How to Start Your Own Online College

Similar to creating an online/ e-learning course, creating an online private college may seem like an arduous task, but believe it or not, it is very simple. My online university start up is on hold due to my personal finances, failed partnership, and to be frank a lack of commitment. My friends and family think it is strange for me to share my knowledge on starting an online college when I have for the most part failed. I don't. I successfully completed all steps, but was not able to maintain momentum. My goal is to show people that with effort and committment, it is relatively easy to create an online college.

With a day job, doctorate courses, and a family, it took me 6 months to complete and take my school to the market place, and thats where it ended. These days I promote and am a part of the Free Openware College Education Movement, and I am attempting to reboot my online university, and I'm looking for help. I'll explain later in the article.

Another thing I would like to add is that it takes a strong and committed attitude to see this process through from beginning to end. Secondly, you must hold a Masters Degree in any major. Can a person with a Bachelors or non degree person, follow these steps and be successful? Probably. But you want to start this project with some sense of legitamacy and you also want to reflect that legitamacy to your students. Also, believe it or not, the start up costs are very minimal compared to other start ups ventures.

Here are the step that I took to create my online college:

Educating yourself on web-based training and instruction, online learning, and technology education.

Create A Clear Mission and Goal Statement

Get Partners and Co Founders Who Share Your Vision

Create A Business Plan

Establish Costs

Develop Your Majors Cirriculums, and Courses

Create A Web Page

Become Legal

Investigate And Follow Accrediting Guidelines

Setting Admissions Standards

Recruit

Charge Small Fees

Apply For Accreditation

Educating yourself on web-based training and instruction, online learning, and technology education.

Understand The Basics of Learning

The three basic learning styles that are highlighted by learning experts are the following: Auditory learning occurs through hearing ; Kinesthetic learning occurs mostly through interacting; Visual learning occurs through looking at facial expressions,, body language, and giving examples. There is evidence that if teaching tactics were to at least cover some aspects of all learning styles, there would be a greater degree of success. Studies have shown that when an instructor connects teaching techniques to the ways in which students learn, this can significantly enhance academic achievement, student attitudes, and student behavior at all levels of education.

Using a student's preferred way of instruction exclusively may not be the best thing you can do when teaching a class. Students will eventually have to perform in a class and face issues that require the use of their less preferred learning style. Some education experts caution that stress, frustration, and burnout may occur when students have to endure over time teaching styles that do not match the learning style choice of instructions.

Within these various formats online education course developers must include some degree of learning development theories. In developing on line courses, course developers must keep in mind and account for various learning styles. When courses are given on line, instructors cannot interact the classroom to see if students are falling asleep or in a zombie like trance, and because of this, instructors do not know the best method to use thus course developers must account for all learning styles

What Tools and Technology Is Used To Teach Online Courses.

At first start small. Simply use e-mail to teach your course. Updated e-mail programs allow you not only to send text, but also video and audio streams.

Companies such as Apple Computers, Web CT, and Blackboard have packaged all of these formats and offered them to various colleges and universities. Through ITunes, owned by Apple Computers, colleges and universities can offer web cam and audio streaming technology so that students can listen and view courses through their iPods. Apple also now offers customized web pages for instructors to administer their courses. Students can not only listen or view their lectures through their iPods, but also upload their assignments via the web site. Despite these technological advances, critics center their attention on technology as a reason for the lack of academic rigor in on line courses. Continued

Get Partners and Co Founders Who Share Your Vision

Place a free ad in Craig's List Small Business section. State that you are a small online private college that offers degrees and low cost courses in the areas you choose. Also state your mission statement, and state that you are looking for prospective students, teachers, and co founders to help establish the institution. When I did this, I recieved a tremendous response

The most effective ad that you could place is a Craigslist job ad where you would state that you are looking for Co founders for your online school. If you choose to do this, you must emphasize that this as a business opportunity. You must also state the time commitments, how costs will be divided, and how profits will be shared. Decide how many fields or majors you would like to emphasize, and choose that many partners. Divide task among the partner such developing cirriculums, recruiting, developing a business plan, or any tasks you wish to be divided.

Can you do this by yourself? Yes you can, but I would suggest the focus should be on one major, preferrably, your major.

I would also recommend that you establish a legal binding partnership, or if you are doing this yourself, establish a sole proprietorship.

Create A Business Plan

I assume that anyone who puts in the effort to create an online school will want to make some money, but there may be some who are doing this for philanthropic reasons. If you wish to know how to set up your school as a non profit organization go to this site. The world of business and education often do not mix. As long as schools reflect fairness, transparency, and flexibility in pricing out tuition and fees, online colleges can successfully make profits while serving the needs of students.

Why Write a Business Plan?

Why should a business go through the trouble of constructing a business plan? There are five major reasons : (http://www.va-interactive.com/inbusiness/editorial/bizdev/ibt/business_plan.html#1)

1. It assists in creating a niche where you address these question what type of courses will I be teaching? Are these courses in demand.
   
2. It helps to focus ideas and serves as a feasibility study of the business's chances for success and growth.
   
3. The finished report serves as an operational tool to define the company's present status and future possibilities.
   
4. It can help you manage the business and prepare you for success.
   
5. It is a strong communication tool for your business. It defines your purpose, your competition, your management and personnel. The process of constructing a business plan can be a strong reality check.
   
6. The finished business plan provides the basis for your financing proposal.

The Small Business Administration web page has free business plan templates and free easy to follow instructions on how to set up your business.

Costs

The start up costs for your online college is extremely minimal. Here is a list of potential expenditures:

$11.00 per year- Web Page W/ Online Form Making Capability, priced at Go Daddy

$185.00- Based on 500 bw and 500 color copies. Copying Charges For Flyers Both Color & B/W $.07 per copy (BW) and $.30 per year (color)

$75 per week Craigslist Job/Business Opportunity Advertising

$129.00 Legal Zoom Partnership Services

$15 per month SBC Yahoo High Speed Internet

$30-$50 Service Charges To Establish A New School In Your State. Prices vary from state to state.

$900-$2000 Accreditation Fee (Optional), This depends what type of accreditation suits your school.

Develop Your Majors and Curriculums

After you have established your partnerships both legally and logistically, plan and plot out your college course offerings in this order; majors, cirriculums, and courses.

Developing Majors and Deciding Who Teaches What

Developing majors around your expertise and your base knowledge is the way to begin. Understand the differences between Associates Masters and PHD Degrees. I would advise all stake holders to at least have a Masters Degrees since it is these degree holders that can teach Associate and Bachelors students. Colleges with PhD holders can teach and offer any or certain degree programs. Most accrediting agencies require most courses at 2 year and 4 year schools to be taught by Masters Degree holders. Another strategy would be to develop majors around in demand industries/careers.

Developing Majors

You do not need to reinvent the wheel. Established colleges have been developing curriculums and courses for years and some for centuries. And since most colleges and universities place their Major and cirriculm descriptions online, you can simply go to any school’s site to get an idea how to develop courses and majors. Understand the differences between: Associates, Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorates Degrees.

From my research, I have not found one state that has mandates on how colleges and universities should organize programs, but despite this remember these rules:

Offer 3 unit courses- At traditional schools 3 units/credits represent how many hours spent in class per week. In terms of online courses, developers organize assignements and activities that would reflect 3 hours per week of online activity.

Here are some suggestions of how to set up your degree programs. Associates and Bachelors degrees are somewhat similar in that they both have General Education and Major related courses, but they are different in terms of the number of courses. Masters and PhD programs focus heavily on research.

Associate Degrees- These are usually 63 units. Completed within 1-2 years

Bachelors Degrees- These are 120 units. Be aware that in order to make degrees competitive and uphold standards, you may need to have certain program meet certain accreditation guidelines—though this may not be nessesary. These degress are usually finished within 2-4 years.

Masters Degrees- Research related degree that shows mastery of knowledge. Are usually 36 units.

PhD or Doctorates- Between 51-81 depending upon whether or not the college will accept Master's Level courses. Since Doctorates are intensely specialized, there is not really a definite template. If you do plan to offer doctorates, look at other colleges web pages to see how the school has structured their courses.

Associate Degree Template

General Studies- Every Associate and Bachelors degree program has a general education or studies component. The ideas behind this, is the need for students to have general knowledge of the world a part from their career endeavors. College Level Math, English, Science, and the Social Sciences are examples of General Studies courses. General Studies is what separates college and universities from trade schools. Below is a general idea of how general education should be distributed,

Basic Skills: 6 Units

College English: 3

Critical Thinking: 3

Math & Science: 9 Units

College Level Math: 3

Physical Science: 3

Life Science: 3

Arts & Humanities: 9 Units

Arts Appreciation: 3

Humanities: 3

Research Writing: 3

Social Sciences: 9 Units

Human Nature: 3

History: 3

Social Issues: 3

Cultural Diversity: 6

Major Requirements- These courses emphasize major/career courses.

Lower Division Major Courses: 12

Fundamentals: 6

Practices: 6

Research Project Courses: 3

Total Units= 66

Bachelor Degrees Template

General Studies

Basic Skills: 3 Units

College English: 3

Critical Thinking: 3

Math & Science: 9 Units

College Level Math: 3

Physical Science: 3

Life Science: 3

Arts & Humanities: 9 Units

Arts Appreciation: 3

Humanities: 3

Research Writing: 3

Social Sciences: 9 Units

Human Nature: 3

History: 3

Social Issues: 3

Cultural Diversity: 12

Major Courses: 49

Core Courses: 24

Theory Courses: 15

Practical Application: 18

Research Project: 3

Electives: 15

Total= 120 Units

Masters Degrees Template

Foundation: 3 Units

Emphasis: 18 Units

Research: 9 Units

Electives: 6 Units

Total Units= 36

When deciding to place course in these template simple use another universities example. You and your partner should comb different university web pages and decide which courses to plug in.

It Is Time To Develop Your Courses And Learn How To Teach Online

Simply posting a syllabus online and having students complete assignments does not constitute an online class. Many students who have taken online courses will tell you that they had received the best learning experience from an online course where they had interactive teachers and a user friendly web site. Online instructors do not have the luxury of looking at a lecture hall and determine the interest level of the students nor can they easily determine if students are actually learning the material. Attentiveness and comprehension are top concerns of online instructors.

Keep Teaching Simple At First

I would keep it simple at first and have students turn in assigments and communicate through e-mail, and as time goes by, you can update your delivery systems. Also allow students to call you if nessesary.

Create Student Files

As students, turn in assignment, keep records of everthing; e-mails, tests, quizzes, and papers. Create word document folders for all students that contain the above items Continued

Create A Basic Webpage

If you have taken online courses, you may have noticed, a main web page, with a message board function, your instructors contact information, a place where you can upload your assignments/files, and updates. This is not nessesary at first, your basic web page should consist of five pages:

Introduction Page: This shows you mission and goal statements, a basic outline of your majors, the types of degrees, your goals for the student

Course Catalog Page- After you and your partners search for courses to plug in your templates from various web pages, create a word document, cut and paste course descriptions on the document. Be sure to re word each course entry to avoid copyright infringement.

• You may also want to look and possibly copy a similar online university’s policy and procedures to think about establishing similar polices and procedures. Discuss this fully with your partners. This process may take days or weeks depending on how many majors and courses you are going offer.
• This page should also explain and outline your programs and majors
• This document is amorphous. It can constantly change. Once you have established admissions, recruitment, grading procedures, place these in the catalog. Think for your school's catalog as an intruction manual to your school.

Contact- This page lists all of the instructors and contact information.

Accreditation- This page explains where you are at in the accreditation process, and which agency you are focuisng on. State cleary, that your accreditation is pending. State clearly that your school is state approved. I would provide a link to your potential accreditor.

Apply Page. This page will have an interactive application form for your students to fill out and submit. Your web page should have this functionality, if not call your Web Service Provider.

Become A Legal Institution

Can you create and run an institution without state approval? Yes, but I would not recommend this. If caught, fines could be rather high. There are a number of degree mills that operate in every state that teach unstructured courses, grant course credit based on life experience and award illegitimate degrees. Obtain the proper licencing to operate a college in your state. It is a simple process, but it could take 1-2 months to confirm approval. Just simply go to Google and look up your state’s Board of Education. For example if you live in Montana, type in Montana Board of Education, and click the appropriate links, and download the proper forms. Most states have a clear process on how to become a college or trade school, but with some states, you are going to have to do some digging. Florida and New York’s board of education have a clear understandable process where my state California, has a confusing process where new college start ups are governed by Consumer Affairs. I found the Post Secondary Consultant site where the owner of the site specializes in helping people obtain proper liscening to operate a college or trade school anywhere in the U.S. I believe it will be worth your while to look at his site.

