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Program Design
The dramatic growth in distance education activity over the last five years at Los Rios, suggests
that faculty and students believe this modality can help promote student success and academic
excellence. (Actual growth figures are presented in the DE Growth in Los Rios 2003-2004
document.) Much of this growth, however, has occurred through isolated planning efforts and
individual faculty or administrator initiative. The colleges are at a crossroads regarding whether
to continue ad-hoc planning or to increase their strategic focus regarding distance education.
This strategy area includes some key strategic questions for the colleges and the district as a
whole. Should there be complete distance education degrees? How does distance delivery relate
to important values of learning community and face-to-face interaction? Can distance education
be better leveraged to help students meet their educational goals, while enabling the colleges and
districts to improve financial stability and program/facilities programming?
Four issues were identified in this area and detailed discussion of each is presented below in this
section.
- Complete Distance Education Degrees and Certificates
- Curriculum Selection
- Potential Market Focus
- Faculty Participation
Issues Related to Program Design:
- Complete Distance Education Degrees and Certificates
Providing programs that could be completed either completely online or through a
combination of online and other distance education delivery methods would provide more
options for students who find it difficult to come to campus due to work, family,
transportation or other reasons. At the same time, completely distance education (DE)
programs would present unique challenges in terms of technical support, student support
services, and the reliability of the technical infrastructure. Also, there are important
pedagogical issues related to this decision.
Comparisons between Los Rios and Benchmark Institutions:
Los Rios:
- Although there are over 300 sections of DE courses per semester, there are currently NO complete degree programs available solely by distance education in the Los Rios District.
- ARC does have some online certificate programs and 22 General Ed courses available
through distance education. CRC does currently have a fully online dietician certificate
program and a Health Information Technology certificate with be offered through a
partnership with Sutter Health beginning in the spring semester, 2005.
Benchmark Institutions:
- All of the benchmark institutions offer fully online degrees and fully online certificates.
- None of the benchmark institutions offer complete degrees or certificates entirely bytelevision in any format.
- In the U.S., 49% of all higher education institutions offer full degree programs by distance education.
- Several community colleges, with a smaller total number of online sections than Los Rios, have as many as 9 online degree programs and a suite of General Education
courses. (Foothill and Cerro Coso)
Strategic question:
Should Los Rios provide complete distance education degree and certificate programs in areas of high student demand and where educationally appropriate? These programs will be carefully designed and supported to ensure high academic quality.
- Curriculum Selection
Distance education options may help the colleges meet other goals involving student access,
growth, and success – as well as assist the colleges in developing new course offerings.
Evidence indicates that there is a pool of courses that are highly impacted by enrollment
demands, in which the ability to offer additional sections is limited by facilities. This limits
both growth and our students’ ability to complete their programs in a timely fashion.
Distance education modalities can be used to deliver courses either without use of on-ground
facilities or by facilitating hybrid course solutions in which two course sections “share” a
facility. DE enrollment data in LRCCD and a list of impacted classes and high-wait list
classes is available in our reference resources.
At the same time, there is the recognition that the process of transforming curriculum into a
distance format is not the same for all disciplines, that there are programs with equipment,
interpersonal, or laboratory requirements that challenge current distance education
technology.
Additional reference materials on Quality in Distance Education are cited in Appendix 2.
Comparisons between Los Rios and Benchmark Institutions:
Los Rios:
- A current survey of courses that are available in distance learning modes indicates that
course options have been developed in a wide array of disciplines.
- The data also shows that there is no clear relationship between the courses with the
strongest student demand and the courses in which distance learning options have been
developed.
- The curriculum processes at each college ensure that distance education is an appropriate
method for delivering instruction before such courses are approved.
- Those involved in development efforts are committed to selecting courses that are
educationally appropriate for distance education delivery.
Benchmark Institutions:
- A benchmark analysis from NEA suggests that learning outcomes, not the availability of
existing technology, should determine whether and how a course is developed in distance
formats.
