Melissa Green

In the last academic year, the district-wide Educational Technology Committee received a charge from Chancellor Harris to develop a strategic planning process for distance education in the Los Rios district. Now that effort is coming to each college for input and major discussion. You might ask, "Why? And why now?"

Each college in our district is offering courses by distance education and each semester we have seen substantial growth in those offerings. Our students have shown great interest in these courses, thus leading the colleges to invest more time and attention to ensuring that all distance education courses have the quality that is a hallmark of Los Rios. We have developed some common infrastructure support but we also have many unique elements developed by each college. We now seem to be at a point where some strategic decisions need to be made to move us forward in the most productive way.

Because we value access, we want to see our students achieve their educational and career goals in a timely manner, yet we know that our facilities will not keep pace. Even with our building plan, we will not be able to serve all students with our current growth projections. Distance education can help us increase access. How shall we best meet this goal of increased access?

We have already committed funds and staff to the infrastructure requirements of distance education (e.g., Blackboard) and those needs will only increase. What is the best and highest use of each technology dollar? Each college grapple with this issues, as does the district's IT area. We will maximize our extensive capital investments throughout the district if we are focused on broad strategic goals and our common understanding of what we want to achieve overall in the district.

Providing excellent programs and services is at the heart of the mission of each of our colleges. Is it not time to focus on those common elements in distance education program design/delivery and student support services that require support and/or development?

For all these reasons, the committee now provides you with a set of questions grouped in four broad strategic areas. If we can achieve common understanding and consensus regarding directions in these areas, we can then set a course for the future of distance education in Los Rios that allows us to focus on important issues and provide quality programs and services to our students.

Lastly, let me stress that this is a discussion document for the colleges' use in developing this plan. It has within it items which will fall within the responsibility of our governance and or bargaining units. This document will be provided to all relevant standing committees. Any issue falling within shared governance will go to the Academic and/or Classified Senate. Any union issue will be directed to the appropriate bargaining unit. Our goal as a committee is to generate a thoughtful and thorough discussion, leading us to a plan that is useful and tied to our overall strategic goals. Your participation in your college's discussion will help us all achieve this goal.

Thank you in advance for your involvement.

Marie Smith
Vice Chancellor, Education and Information Technology

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