The old Global Campus is dead.
The new version of University of Illinois’s distance-learning program began in Chicago today, where the Board of Trustees unanimously backed a fundamental shift for the troubled venture.
The expensive project suffered from unspectacular enrollments and faculty opposition. The system will now scrap its drive to build a centralized stand-alone virtual university and will instead leave authority for online learning to its three campuses. The so-called Global Campus 2.0, described here, will be based on this report from a task force of faculty and administrators.
“I’m very optimistic,” said Ray Schroeder, director of the Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning at the University of Illinois at Springfield. “I think that the trustees retained their commitment to access and online learning. I think the campuses do as well. I think we’re going to see growth and that the restart, the 2.0 version, is going to work.”
Chester S. Gardner, leader of the current Global Campus, will return to a faculty role, University of Illinois President B. Joseph White announced at the board meeting today. —Marc Parry
