Ruth Gannon Cook

Motivators and Inhibitors for University Faculty in Distance and e‐learning

This article reports on four United States studies of how rewards systems, extrinsic and intrinsic, could play an important role in providing incentives for university faculty to teach (or remain teaching) electronic and distance education courses. The first three studies conducted prior to 2003 reported faculty were inherently motivated to teach e-learning and distance education. The fourth study in 2003 reported key findings that differed from the earlier studies. Using a principal components analysis, the researchers found nine indicators of motivation to participate or not participate in electronic or distance education. The implications from the fourth study indicated that, while faculty members were inherently committed to helping students, faculty members wanted their basic physiological needs met by university administration through extrinsic motivators, such as salary increases and course releases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business Lessons for Higher Education Marketing

Today, recent business marketing approaches that depend upon market analysis and planning have stimulated the growth of marketing firms that offer sophisticated quantitative market analyses in order to identify an organization’s potential and current customers and their needs. This analysis contrasts educational service provider to enrollment outcomes at two nonprofit higher education institutions. The authors’ data indicates securing educational marketing services may be a costly approach in order to attract and keep customers or students.