THE STATE OF ONLINE EDUCATION IN
PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND
ADMINISTRATION PROGRAMS
PRESENTATION AT
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOLS
OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND
ADMINISTRATION (NASPAA)
CONFERENCE, 2011
Augustine Hammond & Martha Ginn
Augusta State University
CONTEXT OF THE STUDY
Considering placing the MPA program at
Augusta State University online
 Search for information on the state of online
education in Public Affairs and Administration
 Little and inconsistent information
 This presentation is based on:
 Content analysis of MPA online programs’
websites and
 Survey of accredited Public Affairs and
Administration programs with support from
NASPAA (Response from 96 schools)

SUMMARY RESULTS
96 out of the 270 NASPAA affiliated institutions (~
36%) completed the survey
 Our respondents appear relatively representative
of NASPAA member programs in terms of
institution type
 76% of NASPAA members are public institutions
vs. 81% (n=78) of our respondents
 23% of NASPAA members are non-profit
institutions vs. 19% (n = 16) of our respondents
 It also reflected significant geographic diversity

SUMMARY RESULTS





18 of the 51 schools listed on NASPAA’s website as
offering online courses or programs (35.3%) completed
the survey
Through the survey, we identified 44 additional schools
that offer online courses or programs.
We visited program websites for every NASPAA listed
school
 We identified 33 schools with online courses and
programs in addition to 51 schools listed by NASPAA
A total of 84 schools with online courses and programs
Comparing our list from the content analysis with our
survey, we identified a total of 127 MPA programs that
offer some form of online education
SUMMARY RESULTS
We were able to successfully identify and collect
information on program websites from 121 of the
127 schools
 Of the 96 schools that completed the survey about
a third, 34 (35.4%), do not offer any courses with
online components
 The remaining offer some form of online education:
 17 (17.7%) offered hybrid or blended courses
 22 (22.9%) offered both fully online and hybrid
courses
 23 (23.9%) offered fully online courses program

SUMMARY RESULTS




19 schools offered programs that could be
completed fully online (15 with entire MPA/MPP
degree online and 4 with entire MPA/MPP certificate
online)
Thus, almost a fifth offer fully online degree, almost
half offer courses completely online and about a third
offer no online courses
NOTE: Figure on schools with no online course may
be underestimated (might elected not to complete
the survey because it is about online)
Schools with fully online courses may also offer
traditional on campus classes
SUMMARY RESULTS

Combining website analysis with survey, we
identified
 57 schools that offered complete degree
programs or certificates entirely online
11 of these programs (not necessarily the
online component) are not NASPAA accredited
 Another 41 offered courses fully online but
students cannot complete an entire degree
program online (many offered hybrid courses
with courses offered completely online)
 29 schools offered hybrid courses
RATIONALES FOR NOT GOING ONLINE



14 out of the 34 schools (41%) without online
component were currently considering online courses
in the future BUT 19 schools (56%) have no plans for
exploring the idea
Of the 39 schools offering online courses, 30 (76%)
indicated that they do not want to take the entire
program online.
Schools not currently offering online courses/programs
identified several reasons for not going online
 The most common was skepticism about quality
(58% & 63%), though literature suggests there is no
real difference in the quality
RATIONALES FOR NOT GOING ONLINE


Others reasons were:
 Faculty unwilling to teach online courses (33%);
supports Allen and Seaman’s (2007)
 Start-up costs, faculty workloads and resources
(33% & 30%); supports Allen & Seaman; Jones
(2008)
 Limited demand (30% & 17%); market saturation?
Despite skepticism about the quality, schools with
online components indicated their programs were
seen as rigorous, challenging and well regarded with
NASPAA accreditation increasing the prestige
RATIONALES FOR GOING ONLINE
Online degree
(n=19)
Online courses
(n = 41)
Considering
(n = 12)
Increase enrollment/reach more
students
79%
66%
67%
Increase revenue
16%
32%
42%
Compete with other similar schools
10%
37%
58%
Physical space concerns on campus
16%
10%
8%
Other (please specify)
42%
51%
33%
NOTE: check all that apply question; % in each sample indicated that response category
Most popular motivation for entering the field of online education is to increase
enrollments and reach more students. Online format allows schools to reach students
that would otherwise be unable to take coursework due to geographic limitations,
work/home constraints, and even physical impairments
Motivation to compete was not very prevalent for schools with online programs but it
was for both schools offering online courses and those considering online courses. Are
schools with online degree more established in providing online courses (and
competition is not an issue)?
ENROLLMENT PATTERN AND FEES

