The role of the sponsor is to ensure that sufficient budget and resources are available to do the project, to ensure that the institution's infrastructure can support the design, development, and delivery of the project, and that the support is in place for the term of the complete degree delivery sequence. The sponsor role is not an easy role, but an absolutely critical one. Designing, developing, and delivering full degree distance learning programs requires a sponsor with the ability to make a 2-3 year term commitment. A commitment for no less than 5 years is even better. Faculty need to be supported and enough faculty are needed to achieve a reasonable faculty-student ratio.
All instruction depends on effective utilization of a wide range of technology tools and resources.
Planning and designing distance learning programs is a skill that most faculty and staff have not developed. Our current model of higher education is highly integrated and bundled. Faculty are responsible for the design, development, and delivery of their individual courses, and a course usually undergoes some redesign and redevelopment every time it is offered. Moving a course to the Web highlights the potential of unbundling the design and development of a course from the delivery of the course. The process of design and development of Web course offerings most often requires a different set of specialty skills than are usually available on a campus.