The Generational Model of Online Program Development

The Generational Model of Online Program Development applies the general concepts of a maturity model to online program development. The Generational Model is intended to serve to facilitate communication among the different departments involved in online education development. The functions and processes of online learning are: administration, governance, faculty development and support, course and program development, pedagogy, student services, institutional commitment, and assessment. First generation faculty are those most committed to online education, and they are willing to spend hours and hours mastering the technology and learning it with their students-students and teacher as co-learners. It links faculty development, having instructors pro-actively seek out new techniques and approaches to online learning, from early adopters, to reporting successful approaches back to the faculty. When examining student-teacher interaction, in the first generation, the interaction may be limited to only one or two modes of communication perhaps email and discussion boards.