COLLEGE OF THE SEQUOIAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT

Board of Trustees Meeting

August 2015

ANNUAL REPORT ON DISTANCE EDUCATION
Status: Information
Presented by: Jennifer Vega La Serna, Ph.D.
Vice President, Academic Services

Issue

Deborah L. Nolan, Ph.D., Distance Education and Faculty Enrichment Coordinator, will present the annual report on Distance Education.

Background

Dr Nolan will update the Board of Trustees on Distance Education at College of the Sequoias, including Blackboard, course offerings, out-of-state students, students only enrolled in online classes, Administrative Procedure 4105, Substantive Change (ACCJC), curriculum, certification, student success, and a new DE Task Force.

Recommended Action

No action is required.

Blackboard (Bb)

The Student Computer Helpdesk in the LRC (Visalia) along with various support personnel in Hanford and Tulare have been able to support students successfully as they use Bb.

Faculty consultations concerning Bb management issues continue at about the same pace as they have in the past few years. Dr Nolan has been able to address virtually all issues during 2014-2015 with the exception of a few minor program glitches that were addressed by our Computer Services specialist.

Canvas

The Chancellor’s Office has created an opportunity for colleges within the system to adopt a new online course management platform. The platform is called Canvas and is a product of Instructure, Inc. The District will begin the process of examining this opportunity as we begin the fall 2015 semester.

Online Classes

Divisions across campus continue to schedule online classes, including Business, Consumer Family Studies, English/Fine Arts, I&T, Math, Counseling, Fire Technology, Library, Nursing, and Social Sciences. Instructors schedule classes in three main formats: (1) entirely online; (2) online with orientation; and (3) hybrid (requiring scheduled meetings in addition to online activity). The table below indicates the number of sections offered in the Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Summer 2014, Fall, 2013, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Summer 2015, and those scheduled for Fall 2015.

Online Sections
Spring 2013 / 85
Spring 2014 / 96
Spring 2015 / 101
Online Sections
Summer 2013 / 0
Summer 2014 / 20
Summer 2015 / 27
Online Sections
Fall 2013 / 91
Fall 2014 / 93
Fall 2015 (scheduled) / 99

Out-of-State Students

We track the number of students taking COS online classes while living outside of California to comply with state authorization requirements. Last year, we had students in Colorado (1), North Carolina (1), New Jersey (2), Hawaii (7), Virginia (2), North Dakota (1), Missouri (2), and Florida (1). We are monitoring developments related to state authorization requirements for distance education and believe we are well-positioned to meet the requirements for state authorization as they arise.

Students only enrolled in online classes

Currently, we do not have any programs that are offered exclusively or entirely online, but many students only enroll in online classes in any given semester.

Distance Education
Fall 2012 / Spring 2013 / Fall 2013 / Spring 2014 / Fall 2014 / Spring 2015
ON / 237 / 181 / 222 / 149 / 216 / 146
OO / 45 / 56 / 29 / 29 / 34 / 70
OH / 69 / 51 / 72 / 54 / 44 / 68
72* / 14 / 4 / 21 / 0 / 0 / 10
Note:
** - Not all courses were properly coded with instructional method codes.

Administrative Procedure 4105 Revised

The Academic Senate approved (May 2015) a recommendation to modify AP 4105 (Distance Education) to allow an additional student authentication procedure (email) for online classes.

Substantive Change

The ACCJC defines an online program as one for which 50% or more of the classes required for the program can be offered online. Between Fall 2011 and Spring 2015, we had 23 certificates and degrees approved for DE.

Certificates and Degrees approved for Distance Education - 2011

Title / Type
Accounting / Certificate
Law Office Clerk/Receptionist / Certificate
Real Estate / Certificate
Child Development – Assistant / Certificate
Child Development – Associate Teacher / Certificate
Fashion Merchandising / Certificate
Accounting / AS
Business / AS
Paralegal / AS
Health Education / AS
Physical Education / AS
Administration of Justice: Corrections / AS
Liberal Arts (Arts & Humanities) / AA
Liberal Arts (Communication Studies) / AA
Liberal Studies (Natural Science) / AA
Liberal Studies (Social and Behavioral Sciences) / AA
Transfer Studies (Arts & Humanities) / AA
Transfer Studies (Business) / AA
Transfer Studies (Communication Studies) / AA
Transfer Studies (Elementary Teaching Preparation) / AA
Transfer Studies (Math and Science) / AA
Transfer Studies (Social and Behavioral Sciences) / AA

In February 2015, the ACCJC approved a major substantive change proposal for 50 additional new online programs.

Program Name / Type / % of program approved for DE
Administration of Justice / AST / 100%
AG Business Management / AS / 69%
Administration of Justice - Law Enforcement / AS / 80%
American Sign Language / AS / 100%
Animal Science / AS / 50%
Architectural History / Certificate / 100%
Art / AA / 50%
Art History / AAT / 65%
Biology / AS / 90%
Business Financial Recordkeeping / Certificate / 100%
Business / Certificate / 73%
Business / AS / 53%
Chemistry / AS / 77%
Child Development / AS / 75%
Communication Studies / AAT / 95%
Communication / Certificate / 100%
Computer Applications / Certificate / 49%
Computer Programming and Information Systems / Certificate / 72%
Computer Programming and Information Systems / AS / 103%
Construction Inspection / AS / 65%
Consumer Family Studies / AS / 85%
Dairy Science / AS / 65%
Dance / AS / 80%
Dramatic Arts – Acting / AA / 55%
Dramatic Arts - Technical / AA / 57%
Engineering / AS / 58%
English / AAT / 92%
Fashion Design / AS / 75%
Fashion Merchandising / AS / 75%
Fire Technology / AS / 68%
Geology / AST / 78%
Human Services / AS / 50%
Industrial Maintenance Technology / AS / 50%
Landscape Management / AS / 50%
Legal Secretary/Law Office Clerk / Certificate / 54%
Mathematics / AS / 80%
Mathematics / AST / 90%
Music / AAT / 57%
Music / AA / 63%
Paralegal / Certificate / 61%
Physical Science / AS / 88%
Physics / AS / 73%
Plant Science / AS / 70%
Political Science / AAT / 97%
Psychology / AAT / 103%
Sociology / AAT / 98%
Spanish / AAT / 100%
Sports Medicine / AS / 92%
Transfer Studies (Agriculture and Environmental Science) / AA / 100%
Welding / AS / 60%

