Great Basin College submitted a Substantive Change Proposal for Distance Education (Exhibit 2.43) to The Commission on Colleges and Universities in February 1999, followed by an Assessment of Substantive Change in March 2000. The Commission on Colleges and Universities conducted a focused visit in April 2000. (Exhibit 2.44) The focus report commended GBC for its outreach to students, for the library resources, and for flexibility and adaptability in a rapidly changing field. There were no recommendations in this report.

Data on GBC’s distance education program are presented in the following enrollment table. The data demonstrate the significant role of distance education. The table shows that in 1997-1998 22 percent of the student head count were enrolled in telecourses, IAV courses, and online courses; the percentage increased to 48 percent by 2001-2002. The distance education FTE for the same years grew from nine percent to 18 percent. The enrollment includes telecourses (videotapes), interactive video (IAV), and online (Internet) courses.

NOTE: IAV students who are in the same room as the instructor, no matter where the course originates, are considered distance education students. The FTE is annualized and the student headcount is unduplicated.

Due to GBC’s extensive service area, having strong technology in place for distance delivery is critical. Over the past few years, there has been a shift away from videotape-based telecourses to online and interactive video modes of delivery. These modes offer increased student benefit in enhancing interaction between the instructor and other students. There were 19 telecourses and 202 students enrolled in Fall 1998. By Spring 2002, participation had dropped to seven telecourses with an enrollment of 37 students.

In Fall 1996, five disciplines offered a total of 14 online courses; in Spring 2002, 13 disciplines offered 32 courses. A total of 18 disciplines consistently offer online courses. In Fall 1997, there were 19 interactive video courses offered, with an average of three sites per course; in Spring 2002, 63 interactive courses were offered with an average of five sites per course. The array of courses offered via distance delivery has increased dramatically, providing students with educational opportunities and access, using the newest distance technologies.

The following table gives enrollment data by distance education mode—IAV, online, and telecourses for the period 1998-2002. While the FTE is annualized, as in the table below, the student headcount is duplicated (i.e., a student who takes two IAV courses is counted twice).

Great Basin College Distance Capacity and Participation (IAV). In 1996, Great Basin College had one IAV room in Elko (plus a second room reserved largely for UNR), one in Winnemucca, and one in Ely. Since 2001, GBC increased the number of Elko IAV rooms from three to five, Winnemucca from two to three, Ely from one to three, and Battle Mountain from one to three. In addition, the public schools now have 12 IAV rooms in their respective school districts, rooms that are available to GBC. Many of the new IAV rooms are in small communities where GBC previously had not been able to offer classes, but now hopes to enroll students. The new IAV facilities will help GBC achieve its mission of providing better access to college education to residents in the service area. The 2002-2003 inventory of interactive video sites in northeastern Nevada is given in the following table:

The region’s hospitals, Department of Transportation offices, and extension services all have IAV rooms. They are used by GBC from time to time, but not on a regular basis. Although two/thirds of courses originate in Elko, full-time faculty in Ely and Winnemucca regularly offer classes as well. Courses may be offered to a maximum of eight sites; typically, though, student enrollment comes from three to four sites, most frequently Ely, Elko, Winnemucca, and Battle Mountain. A few courses originate in Winnemucca or Ely without going to Elko, primarily because there are enough students in Elko to offer a live class. Each IAV site has trained facilitators who assist with technical problems, test monitoring, etc., during the broadcast time.

Of the 57 courses offered for Spring Semester 2003, 18 were offered by adjunct faculty and 39 by full-time GBC faculty. Thirty-eight different instructors—16 adjunct and 22 full-time—offered the IAV courses. Interactive video courses were offered in accounting, anthropology, biology, business, community services, computer and information technology, criminal justice, early childhood, economics, education, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), English, health information technology, history, industrial plant technology, integrative studies, management, mathematics, philosophy, political science, psychology, social work, sociology, and theatre.

Online Courses. There are three types of online courses at GBC:

1. Online. The course is totally online, with no live or video interaction.

2. Hybrid courses. Face-to-face instruction or IAV, integrated with online, where the estimated online time is combined with the live instruction to comprise a course.

3. Enhanced. Total time of course is live or IAV with the online component as an enhancement. Instructor communicates with student(s), students communicate with instructor; special information sent back and forth (particularly for IAV courses).

Many institutions purchase online courses off the shelf. GBC has chosen to develop home-grown courses. The curriculum specialist works individually with instructors who are developing new courses, improving an existing course, or trouble-shooting problems. Seventy percent of the specialist’s time goes to various aspects of improving online and interactive video courses.

Online Enrollment. Online enrollment was experiencing steady growth of 25-30 percent a year until 2001-2002 when enrollment increased by 80 percent. The online enrollment counts only students registered in courses that are totally online, number one above. The hybrid and enhanced courses are considered “live” courses.

The online offerings for Spring 2003 included courses in art, Computer-Aided Drafting (CAD), computer office technology, economics, English, finance, GIS, human development, information systems, management, marketing, mathematics, philosophy, and theatre.

Support for Distance Education
An important key for the support of distance education at GBC was the establishment of the Curriculum Development and Instructional Technology Center in 2000 under the direction of Lisa Frazier.

The primary focus of the center has been to support faculty in their efforts to enhance the college’s instructional programs by assisting faculty members in enhancing teaching skills, improving courses, and developing distance education courses. The Center provides instructional development activities, instructional materials, equipment, digital video editing, test scanning and CD creation services, online and hybrid course development and administration, consultation in instructional methods and strategies, and guidance in the integration of instructional technology. These activities are accomplished through one-on-one consultation, small group seminars, and workshops.

