Economic, Political, and Social Trends

• Address needs of learner 5 years from now
• Anytime, anywhere convenience
• Better access to learning
• Better services to stakeholders
• Develop human capital
• Eradicate ignorance
• Generate political funding
• Greater family unity
• Greater human safety
• Improve economic "food chain"
• Opportunity to transform HE
• Prepare for "Xbox" generation
• Prepare for Internet2
• Provide "institution-neutral" classroom
• Provide increased selection of classes
• Reduce transportation cost
• Substitute virtual classroom for physical classroom
• Support educated voter
• Support human development
• Support workforce development
• Utilize wealth of information available
• Virtual access "breaks down barriers"

• Access to Internet may no longer be free
• Brain drain from local institutions
• E-education limits social interaction
• Higher salaries attract personnel away from education
• Higher taxes reduce discretionary funds
• Increased ignorance
• Increased institutional surcharge
• Increased poverty
• Information overload
• Lack of corporate investment
• Lack of teachers in state
• Local institution prefer decentralized educational model
• Local institutions want to build buildings
• Poorly defined success factors
• Population growth
• Reduce institutional "bragging rights"
• Technology divide in our market audience

Competition, Departments, Institutions, State and TBR

• Campus leadership and influence of Presidents and Vice-Presidents
• Develop uniform course rubrics and descriptions
• Attract support from industries
• Commitment of TBR support
• Decrease number of undereducated workforce
• Meet the public interest in online learning
• Enable institution to manage inadequate building inventory
• Hire more faculty and staff to meet online learning demand.
• Improve institutional cooperation
• Improve reputation and goodwill
• Improve state resources, economic development and revenue
• Improve teaching and learning technology for all delivery modes
• Improve teaching and learning experiences
• Increase employment
• Increase enrollment attracts additional funding
• Increase number of nontraditional students
• Increase number of graduates
• Lobbying force with state and accreditation agency
• Meet workforce retraining needs
• Overcome obstacles to coming to campus
• Provide additional faculty training
• Provide leadership role
• Provide opportunity for additional faculty rewards
• Provide student recruitment tool

• Belief that local institutions are not receiving value for their contribution
• Campus leadership and influence of Presidents and Vice-Presidents
• Competition from for-profit organizations
• Competition from institutions inside and outside of Tennessee
• Faculty acceptance of online education
• Faculty and department acceptance of RODP "we didn’t put up the degree"
• Faculty benefits are unclear
• Faculty teaching load policies are unclear
• Fear of drawing students away from their local programs
• Funding formula
• Impact to local institution enrollment
• Institutional authority feels threatened
• Insufficient infrastructure to develop and support RODP (new computers, s/w, network)
• Lack of clarity "Is it TBR’s program or the local institution’s program?"
• Lack of conviction that faculty should participate in a TBR initiative
• Lack of departmental incentives
• Lack of funding
• Little grassroots support from institutions
• Misinformation (disbelief) about RODP
• Reduced capital funding
• Reduced funding in general

Educational, Physical, and Technical

• Address state needs in any state location (95 counties access wherever they are)
• Advanced computer software being developed for teaching and learning
• Any time, any place, any pace instruction
• Availability of courses already developed
• Customize educational materials to client needs quickly and inexpensively
• Each site in TBR system potential location for offering all levels of instruction by using local computer labs
• Faculty are more current with teaching and learning strategies
• Greater incentive for local communities to build or provide sites due to greater breadth of instruction that can be offered at those sites (on site computer labs and assistance for enrolled RODP students)
• Greater interdependence among institutions
• Greater recognition for TN and TBR
• Increase in number of computers at home and in the workplace
• Increase in number of students in market group
• Increase number of people with computer literacy
• International connection with faculty in discipline
• Better methods of evaluating the quality of learning outcome
• Limited classroom space can lead to online demand
• Make use of competitive advantage of the size of the TBR system to effectively and inexpensively reach students
• Market can include local, out-of-state and international
• Meet student expectations
• Move from instructor centered to learner centered instruction
• Open new opportunities for reaching public beyond owned facilities
• Opportunity for greater productivity
• Physically students to do not have to commute to participate in program
• Potential for more quality control
• Provide greater interaction, learning and collaboration among faculty in similar disciplines (learning community)
• Reach students who are not traditional clients
• Share academic expertise across local institutions
• Use of standard products
• Vehicle for educating faculty on pedagogical issues
• Well-organized online course materials

• Balance in-state and out-of-state enrollment Lack of marketing name recognition
• Become captive of vendors
• Better methods of evaluating the quality of learning outcome
• Building and maintaining brick and mortar facilities competing for dollars
• Compensation (how its shared)
• Cultural change in how we do business Faculty often more a coach than a provider of content
• Dependent of TN for the communication network instate
• Fewer "naming opportunities" for fund raising due to fewer buildings being built
• Frequent hardware and software updates
• Future meaning of the library
• Great expectations of students
• Greater interdependence among institutions
• Greater standardization of general courses
• Increasing expectation by clients for 24x7 service
• Infrastructure and equipment costs
• Lack of qualified staff and faculty
• Lack of trained personnel
• Little state financial support
• Loss of the campus "out-of-class" learning (student social interaction, student organizations, dorm rooms)
• Many more competitors will be able to reach students in our service area
• Move from Instructor centered to learner centered instruction
• Need for increased compensation plan
• Need for increased faculty training
• Need for increasingly broad band for delivery in all areas of the state
• Need for more centralization of technical support
• Need to keep current with technology to be competitive
• Online compatibility (changes in technical, browsers, etc)
• Potential for more quality control
• Product staleness
• Resource competition among areas that need funding
• Service area (30 mile radius) concept challenged
• Society is expecting more students taught without a proportional increase in funding
• Used of standard products