Distance Learning (adopted: May 10, 1997)
Members of the Department see both strengths and weaknesses in the current move toward distance education (see report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Distance Learning, appended). Distance education courses are those which utilize electronic mail, newsgroups, web sites, and other electronic forums, in lieu of regular face-to-face and/or HITS interactions.
We want to be informed and critical participants in this as in other aspects of education. We will offer one distance learning class via CCECS, then evaluate it via the Curriculum Committee, who will speak with the instructor. We will then have further departmental discussion about future directions in this area.
The advertisement to teach the distance learning class will ask for the following additional material from applicants:
1. Applicants should address the unique opportunities and challenges of teaching an on-line course, explaining their teaching strategies in this medium;
2. Applicants should, in explaining course requirements, discuss their strategy to assure the integrity of the evaluation process;
3. Applicants should explain how they will go about assuring that students possess the minimum necessary familiarity with and access to the required technologies.
4. Applicants will agree to conduct a mid-semester and an end-of-semester evaluation which adds the following questions to the standard instrument:
On a 5 point scale (SA A ? D SD):
a. The instructor responded in a timely fashion to email inquiries.
b. The instructor responded substantively to email inquiries.
c. I found the electronic dialogue with the instructor to be useful in meeting my educational objectives.
d. I found the electronic dialogue with my fellow students to be useful in meeting my educational objectives.
e. Electronic dialogue and other information provided by the instructor was as effective as typical lecture sessions in comparable classes I have taken.
f. I do not feel that my educational opportunity was reduced or compromised by substitution of electronic communication for regularly scheduled classroom sessions in comparable classes.
g. I feel that the electronic forum we used was a significant improvement over the typical lecture session in comparable classes.
The instructor for a CCECS distance learning course will be selected in the same manner as other instructors, that is, through the Hiring Committee. If no member of that committee is knowledgeable about distance education, the committee should consult a faculty member who is.