Shunning models tried by others, UT-Knoxville reached out to Arizona State U. to help it expand its digital offerings and tap new pools of students. ADVERTISEMENT [The Edge Logo]( You can also [read this newsletter on the web](. Or, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, [unsubscribe](. Iâm Goldie Blumenstyk, a senior writer at The Chronicle covering innovation in and around higher ed. This week I report on an unusual new online-education partnership involving two research universities. Plus, a few updates. Also a programming note: The Chronicle will not be publishing on June 19 in honor of the Juneteenth holiday. So look for the next issue of The Edge, in your inbox and online, on June 20. ADVERTISEMENT SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHRONICLE Enjoying the newsletter? [Subscribe today]( for unlimited access to essential news, analysis, and advice. Two research universities forge an $11.5-million online-ed collaboration When the University of Tennessee at Knoxville began getting serious a few years ago about building out its online-education offerings, officials there first took a hard look around at several models they might follow to jump-start their efforts. To be sure, thereâs no shortage of those. In just the past five years weâve seen private institutions like Simmons University [betting big with online-program-management companies]( public universities like the University of Arizona [buying for-profit universities]( with big online footprints, a public university (the University of Massachusetts) [acquiring a mostly-online nonprofit institution]( and even a public system (the University of North Carolina) [creating its own OPM](. But smashing successes, most of those have not been. In fact, some have [become rather problematic]( and [frustrating](. It didnât take the Tennessee folks very long to determine theyâd be better off with a new approach. âThere were enough cautionary tales out there,â John Zomchick, the provost, told me. So instead of buying an existing online-ed venture whose culture and values would be out of sync with the universityâs, or agreeing to give away a big share of tuition revenue to an OPM, the Knoxville campus decided to create a partnership with another public research institution â one that already has a major presence in the online-ed world: Arizona State University. ASU enrolls 95,000 students in exclusively online programs, and boasts 4,500 online courses and nearly 400 degree and certificate programs. Its on-campus students also can take some of their courses online. Enrollment in UT-Knoxvilleâs [Vols Online]( program is much smaller â about 2,500 students over all, mostly in masterâs programs. Online education âwasnât a focus,â Zomchick told me. If you know anything about ASU, you know [âscalingâ is one of its mantras](. No surprise, then, that the collaborationâs prime goal, according to the contract shared with me this week, is to bring 30,000 new students to UT-Knoxville by 2029 â half in degree programs and half in noncredit and certificate offerings. Itâs hard to judge whether the deal â which involves payment of $11.5 million to ASU over five years â will turn out to be a worthwhile financial gamble for UT-Knoxville. But at the very least it does strike me as a smart match for several reasons, which I highlight below. But first, some of the nuts and bolts of this unique model: The most visible piece of the collaboration is the course exchange, which will begin this August with ASU providing up to 10 of its general-education courses to UT-Knoxville students. Over time, ASU will make more courses available, and UT-Knoxville will offer some of its courses to ASU as well. Students will remain at their home institutions and pay their respective tuition prices. The institutions will remunerate each other by paying a flat, per-credit fee for each student who enrolls in the otherâs course (initially, $242 per credit for undergrad courses and $425 for masterâs). So as with the OPM model, there is a revenue share, but itâs not based on a percentage of the tuition. The two institutions also expect to develop at least one shared degree program. The collaboration differs from the OPM model in other ways, too. ASU is not developing online versions of UT-Knoxville courses or assuming responsibility for marketing the programs or recruiting students to them, as companies like Academic Partnerships or 2U typically do. Instead, people in ASUâs online operation, known as EdPlus, will work side-by-side with UT-Knoxville personnel to help the Vols Online operation develop that expertise for itself. The idea is to ârapidly accelerateâ Knoxvilleâs digital knowledge, said Phil Regier, chief executive at EdPlus. ASU will advise and assist Vols Online on all aspects of online-ed offerings, but as UT-Knoxvilleâs Zomchick told me, the goal is to âbuild up our capacities here.â UT-Knoxville will pay $3.5 million for those operational advisory services. It will pay an additional $8 million for access to innovative teaching technologies ASU has helped to create, such as its virtual-reality [Dreamscape Learn]( project, and the asynchronous early-college [Study Hall]( courses it developed in collaboration with Crash Course. As part of the collaboration, the two institutions have also agreed to exchange insights, feedback, and lessons from the relationship in a âshared knowledge core,â which is meant to benefit both parties. This collaboration intrigues me for several reasons. First, because it involves two major research universities, it could bring more legitimacy to online education. Thatâs especially important for ASU, which is still sometimes knocked by its academic peers (or, at least, by faculty members at institutions it considers its peers) for its high profile in online ed. âWe donât want to be a unicorn in this space,â Regier told me. âThere should be other universities that help us achieve a higher degree of adult completion.