is in the midst of a building renovation on campus that will enable at least 10 DoCS units that are currently in distributed locations to centrally locate in the new central building. DoCS will also be able to exit a number of external leases, redirecting payments from outside vendors to internal Rutgers sources. All of these costs have been self-supporting.

The multiple millions of dollars required for the DoCS building renovation were saved over a 15-year period as carryover funds from net positive continuing education programs. DoCS also took on responsibility for the lease of an executive level training center located three miles off campus, called the Rutgers Continuing Education Center at Atrium. The continuing education units at Rutgers, through the Continuing Education Coordinating Council, expressed a long-time need to have access to high-quality instructional space that avoided many of the problems encountered when trying to find space on campus.

The CE directors were engaged in the decision-making process, concurrent with financial analyses to determine the feasibility of such a facility. The benefit to the University has been significant and the response by CE units and other units at the University has been extremely positive. The RCEC at Atrium has proven to be self-supporting at rates that are competitive with campus room rentals. This is another example of how DoCS’ action has benefitted the University by using its expertise, size and leverage, and market-sense to accomplish something that no other unit at Rutgers has done—provide a much-needed resource at reasonable rates that is self-supporting and not at all a burden to the University.

DoCS sees benefit to Rutgers based on the efficiencies it creates by centralizing basic functions such as the administration of the summer and winter semesters, online programs and courses,

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FUNDING MODEL and specialized laboratories such as the Game Research Immersive Design (GRID) lab, Makerspace and the instructional television Lab (Rutgers iTV Studio). In each lab DoCS offers the opportunity for students to participate in capstone projects towards their academic degree. Public service initiatives include the Center for Government Services (CGS) and the Center for Executive Leadership in Government (CELG).

Because of DoCS’ entrepreneurial focus, diversified funding model, focus on lifelong learning and academic tradition, DoCS chose to underwrite risks and responsibilities.

Evaluating New Revenue Generating Programs To guide program development, DoCS employs a learnercentric methodology to identify unmet or underserved needs and quantify the size of potential audiences. The process requires gathering information from potential registrants, current attendees, faculty, adjunct instructors, subject matter experts and both formal and informal networks connected to the learner.

Direct research conducted by DoCS is typically supplemented with insights from existing market research studies about the needs and size of the potential audience. In some cases, and with notable success in its largest noncredit programs, DoCS contracts with market research organizations focused on the needs of continuing education programs and audiences. Even in those cases, however, DoCS’ learner-centric focus recognizes that there is no substitute for direct contact with potential clients.

Accordingly, the direct insights of learners are heavily weighted in the development process. That process includes these steps.

1. Where did the idea originate?

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A learner-centric development focus is based on the premise that the most successful program proposals tend to come from attendees themselves. If the idea originated with an instructor or subject matter expert (SME), the next immediate step is to share the proposed course description with at least four potential registrants as a rapid litmus test to determine whether the audience agrees it is valuable. Interviews with seven or eight potential registrants is recommended at this first stage of the process.

• Combined, these interviews can provide a wealth of insight about audience needs, wants and problems.

These interviews also often reveal how those issues

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are being addressed now without DoCS’ offering the program.

2. What is the indication of demand—and at what price?

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Learner-centric market demand asks: When people choose to attend, what specific problems are they are seeking to solve or what specific benefits are they seeking to gain?

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If the topic or audience is closely allied with an existing program, consult evaluation summaries and enrollment counts from that program to learn more about the potential audience, including websites they frequent, influencers they follow on social media, associations they join and what programs they attend.

• What price point is being proposed for this offering and

on what evidence, research or related programs is it based?

3. What is the size of the potential market?

• For continuing professional education, identify the number of people in LinkedIn professional groups for a

quick proxy measurement of relative audience size.

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Use the keyword planning tool in DoCS’ Google Adwords account to identify the volume of search terms and their prices for the key words the audience employs to seek information about the topic. If additional information is needed or warranted, consult other keyword search tools, such as www.semrush.com or www.majestic.com.

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For professional audiences, obtain a broad measure of employment counts by consulting the Bureau of Labor Statistics national and regional employment projections http://www.bls.gov/data/#projections.

4. What is the competitive landscape?

•

•

•

Conduct a broad internet search using a wide variety of search terms that potential registrants might enter.

What online and classroom-based programs address the topic? What range of price points are revealed?

How often are these competitive programs offered

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each year? How many current providers are identified

and how directly do they compete for the target market?

• What distinguishes or differentiates DoCS’ program

from the competition? How will that difference be communicated clearly to the audience?

•

If there are no competitors, DoCS is either researching a currently unmet need that no one else has considered or developed, or others have investigated the market already and decided not to pursue it.

• Record data in a spreadsheet with prices, titles, start dates and providers and target audiences.

5. How will DoCS promote the offering?

These are key question points for discussion in interviews with prospective attendees:

• What kind of organizations do potential registrants work for?

• Are there social networks and associations that can be accessed to promote the offering?

• Are registrants paying their own way or does their employer pay? Is there a tradition or track record for employers to pay the prices proposed?

•

What other products or services do they buy? Who else is trying to reach them? Look for sales and marketing representatives from organizations that serve the targeted audience. For continuing education audiences, sales of book titles or software in the topic area and paid subscribers to electronic news sources can provide useful data points.

6. Who else should DoCS consult? Is there any important issue or question that has not yet been asked?

•

Ask these two questions before closing any interviews.

Daisy chaining (getting a new contact from an existing contact) is a key tool in the process. It enables DoCS to expand its understanding by connecting to the networks of each contact engaged in the

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As part of its efforts to promote sound market search activities University-wide, DoCS maintains a membership with the UPCEA Center for Benchmarking Research and Consulting (CBRC). To promote a more structured development process among the 40+ continuing education units at Rutgers, DoCS hosted CBRC’s chief marketing research officer in 2017 to share its Portfolio Decision Making Model to quantify program development opportunities.

University support funds the DoCS executive team, central human resources and business administration, business development, marketing, information technology and the Center for Math, Science and Computer Education. University support and fees fund Rutgers iTV Studio, Makerspace, the Center for Teaching Advancement and Assessment Research, the higher education centers at the six community colleges, and the Teaching and Learning with Technology group (TLT).

