In the previous unit, you focused on creating a program vision, description, and getting a sense of the resources necessary to create your online program. You’re now ready to determine if the program is feasible. Decision-makers who approve new programs, whether internal or external, often ask about program feasibility with a focus on the financial “bottom line,” and there may be other considerations too, such as the potential for enhancing community connections, meeting a societal need, or developing prestige for a department or Faculty. Your institution may have a formal process to determine feasibility based on a new product development model such as Stage-Gate or it may be a more informal or formal process with a committee or decision-maker. Regardless, program leaders need to collect and share evidence that the program meets institutional and often provincial criteria for feasibility. Evidence-informed decision-making is core for determining whether a program can move forward and be developed.

This unit focuses on the Program Feasibility, Impact, and Approval elements of the Online Program Ecosystem. Read more about the ecosystem in Module 1, Unit 1: Collaborating to Create the Online Learner Life Cycle and its Ecosystem

The following are elements generally included in a feasibility or business plan for a new online program. Each element also includes some ways in which data can be collected to demonstrate feasibility.

Labour Market Demand

Understanding employment opportunities for program graduates is especially important for applied programs or professional programs that require evidence of employment after graduation for provincial funding. For example, evidence of labour market demand is required when Ontario community colleges apply for credential validation and provincial funding. This information can be shared through quantitative or qualitative data. In other online programs, for example, those that are not directly tied to the labour market in a specific industry or accreditation, qualitative data collection methods can be used to demonstrate the importance of transferrable skills or pathways to future careers, graduate school, or other educational training. You can also combine quantitative and qualitative data in your feasibility study.

Possible sources of quantitative data: Institutional Research Departments can support the collection of labour market demand for a specific occupation and a specific region. For example, by using the National Occupation Code (NOC), it’s possible to pull quantitative data from EMSI or other national databases that document this demand. Finding a close match between the NOC and the program is challenging; consulting with experts in Institutional Research or Planning is advisable.

Possible sources of qualitative data: Focus groups with employers, community members, or other stakeholders such as scholars in the field can provide a sense of whether there would be future educational pathways or jobs available for graduates as well as the type of job opportunities. “External focus groups” can also be consulted about the types of training they see as important which, in turn, will inform curriculum requirements. This example of an external focus group meeting agenda provides possible discussion topics in an external focus group: External Advisory Panel Agenda (Fanshawe College, 2021).

Student Demand

Understanding how many students may enrol in a program will support any required financial modelling.

Possible sources of quantitative data: Institutional Research/Planning or the Admissions Office/Registrar can provide data from Ontario College Application Service (OCAS) or Ontario Universities’ Application Centre (OUAC) that demonstrate enrolment trends for the same or similar programs offered at other colleges or universities.

Possible sources of qualitative data: Focus groups with current students or with graduates of related, pathway, or comparable programs provide a sense of future demand. This Student Focus Group Sample Agenda (Fanshawe College, 2021) provides you with the topics that could be discussed and noted for determining feasibility and for future curriculum or marketing.

Note: For community colleges, evidence of student demand is required when applying for credential validation and provincial funding.

Societal Need

The new program idea could be so innovative or emergent that no labour market or student data exists. It might also be that the program feasibility is being evaluated based on contribution to scholarship and knowledge, community or social impact, or other factors that do not align solely with financial considerations. In this instance, the goal is to provide a rationale that is based on scholarly evidence and citations that support the need for the new program. Evidence can also include:

• outcomes from scholarly conferences
• research questions raised in journals or other publications
• information from conversations with community partners, and/or
• local, regional, national, or global calls to action

Financial Feasibility

Financial feasibility can literally be the million-dollar question depending on how many and which types of resources are required to deliver the program. In general (and depending on your institutional context), the goal for financial feasibility is to determine what the costs are and if the revenues can cover the costs or, in some cases, provide excess revenue that can be used to support other initiatives or improve/grow the program. It may be that it is acceptable for the program to operate at a financial loss for some time or if the societal need for the program outweighs financial feasibility to some extent. In some instances, you can use a traditional business Profit and Loss Statement (P&L) (Sample Profit and Loss Statement, Fanshawe College, 2021) to demonstrate financial feasibility for a specific offering. If there is a need to explore profitability over a longer time horizon, then a Net Present Value (NPV) is an option for a five or ten-year timeframe (NPV sample, Fanshawe College, 2021).

Regardless of the method to project financial feasibility, you will need to use your list of required resources, and their cost, as an input. While ongoing costs are often–but not always!–reduced once an online program is implemented, the required start-up costs, which are often more than in traditional, in-person delivery formats, as well as the costs related to sustaining the program, need to be accounted for. In instances where the program is not financially viable, alternate options that reduce costs may need to be explored. Determining cost-saving will require further collaboration and consultation to determine if other software might be used or if hiring needs can be reconsidered, as two examples. Return to your previous list of required resources to determine areas where cost savings can support better financial outcomes, and don’t forget that collaboration plays a vital role in gathering all the information you need and where reductions might be possible without compromising the effectiveness of the program.

Understanding the funding model for the institution is important in deciding how to account for whether an online program is feasible. For example, provincial funding in Ontario is now based on a corridor funding model. In this model, incremental student enrolment provides only additional tuition revenues since the institution is provided with a constant grant amount as long as domestic enrolment levels remain within the allowable corridor. For other models, such as with professional schools, there is no government funding, and so revenue is calculated on a student-by-student basis and the model is entirely cost-recovery.

Other Considerations

At this point, refer back to the institutional strategies and external requirements for the alignment list you created in the “Creating and Aligning Program Vision” unit in this module to determine if there are other factors that need to be considered with respect to feasibility. For example, if the new program must align with the SMA, then it’s important to factor that into your business plan and calculations. Or perhaps all-new programs at your institution must include a commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion that needs to be noted in the business plan together with the required resources.

In the workbook, there is a space for noting the required elements with respect to alignment, and you can use those to highlight costs and the intention of including them in the new online program.

Feasibility Meeting

Holding a Feasibility Meeting with stakeholders provides validation of all the elements necessary for a business plan; it allows everyone to double-check various assumptions that have been made about the new online program. The School Feasibility Meeting (Fanshawe College, 2021) and School Feasibility Meeting Preparation Checklist (Fanshawe College, 2021) can be used to support both the preparation and meeting.

New Program Proposal

Using the program vision, description, and feasibility materials, program leaders can now move on to begin creating a New Program Proposal. An example of one Program Proposal template is located in the Program Development and Implementation Workbook.

The program proposal can be used for decision-makers within an institution as well as for those external to the institution that are reviewing proposals for credential validation and funding. It provides a business plan for the new program and a way to summarize aspects of the program for later use in developing curriculum or in reviewing success.

Unit Resources