Major Questions that Campuses are Asking about Distance Education:

How do campuses define distance education?
How do those definitions affect policy?
How are distance education courses evaluated?

• Training? (competencies required of both students and faculty).
• Assessments?
• Curricular review?
• Is it more or less work? Or the same?
• Is there a class size policy for distance courses?

How are campuses dealing with the economics of distance learning?

• Classes are easier for students to take (?)
• Not covered by university's fee structure, not covered by financial aid.
• Only offered through extension; outside the purview of faculty senate.
• How many have a curricular review committee?
• How do we insure academic integrity?

CSU Long Beach: Crista Copp has compiled Distance Education policies for a past effort in developing their Distance Education policy. We are trying not to separate the mode of instruction from the content. Instructors can have a 1 year license to move a course to a new mode or medium before going to the curriculum committee. The same curriculum committee evaluates both online and face to face classes. Members have no particular expertise to evaluate an online course: we need to make sure that committee members understand the differences. LB: We have a policy on online instruction, we have defined hybrid, traditional, and online. 1/3-2/3 online = hybrid. Local online = developed for local students, with some mandatory face to face meetings. Having good definitions is crucial to answering all the other questions.

CSU Los Angeles: There is an educational policy committee. An underground system of online courses ­ it takes too long for a course to be approved by the committee. 25% or more courses have some online presence.

San Diego State: There is a distance education policy in place; it applies to 100% online courses only. All have to go through curricular review. We never had anyone ask for an online course with ID service and help. Time + cost are the barriers. Disincentive: time + not considered in RTP. Risk is greater if the course is a failure. Greater risk for new untenured faculty. Few incentives to try new things for experienced senior faculty.

CSU San Marcos: Our TULIP program encouragement and incentives to use technology. Money in the summer ($800) for a 2 week intensive workshop. Develops some social cohesion. We feature best practices and best projects. We encourage faculty to have realistic goals. Money comes from the Chancellor's office. SM: We have faculty do planning, pre-assessment, and post-assessment.

CSU Hayward: We've tried laptops, stipends, etc. These ideas don't scale well. We want these efforts to be student centered and student driven. We have tied the budget to strategic enrollment and retention issues. Get FDC to work more with departments and programs rather than the campus as a whole. We are concentrating on moving whole curricula rather than individuals online in a systematic, strategic way.

Contact Marion Smith, Policy & Web Consultant, CSU Dominguez Hills
Last update: 17 Feb 2005