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10. Accessibility

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ACCESSIBILITY How well is DoCS meeting accessibility goals and national standards (e.g., QualityMatters.org) for its programs and for the on-campus programs for which it provides support services?

A University Leader in Accessibility The Division of Continuing Studies has positioned itself as the University leader in bringing together faculty for accessibility training. Now, with all universities expected to meet national standards for accessible online curriculum design as outlined in the Americans with Disabilities Act, it is more important than ever to develop best practices and provide University-wide training for faculty. Since 2015, DoCS and the Associate Vice President for Online Programs, in collaboration with the Office of Disability Services, have been leading the Universal Design and Accessibility Committee. The group was established to research the best ways to make online course materials the most accessible for all students, as well as those with disabilities, across all campuses and learning management system platforms. This University-wide committee consists of faculty, staff and administrators in Camden, Newark and New Brunswick who are active in the online education space. Through DoCS, accessibility training programs for faculty and instructional technology staff are available yearlong to make the process as easy as possible. DoCs is committed to providing online course material that meets and exceeds every standard for accessibility.

• Universal Design and Accessibility Committee: Since 2015, the Associate Vice President for Online

Programs, in collaboration with the Office of Disability

Services, has been leading a University-wide committee (Universal Design and Accessibility Committee) to address accessibility problems in online course materials across all campuses and platforms. “Online course materials” refer to any

web-based content and technologies in online, hybrid and face-to-face courses using a learning management system.

• Accessibility Technologies: Accessibility technologies funded by DoCS on behalf of the

University are now used across Rutgers (SensusAccess; UDOIT; automated captioning for

Kaltura videos funded for all LMSs except BlackBoard). Other technologies selected and endorsed by the same committee include Ally (BlackBoard only).

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ACCESSIBILITY • Faculty and Staff Training Programs: Deliberations of the Universal Design and Accessibility Committee

also led to TLT’s accessibility training programs for faculty and instructional technology staff, including the “Course Accessibility Guidelines,” a Universal

Design for Learning self-paced training course that will be accessible from all of our supported LMSs (Canvas,

Moodle, Sakai) and an assortment of webinars that address accessibility and pedagogy. The Course Accessibility Guidelines have been approved by the University Faculty Senate and have since been

promoted extensively to faculty and staff

University-wide.

• Quality Matters: TLT requires all of its instructional designers to undergo at least basic-level training in QualityMatters, the national research-based quality assurance system for the design of online learning.

All online courses and online components of online,

hybrid and face-to-face courses designed by TLT follow QualityMatters rubrics and standards to minimize accessibility issues and apply universal design principles.

• QM Course Reviews: TLT also offers “light” QM

course reviews by faculty request. This service allows

faculty to benefit from a course review that is based on the same standards designated by QualityMatters, at no cost. For faculty and departments interested in

a more detailed QM evaluation, we recommend

QualityMatters certification, which is conducted by the QualityMatters organization for a fee. Those that have

undergone our light review process are more likely to

pass a full review by QualityMatters.

• Accessibility Assessment of New Instructional

Technologies: OIT--specifically, the IT Accessibility

Initiative--works very closely with TLT to ensure that

all new instructional technology acquisitions meet

threshold expectations for accessibility. This process often eliminates technology choices altogether, or the

dialogue with the vendor leads to product adjustments

to correct any accessibility weaknesses brought to light through our internal testing.

• Creation of a New Quality Assurance Position: To

ensure that all DoCS websites and applications are

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ACCESSIBILITY accessible to learners and visitors of all abilities,

interviews for the new quality assurance position are

currently underway.

• Accessibility and Physical Spaces: Most of the programs and courses offered by DoCS use

space that is not owned or controlled by DoCS. Attention is paid to scheduling, renting and leasing space that meets physical accessibility standards. In

spaces that are owned by DoCS, such as the University Inn and Conference Center, compliance

with accessibility standards has been met through various accommodations, such as automated door openers, accessible bathrooms and accessible guestrooms in the hotel section of the University Inn. DoCS Center for Lifelong Learning DoCS is in the process of renovating an existing University building (a three-story building, formerly Administrative Services Building III on Ryders Lane, New Brunswick) to become the new DoCS Center for Lifelong Learning. This initiative will bring most of the 150 full-time DoCS employees into one location. In addition, two of the Continuing Studies Departments--the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Rutgers University (OLLI-RU) and the Center for Government Services (CGS)--will conduct their classes in the building on the first floor. It is anticipated that the main level will provide a variety of classrooms which will be fine-tuned to these learner needs, the second floor will contain administrative offices and a training center for staff and educators, and the third floor will house DoCS administration and leadership.

This building has several accessible features:

•

The site is flat and there is a grade-level building access with nearby designated accessible parking.

The main entry doors have power door assist and all the classrooms and offices are barrier-free. Assistive listening devices will be available on request and dual-level service counters allow wheelchair access.

The two passenger elevators are accessible and the interior stair towers have accessible handrail designs.

• Interior doors have lever hardware and accessible wall-mounted signage. The main men’s and women’s toilet rooms on each floor level are accessible as are

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the single occupancy toilets. The single occupancy toilets on the first and second floor also have power door assist. Two-level accessible drinking fountains with bottle fillers offer choices in accessibility. The fitness room and showers are barrier-free. The sloped floor cinema has barrier-free wheelchair accessibility.

•

Window shades reduce glare for those with visual disabilities and many classrooms, offices and enclosed rooms have vision glazing and open vistas to assist the deaf with visually locating others. Generous storage areas reduce the risk that boxes and equipment will be stored in corridors or outside workstations where they could create tripping hazards.

•

This new location will also include ample parking, landscaping and rear yard outdoor space that can be master planned for a campus atmosphere including occasional outdoor instruction, dining and events.

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11. Planning

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PLANNING Please comment on DoCS’ long-range plans, as well as the process for developing such plans, including the coordination between DoCS and other units of the University.

Top-down, Bottom-up and Outside-in Planning In developing its long-range plans, DoCS employs a process that combines the insights of top-down, bottom-up and outsidein strategic planning. DoCS’ diverse sources and methods for developing strategic planning insights are naturally matched to the equally diverse needs and interests of lifelong learners. By actively listening through multiple channels, DoCS hears – and represents -- the unique and distinct voices of nontraditional learners who range from K-12 students seeking summer enrichment to corporate executives seeking competitive advantages in global markets.

