There has hardly been a discipline not affected by the ubiquitous and transformative influence of the Internet: Medicine, journalism, publishing, entertainment, telephone communications, the arts, ... Why should education be immune? Our textbooks are changing. Why should our classrooms not change as well?

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Linda W. Friedman, has been leading an initiative to bring more online education into the School. Over the course of Summer 2010 faculty representing the various disciplines of the Zicklin School of Business met for several full-day workshops, for the purpose of learning more about the teaching of online and hybrid classes and exploring issues related to this modality. Participants: Kapil Bawa (Dept. Chair, Marketing & IB); Al Booke (Management); Ajay Das (Operations Management); Paquita Davis-Friday (Accountancy); Marty Frankel (Statistics); Sandra Mullings (Law); Isak Taksa (Computer Information Systems); Gwen Webb (Finance); Jeff Weiss (Economics). Associate Dean Linda Friedman (Zicklin School) led the group and Barbara Parrott (ZSB Dean’s office) served as information coordinator. Guests included: Associate Dean Phyllis Zadra, Associate Provost Dennis Slavin, Baruch CIO Arthur Downing, and other interested Zicklin faculty.

A hybrid class is one in which 33 – 67 percent of instruction occurs online. This can be scheduled in a variety of ways, e.g., in one or two-week modules, or each week throughout the semester, or some other arrangement. A class is considered online when at most one-third of the class is delivered in face-to-face (FTF) mode. Hence, students in a "fully" online class can still be required to come into school for exams, labs, problem sessions, review sessions, etc.

We are very grateful to Baruch CIO Arthur Downing, who has funded two Zicklin School Instructional Technology Fellows from Baruch’s Student technology fee for the 2010/2011 academic year. These IT Fellows are charged with training faculty and helping them to develop online course materials for online and partially online course delivery.

In addition to the very important reason of keeping our instruction up to date, online education presents myriad benefits to our various stakeholders. For example:

Faculty. There are quite a large number of benefits of online and hybrid teaching for faculty and academic departments, including:

• Since online classes fill quickly, this can be a way to encourage enrollment in "hard-to-sell" advanced and / or special topics courses.
• Teaching online, or partially online, classes requires more planning and preparation, making one a better teacher - and this inevitably carries over into the more traditional FTF class.
• Online course modules can be valuable for review at beginning of a subsequent, more advanced course.
• Having the option of offering online and partially online classes helps with course and faculty scheduling.
• Faculty who teach online or hybrid classes can more easily collaborate with scholars in other cities or countries; can better manage their academic and personal lives (e.g., pregnancy, taking care of elderly parents, ...); may find it easier to teach in Zicklin’s International Executive Programs during the regular (Fall, Spring) semester.

We may even find we have enhanced our ability to attract talented junior faculty.

On the other hand, faculty do find it easier to continue doing what they have been doing rather than trying something new. There is a learning curve. Initially, at least, an instructor has a great deal of preparatory work to do before an online course goes live. And, even during the semester, instructors of online classes find that they are engaged in a great deal of interaction with students. This interaction may be during office hours, on the phone, by email, and / or on a Discussion Board or other online platform. An online course done well does not mean less work for the instructor but, rather, more work. This work can be done at untraditional times – 2:00 a.m. – and at untraditional locations – on the living room floor in pajamas – but it will be work.

Students. Students love online courses. During registration, these classes always go to capacity first. Why? That's pretty obvious. Students have a hard time constructing a class schedule that does not conflict with their family responsibilities and / or their work schedules. And we know that most of our students work, either full time or part time. Baruch is behind the curve here, compared to some other CUNY (and non-CUNY) campuses. But once students have had an online class, they clamor for more. Some benefits for students:

• It is easier to make a class schedule.
• It can help students graduate faster.
• Online learning enhances learning.
• It's a good fit.

Today's students are extremely net-connected. It is how they live their lives. If made available past the expiration date on the class, online course modules can help students studying for exemption or qualifying exams, or for standardized exams.

Of course, for students to achieve as online learners, an online class requires more in the way of structured instruction. Without regular ‘deliverables’ (e.g., Blackboard Discussion Board Forum, blog posts, …) and regular interaction with the instructor and the fellow classmates, the less disciplined students will fall behind.

Administrators. Some of the same benefits to faculty and students are also of interest to administrators, namely, e.g., attracting talented junior faculty, helping students graduate faster, etc. It is also nice to consider that once our faculty get more comfortable with online and hybrid learning, we may be able to do something innovative in our International Executive Programs. One important issue for us is room scheduling. In fact, many colleges and universities across the country have serious concerns involving limited space to comfortably accommodate students in a traditional classroom setting.

Associate Dean Friedman and the Zicklin IT Fellows are very excited to be working on this exciting initiative. All interested faculty are invited to participate.