CUNY Master Plan 2012-2016

THE CUNY MASTER PLAN 2012-2016
work of such innovators, not in the hardware or software bought for them to use. Of course, that work
must represent demonstrable and sustainable gains in increasing learning effectiveness and fulfilling the
goals of the University for access and excellence. CUNY must constantly evaluate its uses of academic
technology, ensuring that investments are justified and build on each other, instead of being discrete and
unsustainable experiments.
Work in online and hybrid instruction is exemplary in this respect. CUNY’s work with online and
hybrid instruction indicates that fully online instruction, especially for whole programs, tends to make
the most sense for special populations—for student constituencies who for one reason or another find
that mode of instruction their one resource—while hybrid instruction seems to have much broader application
but needs to show its power in enriching and not simply complicating the mode of instruction.
The newest stage of CUNY’s Hybrid Initiative includes a focus on learning outcomes, and rigorous experiments
such as the Ithaka initiative can begin to provide answers. More such experiments will be conducted
during the next four years.
A range of Web-enhanced, hybrid, and fully online courses should offer CUNY students a selection of
instructional choices that speak to their learning and scheduling needs. One example, as CUNY defines a
common core for general education, is huge potential for online offerings in a University sharing courses
across campuses.
Perhaps the single most important lesson academic technology teaches is that investment must be,
first and foremost, in people, for success will rest less on technology than on those who use it. Thanks to
strategic hiring, CUNY is unusually rich in new faculty—a generation that is tech-savvy, practiced in
online interaction, and open to new devices and directions. Veteran faculty have not necessarily fallen
behind; one-third of the online and hybrid instruction now is by people who have been at the University
more than 20 years. However, initiatives to train faculty must continue and expand, carrying innovations
beyond the early adopters to the mainstream, with recognition given to those who commit to mentoring
relationships. It is critically important that effective practices in the use of academic technology are duly
rewarded. To take full advantage of the generational shift, the University must consider how to sanction
academic technology uses and experimentation, especially among the untenured, who can feel vulnerable
if they do not hew to traditional avenues of scholarship and teaching. CUNY needs innovators and
risk takers, and those same people need academic recognition, through grant funding, personnel decisions,
and administrative encouragement.
There will always be the need to invest still more in academic technology. CUNY’s investment in Blackboard,
the Hybrid Initiative, and the Ithaka experiment in statistics, supported centrally but defined on
the campuses, are good models of central office/campus collaboration. With the CUNY Academic Commons,
we now have a way of seeding dissemination still more broadly, as innovations at the campuses are
shared through the Commons as a hub of mutual support and shared developments. The technological
future will need constant development, oversight, assessment, and support. It is an ongoing process to
which the University is committed, for it is an integral part of the CUNY mission to provide access to
excellent education.
44