Distance Learning: What Today's Academic Leader Needs to Know

1. Distance Learning: What Today's Academic Leader Needs to Know Mickey Slimp, The Northeast Texas Consortium of Colleges and Universities

2. Question 1: What is Distance Education?

3. Activity: Defining the terms • Online Learning • Distance Learning: how does it differ? • eLearning: how does it broaden the concept? • Identify examples from your campus. • Identify your role with each format.

4. Question 2: What is the Role of Distance Education within My College’s Mission?

5. Activity: Group Discussion The distance learning mission: discuss the mission of distance education at your campus. How does the mission of DL integrate/support your college mission?

6. Activity: Reclaiming the Dream • Increase completion rates while preserving access and quality • Improve college readiness and freshman success • Provide skills and knowledge for jobs in regional economies • Refocus mission and roles to meet 21st Century needs • Invest in collaborative structures to serve multiple colleges. • Incentivize college efforts to reclaim the American Dream. • Restructure to promote rigor, transparency, and accountability. • Brainstorm how your program can support the recommendations. • Describe examples of where in your programs this is happening or having an impact.

7. Activity: Strategic Planning • Organizational history with strategic planning • Where is your Campus Master Plan? • At what level can you initiate and follow through with a strategic plan? • Questions: • Who should be involved? • Intended outcomes? • How will you build benchmarks and metrics throughout the plan? • Timeline? • Who must approve?

8. Question 3: So, How Can my College Manage “Disruptive Innovation?”

9. Recent trends • Badges. Mozilla Open Badges • Competency Based Education (CBE). Seven Things You Should Know about Competency Based Education.Western Governors University has based their entire distance model around the concept. • Flipped Classrooms. • Collaborations. The Texas Association of Community Colleges’ Virtual College of Texas, Michigan Community College System’s Michigan Online, North Carolina’s broadband MCNC network, or the Northeast Texas Consortium of Colleges’ NETnet.

10. Recent trends • Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs). A Taxonomy of MOOCs,” Stephen’s Blog. Course engines, include Coursera, Udacity, andIversity. Blackboard, Canvas, and Desire2Learn now offer MOOC platforms. • The Open Educational Resources Movement. Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources. Creative Commons or Merlot, the Open Textbook Initiative. • Privatization and Outsourcing. Outsourcing Services in Higher Education: Consider the campus climate • State Authorization Reciprocal Agreement (S.A.R.A.). Instructions for individual colleges to participate are available at http://nc-sara.org/what-does-institution-do, on the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements website.

11. Activity: Disruptive Innovation Identify your natural response to disruptive innovation. Identify your departmental or institutional response to disruptive innovation. Provide examples of each scenario. • Innovators • Implementers • Traditionalists

12. Question 4: How Will My College Maintain High Quality in an Online Environment?”

13. Regional Accreditation • Appropriateness of the online program to the college’s mission and purposes. • The planning process for distance education is integrated into the college’s overall planning process. • Online learning is included in the college’s “system of governance and oversight.” • Distance curricula are comparable in rigor to traditional instruction. • Distance learning is evaluated with the results used to improve instruction. • Faculty are qualified and supported. • The institution provides student and academic services. • Resources needed for program support and expansion are provided. • The integrity of the course offerings is maintained. Distance Education Programs: Interregional Guidelines for the Evaluation of Distance Education (Online Learning)

14. Question 5: How Can My College Maintain Security while Serving Distance Students?”

15. Activity: Online Security • Current Methods • Process Modifications • Technical Modifications

16. Information security Information Security Guide: Effective Practices and Solutions for Higher education. • www.educause.edu/library/resources/information-security-guide-effective-practices-and-solutions-higher-education Educause • https://wiki.internet2.edu/confluence/display/2014infosecurityguide/Home Internet2

17. Question 6: What Financial, Staffing and other Infrastructure is Needed to Support Distance Learners?

18. Support areas • Financial Resources • Human Resources • Physical Resources • Student Support • Professional Development • Course Development

19. Resources • Institutional Support • The Instructional Technology Council (ITC)(www.itcnetwork.org) • EDUCAUSE (www.educause.edu) • The Texas Distance Learning Association (TxDLA)(www.txdla.org) • The Online Learning Consortium (http://www.onlinelearningconsortium.org/) • The New Media Consortium (www.nmc.org)

20. Distance Learning: What Today's Academic Leader Needs to Know Mickey Slimp Northeast Texas Consortium of Colleges and Universities (NETnet) mickey.slimp@netnet.org 903-877-1276