Meeting Summary and Recommendations to the WICHE ICE Steering Board

WICHE ICE Implementation Meeting

October 8-9, 2007

State Higher EducationPolicyCenter

Boulder, CO

Participants

John Allred, Registrar, University of AlaskaAnchorage

Lora Volden, Assistant Registrar, University of AlaskaAnchorage

Stephen Adkison, Associate Provost for Academic Programming, IdahoStateUniversity

Laura McKenzie, Registrar, IdahoStateUniversity

Steven Neiheisel, Associate Provost for Enrollment Management, IdahoStateUniversity

Kelley Brandt, Manager of Distance Learning, BoiseStateUniversity

Joseph Fedock, Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, MontanaStateUniversityBozeman

Thomas Gibson, Director, eLearning Business Development, Montana University System

Keith Lynip, Director, University of Montana Online, University of Montana

Charles Snare, Dean, Arts and Sciences, ChadronState College

Steve Taylor, Assistant Vice President for Extended Campus Programs, ChadronState College

Mary Eisenbraun, Business Office Manager - Student Finance, BismarckState College

Lane Huber, Director of Distance Education, BismarckState College

Tom Leno, Director of Academic Records & Registrar Department, BismarckState College

Merilee Anderson, Director of Academic Programs, Continuing Education, University of Utah

Tim Ebner, Registrar, University of Utah

Ethan Bergman, Professor of Food Science and Nutrition, CentralWashingtonUniversity

Linda Hoff, Administrative Assistant to the Associate Vice President for Undergraduate Studies, CentralWashingtonUniversity

Tracy Pellett, Associate Vice President for Undergraduate Studies, CentralWashingtonUniversity

Tracy Terrell, Registrar, CentralWashingtonUniversity

Tammy Aagard, Registrar, University of Wyoming

Judith Atencio, Manager, Outreach Credit Programs, University of Wyoming

JoelAnne Berrigan, Accountant, Outreach Credit Programs, University of Wyoming

Noah Buckley, Director of Admissions, University of Wyoming

Janet Lowe, Associate Vice President for Fiscal Administration, University of Wyoming

Scott Seville, Associate Dean, OutreachSchool, University of Wyoming

Susan Vermeer Lopez, Project Coordinator, WICHE

Jere Mock, Senior Program Director, Programs and Services WICHE

Russ Poulin, Associate Program Director, WCET/ WICHE

Donna Schaad, Senior Consultant, WICHE Internet Course Exchange

Meeting Goals and Opening Session

This meeting brought representatives of WICHE ICE implementation teams together from eightof the 11 WICHE ICE member institutions to establish communications between and among the representatives with various roles and to facilitate the details of WICHE ICEimplementation. The main reference point for the discussion is the WICHE ICE Operations Manual, which can be found online at

David Longanecker, WICHE’s Executive Director, welcomed participants with a brief history of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education and the State Higher Education Policy Center (SHEPC), where the meeting was held. WICHE’s mission is to increase access to high quality higher education throughout the West. WICHE ICE is part of the Programs and Services unit at WICHE. WICHE also includes mental health and policy research and analysis units, along with Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET).

Jere Mock, WICHE’s Director of Programs and Services, said that WICHE ICE began as an idea of the membership of theNorthwest Academic Forum (NWAF), which is a consortium of provosts and academic affairs officers from 32 masters and doctoral granting institutions in 10 Western states. She said that NWAF and WICHE receiveda grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) for the creation of the Northwest Education Outreach Network (NEON). NEON fostered the development and/or expansion of three online institutional partnerships and laid the groundwork for the subsequent creation of WICHE ICE. The three programs included developing a new online graduate certificate in logistics which is jointly offered by the University of Alaska Anchorage and BoiseStateUniversity; the expansion of an existing library media specialist program at Montana State University Bozeman, and expansion of the PhD in Nursing offered by the OregonHealth & SciencesUniversity. She said there are other online consortiums that are developing in the West and nationally, including the Kansas State University Institute for Academic Alliances and their Great Plains IDEA project, which works with Big 10 institutions to share master’s level programs and is currently working on an undergraduate program in nuclear engineering.

Jere asked participants to introduce themselves, describe their experience working with online consortia andtheir expectations for the meeting.

