Pennsylvania State University offers one of the country’s top programs in geographic information systems—the study of maps and other geographic data. But potential students for the program are scattered across the world, and few can relocate to University Park, Pa.
So Penn State came to them instead.
Since it began in 1999, the university’s online GIS program has enrolled more than 3,000 master’s and certificate students, and it has brought in more than $2-million in net tuition revenue to its home department, the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. It has become a model for other departments, which are looking for new revenue sources of their own.
Penn State has made expanding online learning a priority over the past decade, opening a centralized online learning operation called the World Campus and writing online goals into its strategic plan. Officials say one university policy has been pivotal to the success of the GIS program: Academic departments can profit from the tuition they earn from their online programs.
“If programs like mine are successful, they will generate net revenue that benefits the on-campus program,” says David DiBiase, the GIS program’s principal designer and the head of the college’s online institute. “The opportunity that this is something that could actually be a success financially is irresistible now.”
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The online GIS program attracts a different kind of student than the college’s residential GIS program. The median age of online students is 35, and the program’s convenience attracts midcareer employees and professionals looking to break into the field who would not be able to live near campus to attend the two-year program.
“There is no counterpart in our university campus at University Park,” Mr. DiBiase says. “When it’s at its best, it’s an experience that, for an older audience, cannot be replicated in a campus setting.”
Online course discussions tend to be richer, he says, because the students can teach one another by drawing from their own real-world experiences in the field. For instance, he says, in an ethics course, students have been able to bring up dramatic case studies of ethical issues they have encountered in their careers.
“The thing that we find we can provide is that perspective,” Mr. DiBiase says. “By linking you with many peers, I see what you’re doing, you see what I’m doing. It works much better because we have a nationwide clientele.”
Many of the Web-based course materials are available free online, but students must apply to the GIS program and pay to have their work evaluated and to earn credit toward a certificate or a degree. Students can start at one of four points during the year.
The program also draws some of its faculty members from across the country. Patrick J. Kennelly, an assistant professor of geography, teaches an online class in GIS project management each semester for Penn State from Long Island University, his home campus.
Mr. Kennelly says that his online students are, on average, more engaged and motivated than his face-to-face students because they are older. But he still finds himself wishing that he had more face time with them. In lieu of that, he says he calls each student at the beginning of every semester to get a sense of his or her goals and temperament. “The important thing is to establish a connection between the instructor and the students,” he says.