- The processes used by the benchmark institutions to select the curriculum to be
developed for a distance learning format are conducted by academic departments and
divisions using a variety of standards and considerations.
- Department heads make the decisions in Cerro Coso Community College, which has a
strong institutional distance focus.
- At Golden Gate University, the school deans set the priorities for new online course
development, based on estimates of demand and likely enrollment.
- Coastline Community College uses a similar process.
- At Rio Salado College, the area deans consult with advisory councils and conduct
research about the courses and programs to be developed.
- In the North Harris Montgomery Community College District, area deans make recommendations on courses and programs to develop in distance format based in part on high demand courses that will facilitate student degree/certificate and transfer goals.
Strategic question:
Should there be a process to proactively select areas to target for distance education delivery based on factors such as: areas of high demand, courses needed to shorten time to degree, courses needed for transfer, facilities considerations, and issues of instructional quality and integrity?”
- Potential Market Focus
Even in colleges with significant distance education programs, the majority of distance
students are within the traditional service area. A decision on market focus has important
implications. Students within the district still have the possibility of visiting a campus for
services, proctored exams, and other activities, while students outside the district would be
entirely reliant on distance modes for all educational and service activities. This decision is
affected by whether the primary goal of the distance education efforts in the district is to
attract new students from outside our service area, or to shorten time to degree and to
remove barriers for impacted course.
Comparisons between Los Rios and Benchmark Institutions:
Los Rios:
- At present, the vast majority of our distance students live within 20 miles of a college and
are taking distance education courses for “convenience” usually to avoid excessive travel
or to avoid work or family time conflicts. Very few of our current DE students are truly
“remote”. A summary of the results of a student survey of DE students conducted by the
California Community College Chancellor’s Office is available in the reference
materials.
Benchmark Institutions:
- Five of the six benchmark institutions define their market as primarily local.
- Cerro Coso is the exception, in part explained by a large service area that requires
adoption of course and service delivery methods that are not geographically limited.
- Rio Salado College also has a strong military program (15% of enrollment) in addition to
its local base.
- Golden Gate University and Coastline Community College indicate that they have a
strong student presence that is not local but it is not their primary market.
Strategic question:
Should Los Rios develop its distance education offerings based on the needs of the
students in its geographic area and focus its marketing on this population?
- Faculty Participation
An important limiting element to the expansion of distance education is securing the faculty
involvement to develop and to teach the distance education courses. Many other institutions
have a systematic recruiting process and other incentives for faculty to develop online
courses or programs. If Los Rios decides to offer complete degree programs or expand its
distance offerings, may be needed.
Comparisons between Los Rios and Benchmark Institutions:
Los Rios:
- There are no consistent incentives in the district for developing or teaching DE courses.
Some faculty members have received stipends for development of new online courses
from special grants at CRC. At other colleges, some faculty members have received
release time from their dean to develop new online or DE courses.
- Some faculty members have concerns that their involvement in offering distance
education courses may not continue to be voluntary despite protections in Article 26 of
the LRCFT contract.
- A summary of the results of a faculty survey conducted by the Community College
Chancellor’s Office is available in our reference resources.
Benchmark Institutions:
- Most colleges have developed incentives to encourage faculty to develop new distance
education courses and programs. These are typically stipends or release time for
developing new courses or for the initial offering of a new course.
- Rio Salado pays for course development commensurate with the degree of
difficulty of creating course materials.
- Coastline pays a stipend based on the amount of revision required.
- Golden Gate University faculty members receive a stipend (typically around
$2000) for developing an online version of a course that they teach.
- NHMCCD is developing a new intellectual property policy that allows the
creator of a distance learning course which can be used by others to collect a
small royalty on a per student basis in return for ongoing course maintenance.
Strategic questions:
- Should options and possible incentives be explored for fostering faculty participation in
the development of distance learning courses, degrees, and certificates, particularly in
those areas that require substantial course and program revision?
- Should faculty participation in developing and delivering DE offerings continue to be
voluntary?
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