We are not yet offering online sections of all of the courses that have been approved for online delivery through the curriculum approval process.

Curriculum

The Academic Senate will be considering a revision of the Distance Learning Addendum (DLA) approved by the Curriculum Committee in May 2015.

Online Teaching Certification Program

71 instructors have completed the Online Teaching Certification Program since 2011. The program was revised in Spring 2015 and is now based on statewide standards developed by the Online Education Initiative (OEI). The District made it possible for Dr Nolan to facilitate the Online Teaching Certification Program during the summer (June-July 2015). Twenty-three instructors signed up for the program and are in various stages of completion. Three instructors (two adjunct and one full-time) completed the program before the end of July. Dr Nolan will offer the program again during the 2015-2016 academic year.

Student Success

Through our own research on student success factors, we have identified five considerations related to student success:

•  Awareness

•  Students must be aware that they are registering for an online class and that it won’t be easier than a face-to-face class. A recent survey of online students (Spring 2014) indicated as many as 30% of students thought the class would be easier than a face-to-face class.

•  Expectations

•  Students who have a compelling reason to finish a class tend to be more successful in the class.

•  Skills

•  Students should have basic computer skills.

•  Students should have strong time management skills

•  Dispositions

•  Students tend to be successful if they:

•  Are able to set and achieve goals.

•  Are comfortable troubleshooting computer problems.

•  Do not mind being separated from their instructors and classmates.

•  Prefer reading instructions to listening to them.

•  Monitor their COS email regularly.

•  Know when they need help and know how to ask for it.

•  Situation

•  Students who have a GPA above 2.0 and have taken an online class before tend to be more successful.

•  Students who have support outside of school tend to be more successful.

We have made an effort to support student awareness of the difference between online and face-to-face classes by continuing require an online class registration confirmation mechanism in Banner that alerts students to the fact that they are registering for an online class and that online learning has some important differences about which students should be aware. We continue to send pre-course messages to students prior to the beginning of each semester giving students tips to being successful. We also promote the use of an online learning readiness survey in all online classes.

Success Rates Comparisons

The research department provided distance education course success rate data from spring 2014 and fall 2014 semesters. We looked at success rates in two ways, and were impressed by how closely our distance education success rates compare with traditional course delivery.

Success rate #1 (with W) equals all C or better grades divided by all grades, including D, F, and W. For example, if there were 40 students in a class and 10 earned a D, F or W with 30 earning a C or better, the success rate would be calculated as follows: 30/40=75%. This is how we report District success to the Chancellor’s Office. Comparisons using success rate #1 indicate that face-to-face (F2F) and distance education (DE) course success rates were one to five percentage points apart in the last year.

Success rate #2 (without W) equals C or better divided by all grades, including D and F (but not including the W). For example, if there were 40 students in a class and eight earned a D or F, two earned a W and 30 earned a C or better, the success rate would be calculated as follows: 30/38 = 78%. The two W grades have been omitted. This is a local definition of success reflecting our strategy of intentionally dropping inactive online students. We discovered that the overall difference between F2F and DE is about 3.0% for fall 2014.

Specific course-by-course data was made available to divisions prior to the spring Dialog Days event to support outcomes dialog. We intend to continue to request, analyze, and report DE success rates annually.

Distance Education (DE) Task Force

The District recognizes the need to develop systematic planning, assessment, and evaluation of DE courses and programs and to comply with legal and accreditation requirements. To this end, the District Governance Senate and Academic Senate approved the creation of the DE Task Force to be convened in September 2015.

The COS 2014 Governance and Decision-Making Manual* defines a task force as follows:

Task forces are formed to create a venue for dialogue and work on topics or projects that require timely and concentrated energy. Instead of being required by law or regulation, these groups are charged by the superintendent/president or a governance group to perform specific functions that benefit the entire District. Membership on task forces is either voluntary or by appointment. Task forces are not ongoing; when a specific project is completed, the task force is dissolved (p. 11).

The DE Task Force is charged with the responsibility to study all legal and accreditation requirements and best practices in planning for DE to develop policies, procedures, plans, timelines, and actions necessary to fully comply with all legal and accreditation requirements and to develop systematic planning, assessment, and evaluation of DE district-wide.Meeting notes will be maintained and published for all faculty, staff, students via the DECOS website.

Task force membership is voluntary. Mary-Catherine Oxford, David Hurst, and Deborah Nolan of the Academic Senate Distance Education Committee (DECOS), have volunteered to serve as co-chairs to facilitate the development of the task force. In April 2015, the co-chairs invited faculty, staff, and students to volunteer to participate on the DE Task Force which will begin meeting in September 2015. As of May 2015, Task Force membership included Joe Sousa, Lucy De Caro, Nancy Morgan, Linda McAullay, Manlia Xiong, Jeff Basham and Greg Turner.

*COS 2014 Governance and Decision-Making Manual