Goals and Objectives
Mayland Community College requested the maximum amount of $10,00.00 for the Technology Enhancement Grant, and came within six cents of spending it in order to complete our three projects. With the funds, we surveyed our service area to determine demand for distance education programs, we became the first NCIH site to offer classes via IP Video by DSL through the NCIH, and lastly we compiled a listing of available telecourses and showed how they match up with the system-wide common course catalog. The results from all three of these projects are available at www.mayland.edu/teg/index.html to benefit other colleges in the NCCC system. Mayland matched the requested funds with in-kind staff support and funds spent on training, equipment and fees.
Budget Description
Besides discrepancies of spending a little more in on one area and a little less on another, our biggest deviation came in spending funds on telecommunication fees that were requested for equipment. We identified, from other sources, funds that could be used for equipment. Some of these funds could not be used to pay telecommunication fees, so we leveraged private and federal funds for equipment and spent the TEG funds originally marked for equipment on DSL charges and ITS charges used for accessing the NCIH. This allowed us to do extensive testing and to offer three courses, instead of just one, spring semester from our new Avery Campus via IP Video over DSL through the NCIH. The complete budget breakdown is as follows:
|
Budget Category |
Requested Funds
|
Funds Expended |
|
Equipment |
$2,500.00 for NCIH project
|
$0.00 (used these funds for more telecommunication fees) |
|
Contractual Services |
$1,300.00 for Telecourses project
|
$1,243.37 for Telecourses project |
|
Staff Training |
$500.00 for NCIH project
|
$562.50 for NCIH project |
|
Other Costs |
$2,500.00 for Survey project (postage) $200 for Survey project (printing) $3,000.00 NCIH project (telecommunication fees)
|
$1,938.80 for Survey project (postage) $245.64 for Survey project (envelopes) $6,009.63 NCIH project (telecommunication fees paid for DSL and NCIH charges for testing & classes)
|
Responsibilities of the Faculty/Staff
Jon Wilmesherr, Dean of Learning Resources Center and Distance Education, served as project director. He trained his staff of distance education technicians and the participating faculty in the use of the new video technology. He formed an ad hoc committee with representation from across the college to develop the community wide survey. Lastly, he worked with Jalaine Gross and Neil Hollands from the system office, as well as a grant hired assistant, to develop the telecourse/VLC/common course listings.
Professional Development Activties
Wilmesherr also received on site training regarding H.323 protocols on January 3, 2003. He then trained three of the college’s distance education staff and three faculty members.
Equipment Usage
Last fall Mayland was in the process of building a new campus in Avery County. We obtained a mixture of private and federal funds to equip the NCIH room (approximately $125,000). What we did not have were funds that could be spent on reoccurring costs such as DSL and NCIH costs. This grant allowed us to leverage what funds we had and to try something that had never been done before. No additional equipment was required for the survey or telecourse lists projects.
Best Practices
DSL project: A full write up of the DSL project is available at www.mayland.edu/teg/dsl.html. We had great success in that we were able to offer complete classes through a DSL connection. However, we did have some difficulties in the late afternoon when the Internet is busiest. We would suggest that others wanting to use this technology consider purchasing something like the Easy-VC 107 Packet Master (www.bulldoginfo.com/vc/easyvc.php). This equipment should compensate for late packet delivery. We feel that the technology can best be used by institutions that already are not high volume users (under 35 hours a month). Also posted with the write-up is a spreadsheet that shows the kind of savings that be could possible if all sites used similar technology. It is conceivable that statewide, NCIH users as a whole, could save $1.8 million by moving to this technology. ITS is currently in the process of switching all sites over to the newer H.323 technology.
Survey project: Surveying three counties meant dealing with three postmasters. In one case we had to go to the tax office and actually key in the new 911 addresses. We would recommend that colleges planning to do a major mailing decide on their mailing list before hand. We also targeted certain audiences such as high school seniors, by delivering the surveys to the local high schools. The Internet version required formatting the same questions into a web form. It is available at www.mayland.edu/teg/tegsurvey.html for other colleges to view.
Telecourse listing project: Thanks to Jalaine Gross we were able to get the fall and spring distance education reports for all the colleges. We complied a list of telecourses that are used with common course listings and added links to the telecourses and the vendors. We also worked with Neil Hollands to add the VLC listings. This gave us a list with over 100 telecourses and over 150 VLC courses. Now interested faculty and administrators can go to www.mayland.edu/teg/decourses.html and see what is available. Users are encouraged to email with additions. The only trouble with this project was in deciphering the information on the reports and getting active links to courses. The master list will serve as a technical support resource for distance learning as well as a recruitment tool for new distance learning instructors.
The information from the community wide survey is still coming in. With it we will be able to plan which programs and courses to offer at which of our campuses (and at what times) as well as which ones to offer through the varying modes of distance education. It should help take some of the guess work out what to offer in the future.
The DSL project got our Avery site up and running , but we have found that we want to be a heavy user and not a light user of the NCIH. Mayland is hoping to have a complete connection this Fall semester because we already have nine course in the works for all three of our sites.
Finally, the telecourse listings will help anyone thinking about offering a course through distance education and who wants to know what is already available in pre-packaged formats.
Mayland has created a website that explains in depth what was done with the Technology Enhancement Grant projects. There is a section about using H.323 and DSL on the NCIH. There is a link to our electronic community wide survey that others are welcome to adapt and use. Lastly, there is a link to the telecourse/VLC listings where all interested faculty and administrators may see what distance education courses are already available for use.
Conclusion
Thanks to the Technology Enhancement Grant Mayland Community College was able to identified three distinct areas of distance education to improve on this year. We feel that expending resources on developing comprehensive surveys, pioneering cost saving connections to the NCIH, and matching telecourses to the common course catalog has benefited not only Mayland but hopefully all of the colleges in the North Carolina Community College System.