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Executive Summary
The Strategic Options Report developed by a subcommittee of the Educational Technology
Committee is intended as a catalyst for discussion of the future of distance education for the Los
Rios Community College District. Through an inclusive process that included input from the
internal Los Rios community, information from benchmark colleges both in California and
nationally, and findings from national studies, a series of issues were identified that belong to
four broad strategic areas:
- Program Design
- Student Success and Student Support Services
- Instructional Quality and Professional Development
- Governance, Management, and Funding
The process for discussing and obtaining district-wide consensus on the issues in these strategic
areas begins with developing a document (the Strategic Options Report) that clarifies and defines
cores issues in each area and then presents strategic questions for discussion and analysis. This
document will be presented at each of our four colleges and the district office through a series of
forums organized with governance groups, standing committees and other interested parties. The
full Strategic Options Report will support the discussion by providing information, including
outlining the current status of Los Rios on each of the issues, providing insights from the
benchmark colleges, and then presenting strategic questions for discussion and feedback. A
feedback form will be available to record comments and facilitate further analysis.
Program Design, the first strategic area, encompasses the issues of where Los Rios should focus
attention in developing and delivering education and services at a distance. The four issues in
this broad area are:
- Complete Distance Education Degrees and Certificates: The strategic question for discussion is “Should Los Rios provide complete distance
education degree and certificate programs in areas of high student demand and where
educationally appropriate, assuming these programs will be carefully designed and
supported to ensure high academic quality?”
- Curriculum Selection: The strategic question for discussion is “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: The strategic question for discussion is “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: The two strategic questions for discussion are: “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?”
Student Success and Student Support Services, the second strategic area, encompasses the
factors that promote successful achievement of student goals through participation in distance
instruction and services. The three issues for further discussion in this area are:
- Student Readiness: The strategic question for discussion is “Should orientations and
training on how to succeed in distance learning formats be available to students on an as
needed basis or should these be made mandatory to ensure that all DE students are
appropriately prepared to learn via distance delivery methods?”
- Learner Support and Resources: The strategic question for discussion is “Should we
identify and develop an appropriate set of current student services that would be available
to DE students without coming to one of our colleges or centers?”
- On-Campus Requirements: The strategic question for discussion is “What are the
appropriate on-campus requirements for distance education students?”
Instructional Quality and Professional Development, the third strategic area, includes the
factors associated with qualifications, training, and ongoing support for the faculty, staff, and
administrators who are tasked with providing education and services at a distance. The three
potential issues that form the basis for further discussion in this broad area are:
- Increasing Instructor Preparation and Experience: There are two strategic questions for discussion “Should the colleges require a consistent
standard of demonstrated preparation for distance education instructors, either through
DE certificate courses or the equivalent prior to teaching distance education courses?
What types of on-going support for distance education instructors should be provided?”
- Administrator Training and Roles: The strategic question for discussion is “Should training, information and on-going
support regarding developing, managing, and evaluating distance education programs be
provided for deans, department chairs and peer review committees?”
- Training for DE Support Staff: The strategic question for discussion is “What type of training and on-going support
should be provided for classified staff who provide support services for DE students?”
Governance, Management, and Funding, the fourth strategic area, explores potential areas for
coordination in program development, support and resource utilization. The three potential
issues that form the basis for discussion in this broad area are:
- Opportunities for District-wide Coordination: The strategic question for discussion is:
“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?”
- Planning for Infrastructure Growth and Innovation: The strategic question for
discussion is: “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?”
- Evaluation and Effectiveness: The strategic question for discussion is: “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?”
Framework for Discussion
While the goal of this Strategic Options Report is to provide a framework for discussion and
feedback in the college community on the critical issues associated with developing, delivering,
and supporting a distance education program, the process will not stop there. As part of the
college rollout process, additional issues may be identified for further discussion that are not part
of this initial document but are considered key to shaping high quality distance education
programs that meet student goals. The feedback from this initial rollout will be incorporated into
a document that will be shared with the Los Rios community. The consensus that develops
provides the framework for the new work that will start on the identifying the tactical issues,
policies, and procedures that have to be established in order for the directions identified in the
Strategic Options Report and validated through the discussion process to be realized. This work
will involve all aspects of the Los Rios community – from governance bodies to negotiating
teams. The result will be a distance education program that enables students to reach their
educational goals and enables the district to function effectively and efficiently. With this final
outcome in mind, the next steps in the process are:
- Present the Strategic Options Report and supporting materials to the colleges
- Obtain feedback from the colleges on both the strategic directions identified in the report as
well as the new issues identified in the outreach process
- Analyze the feedback forms to determine college perspectives on the strategic directions
- Analyze the results cross college of the different issues
- Present the report to the Board of Trustees for their feedback
- Prepare a summary document that presents the feedback to the college community
- “Assign” the strategic directions to the appropriate operational and governance issues within
the Los Rios community for planning for implementation
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