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Written By:
Patrena Benton Majette, Graduate Intern (M.S. Adult Education)
NC Agricultural & Technical State University
Graduate Supervisor
Dr. Delores Parker, Vice President of Academic and Student Services
NC Community College System
April 2001
Updated by Neil Hollands, VLC Project Coordinator, August 2002
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The History of the North Carolina Community College System is truly quite captivating. It encompasses over three decades of growth and accomplishments as it continues to be the people’s college for the citizens of North Carolina. This semester I was afforded the opportunity to complete a practicum under the leadership and guidance of Dr. Delores Parker, Vice President of Academic and Student Services for the System. I am completing a Masters of Science degree in Adult Education at NC Agricultural & Technical State University. This practicum has provided me with an opportunity to learn more about the community college, to witness policymaking in action, and to participate in a project that involved documenting the history of the System’s Virtual Learning Community (VLC) Initiative. The state has witnessed a rapid period of technological advancement in distance education and its impact on education. In its effort to capitalize on a competitive global market, the North Carolina Community College System is moving expeditiously to sharpen their skills in this area. The Virtual Learning Community can serve as a nationwide model to be emulated by other systems.
The North Carolina Community System, the third largest community college system in the United States, is composed of 58 community colleges and a Center for Applied Textile Technology. It serves the citizens of the state through the offering of curriculum degree and continuing education programs. Guided by its own Board of Trustees through policy making, each college is autonomous in its operation and direction. The system is funded through local and state funds and is governed by the State Board of Community Colleges. The North Carolina Community College System supports and assists the local community colleges by planning, funding, and overseeing the administrative operation of the local colleges. These colleges are making strides to remain competitive in a thriving global market. One particular area is in distance education. Some colleges are excelling in this while others are experiencing difficulties and setbacks. The system set forth to develop an initiative to address these challenges.
The Challenge
The system recognized that some colleges were offering distance education courses at an accelerating rate and that some were still in the initial stages. It became obvious that efforts were being duplicated among those schools that were offering distance education courses, which was resulting in a loss of resources. Although each college was autonomous, there was an extreme need to increase collaboration and resource sharing while maintaining local flexibility. Efforts were then set in motion to rectify this situation and to create the ability for all colleges to benefit from distance education course offerings. This initiative became known as the Virtual Learning Community.
This intent of this document is to provide a historical account of the development of the Virtual Learning Community (VLC) within the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS). VLC is a consortium of every college in the North Carolina Community College System. Through collaboration, the VLC develops online courses, provides training, enhances online student services, and facilitates communication about online learning across colleges. The goal is to provide easy access and quality distance education learning instruction for students in a cost-effective manner through the sharing of resources (Bellwether Proposal, 2001).
Idea
From 1961 to 1996, the North Carolina Community College System had been operating under a quarter system. However, the System made the decision in 1996 to convert from a quarter to a semester system because most of the other states had already converted and many of the textbooks and other educational material are written on a semester basis. Also, when students were transferring to other universities, they experienced difficulties with the institution, such as conversion problems with quarter hours, resulting in the loss of having to complete additional courses because the credits did not match. Another major influence in the decision to convert was due to legislative encouragement. Prior to conversion, there was no consistency among the 58 colleges with all colleges developing their own courses, titles, and numbers. The same course could be totally different at every community college within the state. As many colleges were forging ahead in promoting distance learning courses (internet based) for their students, it became apparent that duplication was occurring and that there were no standards for consistency. Since the legislature had mandated that the community college system convert to a semester system, it was now an opportune time to examine the possibility of creating a common course library. The goals were threefold:
1. To eliminate course duplication within the system.
2. To capitalize on existing resources in an effort to increase the number of distance education courses.
3. To enable all 58 colleges to have ownership and access to all of the developed courses.
The idea had been conceived and the legislative push for conversion helped to present the right moment. Now, the groundwork had to be laid in an effort to move this ahead.
Groundwork
The state legislatures felt that there should be more collaboration between the NC Community College System and the UNC System. However, the Community College System felt that there needed to be more unification amongst them before they could effectively collaborate with others. Through the Presidents’ Association, a meeting was held with all 58 presidents to discuss their sentiments on creating a common course library. This body became known as the Distance Learning Council. Originally chaired by the Executive Vice President of the NC Community College System Office, Dr. Barry Russell, the make-up of the council included the presidents, administrators, staff with technical backgrounds, and system office representatives. Later, Dr. Brenda Rogers became the chair for this body. The duty of the council was to ascertain what already existed and where they needed to go as a system. It was the policymaking body for this initiative. It was decided that 2 or 3 groups would visit different community college systems (i.e. Colorado, Arizona) within the country to obtain information on their distance learning models to report to the council. In 1998, Dr. Janyth Fredrickson, hired as the Associate Vice President for Academic and Student Services at the System Office, was assigned to oversee distance learning and to serve on the Distance Learning Council. Bob Blackmon, Associate Vice President for Information Resources and Technology for the System, was assigned to the Council to assist with the technological developments.
