Executive Summary

Options Report (pdf)

Strategic Areas

Benchmark Colleges

References

• Opportunities for District-wide Coordination
• Planning for Infrastructure and for Growth and Innovation
• Evaluation and Effectiveness

Issues Related to Governance, Management, Funding:

1. Opportunities for District-wide Coordination
   Our colleges may be able to increase the level of coordination in distance education program development, scheduling and other important areas. By pooling resources and efforts, the Los Rios colleges could more efficiently develop complete distance programs and develop distance options for highly impacted courses. This would reduce overlap between the colleges, and reduce the gaps in programs.

   This issue requires developing an approach for managing resources related to distance education, including allocation of WSCH, FTEs, etc. It involves clarifying roles and responsibilities and then establishing appropriate communication and decision-making structures. Decisions will need to be made about which functions could be better managed if they were centralized and consistent versus the distributed and unique to each college.

   • Program development and approval
   • Course Scheduling
   • Marketing
   • Budget allocation
   • Copyright and Intellectual property
   • Technical Support

   Comparisons between Los Rios and Benchmark Institutions:

   Los Rios:

   • Currently there is no formal coordination to target areas for online or video delivery.
   • There is no process for proactive coordination of new programs or schedules in the distance education format. There has been some coordination in areas of potential conflict, such as in areas of high cost or low demand for courses offered in the distance education format.
   • There is no district-wide view of what is being offered through distance education that looks for gaps or opportunities for collaboration in new program development or resource use.
   • There is a program review process at each college but this is not linked to collaborative planning. The current review process is “bottoms up” with colleges proposing curricular changes that are channeled upward through the college and then district committees.
   • There is a new curriculum management and tracking system (Socrates) that could be used to raise awareness of initiatives at individual colleges and to assist in curriculum coordination.
   • In the television area, there has been some coordination of district colleges with SECC to meet community needs and fill airtime. There has also been some upgrading of infrastructure and broadcasting equipment that has resulted in more professional production capabilities.
   • There is no location where students can view ALL of the distance education offerings available in the district or determine whether these courses would combine to make a degree or certificate. There are four separate websites where DE courses are listed by college. There is no unified or searchable list across the district.
   • There is currently no effective marketing of our distance education programs either within the district or outside our service area. Distance programs are reported to the California Virtual Campus website catalog of online courses independently by each college.
   • Resources needed for DE courses are funded at the district level in some areas (network infrastructure, Blackboard, district-wide software licensing, etc.) but funding remains at the college level in other areas where there may be duplication and redundancy.
   • Copyright and intellectual property issues are detailed in district-wide contracts and policies but there could be benefits to providing district-wide services in these areas.

   Benchmark Institutions:

   • Some benchmark institutions have placed all their distance education programs into a Cyber Campus or Virtual College. Students can then easily locate the programs they need. The faculty members typically are still housed with the departments at the colleges but teach the online or DE courses for the Virtual College.
   • Some colleges in multi-college districts have local control over what courses to offer but have a process at the district level to review and coordinate offerings and have a unified website for their distance education programs and courses so that students have a single point of reference.
   • Several of the benchmark institutions have used a phased approach to develop cohesive programs of distance offerings. They coordinated across areas to first develop an online offering for the complete general education core, and then targeted high-demand degrees for online delivery.
   • Distance education degree programs, certificates and classes are listed together and are searchable at all the benchmark institutions.
   • Many of the benchmark institutions have an administrative position that coordinates the marketing and delivery of distance education courses and/or coordinates technical support even though program development occurs at the college level. Strategic

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   Strategic question:
   Should there be greater district-wide coordination of DE programs, including program development, scheduling, marketing, etc. to provide greater opportunities for collaboration, cooperation, and consistency?

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2. Planning for Infrastructure and for Growth and Innovation
   Distance Education is highly dependent on technology and technical infrastructure and support. The network infrastructure should be stable and reliable if it is to serve as the backbone for effective online education. The network should provide sufficient performance and bandwidth to enable faculty to use the multimedia tools needed for high quality programs. There should also be adequate mechanisms for ensuring security and authentication of identity. A concern has been raised that technical support needs to be available at the times students are engaged in distance education activities, often at night and on weekends.

   Growth has been very rapid in fully online courses (510%) over the last three years. (Actual LRCCD DE growth figures are available in our reference resources.) This has meant that the district hardware and network infrastructure resources have required constant upgrading to ensure good performance for users. Better DE data gathering and systematic strategic planning will allow resources to be implemented in a proactive manner to meet expected needs. There is always a dynamic balance between the introduction of new innovative technology options and adequate time to build competencies with previously adopted technology.

   Comparisons between Los Rios and Benchmark Institutions:

   Los Rios:

   • Network infrastructure is provided district-wide and one course management system (Blackboard) is provided for all colleges. Other necessary hardware and software tools vary considerably across the colleges.
   • The district has increased network capacity and hardware each year to provide additional resources in support of distance education programs. However, rapid growth has often meant that these upgrades occur after the network capacity or server resources have already become strained.
   • District-wide site licenses for standardized tools would provide cost savings compared to individual faculty or college-based site licenses. In addition, it would be easier to collaborate on training programs and support if a standard set of tools were available to all faculty developing online courses.
   • There are already extensive online support materials available for users of Blackboard, the Online Grading System and some other systems.
   • Email and phone support from the district Help Desk staff is now available during normal business hours Monday through Friday. There is no support in the evening or on weekends even though these are the times that most distance students are active in their classes.
   • There are online and videotaped materials for TV or ITFS students.

   Benchmark Institutions:

   • The Virtual College or DE Coordinator usually manages infrastructure where these models have been used (even for courses that are “web-enhanced” and not fully online).
   • Most colleges provide tech support outside of normal business hours for online students.
   • Most colleges have online self-paced tutorials to teach users how to access and use the online course management system.

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   Strategic question:
   Should planning processes be put into place to prepare for growth in distance education program requirements so that network, hardware, software and tech support needs can be better anticipated, technical support can be expanded as appropriate and technology innovation can be better managed?

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3. Evaluation and Effectiveness
   Distance education models need to be evaluated in a manner that is consistent with classroom and other delivery methods. Institutional research supports evaluation of the effectiveness of distance modes with regard to persistence, retention, success, and transfer. User satisfaction (student, faculty, staff, administrators) should also be routinely and regularly assessed. Usage patterns (whom, when, how long, what courses/instructors) should also be compiled as valuable tools for planning as well as evaluation. Regular scanning of benchmark/comparable institutions should occur.

   Comparisons between Los Rios and Benchmark Institutions:

   Los Rios:

   • None of the Los Rios colleges routinely compare DE course outcomes on retention, student success and persistence with on-site courses to ensure that learning outcomes are equivalent.
   • No attempt has been made to do cost-effectiveness comparisons across different DE delivery methods.
   • Student evaluation in DE courses is not done as consistently as it is in face-to-face courses. Students can use online course assessment in some cases, but often the college resorts to paper-based evaluations used in other classes.

   Benchmark Institutions:

   • Courses are consistently evaluated and in most cases, specific online student evaluation tools have been created for this purpose.
   • Regular tracking of student outcomes is done for DE as for all courses.
   • No college surveyed had reliable figures on comparative cost and efficiency of different DE modalities.

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   Strategic question:
   Should systematic evaluation of DE courses using appropriate student evaluation tools and identical student success measures (Student Learning Outcomes) be completed to provide a comparison both with face-to-face courses and across different DE modalities?

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