Jere then described the mission of WICHE ICE, and summarized ICE objectives and benefits for students, institutions and states. Benefits for students include access to a wider range of courses, programs and faculty expertise, seamless financial aid and credit transfer, the convenience and flexibility of online course delivery, and more access to higher education in rural areas. By joining WICHE ICE, higher education institutions can expand their course and program offerings, expedite students’ time to degree, achieve cost efficiencies by avoiding or sharing the cost of new program development, and keep previously low enrollment programs viable. Current WICHE ICE program exchanges include providing database support for the Nursing Education Exchange (NEXus), which is a partnership with the Western Institute of Nursing and supports four universities that offer online PhD level nursing courses; the Western Consortium for Rural Social Work Education (WCRSWE), six social work schools that share master’s level elective courses and are working toward jointly offering a certificate in rural social work education; and a graduate certificate in supply chain management that is jointly offered by the University of Alaska Anchorage and Boise State University. Additional areas that are being considered for program exchanges include: preparation and professional development for secondary teachers of math and science; graduate levels courses and programs in engineering; allied health professions, including dental hygiene and health information technology; and master’s level programs in public health.

WICHE ICE member institutions pay an annual membership fee that ranges from $2,000 to $4,000, based on the headcount at their universities. Students pay a $20 per course fee that is assessed by the enrolling institution to support WICHE administrative costs.

Tom Gibson, director of eLearning Business Development at the Montana University System, and a member of the executive committee of the WICHE ICE Steering Board discussed the role of the Steering Board, which is representative of member institutions and provides guidance and direction for WICHE ICE. The Steering Board has made a variety of decisions that guide WICHE ICE, as reflected in the WICHE ICE Operations Manual. The Operations Manual was developed over the past year and approved by the Steering Board at their April 2007 meeting.

The Guiding Principles for WICHE ICE, found on page five of the Operations Manual, show that it is required for each member institution to be accredited, that institutions have equal standing as part of WICHE ICE, and that they utilize their own campus policies and procedures whenever possible to implement WICHE ICE.

WICHE ICE has developed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that each member institution is asked to sign. It is an agreement between WICHE, the member institution, and the WICHE ICE consortium. MOAs have been received from BoiseStateUniversity, University of Alaska Anchorage,University of Utah and the University of Wyoming.

WICHE ICE Course Exchange

The WICHE ICE course exchange takes place between a teaching institution and an enrolling institution. Enrolling institutions enroll the student and transcript the course as their own, eliminating registration and financial aid hassles for students. The enrolling institution will evaluate the course before it is taken for equivalency. Enrolling institutions also provide institutional support and advising for students and operational policies, marketing and management of the WICHE ICE program. The teaching institution provides the instructor for the course, posts the course and available seats on the WICHE ICE database, and sets the price for the course.

Billing: the teaching institution will bill the enrolling institution for the tuition that is posted for the course on the WICHE ICE database. The enrolling institution can add any administrative or distance education fees, and also include the $20 fee that is paid to WICHE, to the tuition and fees it charges its students.

Student headcount: the enrolling institution receives the headcount for the course. As an example, the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), when it is teaching a WICHE ICE course, will create another course section for non-degree students so that the students will not be included in the IPEDS database. One of the issues that each institution will have to address is how faculty members receive credit for teaching WICHE ICE courses.

Institutional implementation teams and guides: UAA has developed its own draft implementation guide which provides some guidance for other institutions. The implementation team at UAA included representatives of IT services, distance education, publications and scheduling, registrars and enrollment services, and the provost’s office in the planning for WICHE ICE. UAA plans to use different section numbers for courses when they are the teaching institution and courses are then cross listed so that instructors will receive one registration list. Students are listed as non-degree students with a unique identifier and the registrar’s office enters them into its Banner database. WICHE ICE students will receive the same student services as UAA students.

Tuition for WICHE ICE courses: WICHE ICE does not dictate common tuition for WICHE ICE courses. The teaching institution decides what to charge for each course that they offer and the enrolling institution decides if there are any additional fees to be added, includes the $20 WICHE ICE fee, and then determines the amount that the student will pay.

Course prerequisites: In cases where WICHE ICE courses require prerequisites, the teaching institution will provide information on the required prerequisites in the database’s course information guide and rely on the enrolling institution to make sure that the student is adequately prepared for the course.

Donna Schaad, senior consultant to WICHE ICE, described the three levels of WICHE ICE implementation, as explained in the Implementation Guide, which can be found online at: The three levels are:

The University Administrative Team

The Academic Team

The Administrative Team

Working Group Reports and Recommendations

Much of the meeting was spent in working groups from these three levels with representatives from registrars and enrollment services, WICHE ICE Coordinators, academic administrators and business and financial officers. Following is a summary of the discussion related to each group, and recommendations from each of these groups to the WICHE ICE Steering Board for further inclusion into the WICHE ICE policies and procedures as outlined in the Operations Manual.

Registrarsand Enrollment Services

Below is a summary of the discussion with the group that focused on the decisions that the registrars will need to make in order to implement WICHE ICE.

While some institutions will enroll students in WICHE ICE courses through their student information systems, others, such as Bismarck State College, willenroll ICE students in their course management system (eCollege). It was suggested that if institutions enroll students through their student information systems it will make it easier for the institutions to track WICHE ICE enrollments from year to year.

