Creating Opportunities through eLearning and Distance Education

Information technology is quickly changing the landscape of how we do business.

We compete in a global economy, where information and goods move instantly from one time zone to another. And the lifelong careers that sustained older generations are a chapter in history, as approximately 40 percent of today’s workers change jobs every year to keep pace with advances in the marketplace.

Information technology is changing the way higher education does business, too.

Students require education that fits their changing needs – to gain basic skills, finish their high school education, retrain for a job, or complete a degree or certificate.

“Our students are increasingly diverse in both population and purpose,” stated SBCTC Director of eLearning and Distance Education Suanne Carlson. “We are seeing a growing number of students who want to access education that is convenient for their busy lives.”

For a growing number of students, this means completing (or complementing) their education through distance education or “eLearning.”

Washington’s two-year colleges are leaders in responding to students’ need for access to quality education at a distance. Classes offered predominately online have more than doubled in the past five years, serving more than 80,000 students. Hybrid classes, which combine face-to-face time with the same eLearning tools as online courses, are growing at an even faster rate.

eLearning opens a door to higher education that before was closed for many students.

“The majority of students who participate in online classes actually live near a two-year college,” Carlson said. “They are enticed by the flexibility to juggle college, work and family responsibilities.”

In addition to providing convenience and efficiency for students, online courses can also reduce overcrowding in classrooms and in some cases reduce the need to expand or construct new facilities.

“Our two-year colleges have rich distance education and eLearning programs on their campuses,” said Carlson. “We have many innovative projects underway across the state making education more efficient and accessible for students.”

WashingtonOnline – facilitating anytime, anywhere learning

In 1997, the community and technical colleges formed a consortium called WashingtonOnline (WAOL) to assist in the development of their online learning programs. WAOL provides colleges with shared online curriculum, instructor training, online classroom software and the ability to combine students from multiple colleges into online classrooms.

Housed in Spokane, WAOL offers a 24/7 student help desk to assist students and instructors in courses supported by WAOL.  Last year, WAOL supported 30 percent of the online courses offered in the community and technical college system – over 4,100 annualized FTE.

The WAOL Web site is a great resource for helping students decide if distance education is for them. Students can access information on how to be successful online, and search for online courses advertised by the 34 colleges in the two-year college system. See http://www.waol.org.

In addition to their regular tuition and fees, students taking online courses supported by WAOL are assessed a fee of $8 per credit, which covers the cost associated with running the technology.

Students in online courses communicate primarily through reading and writing, and are required to interact virtually with other students through online discussion boards. 

“I think what surprises most first-time online learners is how rigorous the courses are – sometimes even more so than traditional face-to-face courses,” explained SBCTC Manager for Online Student Services Kayeri Akweks.

WAOL helps instructors in developing curricula and provides training in online instruction methods so face-to-face classes can evolve into good online classes.

“We all have experience in the traditional classroom, but how many of us have experience in a completely online classroom?” asked WAOL Managing Director Connie Broughton. “The training class is designed to help instructors make the shift from being good teachers face-to-face to being good teachers online.”

There is no question that electronic classrooms can provide highly effective and more accessible learning opportunities for our students, she said.

Bridging the distance – bringing higher education opportunities to students

There are approximately 160,000 Native Americans living in Washington state. For the more than 29 federally-recognized tribes spread across rural communities, access to educational opportunities is limited.

Nearly 32 percent of Native American students entering high school do not complete their education, and only 36 percent receive a bachelor’s degree within six years of entering a four-year degree program.

To address these educational challenges, the “Enduring Legacies Project” was launched in 2005 by a grant from the Lumina Foundation. The project has created an innovative reservation-based associate of arts degree that transfers directly to Evergreen’s bachelor’s degree program.

“The project is a hybrid design,” explained Mark Reisman, dean of extended learning at Grays Harbor College. “Students participate in both face-to-face learning and fully online courses.”

Grays Harbor College is leading the project in partnership with South Puget Sound Community College, North Seattle Community College, Skagit Valley College, South Seattle Community College, the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, Washington Online and The Evergreen State College.

The project is the first of its kind in Washington state in that the four community colleges involved worked collaboratively to share online courses using WAOL. Each course was selected for its cultural relevance and applicability to the four-year degree. Instructors were provided with intensive training about Native American history, culture, and political environment.

