EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY FACULTY SENATE

ACADEMIC, APPELLATE, AND SENATE COMMITTEE

ANNUAL REPORT

Please forward the completed annual report to the Faculty Senate office via email at facultysenate@ecu.edu no later than May 1, 2007. Thank you.

2006-2007 Academic Year

COMMITTEE: Continuing and Career Education

1. Membership (include ex-officio members).

Regular: Linda James (Education), Tijjani Mohammed (Tech & Comp Sci.), Sharon Sarvey (Nursing), Jocelyn Nelson (Music), Todd Fraley (Communication), Marion Eppler (Psychology), Nara Newcomer (Academic Library Services)

Ex-Officio: Clayton Sessoms (rep of Chancellor—Continuing Studies), Elmer Poe (Rep of Provost—Continuing Studies), Greg Funaro (Rep of Chair of Faculty), Cole Jones (Rep of SGA).

Invited: Yolanda Hollingsworth (Academic Library Services), Sue Martin (Career Services)

2. Meeting Dates (include members present*).
* and members who contributed to committee action, but were not at the meeting.

September 27, 2006

Members in Attendance: Todd Fraley, School of Communication; Marion Eppler, Psychology; Jocelyn Nelson, School of Music; Nara Newcomer, Academic Library Services; Sharon Sarvey, School of Nursing; English; School of Music

Ex-Officio Members in Attendance: Gregory Funaro, School of Theatre and Dance; Elmer Poe, Representative of Provost, Academic Affairs; Clayton Sessoms, Representative of Chancellor, Continuing Studies;

Others in Attendance: Bruce Southard, Guest (former chair); Mark Taggart, Chair of Faculty

October 25, 2006

Members in Attendance: Todd Fraley, School of Communication; Marion Eppler, Psychology; Gregory Funaro, School of Theatre and Dance; Tijjani Mohammed (chair), Technology and Computer Science; Nara Newcomer, Academic Library Services; Elmer Poe, Representative of Provost, Academic Affairs; T. Chris Riley-Tillman, Faculty Senator, Psychology; Clayton Sessoms, Representative of Chancellor, Continuing Studies;

Guests in Attendance: Linda Wolfe, Academic Standards Committee; Sue Martin, Career Services

November 2006 – No meeting held due to Thanksgiving holidays

December 2006 - No meeting held due to Christmas holidays

January 24, 2007

Regular Members in Attendance: Sharon Sarvey, Nursing; Jocelyn Nelson, Music; Marion Eppler, Psychology; Nara Newcomer, Academic Library Services; and Mohammed (chair), Technology and Computer Science.

Ex-Officio Members in Attendance: Gregory Funaro, School of Theatre and Dance

Guests in Attendance: Linda Wolfe, Academic Standards Committee; Yolanda Hollingsworth, Distance Education Coordinator, Academic Library Services; Jeffery Alejandro, Division of Continuing Studies

February 28, 2007

Regular Members in Attendance: Marion Eppler, Psychology; Todd Fraley, Communication; Greg Funaro, Theater and Dance; Jocelyn Nelson, Music; Sharon Sarvey, Nursing; and Mohammed (chair), Technology and Computer Science.

Ex-Officio Members in Attendance: Elmer Poe, Academic Affairs; Clayton Sessoms, Continuing Studies

Guests in Attendance: Yolanda Hollingsworth, Distance Education Coordinator, Academic Library Services

March 28, 2007

Regular Members in Attendance: Jocelyn Nelson, Music; Nara Newcomer, Academic Library Services; Tijjani Mohammed (chair), Technology and Computer Science.

Ex-Officio Members in Attendance: Clayton Sessoms, Representative of Chancellor, Continuing Studies;

Guests in Attendance:

April 25, 2007

Regular Members in Attendance: Marion Eppler, Psychology; Tijjani Mohammed (chair), Technology and Computer Science; Jocelyn Nelson, Music; and Nara Newcomer, Academic Library Services.