To ensure DoCS aligns its resource planning with University priorities, its top-down process begins with the University strategic plan. Upon publication of the strategic plan, DoCS convened working sessions of both its Executive Committee and the Senior Leadership Team to identify where and how DoCS and continuing education could be most effective in implementing the plan – and could be most affected by it as well.

To further cement alignment with University long-range planning, VP Novak served on the strategic planning committee of both the University and the New Brunswick campus, and he served on the steering committee for the Middle States Accreditation team and co-chaired the working group tasked with Standard 3, “Design and Delivery of the Student Learning Experience”.

To ensure DoCS remains continuously aligned with the needs of its diverse range of lifelong learners, it actively gathers insights directly from program participants. Through its program evaluation process, DoCS continuously collects information about the needs, wants and priorities of its learners, and those insights drive DoCS program development priorities at both the operational and strategic planning level. To gather additional insights from the collective wisdom of key influencers in its learners’ networks, DoCS convenes more than 15 distinct advisory committees, highlighted elsewhere in this report, that ensure a stream of informed, strategic advice, guidance and program development recommendations.

To complement those top-down and bottom-up processes, DoCS employs the outside-in insights of market research specialists that focus on the needs of continuing higher education and

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128

lifelong learners. Those market research specialists currently include the Education Advisory Board’s Continuing Education and Outreach (CEO) forum and the University Professional and Continuing Education Association’s Center for Research and Strategy. DoCS strategic plans also have been informed by research from Eduventures and Hanover Research. DoCS also has actively participated in national advisory committees focused on the needs of nontraditional learners. Most recently, VP Novak served on the UPCEA “Future of Credentials” strategic planning committee of business and higher education professionals convened in 2017 to:

• Examine the status of alternative credentials from the perspective of both higher education and the business community

• Identify key issues surrounding alternative credentials and their use and acceptance To ensure DoCS strategic vision is informed by the insights of the nation’s continuing education leaders, DoCS executive team members served as contributing writers to the development of “Hallmarks of Continuing Education,” which identifies best practices for continuing education and outreach organizations within higher education. To ensure DoCS strategic vision is aligned with CE leaders within Rutgers, DoCS surveys the needs of directors and practitioners through the Continuing Education Coordinating Council (CECC). Those surveys have produced a steady stream of improvements for both CE providers and their students, including:

• Continuing education loan financing made available to noncredit students

•

20,000-square foot continuing education facility leased and outfitted specifically for continuing education programs and students (Rutgers Continuing Education Center at Atrium)

• Streamlined budget approval process to facilitate rapid response CE program development

•

•

Single sign-on process for CE students that provides seamless and instantaneous access to program once payment is made Self-service multi-media production facility that lowers

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costs and barriers for faculty and staff creating CE content A parallel situation exists with respect to distance education.

DoCS strategic vision for distance education has been shaped by outside-in, top down and bottom up insights. As noted in this document, DoCS distance education aligns with the national UPCEA Hallmarks, Quality Matters rubrics for online course design, currently participates in the Online Program Management (OPM) partnership with Pearson and, with Pearson, shares best practices as applied to the design, development and delivery of online degree programs. Some of the indicators of continuous improvements based on these insights include:

•

Realignment of the domain of responsibility for technology services and instructional design services for the University (described in section 2, Educational Technologies and Pedagogy.)

•

Successfully merged three distinct groups at the University into one, and with rebranding as Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT), offer a broader range of services for faculty across the University than was possible through the three independent groups.

• Adoption and implementation of Canvas as the

replacement for eCollege, which Pearson chose to discontinue

• Through the collaboration with Pearson, achieved Authorization in all 50 states for Rutgers and also joined SARA

• In response to expressed need by schools offering degrees across the country, adopted Morneau Shepell for psychological services for fully online students

•

Researched, benchmarked and proposed a single tuition rate (instead of an out-of-state rate) to be more competitive nationally. This idea and rate was approved by the Rutgers Board of Governors

•

Within TLT, reconfigured services and built up talent around areas of faculty demand, and in alignment with national trends, resulting in several interconnected groups, with individualized specialties operating under the TLT banner

PLANNING

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DIVISION OF CONTINUING STUDIES

12. Additional Comments/ Supplemental Information

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS/SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION Supporting the Future of Lifelong Learning at Rutgers Today, whether mandated or by choice, more individuals than ever are pursuing CE courses. From professionals who understand the importance of continuing education to those looking for an edge in their profession, CE provides a boost to their careers and gives many working adults a reason to go back to school. CE is also a way to expand knowledge at any age, to enrich one’s life and to improve proficiency in a particular domain. At Rutgers, DoCS is the only division or school to focus solely on lifelong learners. With 160,000 registrants annually, DoCS is meeting a vast need that will only expand.

Lifelong learning has become a necessity. The dramatic increase in average life expectancy during the 20th century has been a game changer for other areas of our lives, from extended education to delayed marriage to individuals adopting second careers later in life. Most babies born in 1900 did not live past age 50. Today life expectancy at birth now exceeds 78 years in the United States. With longer life comes extended careers. Four years of college is hardly enough preparation for occupations that extend decades. When one considers how quickly technology has changed, from mobile phones to self-driving cars, it makes sense that jobs will also experience rapid evolution.

To keep up with this change, people turn to renewed educational opportunities to align themselves with new expectations and to get ahead in a changing work world. From advanced degrees to certificates of mastery in specific areas, continuing education is one of our fastest growing markets. These courses are available in class and online to meet the needs of busy lives.

The Division of Continuing Studies assists learners at every stage of the lifespan and provides educational opportunities that enrich lives, advance careers, increase understanding and expand horizons. Wherever the learner is on the road to age 78 and beyond, DoCS is with them, every step of the way. The Division of Continuing Studies is the expert in lifelong learning and will continue to expand the range of choices, enhance current programs and advocate for the needs of all learners.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS/SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION

DoCS Operational Units A description of each unit is provided on page 153.