Given that reaching more students is the most
common motivation, it was useful to evaluate whether
schools feel they successfully met that goal.
 No school reported decline in enrollment when
offering classes online
 The modal category for enrollment pattern for both
online courses and degree was modest increase –
online offerings helping to reach more students
 Only 5% of online courses reported dramatic
increase in enrollment vs. 26% of online degree –
Dramatic increases in enrollment more likely with
entire program online?
ENROLLMENT PATTERN AND FEES



13 of the 19 schools with online degree provided
estimated enrollment (in their online programs) for Fall
2010
 Enrollment ranged from 10 to 140 (M = 56) students
– Appears there is demand for the programs
11 out of the 19 indicated 20% or less of their students
lived out of state; 2 schools indicated 80% or more
lived out of state and the rest (6) fell in between these
two extremes – regional or national competition for
students
Website analysis revealed some schools (15) charged
an additional fee for online coursework; ranging from
$25 to $925 (M = $175, SD = $270); wide disparity
ENROLLMENT PATTERN AND FEES



41 schools provided in-state tuition costs per credit
hour for both regular classes and online classes;
charged online courses slightly higher (M = $25.68)
but the difference was not statistically significant.
17 schools that provided out of state tuition costs per
credit hour for both regular classes and online
classes; Charged online courses slightly lower (M =
$34.70) but the difference was not statistically
significant
NOTE: Not all schools listed their tuition and fee
policies with regard to online education, so our
estimates are plagued my missing data values
OTHER ISSUES: TECHNOLOGICAL CONCERNS



Scholars (e.g. Jones, 2008; Perreault et al., 2002; Vernon
et al., 2009) have concerns about technology in online
education but our respondents (schools with online
degree and courses) did not indicate technological
resources and problems as being major concern
 However, infrastructural development and system
upgrades seem to be slight concern – Artifacts of
recent budgetary restrictions?
Percentage wise, online degrees do have more “slight
problem” with technology than online courses – Most
likely a function of frequency of use
NOTE: Problems with IT support for students and faculty
mostly likely not captured (Directors’ perspectives)
OTHER ISSUES: TECHNOLOGICAL CONCERNS



Blackboard and Blackboard owned products (e.g.
WebCt) was overwhelmingly favored product in online
platforms
 Used by over 75% of schools offering online degrees
and courses
Other less common platforms were E-College, Desire to
Learn, and Moodle
Both schools offering online degrees and courses
reported using wide range of instructional methods,
reinforcing the idea of flexibility
 But narrated PowerPoint lectures and written
lectures (supported by discussion boards) seem to
be the more preferred method
OTHER ISSUES: STUDENT SERVICES

Schools that offer entire degree online indicated
providing the following online services:
 Academic advising (68%; n = 13)
 Financial advising (26%; n = 5)
 Academic support such as tutoring (26%; n = 5)
 Career placement and career support services
(32%; n = 6)
OTHER ISSUES: FACULTY AND STAFF



Contrary to expectation, only 2 schools with online
degrees indicated employing administrative staff
dedicated exclusively to their online programs
Only 5 schools indicated hiring additional faculty or
staff (1 to 4 FT positions) to accommodate their online
program; 1 school hired 10 part time instructors
Interestingly, the online degree degrees indicated
having smaller faculty members than those offering
online courses
 The average faculty for online degree was 9.6
tenured/tenure track and 7.6 adjuncts (vs. 7.1
tenured/tenure track and 6.5 adjuncts) – Difference
not statistically significant
OTHER ISSUES: FACULTY AND STAFF
Expected that the number of faculty members
would be dependent on enrollment; schools with
online degree have slightly higher enrollments
(difference not statistically significant)
 Schools with online degree have average
enrollment of 89 full-time and 107 part-time
students (vs. 71 full-time and 94 part-time
students)
 Schools offering online courses offered an average
of 3.7 courses online per semester with average
enrollment of 15 students per course

CONCLUSIONS



MPA/MPP programs are not immune from the
proliferating of online education across academia
As expected, there are different experiences for
schools offering online courses and those offering full
online degrees including faculty size, IT infrastructural
development and enrollment patterns
Schools not offered online courses or degree mostly
because of
 Skepticism but most are considering it because of
competition – skepticism might be with fully online
degree
 Faculty willingness – several possible reasons but
workload