Executive Summary

Options Report (pdf)

Strategic Areas

Benchmark Colleges

References

• Foothill College is a community college in the heart of Silicon Valley. Foothill is part of a two-college district along with DeAnza College.
• Enrollment is 19,000 and the total for the district is over 44,000.
• Foothill offers both fully-online and hybrid courses. (approx. 150 sections per semester with 7000+ enrollment.)
• Foothill uses their own home-grown course management system (Etudes) which is now also used by a large consortium of other colleges for a very nominal fee.
• Students learn to use the system with online tutorials.
• Faculty members learn to use the system with a self-paced online training program though workshops are also available during the semester and as a summer intensive.
• Tech support is only by email, discussion boards and chat (no telephone support). Students get a 24 hr. response time or less on questions to the Help Desk (staffed by in house support staff).
• Online courses are cross-listed under Foothill Global Access website as well as within the dept/division schedule.
• There is no attempt to coordinate offerings in the district where they have just switched to Etudes from either Blackboard or WebCT. Courses are scheduled independently.
• Foothill provides 9 full-online AA degree programs and a suite of GE courses.
• New courses are developed by faculty interested in doing so but deans discuss and prioritize new online degree programs.

• No longer offer any TV courses. Phased out because of high cost and low enrollment. Some TV courses are still offered by DeAnza College in the district.

• Faculty training is MANDATORY before instructors can teach either a web-enhanced, hybrid or online course.
• There are student evaluations of every course, NOT just those when faculty are scheduled for peer review.
• Students can enroll in a fully online BA or BS programs that Foothill offers in conjunction with either University of Illinois at Springfield OR Franklin University.