A Cal State University online university is in the developmental stages following an initiative created by the Technology Steering Committee.
The CSU Online Overview, a document from TSC outlining the initial ideas of the framework for CSU Online, states that “the California State University ‘CSU Online’ is being developed to address California’s expanding workforce needs and to provide increased individual access to high quality undergraduate and graduate education opportunities.”
TSC is a group mainly comprised of campus presidents, including F. King Alexander, who provide advice and information regarding technology to the Chancellor.
“This is really early in the process,” CSU Media Relations Specialist Erik Fallis said. “The TSC document is a discussion draft of initial ideas to be developed. It is not final.”
The overview proposes CSU Online as an auxiliary that “would draw upon current programmatic and faculty strength on the individual campuses to create new programs, markets and service support for online learners.”
The overview also mentions the idea of hiring a business partner to provide student services such as advising, financial aid, career services and tutoring.
This potential outsourcing is a concern to many faculty members.
“I first want to clarify that the majority of faculty do not oppose online learning and online courses in the CSU, as long as faculty are the creators of the course content and maintain quality control of those online courses,” Cal State Long Beach California Faculty Association President Teri Yamada said in a CSU Online initial faculty response statement.
“Faculty in general do not want CSU Online course content and instruction outsourced to for-profit companies,” she continued. “We have many, many examples of the result of this type of outsourcing: education light, education superficial.”
TSC is currently researching a number of different models to base CSU Online, including gathering information from peers, the online degree programs already existing in the CSU system and other online models, according to Fallis.
“A formal structure isn’t in place,” he said. “It is just a proposal, so we’re going to look at models that exist out there for creating and sustaining something like [CSU Online]. There is a need for the system to look at how we provide online education and provide access in a way that’s convenient to students. This is all in the works right now.”
Yamada is concerned about the lack of faculty involvement in the early stages of development for CSU Online.
“I understand … that ‘CSU Online Overview’ is a working paper; nonetheless, I must question why faculty have not been involved in this discussion,” she said.
A formal proposed timeline for when CSU Online may come to fruition is not currently available, according to Fallis. More information will become available as the structure becomes more concrete.
“The University system has a lot of players involved in decision making,” Fallis said. “The type of process [regarding CSU Online] will start to evolve as things go along.”
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