UA selects 29 in-house to set eVersity courses

Michael Moore, the University of Arkansas System’s vice president for academic affairs, talks Friday with Kim Bradford and Harriet Watkins inside the eVersity offices in an old log cabin on the UA System campus in Cammack Village.
Michael Moore, the University of Arkansas System’s vice president for academic affairs, talks Friday with Kim Bradford and Harriet Watkins inside the eVersity offices in an old log cabin on the UA System campus in Cammack Village.

The University of Arkansas System will spend about $95,000 for 29 faculty members — from each campus except its flagship — to develop curriculum for the system’s new online school by Jan. 5.

If the task was hired out, consultants said, the price tag would be heftier and the process months longer.

The system’s eVersity leaders selected the 29 representatives out of 40 applications it received to serve on the volunteer committees to develop curriculum and framework for four initial degree areas: criminal justice, business, health care management and information technology.

Initially, the system received only 22 applications by its Nov. 17 deadline. Michael Moore, the UA System’s vice president for academic affairs and leader of eVersity, said in a previous interview that system officials would recruit more volunteers from the campuses because they were hoping to get at least five members on each committee.

The committees will include four representatives from the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith; three from the University of Arkansas at Monticello; one from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock; five from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences; three from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff; and one from the Criminal Justice Institute.

Members participating from the system’s two-year colleges are four from the Cossatot Community College of the University of Arkansas; one from the Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas; three from the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville; two from the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope; and two from the University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton.

There were no applications for the committee from the faculty at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

UA Provost Sharon Gaber sent a notice in an Oct. 28 email to Moore saying that the campus would not be participating in the eVersity Academic Governance Council “at this time.”

“We are, however, interested and would like to remain abreast of developments so that we may assist and participate at a later time — if we are able. It would be great if we could attend in a non-voting capacity so that we could easily transition into participation at a future date,” the note said.

The faculty senate at the Fayetteville campus passed a resolution in November opposing the system’s online school and asking that it be delayed. Concerns included faculty opposition to pulling $5 million from reserve accounts of individual UA campuses for a loan to cover startup costs for the online university.

Earlier this month, the UALR faculty senate voted unanimously to approve a resolution opposing the online venture. But the metropolitan university will have a representative on the eVersity Governance Council, and three faculty members applied for a spot on the curriculum committee.

The new eVersity Curriculum Articulation Teams will meet for a work session Wednesday and Thursday at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute on Petit Jean Mountain.

Moore said he feels the majority of the curriculum for the certificate, associate, baccalaureate and graduate degree programs in the four areas will be completed at the workshop. The teams have a tentative deadline of June 5 to have specific plans laid out, he added.

Each faculty representative will earn a $3,000 stipend for participating. For the 29 participants, the system will pay $87,000 for the stipends, and lodging fees will costs about $200 each — or about $5,800 total — during the conference. Participants also will be reimbursed for travel expenses to and from the event.

“Cost was never a consideration,” Moore said. “We’re not doing this because it’s the cheaper route; we’re doing this because it’s the right route. I wouldn’t even entertain the idea of hiring a private firm to build the curriculum.”

The approximate $95,000 price tag Moore gave for the curriculum development for hundreds of courses for four degree paths pales in comparison to the varying prices of professional higher education curriculum consultants. Consulting companies typically charge a per-course fee instead of a lump sum for a full degree set of curriculum, like eVersity needs.

For example, Pearson, a higher-education curriculum development company based in Washington, D.C., charges a fee that can range from $20,000 to $200,000 per course, said Amy Peterson, Pearson’s senior vice president of online learning and course development.

The process for developing a single course typically takes about five months, Pearson said.

Peterson said the consulting company includes faculty members at a university as a very big part of developing a course curriculum.

“We usually begin with a workshop that helps faculty prepare for an online course,” Pearson said, adding that faculty members are paired with one of the firm’s instructional designers.

“We find out what they want to know and do with a course. We have a bunch of conversations,” Peterson said.

Lisa Newman with Marigold Consulting, a curriculum design company based in Fairburn, Ga., said that while outside consultants are expensive on the front end, the end result is worth it.

“You have a very broad process, but consultants are really great at narrowing that focus so you can get your goals accomplished more efficiently,” Newman said. She added that her firm also relies heavily on faculty involvement.

Moore compared the process for designing a curriculum for the eVersity curriculum to building with Lego blocks.

All of the courses for the online school were chosen from course catalogs of existing UA campuses, he added.

“The blocks are there; you just have to know what to do with them; figure out where they go,” Moore said.

Adam McKee, an associate professor of criminal justice at UAM, said in his application for a spot on the committee that he was excited about the prospect of being involved in the first planning step for eVersity.

“If we do not poise ourselves to meet the demands of diverse learners, we will be left behind. I believe that the eVersity initiative is the future of higher education in Arkansas,” McKee said.

Moore said the collaborative effort from such a wide variety of faculty members in the UA System is unprecedented. The committee members include published researchers and a criminal-justice professor who is a retired police captain with more than 34 years of law enforcement experience.

“The eVersity is fortunate to have broad-based support from outstanding, experienced and diverse faculty across the University of Arkansas System who are willing to devote their expertise to building workplace-relevant degree programs,” Moore said. “I am excited to be working alongside these teams toward our goal of providing Arkansans with opportunities they thought might have passed them by.”

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