Ex-Officio Members in Attendance:

Guests in Attendance: Yolanda Hollingsworth, Academic Library Services (Library DE Coordinator); and Jeffery Alejandro, Division of Continuing Studies.

3. Subcommittees established during the year (include progress and/or completion of work).

None.

4. Accomplishments during the year, especially as addressed through committee goals. Please include recommendations made to any University agency other than the Faculty Senate that will be noted under #5.

This CCEC picked up on work that was started in the previous academic year in an effort to identify the relevant factors that facilitate or impact the delivery of distance education program from the faculty, student, and administrator perspectives. To that end, two unresolved issues from last year dominated the committee’s focus this year: faculty and administrator surveys.

1. With the faculty Survey, the committee wanted to find out several things, including

a. Issues that facilitate and/or hinder faculty effectiveness in the development, deployment, and assessment of distance education programs

b. adequacy and availability of university resources including library services, writing center, and career services

c. issues surrounding general welfare of those involved in distance education programs

After a few rounds of discussion and preliminary survey development, it was discovered that a similar survey was developed and administered by a member of the Division of Continuing Studies, Dr. Jeffery Alejandro. To that end, Dr. Alejandro was invited to present his findings to the CCEC during its January meeting. After the presentation, the committee felt that Dr. Alejandros’s survey addressed a lot of the concerns raised by the CCEC and elected to pursue the development of the administrator version.

2. With the administrator survey, the committee decided to solicit input from various unit administrators and use them to guide the development of an administrator survey instrument. Dr. Clayton Sessoms, Division of Continuing Studies, has volunteered the services of his unit in the conversion and refinement of the raised issues/questions into a survey instrument this Summer. The issues/question raised by some of the unit administrators are included in Appendix I, while the initial questions from the pervious year are included in Appendix II.

5. Reports to the Faculty Senate (include dates and resolution numbers).

None.

6. Business carried over to next year (list in priority order).

· Pilot-test the administrator survey that will be developed with the help of the Division of Continuing Studies

· Fine-tune and deploy the final version of the administrator survey

· Review findings from the faculty survey developed by Dr. Jeffery Alejandro (Continuing Studies) and look at the results which can be acted upon, or examine issues that were not addressed by the survey, such as

• Should instructors who teach only DE courses have an office on campus?
• Should they be required to attend department meetings? Should they be required to come to campus at all?
• How should various classes be weighted (e.g., number of credit hours, labs, writing intensive)?
• What are the pros and cons of teaching DE courses?

· Examine support programs available to distance education students, including those provided by

• Career Services: online resume critiques, virtual career fairs, and job placement
• Library services: especially issues pertaining to traveling DE students
• ITCS: E-mail availability/continuity for students who skip a semester, take an extended leave, or unable to take classes due to family or job-related reason, E-mail is the primary means of contact between DE students and the university. Interrupting this service causes a breakdown in communication and undue hardships for the students.

7. Evaluation of the committee (include anything that hindered or assisted the

committee's work during the year).

A. Charge: Adequate

B. Personnel: Need permanent representation from Career Services and distance education representation from Academic Library Services

C. Attendance: All but one (March 2007) meeting met quorum requirement to conduct official business.

D. Responsibilities: Adequate

E. Activities: Adequate

8. Suggestion(s) to the Chair of the Faculty and/or Faculty Senate for improving the effectiveness of the committee.

Include the director of Career Services in the CCEC

Include the distance education coordinator from Academic Library Services

9. Does the Committee’s organizational meeting next year need to be earlier than the date set this year? No.

If yes, when do you prefer:

Signed: Chairperson Tijjani Mohammed, Technology & Comp. Science

Secretary

APPENDIX I:

ADMINISTRATOR SURVEY ISSUES/QUESTIONS BY UNIT

Issues/questions from Jocelyn Nelson, Music

In the assignment of load credit for DE courses, rank the following issues you take into account in order of importance:
Parity to Face-to-Face instruction
Quantity of student/teacher contact
Quantity of student/student contact
Reading assignments
Writing assignments
Quantity of assessment
Type of assessment
Needs of the department/school
Other_________________