At the first meeting, the presidents were divided by regions and were asked to nominate two representatives per region. This body of 12 presidents became the Steering Committee for the Virtual Learning Community. These community college presidents included: (missing 1)
Larry Norris—Fayetteville Technical Community College
Don Altieri—South Piedmont Community College
Ray Bailey—Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College
Ken Boham—Caldwell Community College
Gordon Burns—Wilkes Community College
Ronald Champion—Beaufort County Community College
Bruce Howell—Wake Technical Community College
Ronald Lingle—Coastal Carolina Community College
Charles Russell—Pitt Community College
Pat Skinner—Gaston College
Desna Wallin—Forsyth Technical Community College
They were also asked to fill out a form committing their interest and intent to pursue this initiative. They were not asked to contribute any financial resource, just to express their interest. After this meeting, a steering committee meeting was held with Dr. Larry Norris, President of Fayetteville Technical Community College serving as the chair. The chair was responsible for reporting to the Distance Learning Council, Presidents’ Association, State Board of Community Colleges, and to the State Legislature. The steering committee decided to name the common course library the Virtual Learning Community (VLC). Virtual Learning is a description for learning that occurs at a distance and Community reflects that it belonged to everyone. This group presented models of five to six systems. Fayetteville Technical Community College developed a concept paper proposal of a VLC. This initial proposal suggested that in an effort to eliminate duplication of efforts, the system would collectively develop internet courses by forming writing teams (authoring teams) from across the state and that the system would own these courses. The Steering Committee endorsed the proposal and then Chairman Norris presented it at the Presidents’ Association meeting in January 1999. There he asked for their support in accepting the proposal and to agree to seek state funding. They along with the State Board of Community Colleges approved the proposal. Due to constrained individual college budgets, the presidents knew that they could not fund this initiative out of their existing budgets. Funding was not granted and so they applied for a grant from the State Board Reserve Fund. They received the grant that would now allow them to hire a Coordinator. Up to this point, Dr. Elizabeth Johns, Vice President for Academic and Student Services for the System and Dr. Fredrickson coordinated these efforts. Neil Hollands was hired as the Coordinator for the VLC initiative. The presidents agreed to allow their faculty to participate by providing them with release time and a small stipend funded by the grant. Now that the framework had been established, it was time to set it up.
Action
The goal was to develop many degree programs and courses to be available over the Internet. The Steering Committee surveyed all community college presidents and asked them to nominate faculty from all areas of the institution to be a part of the authoring teams. The selection of these writing teams was based on several variables (i.e. urban vs. rural, large vs. small institution) in order to create equitable representation on all teams. These faculty groups agreed on what courses should be offered by the system. They wrote the course descriptions that listed the areas of competency that the students should have upon completing the courses and agreed on common titles, descriptions and numbers. Five work teams were formed and their duties were (Bellwether Proposal & Creating a Virtual Learning Community Newsletter, Autumn 99):
● Work Team 1 (Chair: Don Altieri): Identify and recommend a common delivery system.
● Work Team 2 (Chair: Desna Wallin): Select courses for development, design course templates and oversee course development.
● Work Team 3 (Chair: Ray Bailey): Recommend policies and procedures to facilitate access to online student support services.
● Work Team 4 (Chair: Ron Champion): Establish training programs for instructors and technical staff.
● Work Team 5 (Pat Skinner): Identify statewide communication processes during the development phase and marketing approaches during implementation.
Each work team was led by a community college president from the steering committee and was trained in course design techniques (see Autumn 99 newsletter for complete listing of team members). The year-long development processed aimed to create Virtual Learning Courses that were identical throughout the state.
Results/Accomplishments
Work Team # 1 rated 14 different applications in 57 categories and chose Blackboard due to its ability to support collaboration and exchange of information throughout the state. Blackboard affords one with the capability to build full or partial courses, support online or classroom learning, and to be a user-friendly tool for the seasoned or beginning online faculty. The NCCCS negotiated with Blackboard for consortium pricing of the product, which was then purchased and supported by each of the colleges as appropriate for their local situation. A development server running Blackboard was also installed at the System Office.
