What the federal government has to say about serving students in other states, third-party servicers, and Artificial Intelligence
Digitally delivered education is affected by the increasing development and use of AI. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) released, rescinded, and plans to rewrite guidance about Third Party Servicers (TPS). ED released new final regulations last fall that will be effective July 1, 2024, as well as convened a new negotiated rulemaking. The new regulations as well as the outcomes of the newest rulemaking have current and future policy implications.
Attendees will learn about the various policy and compliance developments affecting the delivery of education when using digital technology. We will address the new final regulations and provide an update on the status of the newest rulemaking committee that will conclude in early March. Current additional issues of note include responses to the increase in Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and the release of guidance from the U.S. Department of Education addressing institutional use of Third-Party Servicers (TPS).
The Department has also presented an ambitious rulemaking plan. In March 2023, the Department announced the intention to establish a rulemaking to address multiple issues affecting digital learning including interstate distance education, accreditation, and the definitions related to distance education. That rulemaking is currently in progress and will conclude in early March with proposed rules noted in the Unified Agenda to be released October 2024. In October 2023, the Department released proposed regulations that were the final five issues from the previous rulemaking held in Winter 2022. Most notable are the financial transparency and gainful employment rule and certification procedures that include regulations affecting interstate compliance and providing programs leading to a professional license. It is important to note that the Department recently completed a rulemaking to address loan forgiveness in light of the July U.S. Supreme Court decision to strike down the Biden Administration’s debt relief plan. The rulemaking concluded in December 2023 with anticipated proposed regulations to be released in May 2024.
Institutions and other stakeholders will wish to keep a keen eye on the direction these issues will go over the next several months. Ultimately, the development of policy and compliance requirements in these areas will require institutions to rethink how they are creating and supporting digital learning, including course design, contracting for third-party services, serving out-of-state students, and fulfilling the special obligations associated with programs that lead to a professional license or certification.
Although much of the conversation around AI in higher education has focused on discussions of academic integrity, generative AI is posed to impact a number of policy areas on the institutional, system/state, and federal level. In addition to exploring third-party providers and the emerging regulatory landscape, we will also explore the emerging regulatory landscape of generative AI.
Original TPS guidance was released in February 2023. The original Dear Colleague Letter vastly expanded the type of service for which an institution contracts to be considered a TPS. A TPS is a classification of the servicer for which there are increased responsibilities for the institution as well as the company itself in order for the institution to participate in Title IV HEA programs. Additionally, the Department was interested in public input about the 2011 bundled services exception when working with an Online Program Manager (OPM). The Department received more than 1000 public comments regarding the February 2023 guidance and officially announced in May 2023 that it chose to delay and amend the guidance. Institutions and organizations are still waiting for the amended guidance for which the Department indicated will become effective six months after its release.
We plan to guide the participants through applicable policy considerations and regulations as well as responding to participant questions. We will conclude with specific steps that institutional staff may take to communicate with their stakeholders about the development of new policies as well as new and revised rules. Participants will be directed to additional resources on these issues.
Cheryl Dowd, Senior Director, State Authorization Network & WCET Policy Innovations, and Cyber Fellow for WICHE
SUNY Online Teaching Ambassadors have been nominated by their campus for this recognition as exemplary online educators, who are both enthusiastic and effective in online teaching, and honored for their positive contributions to the field of online teaching in SUNY.
Share a mini presentation! Show, demo, or talk about your own innovation, best practice, cool tool, project, program, initiative, or idea (in online course design, instructional technology, online faculty development) in 3-minutes, or less.
Please add your name and a bulleted list/summary of what you plan to share, including links if any 🙂 http://bit.ly/unsession2024
The greatest online market opportunity is at the bachelor’s level, according to a 2022 study of 1,600 prospective online students and their program preferences. How do institutions respond to these expectations while creating quality online learning experiences? This interactive session invites participants to explore student preferences and strategies to address them.
A 2022 RNL survey of more than 1,600 prospective online students indicates that the greatest under-tapped opportunity in the online education market is at the bachelor’s level. While many institutions have focused their online offerings at the graduate level and are now considering non-degree (but credit-bearing) offerings, the single largest proportion of prospective online students plan to enroll in an online bachelor’s program.
