Members Present:     Margaret Kuchenreuther, Mary Elizabeth Bezanson, Ken Crandall, Bryan Herrmann, Lowell Rasmussen, Jim VanAlstine, Prince
                                           Amattoe, Maddy Maxeiner, Joe Timmerman, Annie Olson, Andre Chouravong, Ferolyn Angell

Absent:                          LeAnn Dean, Norrine Ostrowski, Pam Gades
 
Guests:                            Roger McCannon, Karen Johnson, Tom McRoberts, Engin Sungur, Craig Kissock, Greg Thorson
 

(In these minutes:  discussion on GenEdWeb)
 

Kuchenreuther called meeting to order at 9:03 a.m and thanked Roger and steering committee for attending today to discuss GenEdWeb.

McCannon gave some background information regarding GenEdWeb.  About five years ago, the Chancellor and Vice Chancellors asked McCannon to look into this.  A steering group was formed and McCannon noted they have been very instrumental.   We began offering courses in the fall of 1997 and the purpose was to give students who are time or place limited the opportunity to work on general education requirements via the World Wide Web that could be applied to an undergraduate degree.  The primary audience is mostly advanced high school students.  McCannon said the steering committee began discussions about redefining the program.  They met with both John Printz  and Scott Hagg in Admissions and they endorsed a marketing effort with the Admissions Office.

GenEdWeb Program - A Two Year Prospectus

Program Focus
The GenEdWeb Steering Group recommends a re-design of the program to better fit our mission, to serve an appropriate audience and to improve online education at UMM.  We propose continuing with a small, select offering of undergraduate courses that would primarily serve advanced high school students and would promote admission to UMM.  In order to effectively take a new direction with the program, we would re-define GenEdWeb in the following way:

o GenEdWeb would become a program of select, lower division, online undergraduate courses without reference to the Minnesota Transfer Curriculum.
o We would focus on offering existing online courses that have proven to enroll sufficient numbers of students.
o We would be advised by regional high school administrators, the UMM Admissions Office staff and the PSEO program director to improve delivery of online courses to advanced high school students while promoting undergraduate admission to UMM.
o We would recruit new faculty and develop new courses as the need to do so is identified and supported by appropriate UMM disciplines and the target market.
o Disciplines would be consulted about recruiting and/or retaining faculty teaching online courses.

Schedule
The tentative schedule for the program over the next two years would be as follows:

Semester                   Course                                Instructor

Summer                       Psy 1081                           Ratliff-Crain
                                         Math 1601                     Anderson/Sungur

Fall                               Engl 1011                       Ericksen
                                         Pol 1201                         Thorson
                                         Math 1601                   Anderson/Sungur
                                         New course "B" 2002  TBD

Spring                           Engl 1011                       Ericksen
                                          Pol 1401                          Joo
                                          New course "A" 2001 & 2002  TBD

The second year, 2002-2003, would add a course in fall and repeat the new course added in spring 2001 along with the 2001-2002 schedule of courses.

Projected Budget
The following budget includes plans for adding one new course per year over two years to the current GenEdWeb schedule.  In 2001-2002, 8 courses will be offered and in 2002-2003, 9 courses will be available online.  Tuition estimates are based on 80% PSEO enrollments and computed in two scenarios:  20 students per class and 15 students per class.  Faculty salaries are based on average salary paid in 2000-2001 and include 5% increases each year with $4000 faculty development grants paid to faculty designing new courses.  Additional expenses include program operation and management.

Expenses                                                2001-2002                                  2002-2003

Faculty teaching salaries              $46,720                                       $52,852
Faculty development salaries          8,000                                             4,000
Program management                           21,090                                          22,600
Marketing                                                      3,000                                             3,300
PSEO program support                           2,000                                             2,200
Computing Services                                  8,000                                             8,000
General Operating Support                 3,000                                             3,300
Total expenses                                        $91,810                                        $96,252

Income
Tuition
 Scenario 1 @ 20/class                         $93,291                                      $106,414
 Scenario 2 @ 15/class                         $69,968                                       $  79,810

Net Position
 Scenario 1                                                  $  1,418                                           $  10,162
 Scenario 2                                                  ($21,842)                                     ($16,442)
 

Summary
This proposal recommends continuation of the GenEdWeb online program with a select group of high demand online courses serving prospective UMM students (advanced high school students and nontraditional students) through ongoing funding from tuition revenue and support from the Morris campus.

Angell asked how much tuition is reimbursed to UMM for PSEO students.  Johnson stated roughly 80% of the tuition generated.  VanAlstine asked if we can renegotiate the reimbursement.  McCannon thought that would be difficult because it is state mandated.   Amattoe asked if the courses could be revised to attract the nontraditional market?  Maxeiner asked for clarification on the courses, if all courses offered were liberal arts, how do we know professional development courses would not work.  McRoberts responded that often times professional development courses may be in the non-credit area and there are very few offered on-line.  Thorson added there are constraints on faculty resources available.  Sungur talked about the 23 all-university members of the Distributed Learning Task Force.  There are many issues for the Task Force to address, one of the being implications on our resources.  This process should be evaluated and assessed in every aspect.   He believes it's wise for CPRC to start to think about implications regarding resources.  Bezanson added the general area of concern is the money issue.  Unfortunately, we are marketing to a group from whom we only received a percentage of total tuition.   Pointing to the proposed budget for the next two years Kuchenreuther expressed concern about the expenses and wondered, if a deficit occurs, who absorbs those costs?  McCannon stated this is not a UMM controlled budget.  He has some flexibility within his overall budget to support the program; however, UMM may have to be responsible for part of the cost, and Schuman has indicated his willingness to support the revised program.  Kuchenreuther asked about the hidden costs (i.e., support from Media Services, or instructor time taken away from students enrolled in UMM's on-campus offerings).    McCannon reminded Committee that outreach is part of UMM's mission, and he views GenEdWeb as a service to the community.  Thorson added we talk about the costs but not the benefits.   VanAlstine expressed continued concern about the number of  PSEO students who do not chose to enroll as undergraduates at UMM after their experience in GenEd Web.  Maxeiner asked if our Dean plays a role in this.  McCannon stated Schuman was the Dean when this began.  McCannon stated he would happy to visit with the CRPC again to answer any questions.

Adjourned at 10:00 a.m.