Online delivery of courses offers much promise and opportunity in meeting the diverse student population that our university serves; nearly half of our students are non-traditional students taking classes part time while working full-time and/or tending to familial obligations. In our department, we have seen declining enrollments and a concomitant reduction in faculty over the past three years. Consequently, we find ourselves in an interesting dilemma: how can we offer courses that accommodate our students’ scheduling needs (a major benefit of online education) at the same time our faculty resources are being stretched. Our department has devised an alternative that meets our students’ needs within the constrained resources available: capitalize on the years of online educational materials developed by our faculty and provide online “course packets.”

This paper and session will discuss the implications of this approach, enumerating the benefits and costs to faculty. Interesting questions to answer include: should we limit the number of online students, what is appropriate compensation for faculty, what should the cost be to students, how can we efficiently implement this strategy with regard to the registrar’s office, and is this strategy appropriate for all students or should we limit this approach to certain students and/or courses.