Online bachelor’s programs present a strategic opportunity for institutions to increase their enrollment and remain competitive in a market shaped by several converging factors. The number of adults in the U.S. with some college but no credential reached 40.4 million in July 2021 and continues to grow (June, 2023; The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 2023). Online bachelor’s programs can also fortify institutions against the fast-approaching “enrollment cliff”, which will bring a sharp decline in the number of the traditional college-age population in 2025 (Barshay, 2018; Kline, 2019). Furthermore, due to their experience with remote learning during COVID-19, undergraduate students have a greater appetite for online courses, although this comes with heightened expectations for quality online learning and engagement (Robert, 2022).
The RNL study asked prospective online students a series of questions regarding their plans and preferences associated with course length, program structure, synchronicity, the number of credits they have previously earned, and ways to collaborate with classmates, as well as the most important aspects of their search processes and enrollment decisions.
In this session, we will explore first what prospective students said in the survey about a number of critical aspects of their preferred online program and then discuss how institutions can be responsive to these demands while maintaining the highest academic quality. We will also discuss how the expectations of prospective students may differ from their “lived experience,” once enrolled. Our discussion will be wide-ranging, but will be built around 10 data points:
30 percent of the entire online market plans to enroll in a bachelor’s program. How should institutions respond, and with what program subjects?
All but 27 percent of prospective online bachelor’s students apply to more than one program. What are the most important competitive implications of these data for institutional planning and strategy?
More than 75 percent of prospective online students expect nearly instantaneous responses to their questions and queries. What are the most important implications for institutions as they plan their online programs?
70 percent of online bachelor’s students plan to enroll in courses of less than semester length. How should institutions meet these expectations?
More than 80 percent of prospective online bachelor’s students bring some previous college credit with them. How should institutions structure online bachelor’s programs to reflect these realities? How can a generous credit acceptance policy help an institution get its share of the 40 million students with “some credit, no degree” (National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 2023)?
Nearly 40 percent of online bachelor’s students want to enroll in three or more courses per semester or term. How can institutions make online course schedules work for both those who want to enroll full time and those who prefer part-time study.
43 percent of online bachelor’s students seek a highly structured online program, while the rest seek programs with few periodic deadlines. How should institutions structure online bachelor’s offerings to meet the needs of both students who need structure and students who indicate that they do not?
71 percent of prospective online bachelor’s students indicate that they prefer programs that engage students with periodic synchronous convenings. How do these prospective student preferences compare with those of students once enrolled? What do these pre-enrollment preferences tell us about the concerns of online students?
75 percent of prospective students watch videos during their search, and they want authentic and organic video content. What does this mean for their expectations once enrolled in online classes?
Cost, time to degree, and the match between content and the student’s interest are all more important than institutional/program reputation as enrollment decision-making factors. How should institutions apply these findings in the creation of their online programs and in their positioning of these in the online education market?
As part of the framing of our dialogue, we will reference a ground-breaking McKinsey and Company study (Diaz-Infante et al., 2022) which identified eight Key Dimensions of the online learning experience which are particularly adept at capturing student demands and preferences. These dimensions include:
Clear education road map
Seamless connections
Range of learning formats
Captivating experiences
Adaptive learning
Real-world skills application
Timely support
Strong community
Some of these key dimensions align closely with data from the RNL study. Other key dimensions are critical but not covered in the RNL study, given the limited focus of the research. By blending RNL study findings with the McKinsey study learning dimensions, we will be able to have a data-informed and expert-driven conversation with attendees.
This session is designed to promote thoughtful engagement from all participants. Virtual and in-person attendees will be invited to participate in a brief online poll about the state of online bachelor’s programs at their institution and their top concerns. Poll results will help guide the session.
Throughout the session, the speakers will pose discussion questions at several key points. These brief discussion opportunities will encourage peer-to-peer learning (turn-and-talk, think-pair-share, etc.) so attendees can share how the findings do or do not resonate with what they are experiencing on their respective campuses. The last 8-10 minutes of the session will be reserved for small group discussions centered on implementing strategies. Attendees will join a small topic-specific discussion of their choice. To close out the session, each small discussion group will share their best ideas with the larger group.
Following this session, attendees will be able to:
Interpret key data points that define prospective online student expectations.
Assess how well-positioned their institution is to meet these student expectations.
Examine strategies to enhance key dimensions of the student experience in online bachelor’s programs.
Identify potential barriers to building online bachelor’s programs and options to overcome these barriers.
The Summit provides opportunities for face-to-face and virtual networking, discussion, and social interaction for our online community of practice stakeholders.
Our virtual and face-to-face participants are invited to join us to meet friends and colleagues, and socialize.
