Problems with distance education have hit close to home.
When Southwestern College was tagged with 15 sanctions by its accreditation agency, one that stood out was the college’s non-compliant distance education program, more commonly known to students as online classes.
Professor Angelina Stuart, co-chair of the college’s Accreditation Oversight Committee was Academic Senate President in 2011 when she and former Interim President Denise Whittaker helped SWC off probation and back into good standing with the college’s accreditation agency, ACCJC. Stuart said she has some “grave concerns” about the current accreditation situation, but said distance education is going in a better direction thanks to DE Faculty Coordinator Tracy Schaelen.
Some DE concerns have been partially resolved by faculty.
Distance Education Faculty Training (DEFT) launched in June 2016 and is led by Schaelen. It is a five-week, 40-hour online course that provides training, resources, guided application and evaluation of course concepts.
Faculty were originally supposed to complete distance education training in December when about 140 faculty would have been DEFT certified. Faculty leaders complained that the deadline was unrealistic.
Faculty leaders were able to negotiate on a deadline extension. Three 2017 tentative dates for DEFT are being offered in Feb. 12 to Mar. 18, April 3 to May 6 and July 3 to Aug. 5. Schaelen said that was a wise decision.
“Due to faculty requests, we are offering one and possibly two sections of DEFT in the winter intersection,” she said. “By the time the spring 2017 semester begins, (more than) 150 instructors will be DEFT certified. Our facilitation team for DEFT is committed to running multiple sections of DEFT throughout the academic year to accommodate the needs and schedules of our colleagues.”
Academic Senate President Andrew Rempt said it would have been difficult for faculty to balance teaching classes with taking 40 hours of distance education training.
“There was sort of an unspoken agreement that we would have two years to accomplish this,” he said. “I worked with my Senate Executive Committee and (faculty union president) Rob Shaffer worked with his committee and together we crafted a statement that said this (December deadline) is not going to work for us. We then met with Vice President Kathy Tyner and negotiated an extended deadline. The matter is resolved as far as we are concerned.”
Stuart said the college is committed to keeping accreditation on track.
“I am very satisfied with the work done by faculty on these key DE recommendations and feel that their narrative in SWC’s Follow Up Report to the ACCJC will fully resolve their concerns,” she said.
