Quality Assurance in Online MPA Programs

Dr. Ellen RosellTroy University

MPA Online: The Future?

In his speech at the 2010 American Federation of Teachers Convention, Bill Gates predicted that "place-based activity in college will be five times less important than it is today." Noting the ever-growing popularity of online learning, he predicted that "five years from now, on the Web —for free—you'll be able to find the best lectures in the world. It will be better than any single university. College, except for the parties," Gates concluded, "needs to be less place-based."

Online Higher Education

• Over 5.6 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2009 term; an increase of nearly one million students over the number reported the previous year.

• The twenty-one percent growth rate for online enrollments far exceeds the less than two

percent growth of the overall higher education student population.

• Nearly thirty percent of higher education students now take at least one course online (Sloane Report, 2010).

Online MPA Programs1995- 1996 Survey of NASPAA Schools (8 programs with online courses)• University of Nebraska at Omaha – MPA program began delivering distance

education courses via both satellite/fiber optic systems and computer mediated instruction.

• Iowa State University - The Public Administration graduate program began delivering distance education courses via the ICN, a statewide, synchronous, full-motion, interactive, video and audio teleconferencing system that was begun in 1987. Iowa decided to be the first state in the nation to develop a statewide telecommunications fiber optic backbone.

• Georgia Southern University, Naval Postgraduate School, University of Baltimore, University of North Dakota, University of South Dakota, & University of Texas at Tyler.

2003 - 15 NASPAA member programs with online courses

2011 • 51 members of 250 NASPAA offering online courses, certificates, or degree

programs (20%)• 12 online MPA programs are NASPAA accredited

Course Delivery & Web Technology

Courses Use of Web Technology

Traditional or Inclass or Face-to-Face

NoneCourse content delivered orally or in writing

Web enhanced or Web facilitated

Supplement a face-to-face course with a course management system (CMS) or web pages to post the syllabus, assignments, handouts, etc.

Blended/Hybrid Portion of course delivered online and a portion in face-to-face meetings

Video-delivered with web enhancement Using interactive television to connect the instructor with a class that meets regularly at a distant location and the internet or CMS for communication

Online or Web-delivered Entire course offered through the web

Web-based Education (WBE), Distance Education, Distance Learning, eLearning or Virtual Education

Hallmarks are• Noncontiguous communication between student and teacher

(Keegan, 1986);• Mediated by print or some form of technology (Garrison and

Shale, 1987); • The separation of teacher and learner in space and/or time

(Perraton, 1988);• The volitional control of learning by the student rather than

the distant instructor (Jonassen, 1992)• A formal education process in which the student and instructor

are not in the same place (Delta Sky, May 2011, p. 127).

Purposes of assessment:

1. Improve student learning;

2. Identify students’ strengths and weaknesses;

3. Review, assess, and improve the effectiveness of different teaching strategies;

4. Review, assess, and improve the effectiveness of curricular programs;

5. Improve teaching effectiveness;

6. Provide useful administrative data that will expedite decision making; and

7. To communicate with stakeholders (Kellough & Kellough, 1999).

 

Online MPA Program Components

Institutional Faculty InstructionalStudent Support Services

Mission Enabling institutional environment

Course Design Admission

Continuous Quality Improvement Measures

Institutional rewards & incentives

Academic Design Advising

Evaluation of Programs’ Effectiveness

Teaching Support Program & Institutional Integration

Career Placement

Student Satisfaction

Technology Support

Library Resources

Post Graduation Employment Assessment

Technology Support

Learner Requireme

ntsProgram

SuitabilityLearning

Effectiveness

Personalized

Educational ExperienceInstitutional Support & Resources

for Learners

Institutional

FacultyInstructionalStudent Support Services

QuestionsAssessing Student Learning Outcomes versus Student Learner

Requirements• Focus has been on assessing student learning outcomes versus assessing the

institutional, faculty, instructional, and student support services components contributing to the learner requirements;

Assessing Online Education versus Traditional Inclass Education• Schlosser and Anderson (1994) refer to Desmond Keegan's theory of distance

education, in which the distance learning system must artificially recreate the teaching-learning interaction and re-integrate it back into the instructional process.

• McDonald (2002) argues that in constantly comparing distance education to traditional education: What are we overlooking or sacrificing? When we strive to recreate the classroom experience, we limit teaching

and learning to what works best in face-to-face situations; Distance education can be a frontier for new methods of communication

giving rise to innovative teaching and learning practices that may not be possible in traditional, place-bound education.

Questions

• E-Assessment versus Assessment

Ridgway, McCusker, and Pead (2004) Define e-assessment as the use of electronic

technologies to drive student learning assessment. E-assessment should encourage the rethinking of

curriculum, e-learning, and technology; E-assessment is flexible and supports the

assessment of higher order thinking, social skills, and group work through such means as digital portfolios