By Alex Hwu, Director of CDE
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CDE is a part of the College of Rural and Community
Development (CRCD)
Enrollment in courses delivered through CDE is
approximately 6500 annually, generating more than
20,000 student credit hours (SCH).
CDE’s enrollment has increased by an average of 8 to
10% each of the last 3 years.
CDE serves over 4300 individual students annually,
70% of them UAF main campus students or students
residing in the Fairbanks area, 21% outside Fairbanks,
and 9% outside Alaska.
CDE’s student age distribution: 53% are 19-25, 19%
are 26-30, and 28% are 30+ years old.
Demographic Distribution
Outside AK
AK
AK Demographic
Distribution
REST of AK
Military
Fairbanks
NorthPole
9%
11%
34%
50%
91%
5%
CDE Students M-F Ratio
F
Student Age Distribution
M
19-25
26-30
30 &
Up
28%
31%
53%
69%
19%
Lower 48 Demographic Distribution
VT
0%
RI
NJ
0%
0%
NH CT
0% 0%
AE
4%
WA
17%
NY PA
1% 0%
VA
5%
OR
1%
HI
3%
GA
5%
FL
5%
KY
2%
CA
8%
OH
IN 1%
2%
NV
4%
WI
5%
NM
7%
AZ
2% UT
2% ID
0%
WY
4%
CO
3%
TX
4%
LA
2%
MN
MT 2%
IL 1%
2%
MO
1%
IA MI
0% 2%
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CDE offers around 140 courses, which includes some
print based courses.
CDE student services staff processed nearly 65,000
individual student lessons last year
CDE facilitated courses (from this point on referred to
as simply “CDE Courses”) are offered cooperatively
through 38 UAF academic departments.
Currently there are approximately 80 instructors
teaching for CDE, approximately 85% of whom teach—
or have taught—at UAF or other higher education
institutions.
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Department approval before CDE begins development of a
course
Department approval of the developer (faculty who will be
developing or revising the course)
CDE course design review and approval by instructional
designers utilizing the CDE Rubric and design checklist
Department review and approval of the course content,
verifying that it meets department academic standards and
outcomes for the course designator, as defined by
department curriculum group(s)
Department approval of the instructor(s) for a course
(usually the same faculty who developed it, but not always)
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“Reverse Engineering” from outcomes to activities by
way of evidence-based assessment of understanding,
turning the process away from disconnected activities
that are not coherently tied to learning objectives
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Development emphasis on:
◦ Learning community within the classroom
◦ Facilitating the three vectors of interaction between student,
instructor and curriculum
◦ Integrating place-based knowledge, information and activities
◦ Creating activities that bring the “real world” and media into
the classroom
◦ Providing access to—and practices for working within—socially
networked environments, inside the classroom and out
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A foundation for online courses that promotes
“Information Fluency”—the combination of:
◦ discipline/course specific information and resources
◦ application of critical thinking skills and techniques
◦ presentation and participation tools and skills
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Consideration of how activities and materials
promote development of the students’ Personal
Learning Environments (PLE) and Project Based
Learning (PBL)
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Traditional students are comprised of:
◦ Semester-based/UAF degree seeking students who
register using UAOnline or their local registrar and
purchase materials from the CRCD Book Store
◦ Semester-based/(UAA and UAS) degree seeking students
who register using UAOnline or their local registrar and
the CRCD Book Store mails books and materials
◦ Semester-based/Non-degree seeking students from all
three UA campuses as well as other institutions who
transfer credits to their home institution later or take
advantage of existing articulation agreements
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CDE also services non-traditional students with “yearlong”
courses which do not require formal admission to UAF and
for which all students are charged in-state tuition. Nontraditional students include:
◦ Students wanting core courses out of the way before they become
degree seeking
◦ Students who cannot attend a campus course; i.e. single parent,
full-time working people, continuing education
◦ Students wanting to take refresher courses
◦ Teachers seeking re-certification and step increases
◦ High school students—both home schooled and students from
Fairbanks or surrounding areas—taking courses they can’t
otherwise acquire (higher levels of math, for instance)
◦ Senior citizens
◦ Military Personnel
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ITEACH
◦ iTeach is the flagship of faculty development at the
University of Alaska providing intensive, personalized,
practical faculty development in teaching and learning
technology and pedagogy. More than 175 faculty
members from every region of the state have participated
in iTeach seminars.
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IDESIGN
◦ The annual iDesign conference hosted by CDE pulls
together instructional designers from within the
University of Alaska as well as other educational and
vocational institutions around the state who provide
similar types of faculty support for distance education
courses. Through face to face workshops, Elluminate
Live! web conferencing and audio conference meetings,
and provision of internet resources, this group has the
opportunity to learn from one another and to explore
topics that affect the philosophy, process, and production
of curriculum for higher education.
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DISTANCE EDUCATION GATEWAY
◦ The statewide Distance Education Gateway continues to
be developed, maintained and operated by CDE staff in
conjunction with UA Statewide. The Gateway provides
the only centralized point for students and prospective
students to learn about distance learning options across
the entire University system and will play a major role in
the future.
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CDE continues to seek improvement in their offerings and
take advantage of emerging pedagogies and technologies to
meet student and institutional needs.
The administration, staff and instructors at CDE look
forward to new opportunities including investigating new
models of course delivery and instructor compensation,
Working on creating open resources for students and
faculty, extending the functionality and services of the
Distance Gateway.
And cooperative service agreements with departments with
an eye toward helping departments reach their goals while
offering more options for distance education students
including complete degree programs.
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Increase both online student retention and success rate.
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CDE new quality improve program (QIP).
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Increase collaboration with school/college based on new 60/40
tuition funding model.
◦ Increase interaction between students and instructor through social
networking.
◦ Create more synchronized learning activities.
◦ Create online orientation for students and faculty.
◦ Establish CDE ticket system to track students’ issues and resolution.
◦ Provide additional professional development for all online instructors.
◦ Create faculty online communities.
◦ Hiring additional instructional designer, LMS Coordinator and student
academic advisor.
◦ Increase academic oversight on both online courses and programs.
◦ Grow online teaching capacity within each school and college.
◦ Develop new online programs and certificates.
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Faculty Development for Specific School and
College.
◦ Two days workshop on how technology can facilitate
teaching.
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CDE tuition revenue sharing with School and
College
◦ Partnership with departments to meet students’ need and
demand
◦ Increase online instruction capacity within each
department
◦ Assist department on potential TA and RA funding
Scenarios
Pays
instructor
Tuition split
Student/Faculty
Support and
Instructional
Design
CDE course
CDE
90% CDE
CDE
10% College/School
CDE course
College/School
40% CDE
60% College/School
CDE
Performance Metrics and Supporting Data
FY05
Historical Performance
FY06
FY07
FY08
FY09
Student Credit Hours Generated
16,158
17,766
17,267
18,705
19,724
Lower Divison SCH
12,450
13,436
13,049
13,869
14,729
Upper Division SCH
2,909
3,559
3,558
4,126
4,428
Graduate Division SCH
715
771
660
710
567
Professional Level SCH
84
0
0
0
0
1,313
1,288
1,310
1,485
Reporting Period: FY09 (July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009)
Undergraduate Enrollment, fall terms only (ex UY% ) 1,262
Graduate Enrollment, fall terms only (ex UY% )
65
68
64
49
49
UA Scholar Enrollment, fall terms only (ex UY% )
86
125
99
145
160
16000
14000
12000
2001
2002
10000
2003
2004
8000
2005
2006
2007
6000
2008
2009
4000
2000
0
Lower
Upper
Developmental
Graduate
500-level