Investigate Accreditation Requirements

Accreditation is simply a validation process by which institutions of higher education are evaluated against established standards to ensure a high level of educational quality. It is typically accomplished through a peer-review process in which faculty from accredited institutions help to conduct evaluations of either new non-accredited institutions or accredited institutions seeking renewal. The standards used to conduct these evaluations vary but in general they assess: the institution's mission, goals and objectives, resources and resource allocation, student admission requirements, student support services and the quality of the faculty and educational offerings (Elearners).

Unlike the practices of most other countries, in the United States accreditation of institutions of higher education is not conducted by the government. Instead, it is a voluntary process that is implemented by private nongovernmental accrediting agencies. At present, there are both regional as well as national agencies involved in the accreditation process. The only role that the government plays is to evaluate these accrediting agencies using well developed criteria in order to identify those considered to be "reliable authorities" on the quality of institutions of higher education (Elearners).

Simply choose the type of accreditation that best suits your school, and follow those guidelines. Here is a list of accrediting agencies.

Seeking accreditation is an option, but unaccredited colleges cannot compete, because of its negative stigma. In my opinion, an accreditation is stamp of approval, and it sets guidelines and policies that should be modeled by all learning institutions.

Setting Admissions Standards

My online university had an open admissions policy for Associates and Bachelors, but had the requirement of a Bachelors Degree to be admitted to the Masters programs. Your admissions standards should reflect your mission and goal statement. If your school’s focus is in on academic achievement, then you and your stakeholders holders must have requirements that reflect this idea. This is an important issue that needs to be discussed with you and your partners.

Charge Fees

The goal in the beginning phase of the creation of your school, is getting students. The lower your fees, the better. The rule is charge low for some time then charge higher when you have reached an enrollment target. There are two school's of thinking when it comes to college tuition. Schools with higher fees are sometimes seen as "worthy", while colleges with low fees are seen as cheap. I do not believe this. I would charge a bit more than your local community college. I did not charge tuition, rather I charged for grading papers and tests.

Recruiting

I would start by offering free to low cost courses just to spark interest and get actual students. Also begin with a very open admissions policy, and over time when your enrollement grows you can change to a more challenging admissions policy. Here are some ways to recruit:

• Enter appropriate online chat rooms through Google and Yahoo and announc e your courses.
• Initially offer courses and not degree programs
• Post certain courses on Craiglists classes section.
• Go to every free online advertising source and advertise your school.
• Create low cost flyers, and go to your local unemployment and job training center and post flyers
• Go to local coffee houses and post flyers.

Home or Outside Office

Me and my partners had around 10 students, and we all operated out of our separate homes. If my college start up starts up again, and we find that our enrollment is growing and the need for additional staff increases, then I think we will go with an outside office. That is the rule of thumb; if revenues, and enrollment increases, an outside office is neseseary. With those increases come the need to hire additional staff to help keep up with recruiting and admissions.

Note that some accrediting agencies may require a physical office structure and some sort of library. Accrediting agencies may have flexible interpretation of a centralized space, and a library. Investigate these two aspects carefully on your potential accreditors website.

I would sign up with officelist.com to find the cheapest office space in your area.

Apply For Accreditation

Before applying, have NCAC review your colleges progress. They charge a small nominal fee.

The NCAC independently determines if a college meets the high standards and stringent requirements of traditional and distance learning practices. We evaluate the policies and procedures to ensure they meet our established criteria. There are literally hundreds of accrediting institutions in the United States and each have their own method of accrediting a school...click to continue

Remember. You can operate your university unaccredited, but not state approved. I believe that you will need to work harder to recruit students and compete with other accredited schools.

You know that expression "Life Happens." Well that was the main reason for me to push aside my online college venture. After applying for accredititation, I got a steady stream of students. I had 100 students when I closed shop. Life pulled me and my partners in different directions, and we were not able to keep up. My students went on to be accepted to other online schools, and my partners continued on with their lives.

The lesson to be learned here is that yes, life happens, but you and your partners need to literally work on this everyday. Grading papers. interacting with students, updating policy, recruiting, etc needs to be an everyday thing. If you can not commit atleast 2 hours per day, don't proceed. If anyone needs addtional help, please feel free to contact me.

After a long layoff, I'm now trying to restart my venture as a one man operation. Due to the tiring nature of this, I'm looking for help. I'm looking for partners (CA preferred), contributors, collaborators, instructors and potential students. If you're interested in helping to create an online university that is geared towards anyone who has the drive to learn, please contact me at central.university.edu@gmail.com

Feel free to explore the site. I'm constantly updating and modifying. I urge all to thoroughly review the site, before inquiring to assist.