Field of Dreams – If You Build It, Will They Come?

PRESENTED BY DR. LARRY BUNCE

DIRECTOR OF INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH

Big Question???Is there a need for growth of online

courses at UMKC?What do the students say?

Focal Points of the survey…..

How many students have experience with online education at UMKC?

Why are students taking online courses?

Why are students not taking online courses?

Do students want to pursue online opportunities at UMKC in the future?

Survey Methodology Survey sent to the entire student body

8,585 undergraduate students

5,698 graduate and professional students

Two mailings Initial invitation sent on October 22nd

Reminder sent on November 5th

Incentive – 50 $10 gift cards A total of 1,778 students responded, for a 13%

response rate Respondent characteristics match population characteristics

Online Education at UMKC

30% of the students enrolled at UMKC in Fall 2014 took at least one online course during the fall termVaries by demographics

Online Education at UMKC

There were 3,546 course sections offered at UMKC in Fall 2014307 (9%) of these sections were

offered online

Experience with Online Education

Students were asked if they had ever taken a college-level course in an online format74% of the respondents had taken a collegiate

course in an online format

Overall, 56% of the respondents had taken an online course at UMKCVaries by demographics

Why Do Students Take Online Courses

Why Do Students Not Take Online Courses

Likelihood of Taking an Online Course at UMKC in the Future

N % N % N % N %

Very Likely 708 40.9% 531 54.8% 82 25.5% 95 21.4%

Somewhat Likely 312 18.0% 161 16.6% 58 18.0% 93 20.9%

Unsure 271 15.6% 111 11.5% 57 17.7% 103 23.2%

Somewhat Unlikely 140 8.1% 59 6.1% 33 10.2% 48 10.8%

Very Unlikely 302 17.4% 107 11.0% 89 27.6% 105 23.6%

All RespondentsHave Taken an Online

Course at UMKCNever Taken an Online

Course AnywhereNever Taken an Online

Course at UMKC

If We Build It, Will They Come? Student interest is there

Nearly 6 out of 10 students indicated they would likely take an online course at UMKC in the future

This was especially true if the student had already taken an online course at UMKC

For the students that had not taken an online course at UMKC before, if the reason was lack of availability or awareness, likelihood increases

If the reason was learning environment or quality, likelihood decreases

Reasons for lack of interest

54% Learn better in classroom

39% Not as high quality as class-room based course

Potential concern is the students who had taken a course previously that indicated they were not likely to take another one in the future because of quality

Students who plan to take online courses at UMKC in the future prefer a mixture of class-room based and online courses

There is considerable interest in pursuing a minor online