Building a professional team responsible for innovation and online growth at Arizona State University
Challenge
How might we build strong front- and back-end online operations to accelerate growth?
Strategy
Established EdPlus in 2014 to operate with significant autonomy and an eye toward accelerating growth. With an operating budget of $25M in FY2016 and a team of over 110 people—across instructional design and new media, design and development, marketing, research labs, technology, and executive functions—EdPlus is responsible for and encompasses ASU Online and other growth innovations at ASU.
Outcome
EdPlus, a professional team responsible for innovation, has been central to ASU Online growth and exemplifies how structural changes to academic and support services for students can both promote organizational efficiency and remove operational barriers to student success. A couple notable takeaways:
- Autonomy has allowed rapid design and implementation of new ideas, while still being integrated in the university
- Approximately 15 professional instructional designers and new media personnel work directly with faculty (usually 50-75 members on each designer’s “roster”) to develop and refresh online courses (usually 10-12 new course builds and 100-125 total courses in each designer’s project portfolio)
Ready to take action?
Brainstorming prompts for you and your team to consider
Learn more about a student-focused operating model from our research
Institution
Enrollment
63,124
Pell Recipients
34%
Students of Color
47%
Net cost of Attendance
$31,449 (in-state)
