We had a great session yesterday at the 14th annual CUNY IT conference held at John Jay College. The subject of the session I participated in was “Online Learning: What’s in it for CUNY”. The panel featured some of the most knowledgeable people within the City University system on the topic of how online education can best be implemented to the benefit of our students, faculty, and individual institutions.
The session was well attended and the discussion section of the panel spark a number of interesting debates on how CUNY needs to proceed with online education. In November of 2014 CUNY Chancellor James B. Milliken, speaking at a meeting of the Association for a Better New York, proclaimed the need for our university system to become a more digitally engaged CUNY. He described “Digital CUNY” as an environment that will develop “new technological tools, new classroom platforms and blended learning opportunities that will transform the way subjects are taught and learned”. The Chancellor went on to state that “I want our students to leave CUNY very comfortable with online learning, so when they have to retool or decide to pursue another degree or certificate, which is becoming increasingly important, they will be able to do so”.
The Chancellor’s comments emphasize the fact that online and hybrid education is projected to grow exponentially over the next few years. Based on a 2011 survey of 2,500 colleges and universities conducted by the Babson Survey Research Group, 65% responded that online education was a critical component of their long term strategic plan. However, while many colleges and universities are planning to implement online and hybrid instruction, with the exception of John Jay and the School of Professional Studies, this has not been widely implemented within CUNY to date.