BUSINESS UNITS

• Center for Continuing Professional Development (CCPD)

• Center for Government Services (CGS)

• Center for Innovation Education (RIE)

• Center for Mathematics, Science and Computer Education (CMSCE)

• Center for Off-Campus Initiatives (Rutgers Statewide)

• Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT)

• Office of Instructional Design (OID)

• Game Research and Immersive Design (GRID)

• Center for Teaching Advancement and Assessment Research (CTAAR)

• Makerspace

• Office of Visiting Students

• Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI-RU)

• Office of Summer and Winter Sessions / Special Projects

• Professional Science Master’s (PSM) Program

• Rutgers iTV Studio

• Rutgers University Inn & Conference Center

• Rutgers CE Center at Atrium PROFESSIONAL SUPPORT UNITS

• Business Office

• Human Resources

• Information Technology at Continuing Studies (ITaCS)

• Event Planning and Coordination Services Overall Organizational History, Mission, Vision The Division of Continuing Studies was established intentionally by presidential action and its formation was strategic and purposeful. DoCS began in 1996 as the Division of Continuous Education and Outreach as part of an effort to coordinate and support continuing education, distance education and outreach at Rutgers University, across all campuses. Since then, DoCS has grown to include over 150 employees in 20 distinct units at 20 locations that coordinate hundreds of credit and noncredit programs, enrolling thousands of participants, reaching audiences from youth to retirees and providing various support services across the University. Our educational services include a range of services that rely on state-of-the art technologies.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS/SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION DoCS is engaged in all three components of the Rutgers University mission of research, teaching and service.

DoCS’ mission is to promote lifelong learning as the central continuing education unit at Rutgers. DoCS’ vision is to continue to be a leader in lifelong learning, bringing flexible and accessible courses to adult and other learning populations that are often underserved. DoCS is committed to the support of lifelong learning in all its formats for audiences of all ages because of the many benefits that accrue to the individual and our communities.

Lifelong learners are happier, healthier and live longer. Those who continue with formal education have a significant financial advantage over the course of a lifetime. And a well-educated citizenry makes for a better society for all.

Commitment to customer service is another hallmark of the DoCS mission and is evident daily as staff regularly exceed expectations to meet faculty and student needs. That standard of service does not develop magically; DoCS is committed to recruiting skilled, caring staff and supporting them with an unwavering commitment to professional development. As a result, service and continuous learning have become part of the division’s DNA and help define DoCS as a learning organization.

Embracing both entrepreneurial thinking and creative problem solving, DoCS staff take great delight in extending the impact of Rutgers across various sectors and in all different modalities while generating revenue that supports the traditional academic enterprise.

Economies of Scale The application of business principles to higher education is required in the modern institution and at Rutgers. Approached strategically, continuing studies offers an opportunity to drive revenue, boost enrollment and further the academic mission of the University by reaching an underserved population of parttime students.

Many decentralized CE organizations are moving toward centralization as a way to moderate the distribution of incoming dollars in a controlled manner. Also, with Rutgers’ shift to the RCM model of responsibility-based budgeting, the administrative expense of registering students, managing programs and marketing courses is prohibitive for each individual school.

The centralized approach results in both cost savings and revenue that generates back to both the schools and across the

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS/SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION University.

DoCS serves as a centralizing function within a decentralized structure. Academic departments offer continuing education tied to a particular school across the Rutgers system. This helps foster collaborations among various units throughout the University. But DoCS has a centralized role for its basic functions such as the administration of the summer and winter sessions, online programs and courses, and specialized laboratories such as the Game Research Immersive Design (GRID) lab, Makerspace, and the instructional television lab (Rutgers iTV Studio).

Rutgers’ “modified decentralized” CE structure helps the division achieve economies of scale when purchasing services, technology or advertising. Coordination with more than 40 CE departments results in 200,000 registrations a year and huge revenue for the University.

In addition to cost savings, DoCS helps to capitalize on business opportunities that schools may not have time to explore.

Under the centralized structure, DoCS identifies cross-selling opportunities and programs that can be leveraged across markets.

Partnerships Perhaps more than any other school at Rutgers, the Division of Continuing Studies is uniquely positioned outward, existing to assist schools and to further the academic mission of the University. DoCS is a connector, a facilitator and an essential part of the Rutgers team.

First, DoCS is charged with coordinating the activity of more than 40 disparate CE units at Rutgers. Without University-wide coordination, each individual CE was originally operating wholly independently, without any thought to sharing services or aligning content. As CE units began computerizing their operations, units routinely were duplicating systems and services. Created to fill that leadership void, DoCS assumed two strategic and complementary roles to advance the mission and reach of lifelong learning at Rutgers. DoCS conceived, founded and manages the Continuing Education Coordinating Council (CECC) to provide a “modified decentralized” administrative structure to support, coordinate and document the activities more than 40 independent CE units around the University.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS/SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION Next, DoCS responds to requests from all schools for diverse assistance. DoCS supports 150 Rutgers departments annually. This year DoCS published a brochure titled “A Year of Outstanding Partnerships” to acknowledge and thank all the schools and programs.

A few examples of these key partnerships:

 The Center for Mathematics, Science and Computer

Education (CMSCE) partnered with the Rutgers

Graduate School of Education for a two-year Math Science Partnership grant (MSP). Last summer the

faculty led a two-week institute at the Rutgers-NB campus to prepare teacher ambassadors to engage in

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). This

summer the goal was for the ambassadors to lead

professional development workshops on NGSS for other teachers in their schools and districts.

 Rutgers University Pre-College Opportunities Fair

was held in January for K-12 students, families and K-12 school staff. This free event, co-sponsored

by Rutgers-New Brunswick Summer and Winter

Sessions and Rutgers Office of Enrollment Management, provided opportunities to attend

information sessions and explore pre-college programs.

 The Department of Political Science offered an

exchange program with Ritsumeikan University, with students staying at Rutgers University Inn &

Conference Center. Japanese students joined the spring semester and learned issues about mutual concern and sharing cultural, historical and

political experiences.

 Rutgers Makerspace, which serves over 1,500 students across the University each academic year,

collaborated with The Honors College of Rutgers-New

Brunswick in conceptualizing, installing and training

students to maintain their own onsite makerspace.

 In June, students from the Rutgers Top Universities Preparatory Academy (TUP) begin classes and continue them throughout the summer, fall and spring semesters. TUP is a one-year bridge program designed to prepare high-achieving international secondary school seniors for admission to and

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS/SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION

successful study at top U.S. colleges and universities.

