From the Desk: IU Online simplifying identity

The 2023-24 academic year has been busy for online education at Indiana University. In the fall, we launched eight restructured programs and several new programs to give students even greater access to IU degrees. Enrollment in these programs has grown thanks to more entry terms, increased student services and revamped courses that further engage online students.

Overall online enrollment grew by 6.2% this spring. Our programs are once again highly ranked, and our students continue to express confidence in their experiences with IU Online.

We have also been looking at our internal structure to better serve our faculty, staff and students. We are excited to announce that we will be referring to ourselves only as IU Online. Up to now, we’ve employed acronyms that were perhaps useful to us internally but that confused external faculty and staff. Simplification will make it easier for everyone — faculty, staff and students — to understand where to turn when questions arise about online education.

We will no longer use Office of Online Education or OOE to refer to ourselves administratively, or Office of Collaborative Academic Programs or OCAP to refer to those functions associated with program management and program assessment. Simply put, IU Online will now be our organizational name as well as our brand name.

We are also retiring the term “IU Online Class Connect” and the acronym IUOCC. We will continue to replicate courses across campuses to support collaborative programs and to honor individual campus requests, but we will no longer, as a regular practice, replicate all eligible courses among the regional campuses. In addition, we are limiting enrollments in some replicated courses to students in online programs. The limitations should help campuses serve their on-campus students.

Retiring names that have been in use for a decade will take a few months as we update communications, websites and emails. Just as we appreciate the feedback that led to this simplification, we appreciate your patience as we move ahead in implementing this great recommendation.

Susan Sciame-Giesecke is Indiana University’s vice president for regional campuses and online education.