Running Head: CHANGING WORLD OF DISTANCE EDUCATION

The Changing World of Distance Education: A Conversation with Dr. John Ebersole

Leila Liberman Gary Sullivan Theresa Mastrodonato DEPM 604 July 22, 2013

CHANGING WORLD OF DISTANCE EDUCATION Introduction The number of opportunities for students to pursue degrees via Distance Education (DE) continues to grow (Smyth, 2009). One pioneer in the field of Distance Education is Dr. John Ebersole, President of Excelsior College, a private, not-for-profit, single-mode DE institution. Dr. Ebersole was himself a DE adult learner who began his college education while in the military, and then went on to develop several DE programs, before becoming President at Excelsior. (http://www.excelsior.edu/john-ebersole) For these reasons we selected him as an interview subject to analyze the following themes of leadership: current challenges facing DE organizations and the profession; his vision for Excelsior College and the DE profession; his

leadership style; his strategy for implementing change; his strategy for organizational survival in a dynamic environment; and advice for aspiring DE professionals. Current challenges to DE organizations and the profession In our interview, Dr. Ebersole identified several significant challenges facing Excelsior College and other online institutions. These include challenges from a continuing geographic bias among prospective students, competition from traditional colleges and universities, and the problem of differentiating among institutions. According to Dr. Ebersole, many students, particularly undergraduates, still decide which institution to attend based on geographic bias (proximity to home), rather than on other factors such as quality of instruction, academic reputation, etc. This geographic bias may be subjective, but may contribute to a feeling of common purpose (Baker, 2007) that could affect the student's decision. Geographic bias puts Excelsior at a disadvantage, as it attempts to compete for students. Excelsiors second challenge is intense competition for students. Dr. Ebersole mentioned the trend of better-known, traditional, face-to-face institutions competing online with their own

CHANGING WORLD OF DISTANCE EDUCATION offerings. This is a direct threat to Excelsior College, as they seek to recruit students. Although competition exists internationally at the PhD level, undergraduates still seem to prefer namebrand colleges and universities which are close to home. Based on a review of Excelsiors website, the college focuses student recruitment on showing student graduation rates and other data-driven statistics. According to Raven (2007), this is called "the information base of power" where a leader will use data to convince followers to perform a specific task. However, Raven (2007) discusses other types of power bases. One that this group believes would work well for Excelsior College is the "referent base of power (Raven, 2007). This power base would focus student recruitment on making prospective students identify personally with Excelsior College. For example, highlight faculty and staff who are distance learners themselves or who had to struggle to complete their educational degree despite family or employment roadblocks

Closely related to the issue of competition, Dr. Ebersole spoke to us about differentiation among institutions. If prospective students are unable to tell institutions apart, it becomes even more difficult to attract them to Excelsior and overcome the student's natural geographic bias. How could this be done in an increasingly crowded marketplace? One answer could be an adoption of the view of visionary leadership as drama (Westley & Mintzberg, 1989). If Excelsior could find and publicize important roles for both the institution and the student to play, they could potentially gain a competitive advantage. The leaders vision for his or her organization or for the DE profession Although Dr. Ebersole hesitated to outline an explicit vision for the future, several key themes emerged from our conversation as elements of his vision: the importance of structural change; a broad view of distance education; and a back-to-basics approach. Dr. Ebersole mentioned structural changes at Excelsior College which seem related to his vision. For example,

CHANGING WORLD OF DISTANCE EDUCATION at Excelsior a Vice President of Innovation and Strategy was recently hired. His new position is to gather the faculty around a vision for the future which is compelling and exciting. Having such a leader in place is crucial, because leaders of organizations have significant influence on

the overall organizational performance of their organizations (House & Aditya, 1997, p. 447). In addition, Excelsior is also a leader in aggregating learning. Dr. Ebersole mentioned in our interview that the average student arrives with five different transcripts when they begin their studies. The institution is able to take the previous learning that a student has completed and apply that to their degree program. This allows the student to complete the program faster, in less time, and more cheaply. These visionary changes to the structure of the institution are designed to keep Excelsior competitive. Ebersole was careful to point out that distance education is more than just online classes. Other systems, such as satellite transmission of courses, radio, TV, and correspondence courses have been used in the past, and may find favor again. He told us that we haven't heard the last of MOOC's [massive open online courses], (J. Ebersole, personal communication, July 3, 2013) even though he suggests that, at the moment, they are more a form of entertainment, and not a fully matured pedagogical tool. Although he hesitated to make predictions, he did say that there is likely to be even more distance education in the future, even if it is unclear exactly what form it will take. Even though innovation in distance education continues to be important, Dr. Ebersole's vision for Excelsior and the whole profession includes a strong emphasis on the basics, factors that have always been important to higher education. He mentioned such considerations as maintaining diversity of programs and not relying on just one flagship program, offering quality instruction, and keeping class sizes small. He also cited the importance of integrity and

