Demonstration Project
Demonstration Project
Learner Support Advisory Committee
Persons present: Barbara Truman-UCF, John Bober-BCC, Travis Spaulding-UCF, Rusty Okoniewski-UCF, Lucy Morse-UCF, Marlene Fleischer-DBCC, Donna Castellano-VCC, Pat Fleming-CFCC, Steve Lytle-UCF, Lynn LaBrake-UCF, John Scarpino-SCC
Lytle opened the meeting at 9:40 am and distributed SCC's newsletter, and a document called Florida Community College Council on Instructional Affairs (CIA).
Spaulding commented on the CIA document saying that one college president objected stridently. The president said there was no regulation to prevent students from attending who are out of state. He fears that some CC's might get swallowed up. 10/100 voted against the document. Members felt it will be interesting to see where dollars go. The question is: is there a danger? Always within change. Smaller CC's will have to cope. If you have a specialized field then it becomes competitive.
Morse made the point that UCF could lose much of its base of students if it doesn't compete. These issues will be addressed at the Learner Support workshop. Spaulding hopes that the workshop will address a common course numbering system. LaBrake said that certain courses could be offered through the Consortium and therefore could be transferrable to any institution.
(60-hour rule) Spaulding said there is sensitivity among CC's and the University, when they start competing for dollars. There's a chasm between CC's and the Board of Regents. Lytle gave the banking analogy. Customer service has gone up with asynchronous, secure transactions and mergers and competition have created economies of scale.
At Brevard Community College, John Bober said the first test of local BBS is imminent. Local students will be able to access CD's in library. They plan to put all CD's on a hard drive. The dial up rate is made with a 9600 baud modem. He expects that it will be ready by March 1st.
Rusty told of the upcoming/ongoing Quality in Distance Education program with the University of Wisconsin Extension. The tapes and events were made possible by Gail West. UCF Vice Provosts Frank Juge and Hartman attended one recently with 20 regular attendees.
Castellano asked about the chasm between CC's & Universities - does anyone know if Florida representatives have gone to or seriously looked at Consortium of Maine. This was unknown.
Key Issues for Workshop
Members discussed the areas to be covered at the March 5th Sprint Learner Support Workshop.
Concerning Advising/Counseling: participants need to talk about degree audits - At UCF it's the SASS office. It's up to CC's to access. BOR working on a repository written within FIRN. The repository is specifically for degree auditing. There are also legislative initiatives. The coverage involves all universities for all majors.
Other recommendations for discussion included:
- All 10 Universities produce advising manuals (electronically)
- Should be a way/system - for students to have access to who they need to see to solve problems.
There are some problems with some counselors who are not sold on distance education. This can be especially harmful for a course such as math where there can be a great advantage to rewind the tape.
Concerning Financial Aid: there is a new service 1-900-number where the university pays about $200 and the student gets an account within the school's system. Charges are made and then the student pays when their telephone bill comes in. They can then pay with American Express, cash or credit. John Bober has an article on this.
Fleischer commented that the smallest number of distance education is happening on the Internet. Fleming said CFCC is concerned about bibliographic indexing of information. Spaulding said that at UCF about 800 community college students come in the day before classes start. There needs to be a change in orientations. Especially for specific orientation for registration. There is a need for orientation to distance education. Fleischer said it is required at DBCC. There is high interest at CFCC.
Morse said the workshop materials will be mailed in advance. Invites will be mailed by Friday. She will make a sheet of expectations for facilitators and pass those out in advance.
Morse explained the LIFE presentations at UCC theaters going on during the entire month of February.
The next meeting will April 2nd at 9:30am in room 100 of the UCF Research Pavillion.