Frazier also provides administrative and technical services for the interactive video offerings and supervises the IAV coordinator, the college webmaster, and technical aides and facilitators throughout the service area. There is one full-time staff support position in the Center, along with two 0.5 support staff in the IAV office.

The Center also serves as a “Technology Help Desk” for all GBC students, faculty, and staff as well
as the instructional and support hub for the student Electronic Portfolio.

The Center centralized all the online courses to one platform, assisted faculty in curriculum development choices and online course development, created live hands-on and CD orientations (Exhibit 2.45) to the online classroom, and taught students how to use the platform as well as offering tips for successful completion of the online course.

Branch Campuses. The branch campuses have been particularly enthusiastic about distance education because the enhancement of distance education and the implementation of baccalaureate degrees have been significant advances for the campuses and satellite centers outside of Elko. IAV and online orientation sessions are given prior to each semester to faculty, facilitators, and students. Workshops, short courses, evening, and online programs are available. The orientation provides access to learning resources and provides time and opportunity for students to interact with faculty.

The College supports the travel of IAV instructors to other sites where students are enrolled. This enables instructors to meet students “live” and to broadcast from that site. Although they are not required to do so, many of the instructors do travel to other sites.

The IAV courses provide opportunities for students to interact with students at other sites. This has important educational value, particularly for the students in the smaller communities. New Programs. Great Basin College is developing a partnership with the Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) program to offer their intermediate and advanced certificate courses online. The POST program collaborated with GBC last year to have the POST certification tests placed online thus reducing the travel expenses of POST test proctors.

Students in GBC’s service area who are near an IAV site can complete a degree through a combination of live, IAV, and online courses. Since not everyone is within easy driving distance to an IAV site, GBC is investigating the feasibility of offering a complete AA or AS degree online. The College’s Computer and Office Technology Department (COT) is also looking at the possibility of developing an online AAS degree program.

Analysis
Students continue to enroll in IAV and online courses, and the retention in these courses is very good. A UCCSN Distance Education Report (Exhibit 2.46) puts the GBC retention data as number two among the System’s colleges and universities, where retention is defined as the percentage of enrolled students during a semester who complete the course. The retention of online students for Fall Semester 2002 was 72 percent.

Grading trends for three years (1996-1999) show no apparent differences between grading in conventional live courses and IAV courses. Online courses have a higher withdrawal rate than IAV courses. (Exhibit 2.47)

During a four-semester period—Fall 1997 through Spring 1999—students in IAV classes completed an evaluation of the delivery mode. In a series of yes/no survey items, students were asked the following: “Would you enroll in IAV again? Were the learning experiences the same as regular classes? Was the instructor available?” The responses were overwhelmingly positive—86-96 percent said, “Yes.” (Exhibit 2.48)

It is suggested that a major reason that IAV and online courses have continued with strong enrollment, good retention, supportive grading patterns, and excellent student surveys is that they are GBC-developed courses presented by a significant number of GBC professors and instructors. The delivery is different, obviously, but there is enough of the imprint of a face-to-face course for instructor and student to feel comfortable.

However, most distance education instructors will agree that these courses require more time, more preparation, more organization, and more patience with the technology than regular live courses.

Further, distance education, IAV courses in particular, is essential to the success of the baccalaureate programs at GBC. As described in the introduction to baccalaureate programs, the integrated seminars, which mix students from each of the three baccalaureate degree programs, form a bedrock for these new programs. Almost all of the integrated seminars are offered through IAV. Arguably, without IAV capability and without the integrated seminar model, the new four-year programs would not have gotten off the ground.

The confluence of accelerating distance education activity, integrative seminars, and new upperdivision courses has significantly increased workload for a number of faculty members.

Distance education is not without controversies and contradictions. There are faculty who believe that IAV and online courses cannot have the same quality of instruction or learning as regular live courses. There are faculty who believe that an online course, for example, enables students and faculty to know each other better (and become more interactive) than a regular live course. There are students who “ hide” from the camera (a kind of “back of the room” student). There are students (and professors) who shine in front of the camera. Distance education means that many professors and instructors are literally on the road more in the vast spaces of northeastern Nevada. Students and faculty are technologically more literate than even five years ago, but anxieties and frustrations continue. It is certainly the case that more people (instructors, students, support staff) are touched by the new technologies than ever before, and it is the responsibility of the College to make these contacts efficient and effective.

The academic year 2002-2003 has brought more attention to these issues—forums and a more active distance education committee are steps taken by the faculty and the administration to better define and solve the problems associated with distance education.

STRENGTHS
• Increased higher education opportunities for the residents of northeastern Nevada.
• Support from UCCSN for infrastructure, line costs.
• Wide participation of faculty.
• Increasing faculty and student proficiency in IAV and online course delivery.
• Improved training and technical assistance in past two years.

CHALLENGES
• A series of problems with IAV: difficulties tracking student papers by FAX, uneven training/capabilities of facilitators, occasional technical glitches, cameras not working in concert, etc.
• IAV and online classes tend to be more time-consuming for faculty, and thus relevant to workload.
• Belief by some faculty that student cheating is more likely in the distance education format.
• Providing time and resources for training that is still needed.
• Perception by some faculty that distance education is proceeding too rapidly, particularly online degree programs.

RECOMMENDATIONS/ACTION ITEMS
• Continue Distance Education Forum as a significant way to solve problems with College support for procedures, training, and equipment.
• Review the technical specs for IAV rooms to improve sound and picture quality.
• Consider developing and implementing an evaluation program for distance education.
• Continue with feasibility discussions of online degree programs.