CHANGING WORLD OF DISTANCE EDUCATION credibility to an institution. This list of attributes seems equally applicable to traditional and online institutions, suggesting that distance education may someday overcome its lingering stigma of being less than face-to-face instruction. The leaders perceived management or leadership style In our current class, we have been studying and reflecting upon leadership in distance

education. In light of this, we asked Dr. Ebersole how he would characterize his leadership style. He began his answer by stating that in order to get the real answer, we would need to speak with his staff to get their view, but he did state that he believes his style is participative. Dr. Ebersole places a high value on listening to his faculty and having everyone come to mutually agreedupon decisions. According to Gwele (2008), a leader can build a working relationship which values and encourages constructive engagement and dialogue in dealing with issues that require decisions about strategic direction (p. 323). However, Dr. Ebersole did mention that occasionally faculty are more interested in the process than actually making a decision. It is at those times that Dr. Ebersole as the leader needs to step in and make the decision. This is an example of situational leadership, where, based on the specific situation, a leader makes the best choice determined by factors presented to him (Sims, Faraj, & Yun, 2009). Besides just faculty concerns, Dr. Ebersole is required to take information from different stakeholders and integrate that into the vision for the college and be able to show returns on government investment onhigher education and the need for higher education to contribute to national imperatives (Gwele, 2008, p. 325). In the end, Dr. Ebersole, as the President of Excelsior College, has to make decisions about how best to lead the group (Sims, Faraj, & Yun, 2008, p. 151). This means after all discussions, the final decision will ultimately fall to him. Strategy for implementing organizational change

CHANGING WORLD OF DISTANCE EDUCATION

Several times during the interview, Dr. Ebersole discussed the use of MOOCs, especially in relation to their use in higher education. The group asked Dr. Ebersole if podcasts or MOOCs were being used as a marketing tool or if they were actually serving a pedagogical function. Currently, Excelsior College uses MOOCs as a promotional tool to get students interested in several of their programs, such as their gaming and cybersecurity degree programs. However, Dr. Ebersole noted that podcasts (what he termed webinars) were being used by the nursing department, including using them to assess student learning. As discussed previously, Dr. Ebersole believes that those in education are still deciding whether MOOCs are a form of entertainment or are the next step in online education. Vardi (2012) notes that the absence of serious pedagogy in MOOCs is rather striking, their essential feature being short, unsophisticated video chunks, interleaved with online quizzes, and accompanied by social networking (p. 5). Additionally, MOOCs tend to have a low completion rate; an example is the first MOOC taught in 2008 had 2200 registered students while only 150 of those were actively engaged in the course content (Pence, 2012-13). Furthermore, with the low completion rate of MOOCs, one needs to determine if a college is best served using MOOCs as an alternative to traditional online education, especially in an era when serious attention is being paid to student degree completion at both face-to-face and online institutions (Pence, 2012-13). Based on our discussion, Excelsior College is making sure they stay in the forefront of new initiatives in education, even if at this time MOOCs are used more to promote the college rather than used in serious pedagogy. Strategy for organizational survival in a dynamic environment There are two roads to success in a changing educational environment according to Dr. Ebersole: diversity and having a niche. Diversity at Excelsior is exemplified by its five major online programs. Dr. Ebersole spoke in depth about the importance of having a niche for

CHANGING WORLD OF DISTANCE EDUCATION standing out to the customer, for example, Excelsiors online nursing program. Excelsiors nursing program lacks a clinical component. However, Dr. Ebersole noted during the interview

that his program does not need a clinical component because many of the students come into the program with a medical background. Dr. Ebersole admitted that earning accreditation for his nursing program was difficult due to this lack of a clinical component. According to Dutile, Wright and Beauchesne (2011) expansion of nursing in the DE field is restricted due to high program costs and the need for clinical opportunities. Dutile et al. (2011) state that simulation can complement but not replace directs patient contact experiences. This is similar to The Virtual University, whose niche is training the physician in non-invasive surgeries (Mutter and Marescaux, 2012). Computer-generated interactive simulators pioneered in Strasbourg, France (Mutter and Marescaux, 2012) are meeting the growing need for virtual clinical practice.. The idea of computer simulation is practical for someone who is already experienced in the field. Excelsiors niche is that the nursing program does not offer a clinical component because the institution believes that practitioners can get sufficient experience on the job. However, our group views the need for physical, emotional and human interaction in the nursing field as essential (Dutile et al., 2011). Advice to aspiring professionals in the DE community We asked Dr. Ebersole what important concepts new DE leaders need to consider when joining the ranks. One important concept is instructional design. Ebersole stated that online courses should be assessed using the program Quality Matters (QM), which is designed to offer guidance in the development of quality online courses. (https://www.qualitymatters.org/). Instructional designers can ensure that they will maintain student interest, have an organized exciting layout, and meet pedagogical and design standards, thus leading to a higher completion

CHANGING WORLD OF DISTANCE EDUCATION rate. Using QM, as stated by Dr. Ebersole, will show that the institution and the DE professional

are interested in student retention and course success. Dr. Ebersole also spoke to the need to pay attention and do your homework (J. Ebersole, personal communication, July 3, 2013). Burge (2007) states the importance of paying attention to developments and changes in the public and private sectors. Burge and Ebersole both recommend new leaders in DE should be active visionary leaders in the world of DE course development and delivery. Conclusion Our analysis of the themes of this course as reflected in our conversation with Dr. Ebersole can be summed up as follows. The challenges facing DE institutions are significant and visionary leadership is needed for such institutions to be able to compete effectively in a crowded and increasingly global marketplace. The vision must be supported by a dedicated visionary leader as well as by all levels of faculty and staff. MOOCs continue to be a cause of disruptive change in DE, and still have no clear pedagogical benefits; however, MOOCs may one day help DE institutions maintain a diversity of programs and find their market niche. As aspiring DE professionals work in this increasingly complex world, they need to maintain their focus on the basics such as, sound instructional design and to improve the educational opportunities offered to their students.

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