Rutgers-New Brunswick Summer Session works with Rutgers School of Communication and Information, Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers Business School, and Mason Gross Extension to deliver noncredit academic courses for TUP.

Facilities and Infrastructure: Benefits of New Building In keeping with DoCS’ role as the University leader in lifelong learning, the entire team will move to a new building next year that will enhance services for the University and increase access to high-tech options for innovations in learning.

This planned move to a new building will bring most of the 150 DoCS employees into one location at the threestory Administrative Services Building Ill on Ryders Lane, New Brunswick. In addition, two of the Continuing Studies departments, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Rutgers University (OLLI-RU) and the Center for Government Studies (CGS), will conduct their classes in the new building. It is anticipated that the main level will provide a variety of classrooms that will be fine-tuned to particular needs, the second floor will contain administrative offices and a training center for staff and educators, and the third floor will house administration and leadership.

The innovation in learning goals will be evident throughout the facility from the entrance to the workspaces. Faculty will have use of AV equipment and active learning classrooms with collaborative workstations. Video recording and editing studios, along with the support staff, will be available for instructors to either record their lectures and PowerPoints or to make other instructional videos. Distance Learning Classrooms will feature fixed-point cameras and multiple media formats for including PowerPoint, printed material and other graphic materials in the broadcast with simple controls for simulcasting. Rutgers iTV Studio and editing room instructors will be trained in creating digital video recordings of their lectures and materials using a permanent recording studio.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS/SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION

Appendices This Appendix includes additional detail on:

• TLT organizational structure and service units

• Additional University-wide services provided by TLT

• TLT Partnerships Across Rutgers

• Innovative technologies implemented by TLT

Organizational Structure and TLT Service Units Supporting more than 95 percent of all Rutgers teaching and learning initiatives involving instructional technologies, TLT is critical to the success of the University’s educational mission.

It is also an increasingly important staff resource to assist the University in its efforts to meet web-related compliance, privacy and accessibility mandates. With a staff count of 43 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff members, TLT is the sole unit at Rutgers with the capacity, historical mandate and proven ability to support all forms of online learning institution-wide.

Teaching and Learning with Technology, a sub-unit of the Division of Continuing Studies, was reconfigured in 2017 by joining three formerly separate Rutgers instructional technology staff entities: the Office of Instructional and Research Technology (OIRT; New Brunswick), and the Center for Online & Hybrid Learning and Instructional Technologies (COHLIT; New Brunswick). The merger of the three staff units was key to the 2017 “Realignment of Instructional Technology Resources,” mandated by President Robert Barchi, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Barbara Lee, and Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer Michele Norin.

Prior to their merger, all three units had a long-standing history at Rutgers, although COHLIT is the oldest by far. In fact, technology support for online education at Rutgers began in the Division of Continuing Studies, coterminous with the delivery of the first online courses and programs in the late 1990s. What began in modest fashion, two or three staff supporting dozens of fulltime and part-time faculty who taught online courses, grew into a more formal unit, namely, COHLIT (Center for Online and Hybrid Learning and Instructional Technologies), as the number

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS/SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION of online courses and online instructors grew dramatically. It was COHLIT—or rather what in 2009 came to be known as COHLIT—that supported the design of the University’s first fully online course in 1999, offered on the eCollege learning management system.

The merger of these three units has brought together more than 50 full-time instructional technology staff to create a new central University resource. Consolidation of resources in a central unit has significantly increased efficiency and consistency of instructional technology support, lowered technology licensing costs by creating FTE-based economies of scale, and increased collaboration between faculty and staff University-wide.

Teaching and Learning with Technology is organized into several distinct areas of operation: 1. Help Desk: This 24/7/365 call center is the only one of its kind at Rutgers, serving the entire University. It provides instructional technology support services to faculty and students engaged in online, hybrid or face-to-face education, whether for-credit or noncredit. Online vendor-provided and vendor-operated help desk services, the Rutgers Help Desk within TLT is staffed by full- and part-time professionals who are Rutgers employees. https://tlt.rutgers.edu/tlt-help-desk-247365 2. Instructional Design: The Office of Instructional Design (OID) assists faculty in creating hybrid and fully online courses in Canvas, eCollege/Pearson Learning Studio, Moodle, Sakai, or Coursera (the University’s Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platform of choice). Instructional designers work with faculty onsite hip to hip, on the phone, via video conference, and face-to-face in academic venues on all Rutgers campuses.

Furthermore, an ever more important part of OID’s work has been mass migration of courses between learning management systems. For the past year, this service has enabled the University to exit eCollege/Pearson LearningStudio in an organized fashion, following Pearson’s surprise announcement in January 2017 to sunset its own platform. Hundreds of faculty so far have appreciated the help they receive from OID in smoothly transitioning to another Rutgers LMS of their choice, which in the vast majority of cases has been Canvas. Demand for assistance with LMS migration will likely intensify in the near future, especially if the University’s LMS Committee will settle on a single LMS mandated across all of Rutgers. The task of migrating thousands, if not tens of thousands, of courses to this single LMS will likely fall to TLT as the only Rutgers resource

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS/SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION equipped to handle this monumental multi-year undertaking. https://tlt.rutgers.edu/course-development 3. Faculty Professional Development: OID staff also provide training on numerous instructional technology platforms and tools and in a variety of formats—in-person, onsite, in academic venues across Rutgers or fully online (self-directed and instructor-guided). https://tlt.rutgers.edu/learning-opportunities 4. New Media Center: Located at the iTV Studio facility on Livingston Campus, the New Media Center’s core mission is to support online and hybrid course design with a broad range of multimedia and new media components, including graphic designs, video productions and animations. The New Media Center collaborates with academic units University-wide in forcredit as well as noncredit education. https://tlt.rutgers.edu/newmedia-center The New Media Center offers faculty across a multitude of disciplines and programs an opportunity to create professional engaging media for their online, hybrid and face-to-face courses.

Not only can faculty create professional media but the New Media Center also works closely with the Office of Instructional Design to make sure that the media components are following best practice instructional design principles. Services from the New Media Center include media production training, guidance in the use of the DIY Project studio, creation of media elements and also support from TLT’s instructional design team OID. 5. GRID: Game Research and Immersive Design (GRID) supports educational activities and experiences by bringing the bleeding edge of instructional technology to Rutgers faculty, students and instructional designers. This has bridged across fully online, hybrid and on-ground courses. Game Technology, game research and new technologies being used in education are reshaping the student, faculty and administrative experience.