A "train-the-trainer" approach was used to train faculty in online teaching techniques. A core group of twelve trainers received training in use of Blackboard and online pedagogy. The trainers developed a curriculum for a core course in online instruction. These twelve trainers in turn trained two representatives from each college. These college trainers completed the chain by designing and offering ongoing training opportunities for the faculty and staff at their institutions. A newsletter, "Creating a Virtual Learning Community," was initiated with four issues describing the development and best practices in online learning. The newsletter was distributed at every college within the NCCCS.
Most of the colleges did not have the resources and expertise to develop distance education courses. By developing a common course library, small institutions would have the same resources as the larger colleges. Each team met independently in the Spring of 1999 to review and collect attributes of successful online courses into a template. The goal was to make the courses easy to use, interactive, consistent with common academic standards, and flexible. The curriculum group identified 10 courses to be designed for online. The group selected the courses that were high-demand courses at most of the colleges. They looked for courses that were well suited for Internet delivery and had been tried online by some colleges. The goal was to have courses that would be useful to associate degree programs and continuing education. The authoring teams developed the following 10 online courses (see March 2000 Newsletter for team members listing):
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ART 111 |
Art Appreciation |
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BUS 110 |
Introduction to Business |
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CIS 110 |
Introduction to Computers |
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CIS 120 |
Spreadsheets I |
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CIS 172 |
Introduction to Internet |
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ECO 251 |
Principles of Microeconomics |
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ENG 111 |
Expository Writing |
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HIS 121 |
Western Civilization I |
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PSY 150 |
General Psychology |
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SOC 210 |
Introduction to Sociology |
Table 1: 10 Initial Online Courses
Included in the courses were the following:
● Syllabus
● Course calendar
● "How this Course Works" document
● Hints for teaching online in the context of the particular subject
● Flexible textbook recommendations
● Icebreaker activities
● Detailed instructions for all assignments
● Peer group activities
● Discussion forum prompts and activities
● Lecture notes
● Study guides
● Assessment devices
● Subject specific links
● Bibliographic resources
These courses were well received as evident by the fact that from these 10 courses, over 300 courses were implemented by the colleges of the NCCCS. In the second year, 51 courses were identified for development.
The teams entertained recommendations and improved online areas such as student services (including admissions), placement testing, payment and fees, registration and records, financial aid, library services, academic advising, counseling, disability services, preparation of students for online learning, technical support, college orientation, and student retention.
In the second year of the initiative (2000-2001), colleges submitted proposals to serve as development centers for the creation of the next 51 courses. The courses covered a variety of areas but included all of the courses necessary to fulfill online two-year degrees: business administration and information systems. The colleges were chosen from a pool based on college experience with online learning, faculty available to run the center, facilities and plans for support of development, and how well the college’s online experience fit the courses they proposed to develop. The six colleges chosen were Pitt Community College, Craven Community College, Central Piedmont Community College, Catawba Valley Community College, Fayetteville Tech Community College, and Forsyth Tech Community College. These institutions received funds to partially release one employee from some existing duties to serve as Center Coordinator. These coordinators then led the development efforts of eight to ten teams, training them and supporting their progress throughout the year. From nominations by colleges, 51 teams of faculty developers were selected and assigned to development centers. An extensive design template was built in Blackboard as a starting point for each team. The template includes student help documents, developer advice, instructor advice, and collections of general online resources. This template is also available for faculty at individual colleges who want to develop a course that is not a part of the VLC selection. A Cooperative Agreement was signed by all of the NCCCS colleges formally establishing standards for participation, support of developers, and benefits for member colleges. Also during this year, FOLDER, an online tool for comprehensive listing and search of all distance learning courses offered by colleges in NCCCS, was established. Quarterly issues of the newsletter, "Creating a Virtual Learning Community," continue to advertise developments and best practices across the system. This newsletter is distributed to instructors and administrators around the state.
Due to the nonexistence of funds, the System relied heavily upon creativity and the support of each president. As a result, what was definitely a major fiscal endeavor was performed at an extremely low cost. The initial expense involved travel for the faculty on the authoring teams, Blackboard license, and marketing. The major expense was paying faculty for development of the courses through modest stipends. Currently, the Steering Committee is asking the colleges to provide the faculty with a minimum of $500 or release time to assist with the development.
With the pursuit of any endeavor, there is a potential for obstacles and/or challenges. The main challenge was the lack of appropriate fiscal resources. Secondly, faculty time was an issue because many faculty members had to squeeze this activity into their already busy schedules. It became essential to create an Intellectual Property Agreement to maintain copyright to the courses while guaranteeing access to them for all the colleges of the NCCCS. The Distance Learning Council reviewed similar policies used by other systems and a white paper that the American Association of Community College had at the time to create its own. The council to address ownership drafted this policy. If state funds are used to develop a course as a part of the VLC it is the property of VLC. A college is still free to develop courses independently, however, colleges are encouraged to contribute them to the VLC.
The permanent home for the VLC Course Library is at the System Office in Raleigh, North Carolina. The server, http://bb.nccommunitycolleges.edu:1677 can be accessed using a preview function. It is appropriate for it to be located at the system office because only a college can be accredited by an accrediting board and each online course must be individually accredited. For accreditation, a college should only present the online courses that are offered by their institution.
In the third year, 2001-2002, 49 more courses were completed for the VLC library. Offerings continued to diversify and all of the coursework needed for an A.A. in general studies was now available. Improvements in the development process led to more focused work for developers and better resulting courses. Course development centers in this year were Central Piedmont CC, Forsyth Technical CC, Fayetteville Technical CC, Pitt CC, Guilford Technical CC, and Alamance CC. A process of editing existing courses was also added, and 32 of the existing courses were upgraded in this process.
Another significant accomplishment of year three of the VLC was the Principles and Techniques of Online Instruction course (PTOI) created by Project Coordinator Neil Hollands. The course was piloted at 10 institutions and made available for all colleges to use in training faculty for online instruction. The course can be taken by individuals as a self-paced effort or in group as an online course.
Current Status and Impending Action
The Virtual Learning Community is preparing for a fourth year of development (2002-2003.) In this year, the goal is to add 50 more courses and edit many of the existing courses. The new courses will make the coursework for over 10 degrees available online, surpassing the original goal of 5 degrees by 2003.
Evaluation of the use of VLC courses is underway to fully understand the extent to which courses are being used, but if download rates are any indication, the colleges are using the courses extensively. VLC is having a tremendous impact on the System, which is apparent through tremendous growth in the number of currently offered courses and the number of student enrollments.
Further enhancement of communication between colleges about distance learning, publication of the VLC newsletter, improvement in online student support, and expansion of professional development opportunities for online educators remain ongoing goals.
Conclusion/ Future Implications
For the North Carolina Community College System, two revolutionary acts occurred during the 90s. The first was the conversion from a quarter to a semester system and the second was the establishment of the common course library. A true milestone had been reached in obtaining agreement from all 58 presidents to collectively create virtual learning courses. This was a significant undertaking but a critical one for the system’s future on distance education. The initiative was phenomenal because its purpose was to develop virtual courses that are not bound by time, place, physical ability, or work conflicts. These courses would be available 24 hours a day/seven days a week. Courses are developed in modules, which will provide an experienced teacher with the ability to manipulate the modules and use them in his/her courses offered on campus. These same modules can be reconfigured to offer short-term training through continuing education. The Community College is the people’s college, as stated by Dr. Larry Norris, President of Fayetteville Technical Community College, and therefore the Virtual Learning Community is making all courses in the library available to all students across the state. VLC transcends all boundaries. If students have access to a computer, it will be available to them. It is also beneficial limited programs such as Mortuary Science. Students can have access to this program regardless of where they reside in the state. This is extremely beneficial to military personnel because they will have the capability to complete a program even if there is a change in their duty assignment.
With the wave of emerging and evolving technology, the need to be cognizant of future technological issues is prevalent. The system is attempting to prepare for this through the implementation of ongoing evaluations to measure effectiveness. They are also working on generating a revenue stream for technology. Through this initiative, there is awareness that online course offerings may not be an option for some students, particularly rural students. Therefore, students can take virtual courses on campus. This issue will begin to lessen as the cost of computers has been drastically reduced. The System is looking and will continue to look at the cost of Internet access in rural communities.
Although the Virtual Learning Community has made tremendous accomplishments since its inception, there are certain challenges that will need to be addressed in the future. The main challenge is securing additional funding. This initiative has been accomplished with a miniscule budget. Secondly, the system must continue to ensure quality and comparability with traditional classroom instruction. The need will continue for more dedication of resources and faculty training. An agreement on tuition for online courses will have to occur in order to compete in a global market.
The creation of the Virtual Learning Community has transformed distance education within the North Carolina Community College System. It surpasses many traditional distance education efforts and demonstrates a high level of collaborative support that enables it to be viewed as a model initiative worthy of duplication.
REFERENCES
Creating a Virtual Learning Community Newsletters, North Carolina Community College System, Autumn 1999-Winter 2000.
Fredrickson, J., Personal Interview, Dean of the College, Alamance Community College, April 2001.
Norris, L., Personal Interview, President, Fayetteville Technical Community College, March 2001.
Virtual Learning Community Initiative Bellwether Proposal, North Carolina Community College System, 2001.
This page maintained by Kathy Davis.
