Case Study Analysis Report - Webster University – BUSN 6070
Instructor: Jonnie Green
Student: Jacquline Wicks-Callahan
Title of Case: The Apollo Group, Inc. [University of Phoenix]
Case: Andrew: Case #7-1, Assignment # 1
Purpose: The purpose of this case study is to understand the University of Phoenix’s philosophy and business model to develop targeted plans to address identified issues.
Introduction
Apollo Group, Inc., was found in 1973 by John G. Sperling, PhD., in response to a need for a then neglected market of working adults, who were seeking higher education. Dr. Sperling, believed that rather than catering to the traditional student population age 18-22, he would create the University of Phoenix be run
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• Improve program offerings by expanding instructor’s base.
Recommended Solution
• Study other institutions that are set up to cater to similar demographic of students. Analyze and compare their best practices to University of Phoenix.
• Examine the inherent shortfalls in e-learning to students and the criticism levied against on-line education. Determine if these accusations have merit.
• Recruit tenured Professors from respected universities to create and facilitate on-line courses to help provide more credibility to the e-learning curriculum.
Implementation Plan
• Form a committee to review the top ten Universities that offer on-line degrees to non-traditional students and assess their processes as compared to the University of Phoenix’s programs by October 2011. The committee will be required to provide their findings and recommendation for a process improvement plan to the Executive Committee members by December 2011.
o Focus Areas:
▪ Determine time on average faculty devotes to e-teaching.
▪ Determine parameters for selecting faculty determine the faculty mixture i.e. how many tenured professors and how many working professionals make up the faculty roll.
▪ Review Academic Programs and degree requirements.
Summary
University of Phoenix was designed to cater to working professionals; their curriculum was designed around working professionals as
Question 1. How should Settle and his team evaluate the e-learning option? What factors should they consider when deciding between eLearning and traditional, classroom-based education?
Identify barriers to success in the online learning environment and the strategies to overcome the barriers. Please cite the sources used to support your response.
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The authors analyzed statistics of online learning to determine what they mean. They looked at the growth of online options in institutions. They also compared online learning with traditional learning to determine if it was as effective.
With all the publicity over online courses, great professors alike have been determined to find out whether online courses are just as effective as face-to-face classes. There have been some controversies over the situation; therefore, several studies have been made. One study by Adam Driscoll, Karl Jicha, Andrea Hunt, Lisa Tichavsky, and Greatchen Thompson shows that given the appropriate pedagogy or instruction, online courses is just as an effective teaching format as face-to-face classes (Driscoll, Jicha, Hunt, Tichavsky, & Thompson, 2012). The study showed that when comparing online courses against face-to-face courses, the midterm scores for both teaching platforms are the same. Given that the GPA of the students is taken into consideration, the test grades do not improve or become worse when the class is taken online. The same study showed that when comparing online courses to face-to-face courses, the student satisfaction does not increase or decrease when
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Computer based learning, as it stands, has plenty of disadvantages, but many in business and educational arenas remain optimistic about its future. There are two indisputable truths about computer-based learning, or e-learning. First, it will revolutionize education and second, such a future is just around the block. Educational experts agree that most types of study are not yet effective when delivered purely online, mainly because of bandwidth limitations, expensive set-up costs, continued resistance to the medium and a shortage of quality course content.
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As I sat down several weeks ago to begin writing this case study, I struggled with how I wanted to lay the paper out, however, when I opened Lee Scott’s 21st century leadership speech that was part of the required reading, the following quote struck me as the essence of the whole case study, so I would like to share it with you. You know, we are in uncharted territory as a business. You won’t find any case studies at the Harvard Business School highlighting answers for companies of our size and scope. If we were a country, we would be the 20th largest in the world. If
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You can access the following site in order to encounter some e-learning courses regarding e-learning. http://demos.oxford-elearning.com/elearningcourse/
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