Social Networking activities take place virtually and in-person throughout the event.
Networking with friends & colleagues at the summit is a feature and tradition!
Social Networking Activities:
This year we are celebrating 30 years of online education at SUNY and the 25th anniversary of the SUNY Online Summit!
For in-person attendees the morning and afternoon Breaks and Lunch are intended to provide attendees with the opportunity to network.
For our virtual participants, use the #hashtag #SUNYOnlineSummit to contribute to the Summit backchannel and meet new friends & colleagues to share and enhance the virtual event experience for yourself and others!
We are Collecting Examples of Brightspace Navbars, Course Homepages, and Course Templates!
This year we are also collecting video screencasts from any Summit participants in Brightspace. If you are attending in-person, see John Zelenak, to record a quick screencast of your online course homepage, nav bar, and course template(s). The recordings will be shared!
Examples of course navigation bars, course homepages, and course templates from campuses to share with other SUNY DLE campuses. We are looking for a quick video tour (a 5-7 minute narrated walkthrough) showing how the campus has customized and implemented these Brightspace elements for their campus.
Virtual Summit participants can add a link to their screen cast here: SUNY DLE Template Customizations. Contact john.zelenak@suny.edu with any questions.
Join us for an interactive workshop where we explore the methods, approaches, and strategies for online teaching and learning with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how we can leverage generative technologies in our online classrooms and course design. This collaborative session is designed as a hands-on experience for online educators and content designers to develop innovative tactics to design dynamic online learning materials that incorporate meaningful and interactive online class activities and assignments.
This session is structured as a bring-your-own-device workshop, where participants will engage directly with AI tools, while applying prompt engineering techniques to create engaging and personalized online educational content. Through practical exercises, attendees will gain practical experience in using AI to enhance online teaching methods and curriculum development. Come prepared with an online course, assignment, outcome, or activity that you would like to revise, or enhance, and feel free to share.
We will uncover creative methods of prompt engineering, a simple yet powerful concept where we craft compelling questions/inputs to guide our AI tools. This allows us to generate creative and effective outputs which increase the quality of the final products we create. We will study various techniques to refine this process, enhancing our ability to develop innovative online course content that truly resonates with our students as we seek to tailor our interactions and materials to individual learning needs and improve learner engagement.
As we delve into AI’s role in education, we will also engage in a vital conversation about maintaining the human element in our work as online educators and course designers, especially when using generative technology. By the session’s end, virtual and in-person participants will not only be equipped to integrate AI into their workflow and online teaching and course design practices, but also understand how to balance automated content generation with the crucial human touch. Attendees will depart with a nuanced perspective on leveraging AI to craft more dynamic, personalized, and effective online educational experiences, while never losing sight of the human connection at the heart of learning.
Workshop Co-presenters:
Sean Nufer, Director of Educational Technology, TCS Education System
Veronica Estrada, Core Faculty, School of Human Development, Pacific Oaks College
This year, the State of New York has made unprecedented investments in both student success and digital transformation infrastructure. This has led to new and exciting initiatives to come out of those areas to support SUNY faculty, students, and campus leaders.
During this panel, Donna Linderman (Senior Vice Chancellor for Student Success) and Valerie Dent (Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Deputy for Student Success) will discuss the recently created Office of Student Success and the systemwide investment through the SUNY Transformation Fund, which is supporting many campus initiatives including the replication of the evidence-based ASAP|ACE degree completion model, upward mobility initiatives, and multi-campus transfer partnerships. Brian Digman (Chief Information Officer) will share progress and plans for the Digital Transformation initiative, including the project structure, roles of the governance groups, and how funding for projects will be determined.
Digital Transformation and Student Success
Moderator: Kim Scalzo, Interim Senior Associate Provost of DIAS
Digital Transformation
Brian Digman, SUNY CIO
Student Success
Donna Linderman (Senior Vice Chancellor for Student Success)
Valerie Dent (Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Deputy for Student Success)
The intention of a “community of practice” is to share what you know for the benefit of all in the community. The SUNY Effective Online Practices Award Program collects, shares, and showcases the online best practices, strategies, and innovative online teaching and learning activities of exemplary SUNY online practitioners from across the SUNY system.
All online effective practices submitted are made available to the community for review and consideration.
The community of online practitioners has the opportunity to vote on their favorite online effective practices.
Those online effective practices that earn the most votes from the community are recognized with an award and become part of our effective practices repository, with ties to the Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository (TOPR) and the OSCQR rubric .
Moderator:
