Andrea - many programmes face a similar 'fate' in more recent times. To me - it's a case of 'what are your colleagues reasons for being reluctant?' Are they valid or not - or are some and others not. Then map that against your strategy for implementing fully online. Can you counter their claims or not? That is the first stage. If it looks good to go ahead - the second 'hurdle' is to project numbers. At the end of the day - if your executive and administrators can't see the stats/potential for sustainable numbers - they are not going to approve it. Good luck with it.

Andrea Lambert South online programmes can work very well, but have to be constructed and conducted wisely. We find that successful online programmes are at it’s best when they are done realtime and in virtual classrooms with less than 15 students at a time where everyone can see each other at all times during classes. The best of luck!

Paul: The university where I work was in the same situation two years ago. We debated what to do. Some faculty wanted to go 100% online but other faculty were opposed to any online courses at all.

In the end, we changed our Masters degree program to 100% Hybrid courses. Each course is 8 weeks long. The students meet face-to-face on the first day of class for 4 hours. The students also meet face-to-face on the last day of class for 4 hours. All the work between the first day and the last day (i.e. lectures, quizzes, assignments, discussions, etc.) is all done on-line.

We just started this new format, so it is too early to report any success or failure. I plan to re-post to this thread in about 6 months to give you an update.

Update: We are officially on the short-list. My colleagues are now considering the online option now the reality of deletion is imminent. However, it may be too little too late. Now I am considering whether it is better to be a sacrificial lamb in order to ward off other cuts. It is frustrating when other colleagues see the writing on the wall too late.