There was a discussion of the many issues that would arise when exchanging courses between institutions that operate on a quarter vs. a semester system. These issues may be too burdensome to negotiate for some institutions.

Issues particular to student athletes: Athletic conference rules state that student athletes are only allowed to take one online course per semester. Student athletes may also not be eligible for WICHE ICE courses because of limitations of their athletic scholarships.

Military status recommendation: If any students are called into active duty, they will be withdrawn from the online course and tuition would be refunded according to existing institutional policies.

Student and course records: Registrars also advised that student records not be deleted, for purposes of an audit trail. ICE Coordinators should also keep a copy of the course syllabus, description and basis for course grading for WICHE ICE courses.

Grades can be downloaded from the WICHE ICE database. The enrolling institution also needs to assign an instructor of record to obtain grades.

How to designate WICHE ICE courses within each institutional record: One option is to use an existing course number with a different section number for ICE courses. If the course title is different at the teaching institution than at the enrolling institution, title the course as special topics so that it is not a permanent course within the academic structure. Special topics courses may need to be approved by the curriculum committee, depending on institutional policies.

Recommendations to the Steering Board from the registrar’s working group

One of the issues that the registrars addressed in their working group was the student information that will be required in the Excel sheet that will be posted on the WICHE ICE database.

  1. Include the student information listed below in the Excel file that is shared between institutions via the WICHE ICE database:
  2. Student name (full first and last name and middle initial)
  3. Date of birth
  4. Contact information (email address, U.S. mail address, phone)
  5. Last four numbers of social security number

Exchanging this information will assure that there will not be duplicate registrations for WICHE ICE courses.

  1. WICHE ICE needs to establish more clarity and resolution regarding grading systems and a policy regarding incomplete grades for online students.
  1. One suggestion is to establish a policy that WICHE ICE will not allow incomplete grades for WICHE ICE students.Another option is to assign grades for WICHE ICE courses based on the student’s performance when they withdraw from the course.
  1. Students need to be aware that the grading basis for WICHE ICE courses is according to the established policies of the teaching institution. The grading basis should be described in the course information guide (such as whether plus and minus grades are used.
  1. Clarify the FERPA regulations related to entering the student information into the ICE database.
  1. Establish policies for student athletes and for students affected by military service.
  1. Clarify recordkeeping procedures for WICHE ICE student and course information, including course syllabus and grading criteria.
  1. Consider less restrictive language for the refund schedule and allow these policies to be negotiated between institutions. This would lead to the following change to page 16 of the Operations Manual (Section III, 1. Course and Program Exchange Policies, i.) to read:

The academic schedules of the teaching institution apply. This includes dates for start and end of instruction and holidays. All other deadlines, including drop/ add and refund dates will be negotiated between institutions.

WICHE ICE Coordinators (or Program Information Coordinators aka ICE PICS)

The WICHE ICE Coordinator, as part of the administrative team at the teaching institution, needs to know the number of seats to offer and accept each semester and also needs a timeline to communicate with faculty. The course information guide, which presents information on each course offered by each institution, can be found on page 23 of the WICHE ICE Operations Manual. Each course should have information presented in a consistent way, and WICHE will work with WICHE ICE Coordinators to establish standards for the course information in the WICHE ICE database. Each institution controls the information that is submitted to the WICHE ICE database.

Responsibilities of the WICHE ICE Coordinators: they are required to check with departments for any changes to course offerings and to prescribed numbers of seats that are offered in a particular course. WICHE ICE Coordinators need to be aware of what courses are in the database and appropriate review processes and approval processes.

(See also: WICHE ICE Coordinators check-list in this document)

Recommendations to the WICHE ICE Steering Boardfrom the WICHE ICE PICs

  1. The creation of a password protected wiki to allow the WICHE ICE Coordinators to post needs.
  2. The creation of a coordinator listserv to foster communication.
  3. Coordinate with registrar’s work group to determine minimum data set, to include columns for grade and last date of attendance.
  4. Add “date to return seats” item in course information guide.
  5. ICE PICs should be encouraged to attend Steering Board meetings, and schedule an annual ICE PIC meeting (perhaps in conjunction with the Steering Board meeting).
  6. Work with WICHE to establish standards for the course information in the WICHE ICE database.
  7. Change Page 16, Section 3, B.1 (i) in the Operations Manual to read:

“The academic schedules of the teaching institutions apply for start and end of instruction and holidays. Deadlines for drops, withdrawals, dates for grade submission, deadlines for grade disputes and refund dates are the purview of the enrolling institution. The enrolling institution must notify students of these dates at the beginning of the term. It is also important that correct deadline dates be communicated clearly to students who are enrolled in courses and programs through WICHE ICE.”