Having the opportunity to access higher education without leaving their local community has made an impact, as most students who participate in the program have heavy family responsibilities.

“The most important piece was assigning someone on the reservation that students could turn to who can help them succeed in the program,” Reisman stated.

Grants from the non-profit College Spark Washington organization and the Lumina Foundation also provided students with laptops and Internet access so they could participate online.

“Access to computer hardware is a challenge for these students,” Reisman explained. “Even though the prices for computers keep plummeting, for these students, the cost is still too high.”

And if the students make good progress or get accepted to a four-year college, they get to keep the laptop.

“Because of this program we are now able to say that in January 2007, for the first time in history, we are able to serve members of all three tribal communities in our area,” Reisman said. “We’ve never been able to do that before. That’s a big deal for us.”

According to the project’s first year review by the Lumina Foundation, the model has proven very successful at retaining students – if even for a small number. The Foundation even suggests the model would be applicable to many different populations, including students participating in vocational training. 

This model allows colleges to effectively serve students in rural areas and still specialize in their areas of expertise, Reisman said.

Streamlining a student’s educational pathway

For many students, knowing which classes to take, in which order, and finding out what will transfer where, is a mystery known only to advisors and those who have actually sat down with one.

“Students have limited resources to help them. If you drop them into a vacuum of not having a goal or plan, they probably wander around a lot and the storyline becomes, ‘if you don’t know where you’re going, anywhere will do,’ and that might not be a good place,” stated Bill Storms, director of technology services at Walla Walla Community College. “Giving them a plan and helping them figure out what it takes will certainly help keep them on track.” 

Thanks to funding from a federal enhancement grant from the U.S. Department of Education and a collaborative effort between Walla Walla, Yakima Valley and Columbia Basin community colleges, the Ed Plans online advising tool was developed and piloted by the three colleges.

Ed Plans helps students explore and plan their educational futures by allowing them to compare their own student history data to degree and/or certificate requirements.

Advisors can also use the information to track their students’ progress and compare it to their educational plans.

“It’s a great resource for advisors because it allows them to concentrate their time and resources on the students who really need it,” said Storms. “It can also be used to help colleges decide how many course sections need to be offered each quarter.”

Students and faculty at Yakima Valley Community College were the first to try out the new program last fall and embraced the technology quickly.

According to Kathryn Bauer, YVCC faculty advising coordinator and counselor, students found the tool online and had already submitted plans before it even went public.

“Our student body is very tech savvy. It was refreshing to see them hit the ground running with it,” stated Bauer. “We have had great success. To date, we have almost 6,000 plans that have been built by students.”

The electronic advising Web tool allows faculty advisors to communicate with students efficiently and approve or make suggestions to their plans.

“Students love the ed plans,” said Bauer. “Fewer students are taking courses they don’t need. And the financial aid office loves it because it helps them get a better handle on the major a student has selected.”

The State Board for Community and Technical College’s 2007-09 budget proposal includes funding to expand the Ed Plans model throughout the two-year college system.

Storms believes, if funded, the program could do even more than it already does.

“For example, students could automatically register for classes based on their plan,” he stated. “We can’t do this yet, but maybe in the future.”

“To evolve or not to evolve?” Questions about the future of higher education

Just as technology is affecting our economy, it is truly having an effect on our students.

Students dubbed “Generation Y” (newly renamed the “M Generation” – short for “Millenials”) are young adults in the 18-25-year-old age bracket. The first wave of Millennials entered college in the year 2000, and are much more technologically savvy than their predecessors.

Clearly, they are shopping for education that meets their needs – and they are most often shopping online.

“These students are very comfortable with technology and are always wired for communication,” explained SBCTC’s Akweks. “Our colleges must be innovative. Not only in their marketing and recruitment efforts, but in how they offer their services in order to catch and keep the attention of these students.”

Traditional faculty roles are also changing as students ask for courses to be offered in an “anytime, anywhere” environment. The capacity for additional online courses will be based on if colleges can secure the resources to support more instructor training and technical support for students.

“The future is full of possibilities as new technology increases our colleges’ ability to serve students in new ways,” stated SBCTC’s Carlson. “The astounding progress we’ve made in the past five years can be just the beginning.”

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