Ohio State Online Programs

Ohio State Online Programs

The Ohio State Online team works alongside colleges to help develop learner-centered and market-driven online degree and academic certificate programs. Our team provides support throughout the program development and curricular approval processes. Afterward, we offer continuous support through marketing and recruitment, learner experience, and course design and enhancement throughout the life of each online program. 

Online Program Support Services

Colleges and units looking to develop for-credit online degree programs and academic certificates should contact the Ohio State Online team as early in their exploration as possible. Our experienced staff can provide tailored market analysis to help identify your program’s potential audience and competition. We can provide evidence-based, data-driven recommendations to help ensure your program best meets the needs of today’s post-traditional learner while maintaining the value and rigor expected of Ohio State offerings. 

Ohio State Online program support services are funded through the university's distance education budget model that helps OAA and the colleges reinvest in growing Ohio State’s online program footprint.  

Services We Offer:

Ohio State Online's experienced staff helps guide colleges and units through the program approval process. We coordinate with stakeholders across campus to ensure academic and competitive alignment. Our team will remain by your side, listen to your feedback, and represent the online program and adult working-learner interests to university leadership and student support units. 

Ohio State Online invests in staff expertise and industry-recognized tools and partnerships to conduct tailored market research to support new program development and continuously enhance existing online programs. Through our market research, we proactively identify Ohio State’s greatest opportunities for growth in the online education space and work with colleges to bring those opportunities to life. Additionally, we support college-driven ideas and initiatives with research and recommendations to bolster program proposals.

The Ohio State Online instructional design team supports instructors and academic leaders in creating high-quality, evidence-based learning experiences for post-traditional learners in the university's fully online for-credit degree programs and certificates, as well as non-credit offerings.  
 
This instructional support encompasses program design strategy, instructor professional learning, and course design and development. We partner with academic leaders as early as possible in the program-development process to offer recommendations related to program structure, efficient patterns of course offerings, curriculum design, and overall instructional strategy to best meet the needs of the program’s primary student audience and to effectively achieve the college’s program goals.  
 
Across this partnership, we support the context-specific needs for self-efficacy and shared expectations among program faculty, including ongoing instructor professional learning.  
 
Once the timeline is established for the launch of the program, our instructional designers collaborate with each lead course instructor to create a comprehensive course plan and syllabus, and our educational technologists and media specialists support the instructor to create the course materials and CarmenCanvas course. A comprehensive quality check of all finished materials—including Carmen setup, accessibility, and user experience—helps ensure each course is ready for students. After the program and courses launch, we continuously engage with program stakeholders as part of the Ohio State Online partnership model and help to prioritize instructional support for ongoing evidence-based improvement for the program, instruction strategy, and courses.

The Ohio State Online marketing team is laser-focused on understanding and speaking to the evolving needs of adult working-learners. We are dedicated to understanding the unique value and audience of each Ohio State online program. Our team has expertise in top-of-funnel prospective online-learner lead generation using tactics such as paid advertising, email marketing, multimedia, and SEO-optimized organic content to meet prospective learners early in their exploration phase and help them envision themselves learning online at Ohio State.  

Recruitment in the online space is highly competitive and requires strategies that often differ from traditional campus-based recruitment. We work closely with college recruiters and student services teams to execute complementary recruitment tactics that build awareness for Ohio State’s growing portfolio of online programs and each college’s set of offerings. Ohio State Online has a full recruitment team to support colleges with their enrollment goals and students in their search to further their education with an online program at Ohio State. 

Ohio State Online understands that for adult learners, their classes are just one of many things competing for their time and energy. In addition to strengthening the recruitment support our team provides colleges and learners interested in their programs, Ohio State Online has a team of retention specialists to ensure students receive personalized support to help them successfully progress through their online programs and meet their personal and professional goals.

State Authorization refers to federal, state, and professional licensing board regulations that impact online and in-person education offered across state lines. Compliance with these regulations ensures that an Ohio State degree will be recognized wherever a student may live and that they would be eligible to sit for licensure in states other than Ohio. Authorization requirements vary by state and program and may impact university operations. Our Ohio State Online State Authorization team is dedicated to researching regulations, seeking and maintaining compliance, and communicating changes in authorization status. 

The Society for Learning Analytics Research (SOLAR) defines learning analytics as … “the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learning and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs.” At Ohio State, learning analytics happens when we collect and analyze student data related to their learning activities to see what course design elements and/or instructional strategies foster greater student performance. Learning analytics also happens when we collect data to assess how students meet program and course learning outcomes.