GRID has done this since 2010. For example, the team’s mobile application game design employs extended reality (XR) and game technologies to create immersive and motivational experiences, for example the RUOnlineCon app—a game created for the annual Rutgers Online Learning Conference— which was designed in-house with the help of ITaCS (“IT at Continuing Studies”). GRID also creates games for research purposes. Recent examples include the web-based game developed for “Game Research for Infrastructure Security” (GRIST) of the School of Engineering, http://gursoy.rutgers.edu/ GRIST/index.html. Additionally, this past year, GRID employed

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS/SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION machine learning in a language practice and acquisition app for the Department of Italian, School of Arts and Sciences.

Furthermore, GRID’s use of cutting-edge technologies now also includes video footage captured by drones; special simulations; virtual content; and 3D environments. Various combinations of these technology applications have led to innovations of mixed content and extended reality (XR) designs. https://tlt.rutgers.edu/ grid-games 6. IT Support and Systems Administration: TLT’s IT support and application development team is responsible for the successful delivery of the Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Education Technology (EdTech) tools, ensuring that they operate smoothly and integrations function seamlessly, including integrations from outside, third-party vendors.

The most critical integrations include development and data warehouse hooks into Student Information Systems (SIS) administered through the Rutgers central Office of Information Technology (OIT). The SIS integrations provide course details, scheduling, instructor assignments and student rosters to the LMSs. Furthermore, student final grades may be passed between the LMS and the SIS at the end of each term. Another critical central OIT resource that TLT leverages in the LMS is the Central Authentication Service (CAS), allowing users to authenticate themselves and their session with a valid Rutgers Network Identifier (NetID). Using the Rutgers OIT CAS framework, TLT provides Single Sign On (SSO) capability for users using Rutgers services, but also SSO with third-party applications.

In addition to providing operational support, the IT team also collaborates with ITaCS (IT at Continuing Studies) and GRID (Game Research and Immersive Design) to develop new technology, such as free-standing applications. One such application is the RUOnlineCon mobile app. It was developed in-house and demoed at the March 2018 national UPCEA Conference in Baltimore. Future iterations of the app are expected to hold potential for commercialization.

The ITaCS and TLT partnership allows TLT to administer and maintain their own server environment. TLT’s server environment includes applications using various languages for clients and server-side programming, web server, and database and servers. https://tlt.rutgers.edu/information-technology-tlt

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS/SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION Additional University-wide Services

Scalable Central Support Structure

Though physically located in New Brunswick, Teaching and Learning with Technology supports all Rutgers faculty and students using Canvas, Moodle, eCollege/ Pearson Learning Studio, or Sakai across all University campuses, various educational centers and six higher education centers on community college campuses in New Jersey, and online learners and instructors nationwide. This amounts to over 90 percent of all Rutgers enrollments using a learning management system in some capacity. The formation of TLT marks an historical moment of great significance. For the very first time, Rutgers boasts a central support structure and resource for its online learning enterprise that coordinates with local school and campus resources throughout the University. This structure is cost efficient, comprehensive, robust and organizationally coherent.

Moreover, TLT is easily scalable as the University is asserting its online education presence in the national marketplace and striving to compete with the best online institutions for new enrollments. Equally important from a financial and resource point of view, the consolidation of instructional technology support in one staff unit—TLT—is by far the most efficient and cost-effective solution to providing consistent and highquality technology support to a large multi-campus institution. Very much in the spirit of the “Realignment of Instructional Technology Resources,” TLT has eliminated many costly and confusing redundancies of service between campuses, and between OIT and Academic Affairs, while ensuring that faculty and students on all campuses receive the same level of service from the same central group of instructional technology specialists.

Federal and State Compliance Issues Accessibility and Universal Design; and State Authorization

Because of its very nature as a highly visible and widely accessible enterprise, online education exposes institutions to a growing number of legal risks both at the federal and state levels. Successful mitigation and management of these threats requires centralized

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decision-making, monitoring and access to institutionwide data. TLT plays a leading role in the University’s efforts to create online courses that are compliant with the American Disabilities Act. The group has been working very closely with OIT, ODS (Office of Disability Services), the Rutgers Libraries, and a University-wide committee of Rutgers faculty and instructional designers to raise awareness of the issues at stake; create training programs and other resources to assist faculty and instructional technology staff in designing universally accessible courses; and identify and procure new technologies used in assessing and repairing web-based materials with accessibility deficiencies. To ensure that our courses follow universal design principles, all TLT instructional designers are required to acquire at least basic certification in Quality Matters, a nationally accepted, research-based set of rubrics and standards defining the highest quality in online course design.

In addition, TLT also provides training programs guiding faculty in how to apply QM principles to their own courses. For departments and schools interested in QMbased course design assessments, TLT provides “light reviews” at no cost. Those who prefer a more in-depth course evaluation are encouraged to undergo the formal course certification process with the Quality Matters organization.

Moreover, TLT, in collaboration with the compliance director at Pearson, ensures that Rutgers is properly authorized in all U.S. states and territories where it has resident students or faculty on the ground. The process of acquiring state authorizations has been both onerous and costly. However, it is a necessary (albeit little known) part of the University’s push for greater prominence in the online world. Non-compliance with federal and state authorization laws can lead to hefty fines for institutions or even the loss of Title IV funding.

Where applicable, all fees associated with state authorization are funded by DoCS on behalf of the entire University.

Rutgers Online Learning Conference

Launched in 1999, the annual Rutgers Online Learning Conference brings together online instructors and learners from across Rutgers, from across the state, and increasingly, from across the U.S. Popular discussion topics include use of instructional technologies, online

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pedagogies, instructional design practices, student engagement, regulatory compliance, and online program management, among others. The Rutgers Online Learning Conference is the only such event at Rutgers, and it is organized and funded by TLT. Originally designed specifically with eCollege users in mind, the conference has greatly broadened its focus in recent years to become technology-agnostic. This is reflected in the inclusion of a broad range of instructional technology sponsors as well as recent conference partnerships with NJEdge and the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA). The upcoming tenth annual conference (March 2019) will broaden the scope of presentations to include augmented and virtual reality tracks as well as a track dedicated to K-12 education.

