Fast Trac

Having a Slow Start

The success of My Institution in the development of online learning programs is detrimental to the improvement of our remedial education.  The College will participate in the Achieving the Dream initiative, with a primary goal of improving student success. This initiative will focus efforts on identifying under-performing groups/populations such as Learning Support students and developing strategies to support their success ( this is called the Learning Support redesign project).  Cohorts will be tracked over the three year period to determine where interventions are most needed.  My Institution   needs to increase the number of degree earning students and to improve upon the graduation and retention of successful students. 

 

Judging our program against the Blacsich Criteria, we have a long way to go to insure success.  Our program is new and is in an experimental stage; however, the usability of the system has impaired my objectivity for immediate success.  This system was executed before he necessary alterations to the infrastructure had been put I place.  No additional money was allocated for the project.  Subsequently, our procedure is plagued with technical issues; mainly connectivity. For successful connectivity there will have to be improvement in the transport and content delivery networks—to make this happen additional money will have to be spent.

These issues have been the largest obstacle to up starting the online program. When server issues cause the programs to run slow, freeze up and time out it can be very frustrating.  It is even more frustrating when individuals are not tech savvy and do not understand what is happening.  Users sometimes unfamiliar with computer freeze repeatedly hit keys not knowing that that increases the load that is meandering through limited bandwidth.   An initiated session plagued by such problems makes computer novices long for traditional resources such as book, paper and pencil.

Additionally, our purveyor was chosen as the contractor to provide these courses throughout the Technical College System to help improve and redesign remedial courses.  This contractor accepted this indenture without sufficient or available data communication resources to support so many programs simultaneously. Hence, their server is also freezing. 

But, on a much more positive note, our staff has embraced this initiative and are knocking down barriers and overcoming challenges while they maintain a confident composure to assure students that we “know” what we are doing.  We have strong leadership in our Learning Support Coordinator who is forward thinking and is eager to deliver success in the program.  Our Coordinator is empowered by a vision that this program will create independent life–long learners and her positive attitude has contagiously spread through our entire staff.  Finally, we have been convinced convinced us that our standards will be achieved and that there is no failure is not an option.  Our Student Success is Everyone's responsibility.  We are 21^st Century Learners and will embrace the educational pathways to future learning models.

Quality, Benchmarking and Success Factors for Virtual Colleges and Schools
by
Paul Bacsich

Code	Factor name	Critical Success Factor (level 5 statement)	Relevance (1-5)	Score (1-5)	Reasons
R4	Usability	All systems usable, with internal evidence to back this up.	5	1	Usability is of low quality; Proper infrastructure not in place.
R6	e-Learning Strategy	Regularly updated e-Learning Strategy, integrated with Learning and Teaching Strategy and all related strategies	5	N/A	Our program is new and I expect we will update in the future as our program identifies problems and better ways to accommodate students.
R7	Decisions on Projects	Effective decision-making for e-learning projects across the whole school, including variations when justified.	5	1	Proper individuals not in place for effective decision making
R10	Training	All staff trained in virtual school system use, appropriate to job type - and retrained when needed.	5	1	Staff are not properly trained professionals.  Responsibility fell upon available individuals
R12	Costs	A fit for purpose costing system is used in all departments for costs of schooling both face to face and virtual.	5	1	Cost has been passed on to students who are primarily of low income.
R13	Planning Annually	Integrated annual planning process for the virtual school department integrated with overall school and course planning.	N/A	2	Program is new.  Planning remains to be seen
R16	Technical Support to Staff	All staff engaged in the virtual school process have "nearby" fast-response technical support.	5	1	No technical support experts are available.  Program relies upon online support from the contractor
R19	Decisions on Programmes	There is effective decision-making for new virtual school courses across the whole school.	5	5	Program choices are excellent.
R22	Leadership in e-Learning	The capability of leaders to make decisions regarding virtual schooling is fully developed at departmental and school level.	5	1	Administration blindly makes decisions with no virtual knowledge.
R29	Management Style	The overall school management style is appropriate to manage its mix of educational and business activities	5	1	School is run with doctorial style where all employees are afraid to challenge administration.
R35	Relationship Management Upwards	The school has effective processes designed to achieve high formal and informal credibility with relevant government and public agencies overseeing it.	5	1	The governing body lends a blind eye to what is happening at this institution.
R53	Reliability	The virtual school e-learning system is as reliable as the main systems students and staff are used to from their wider experience as students and citizens,	5	2	We will have to wait and see
R58	Market Research	Market research (to assess demand for virtual schooling) done centrally and in or on behalf of all departments, and aware of e-learning aspects; updated annually or prior to major programme planning.	5	3	Since I don’t know how this decision was made I cannot comment on what research went into this decision
R60	Security	A virtual school system where security breaches are known not to occur yet which allows staff and students to carry out their authorised duties easily and efficiently.	5	5
R91	Pupil Understanding of System	School pupils have good understanding of the rules governing assignment submission, feedback, plagiarism, costs, attendance, etc. and always act on them.	5	5	Students are given an Orientation before they participate in the program.
R92	Pupil Help Desk	Help Desk is deemed as best practice.	5	1	The proper criteria for help desk are not in place.  Students rely on tutors and random persons to assist with challenges.
R94	Pupil Satisfaction	Frequent (ideally annual) Pupil Satisfaction survey which explicitly addresses the main e-learning issues of relevance to pupils and their parents.	N/A	N/A	N/A