In the assignment of enrollment target, rank the following issues you take into account in order of importance:
Parity to Face-to-Face instruction
Quantity of student/teacher contact
Quantity of student/student contact
Reading assignments
Writing assignments
Quantity of assessment
Type of assessment
Needs of the department/school
Other_________________

Are qualified, experienced faculty available to your DE faculty to conduct peer reviews and course evaluations?
Yes
No
Don’t Know
No Answer

Questions from Marion Eppler, Psychology

1. Some full-time DE instructors may not live in Greenville, so it would be difficult to attend faculty meetings. How would such a requirement be handled if a faculty member lives in California? The issue may be different for tenured and tenure-track faculty than for fixed-term faculty, since fixed-tem faculty are not required to attend faculty meetings. Are departments hiring permanent faculty who live out of state?

2. We need a good way to address the quality of DE classes and get additional feedback from the students (more than SOIS ratings).

3. Open-ended questions about what each administrator sees as the pros and cons of DE instruction.

Issues/questions from TJ Mohammed, Technology and Computer Science

Training issues for faculty teaching DE:

• Is it provided, if so, how?
• Is it adequate, if so, how is it measured?
• Is it timely?

Benchmarking of DE programs

• With peers
• With competitors
• With offshore/global institutions

Are there any delivery protocols for

• Asynchronous teaching/learning?
• Synchronous teaching/learning?
• Hybrid teaching/learning?

Copyright issues or policies governing publisher-provided and faculty-developed

• Videos
• Audio files
• Presentations
• Student presentations

Computer infrastructure

• University-provided
• Individual purchase
• Renewal/upgrade
• Software configurations
• Minimums
• Purchasing/licensing
• Maintenance/support
• Internet access

Demand and growth management for large classes/sections (100 or more students)

Questions from Yolanda Hollingsworth, Academic Library Services

1. Are you satisfied with the library resources and services being offered to DE instructors and students?

2. What suggestions do you have for how the library can improve its support of DE instructors and students?

APPENDIX II

OLD DRAFT ADMINISTRATOR SURVEY

This is an excerpt from the minutes from the last discussion on the Administrator Survey.

#1 Are you aware of guidelines governing the offering of DE programs?

*A Yes/No option should be presented.

#2 What determines the number of DE courses that your unit offers?

*Possibilities vary by college.  We should define which DE courses are being talked about, e.g., for those who can’t attend a campus course, for those who come to campus, or for those who drive out to the regional hubs.

*Does it cover those taking DE course(s) in addition to classroom courses?  “Online” or “DE”?  Define “DE” addressing faculty concerns about online and other formats.

*Our charge is:  CE, DE, Summer, Weekend, Lifelong Learning

*We should know how many DE’s are offered in addition to total # of courses, or % of courses that are DE.

#3 What determines compensation for your unit DE instructors?

*Specify unit.

#4 What are limits on class size for your DE courses?  Indicate whether limits on class size vary depending upon course type, course level, or other factors.

*Broaden item.

#5 What determines whether a course is offered via DE, via Internet, or face to face?

#6 Are tenured /tenure track faculty assigned to teach DE courses as part of their normal course load?  If so, do they have the option of declining to teach a DE course?

#7 Do you hire adjunct faculty to teach DE courses?  If so, how do you recruit them?

*8. If faculty teach only DE courses, are they required to keep regular office hours, to keep office hours, attend departmental meetings, to serve on departmental committees, etc?

*Space shortages for offices were discussed.

#9. Do you have any procedures to ensure that DE faculty have ergonomically appropriate computer workstations?

*An ergonomic report was given by Jocelyn Nelson, Music, who circulated a report.  Music will provide an Ergonomics course /information session(s) that include computer stressors; a staff course exists, but there is none for faculty.  It was suggested that a Podcast be provided to emphasize significant equipment needs and practices.  Additional items:  screen saver reminders, memos (e.g., “Have you had your walk today?”), posting access numbers.

General Considerations:

*Order of survey items.

*Demographic section