Benchmarking St. Petersburg Junior College:
A Report to Leadership
Project Eagle Evaluation Question #1
What Are the Appropriate Models for Development and Redevelopment of
Student Support Services?
Executive Summary
"...a 'best practice' institution is not synonymous with the 'world's
best' institution.
Every institution faces challenges and strives for improvement
in many areas."
(Benchmarking As a Research
Methodology, Council for Adult and Experiential Learning)
Introduction
In
1999, St. Petersburg Junior College (SPJC) received a
multi-year federal grant (Project Eagle) to build a national model for increasing access to
four-year degrees and workforce training for students attending community
colleges. Access would be enhanced by increasingly flexible educational
opportunities - with courses, programs and support services delivered at a time
and place, in a way and at a pace, best suited to the needs of the individual
learner.
Part
of Project Eagle is an evaluation of e-learning practices at the college, using
a series of six critical questions formulated by the Project Eagle Working
Group and shaped into a project eagle evaluation plan by the project's external evaluator. The
evaluation for the first question began with an examination of the best
e-learning practices related to that question, both nationwide and worldwide,
using the Web as the primary source of information. The results were published
in Best Educational E-Practices (BEEP), Issue #2, November 1,
2000, Student Support Services to Distance Learners.
Then
a list of all practices related to the question currently in use at SPJC were
compiled and compared to those included in BEEP #2. A report
was prepared benchmarking SPJC, and the results submitted to the college
leadership. This is a summary of the findings and recommendations of that
report.
Background
In
October 2000, research was completed to find external models of student support
services to "distance learners." That phrase eventually changed to
"e-learners" or "e-students," as research showed increased
use of these terms to define the student population being examined.
The
identified services included the basics (admission, registration, payment of
fees, financial aid, textbook purchase, and library services). Above and beyond
that were online directories or handbooks of services arranged on a
comprehensive Web page or site; self-assessment tools for distance learning
readiness; online orientations to distance learning; hardware requirements for
distance courses; counseling services; tutorial services; compendia of
frequently asked questions; and other unique online support services of note.
After
these external best practices were published in BEEP #2 in November, steps were taken to evaluate the
level of e-student support services at SPJC. Techniques for that evaluation
included creation and administration of a student survey of online instruction; examination of all
current student services of the college's E-Campus; informal dialogue between
the Cyber Advisor and selected e-learners; and invitation to online faculty to
submit innovative ideas and suggestions for improvement.
Results
The
results were divided into three categories, charted in a simple comparison
of student support services offered by other institutions and by SPJC.
(Highlighted text will link to SPJC Web pages with the corresponding
information.)
I. Best practices reported in BEEP #2 offered both by other schools and SPJC include these:
- Basic services (SPJC home page)
- Online directories and handbooks of services
- Self-assessment
for distance learning readiness
- Orientation to distance learning
- Hardware requirements for
distance courses
- Counseling services
- Tutorial services (E-Campus bulletin
board and pilot-test of smarthinking.com)
- Frequently asked questions
- Career services
- Bulletin board
- Sample placement tests*
- Sample online lessons* (In process - available in late spring 2001)
II. Best practices reported in BEEP #2 at other institutions and not offered by SPJC
- Digital student newspaper*
- Student union station*
- News articles about the distance learning program*
III. Best practices offered by SPJC and not found at other schools when researching
student support services for BEEP #2
- Collegewide online survey of student
satisfaction with e-learning
- What
students say
- Links to outside agency
support services - Links from the Cyber Advisor's page
- Telecourse instructions
- Student orientation CD
- Instructions for offsite
testing
- Individual instructor innovations, beyond chat rooms or message/discussion
boards, such as:
- Use
of good students identified from former classes to work as online student
interns/assistants
- Extra
credit assignments that encourage use of the Internet to find the answers
- Use
of telephone to get information and answers out quickly
- Effective
use of group projects to increase inter-student online communication
- Creation
of special Web pages, e.g., course orientation and navigation
- Flexible
method of online delivery: email for essays and direct student/teacher
correspondence; discussion board for weekly postings of assignments and
discussion
*Other unique and creative ideas for online
services of relatively minor importance.
Review and Recommendations
The
quantity and quality of support services for e-learners offered by SPJC fared
well against the external best practices identified in BEEP #2, usually equal to and
frequently surpassing them. Any absence of services was more than compensated
for by the long list of additional ones the college has created, and continues
to add, that were not readily identifiable at other institutions surveyed in
October 2000.
SPJC's
online instructors indicated, however, that many e-students were either not
aware or not taking advantage of what is available to them. Although the
E-Campus Web site is exemplary, there is a need for more visibility and
promotion of it as a central and complete resource for e-students, and of the
Cyber Advisor as their personal - and primary - contact point at any time in
their e-learning careers.
View the complete report at www.spcollege.edu/eagle/research/evaluation/peeq1.htm
The contents of BEEP were developed under a grant from the U. S. Department of Education (DOE). However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the DOE, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
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