â The collaboration also makes sense from a business standpoint. While ASU has been aggressively courting students beyond Arizona â especially in California â thereâs not a lot of overlap between the two institutionsâ markets. The ASU brand âis stronger west of the Mississippi,â said Regier, adding that thereâs now no pre-eminent online university in the Southeast (though thatâs not for lack of trying by the University of Florida). And Zomchick said heâs optimistic that with the right underpinnings, Vols Online can attract students, especially some of the 900,000 Tennesseans with some college under their belt but no degree. The Tennessee name âmeans a lot to people in our region,â he said. Still, as Regier insisted, âmarket dominationâ isnât the goal; itâs about getting more universities using online education to reach new students. I also think itâs cool to see two major research universities from opposite sides of the country sharing expertise in this manner. I wonder why more donât. It will be fascinating to watch, as both an academic collaboration and a business partnership. A deal like this is a first for ASU. University leaders from around the country visit EdPlus all the time, Regier told me, but typically âthey go back and nothing happens.â But this collaboration came together pretty quickly. Donde Plowman, the UT-Knoxville chancellor, brought colleagues to ASU in March 2022, and within a year, officials at both institutions were already working together â even before any money had changed hands. Zomchick said heâs convinced that faculty members at UT-Knoxville were more willing to get behind this new push for online ed because they have an academic institution as a partner, not an OPM. Vols Online will continue to employ its OPM company, Noodle, for some services, but Zomchick said heâs confident the arrangement with ASU will help it quickly gain self-sufficiency. âWeâve got the talent, and the opportunity now, to build it in-house.â I also wondered how ASU was viewing the arrangement. Will this be a new line of âbusinessâ for ASU? Apparently, that will depend. Thereâs nothing in the deal that prohibits it from working with other universities. But for now, Regier said, the attention is on âreally getting this one right first.â An advocate for men and boys lands a grant for womenâs empowerment Melinda French Gates is going her own way in grantmaking, and among those receiving a share of the first [$1 billion in grants to promote womenâs health and empowerment]( from her new Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation is the author and scholar Richard V. Reeves. Thatâs interesting to me because, [as I shared with you in March]( Reevesâs focus has been primarily on how education is leaving men behind, particularly in areas heâs dubbed the HEAL fields. Reeves was among an eclectic group of 12 global leaders granted $20 million each to distribute to charities doing urgent and innovative work to improve womenâs health and well-being in the United States and around the world. If âgender gaps matter, they matter in both directions,â Reeves said [in a thread on X]( after the gift was announced last week. âBroadening the gender-equality movement to include men will not hinder the progress of women. Failing to, just might.â Yup, faculty members and administrators see higher ed differently During a recent virtual forum I hosted, we talked about a new survey that compared opinions of faculty members and administrators. Two of the findings from that survey stood out to me: For the question âHow optimistic are you about the future of your institution?â 56 percent of administrators said extremely or very optimistic; but just 23 percent of faculty members gave that same response. And for the question âHow would you characterize the state of shared governance at your institution?â 58 percent of faculty members said not at all strong or slightly strong, while only 29 percent of administrators responded that way. You can obtain the full report on what faculty members and administrators want from one another via [this link](. If you missed the conversation live and want to watch it at your leisure, you can find it [here](. Got a tip youâd like to share or a question youâd like me to answer? Let me know, at goldie@chronicle.com. If you have been forwarded this newsletter and would like to see past issues, [find them here](. To receive your own copy, free, register [here](. If you want to follow me on X, [@GoldieStandard]( is my handle. Or find me on BlueSky Social, which I just joined with [the same handle](. UPCOMING PROGRAM [The Chronicle's Strategic-Leadership Program for Department Chairs | June 2024] [Join us in June]( for a professional development program tailored to the needs of department chairs. Experienced academic leaders will provide insights on the current trends in higher ed, effective ways to manage a department, strategic planning, and more. [Register today!]( Goldie's Picks A SEA CHANGE [Colleges Have Agreed to Pay Athletes. Whatâs Next?]( By Nell Gluckman [STORY IMAGE]( The agreement, by the NCAA and the nationâs most high-powered athletic conferences, is part of a historic settlement that still faces review by a judge. MAKING THE CASE [Iowa Businesses Are Making Their Pitch to High-School Graduates. Colleges Struggle to Compete.]( By Eric Kelderman [STORY IMAGE]( Enrollments are falling as more grads go straight into the work force. How can colleges change their minds? THE REVIEW | ESSAY [Can Small, Struggling Colleges Survive?]( By Robert Kelchen [STORY IMAGE]( There are paths forward, but they all require acting early. CAREER RESOURCES [Read the June collection]( for advice on finding a job as a new PhD grad. Learn how you can manage job market expectations, dually apply for industry and academic roles, and more! 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