TLT Partnerships Across Rutgers New Media Center Unique technologies included in the New Media Center are a DIY project studio and glassboard. The DIY studio is a unique studio self-recording space with functionality that can include screen capturing, audio recording and editing capabilities. The glassboard is a technology that translates an on-site classroom whiteboard into a delivery format that can be used in online or hybrid courses. The technology includes a transparent board and use of neon dry erase markers where the writing is illuminated by LEDs. The faculty member stands behind the board and writes on the board presenting content to the students, much like a traditional white board, but more engaging due to the fact that the faculty faces the camera during the presentation.

The New Media Center has worked with many different schools across various campuses. A few of these projects and schools include:

• Art History 105/106 lecture series, Department of Art History. Several lectures encompassing the history of art for online courses, recorded on location and in the

DIY project studio with post production editing

completed by New Media Center Staff

• Welcome from the Dean video, School of Arts and Sciences. Dean Shostack video created to welcome new students to the department.

• Animations for philosophy all-stars projects. Created

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animations to edit over philosophy interviews with SME in the field. Animation was conceptually created to give the viewer a visual example of various philosophy concepts.

•

Lecture videos for the Camden School of Business.

Faculty recording lecture videos utilizing the DIY studio and glassboard technology (clear whiteboard for use in online video) in the New Media Center. New Media staff would add titles, graphics and edit PowerPoint slides over the recorded video for a polished effect.

•

Department of Epidemiology is in the process of converting several of their courses from onsite to online. The department is utilizing TLT’s instructional design services as well as the New Media Center’s DIY project studio for the lecture portion. Three faculty from the department were tasked with recording lecture videos for PHCO 0502 Principles and Methods of Epidemiology course. The project is successful with the expansion of adding more media elements to the existing course as well as future courses.

• SMLR’s faculty member Anne Michelle Marsden and

Lisa Schur have utilized the DIY project studio for various online courses.

•

As well as the DIY studio and glassboard technologies, the New Media Center is set up with media technology for creating media that is produced on-location and in the iTV Studio. This gives faculty the ability to have SME or “guest lectures,” round table discussions or any other type of media creation that does not utilizes the DIY studio. The New Media Center works collaboratively with the Office of Instructional Design, GRID and ITaCS and works synergistically with iTV Studio and Scarlet Media. Scarlet Media, iTV Studio and New Media Center are the units that comprise DoCS media services.

Partnerships Serving Noncredit and Nontraditional Learners Center on Violence Against Women and Children (VAWC) Games

• Partner: Center on Violence Against Women and Children (VAWC), https://socialwork.rutgers.edu/

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•

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centers/center-violence-against-women-and-children 2D games Building trust and advice for victims of economic abuse and physical abuse Category: 2D game, Roleplay

Newark Health Game

• Partner: Newark Health • Orientation game • Category: 2D game

Answer Sex Ed, Honestly Games

• Partner: Answer, http://answer.rutgers.edu/page/ aboutusintro

• Sex education and self-perception

• Category: 2D Games RU Maker Program with Center for Mathematics, Science and Computer Education

• Partner: CMSCE, https://cmsce.rutgers.edu/

• K-12 teacher training for maker technologies

• 3D printing to virtual world building

• Category: Partner program brings technology to instructors Collaboration with GSE on Master Maker Certificate Program (ongoing)

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Partner: GSE and CMSCE STEAM program K-12 teacher program for Makerspace and game technologies Category: Partner program brings technology to instructors

Attacker/Defender Games for GRIST

• Partner: GRIST and Melike Gursoy

• Cybersecurity

• 2D game attack/defender study

• Advisor for 3D game for crowd simulation for a train

station with attackers and defenders

• Category: 2D games, 3D games, cybersecurity, machine learning

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS/SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION Augmented Reality Conference Games with ITaCS

• Partner: TLT

• Conference game designed by GRID and built

by ITaCS

• Players were encouraged to play together and collect

challenges that increase social interaction as well as increase the social media posts generated at the conference.

• Category: mobile, augmented reality Augmented Reality Rutgers Day Game

• Partner: DoCS and ITaCS

• Demo game to be played during Rutgers Day

• Players can play together, capture social moments and collect challenges during Rutgers Day and the rest of the year, increasing social media engagement and in-person socialization.

• Category: mobile, augmented reality, social media integration Augmented Reality Arbor Trail with Landscape Architecture and University Inn and Conference Center (UICC)

• Partner: UICC and Landscape Architecture

• Learn about and explore the historic Arbor Trail at the University Inn and Conference Center.

• Players are encouraged to explore and learn about the trail, animals, plants and history of this beautiful space.

• Additional goals are to encourage the cleanup

and maintenance of the space by having the reward system encourage thoughtful behavior.

• Category: mobile, 3D assets, augmented reality, social media integration RU Online Conference Games, Papers and Support

• For TLT

• Game technology demos and tracks at RU Online Conferences

• Booth with 3D printing, Google Cardboard and Oculus Rift ITI Capstone: Make a Product and Pitch a Company

• Partner: ITI program at SCI

• Make a product and launch a company in a semester using the latest in technologies and full use of Rutgers Makerspace

• Since 2012 to Present

• Category: conference technology, group games

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS/SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION Machine Learning and Language Acquisition with Italian Department

• Partner: Carmela Scala, Italian Department faculty member

• Machine learning to generate contextual language learning and assignments

• Augmented reality with machine learning to enhance immersive language learning

• Category: machine learning, digital humanities, supercomputing, augmented reality, computer vision Autonomous Vehicle Project with Wireless Information Network Laboratory (WINLAB)

• Partner: WINLAB, http://winlab.rutgers.edu/ and CMSCE

• Autonomous vehicles for real world intersection simulation

• AI maker camp for TUP program

• Category: 3D simulation, autonomous vehicles, 3D assets, machine learning AI Maker Camp with WINLAB, CMSCE and Top University Preparation (TUP)

• Partner: WINLAB, CMSCE, TUP,

https://tup.rutgers.edu

• Week-long AI maker camp for international secondary school seniors

• Category: 3D simulation, autonomous vehicles, 3D assets, machine learning EMG/NCV Demo

• Partner: Karen Huhn; Doctor of Physical Therapy Program

• Student receives case file with a question about a

patient’s arm nerves and uses a virtual arm to

attach probes and reads the Electromyography (EMG)/

Nerve Conduction Velocity (ENC) machine to determine correct diagnosis.

• Category: 3D simulation Rutgers Business School Simulation

• Rutgers-New Brunswick Business School simulation

• Web-based drop in virtual world and tour to explore the building prior to being built

• Category: 3D multiplayer building simulation

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• Partner: Social Work

• Drop-in virtual world

• Patient and therapist role play in a virtual therapy office

• Category: 3D virtual world, role play Virtual Conference Center

• Partner: SMLR https://smlr.rutgers.edu/

• Virtual conference center

• Drop-in virtual world

• Teams of up to 10 vs. 10 meet in a virtual conference center to negotiate a contract.

• Category: 3D virtual world, role play Innovative Technologies: Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Technologies by GRID Technologies for immersive and game-based learning. (What was done by type, gamification) 360 Panoramas Fully Immersive with:

• Vive

• Oculus

• Oculus Go

• Gear 360 Drone and Robotic Technology

• Video captures

• Image capture

• 360 3D capture and reconstruction

• Ground bases with autonomous vehicles

• Air based with flyable drones K-12, Higher Education Machine Learning Workshops

• Google Vision

• Google Sound

• Autonomous Cars: Foocars Workshop

• Computer Vision

• Raspberry PI Game Technologies for New Media

• Games for educational video

• Untiy3D to create video assets for learning

• Mini games for courses

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• 3D Printing

• 3D Design software

• Faculty use this to work on the technology they are using Virtual Reality Room

• Faculty access to XR/VR/AR technology

• Space for faculty to explore and work on what they learn

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Services Provided by DoCS Operational Units Rutgers iTV Studio: The instructional television studio is the only fully digital, high-definition broadcast television studio at Rutgers University. Fiber uplinks connect Rutgers to the entire broadcast world. Rutgers iTV Studio provides training and schedules fee-for-service projects using state-of-the-art equipment for use in television productions. Fee revenue and cost pool funding support two FTEs. Makerspace: This collaborative workspace is designed for students, faculty and staff from all academic disciplines who love to learn, design and create. Makerspace provides the knowledge, tools and workspace to foster innovation, design and creation.

Makerspace teaches the latest in rapid prototyping technology alongside woodshop, textiles and electronics equipment to help build out projects using 3-D printers and laser cutters. Emerging fee revenue and cost pool funding supports one FTE. Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Rutgers (OLLI-RU): This is the senior adult learning center for intellectually active retirees and an important aspect of Rutgers outreach mission. Hundreds of short courses are offered to the senior adult community and social interaction is facilitated at a time when these students welcome the opportunity for intellectual stimulation. Primarily modest course fee revenue and some cost pool funding support three FTEs. Over 2,000 older adults (average age of 78) participate each term in multiple locations.

Rutgers Innovation Education (RIE): RIE offers unique continuing education courses for emerging disciplines or advances in technology otherwise not available in the current marketplace. Tuition revenue and cost pool funding support two FTEs. Center for Math, Science and Computer Education (CMSCE): The CMSCE receives $.8 million in cost pool funding to support six FTEs and provides professional development for K-12 educators to enhance science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teaching and learning in the classroom.

CMSCE also works closely with Rutgers faculty who teach and

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS/SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION do research in the STEM areas.

Center for Teaching Advancement and Assessment Research (CTAAR): CTAAR receives $.7 million in cost pool funding to support five FTEs. CTAAR is responsible for the annual teaching assessment program and provides additional training to faculty and staff on office computer software.

Center for Off Campus Initiative (Rutgers Statewide): Rutgers Statewide offers credit courses for students seeking to obtain their Rutgers degree at one of the six cv bv ommunity colleges in New Jersey participating in this program. At Rutgers Statewide locations, 15 FTEs are supported by $.7 million in cost pool funding and $1.6 million from the off-campus fee.

Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT): TLT is the central University unit supporting faculty and students in online and hybrid courses. Staff provide the instructional design, course development and 24/7 helpdesk support for the Moodle, Sakai, Pearson and Canvas online learning platforms as well as coordination of the Pearson Managed Program (i.e. 50 percent tuition split). At TLT, $6.4 million in online course fees and $1.4 million in cost pool funding support 44 FTEs. The Game Research and Immersive Design (GRID) lab is also supported by the TLT operation.

Game Research and Immersive Design (GRID): The GRID lab provides an environment for video game productions and use as a lab for capstone projects.

New Brunswick Summer and Winter Sessions: These academic credit programs receive $1.3 million in cost pool funding from the New Brunswick allocation to support 10 FTEs in their role to continue to grow the already significant summer and winter program in place (it has advanced to the 4th largest program in the United States). This unit also serves as the collection mechanism for pass-through summer and winter student fees.

The fees are reallocated as appropriate to New Brunswick units that support students in the summer and winter terms, such as the library, bus service and others.

Rutgers University Inn & Conference Center: As a boutique hotel and conference center, it is classified as an auxiliary operation and is therefore a self-funded operation with 5.5 FTEs. Any excess revenue is used to fund capital improvements made to the aging facility.

Center for Government Services (CGS): The CGS, with 19 FTEs, offers continuing education classes for government

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS/SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION employees who are required to continue their education in order maintain their employment. This is a self-supporting and revenue-generating unit.

Center for Continued Professional Development (CCPD): The CCPD, with seven FTEs, offers a variety of classes for adult learners, primarily for the purpose of re-tooling their skills as they seek employment. This is a self-supporting and revenuegenerating unit.

Summer Continuing Education Programs: These programs, with two FTEs, have been created by our summer office as a means of attracting future Rutgers credit-bearing students globally. Examples include Advanced Placement Institute, Gifted Education, RU Path, Pre-College Programs and several international programs such as TUP (Top Universities Preparation). This is a self-supporting and revenue-generating unit.

CGS, CCPD and Summer CE programs do not receive any cost pool funding and provide enough CE tuition revenue to fund DoCS’ marketing efforts, including sponsorship of large exhibits at Atlantic City conventions and support for the CE registration system, made available to all continuing education programs across Rutgers University.

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85 Somerset Street New Brunswick, NJ 08901