University of Alaska
Supporting Students at a Distance
Vision: The University of Alaska embraces a student-centered approach to delivering
academic services and support. This requires that the University of Alaska recognize
students as belonging to the entire University of Alaska, regardless of their campus
affiliation, MAU, academic program, or where they live.
Key Elements of This Vision:
A. While the University recognizes the value and effectiveness of local (campus) support
of local students, it also recognizes that any student taking courses from any MAU should
expect support from any campus or university entity throughout the system. For this to be
effective, Chancellors will need to consider students from other MAUs to be a part of
their MAU’s student body.
B. The University of Alaska recognizes that students can expect services and expertise
from multiple campuses simultaneously, regardless of their location, degree program, or
academic goals.
C. The University of Alaska encourages the further development of system-wide
academic programs. This requires the University to support students in a variety of ways,
including those students who attend onsite, at a distance, or from multiple campuses.
D. The University will adopt business, service, technical support, and infrastructure
models that allow it to realize this vision. This will require institutional change to its
business processes, technical configurations, academic regionalism, and support models.
It will also require the University to develop accounting mechanisms that provide
campuses with recognition for the instruction as well as support of students.
Issues
This vision will require the following issues be addressed. It should be noted that this list
is not exhaustive, rather an initial phase towards this vision.
1. Home and Academic Campus
There needs to be an agreed-upon refinement and consensus for the definitions of Home
Campus and Academic Campus, and the relationship between the two. For the purpose of
this discussion, they are defined as follows:
Home campus - where students are physically located while attending UA. If students are
not physically attending school, then their Home Campus is the campus in their
community. If there is no campus in their community, then the Home Campus becomes
the MAU that has jurisdiction of the community in which they live.
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Academic campus – where their program is located (the department and campus). If
students are not part of a program (they are non-degree seeking), then their academic
campus is dictated by the location of the department offering the course they are taking.
For students taking multiple courses from multiple campuses, their academic campus
would be their home campus or the proposed Center for Distance Education,
understanding that all courses originate from one of the MAUs. This, like other variations
to the theme, will need to be further explored.
Roles:
 VPAA/SAC – Refine and finalize the definitions of Home and Academic
Campus. Task appropriate UA entities to begin developing policies and procedure
to realize this vision. Provosts will require academic departments to inform
campus registrars, in a timely manner, of those courses to be delivered via
distance. This will assure proper coding of all distance courses at the campus
level. The end result will be a more accurate accounting of distance courses that
will allow students and faculty advisors to make more accurate and informed
educational decisions. It will also assist in future planning of distance education
courses and programs.
 Faculty Alliance – Direct applicable staff to investigate impact on faculty and
academic activity.
 Student Services and Enrollment Management - BANNER student teams, student
and enrollment services functional experts will need to build processes and
procedures (admissions, financial aid, registration, etc.) that assign to each student
an Academic and Home Campus based on the VPAA/SAC definitions. Student
and enrollment services staff will also need to develop cross-MAU policies and
procedures to assure seamless and coordinated services to students.
 Finance/Admin. Services - BANNER finance teams will need to review and refine
processes as they relate to functional and BANNER Finance processes.
 IT/ITC – Direct BANNER programmers to develop or modify code to facilitate
the required changes.
 Human Resources – Direct applicable staff to investigate impact on faculty
workload and tracking where appropriate.
 Budget and IR – Direct applicable staff to investigate impact on current IR
reporting and data analysis.
2. Tuition and Fee Distribution
Once the Home and Academic Campuses are defined, then UA needs to adopt a business
model that distributes tuition and course fees, as well as campus-related fees in
accordance with how and where students receive academic vs. support services.
Specifically, this effort needs to address a) distribution of tuition and course fees to
academic campuses, and b) distribution of home campus-related fees to the home
campuses.
Roles:
 VPAA/SAC – To direct appropriate university entities to institutionalize tuition
and fee distribution as described above.
 Faculty Alliance – Direct applicable staff to investigate potential impacts.
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Student Services and Enrollment Management – Identify impacts on each
functional area (i.e., financial aid, etc.) and recommend appropriate changes to
business processes, BANNER Student and Financial Aid teams, and other
applicable technical systems.
Finance/Admin. Services – Develop functional and BANNER processes that will
allow for proper allocation of tuition and fees as noted above.
IT/ITC – Direct BANNER programmers to develop or modify code to facilitate
the required changes.
Human Resources – Direct applicable staff to investigate potential impacts.
Budget and IR – Direct applicable staff to investigate potential impacts.
3. Credit Hours
Cross-MAU and distance delivery typically involves more than one campus in order to be
successful. Yet, current credit hour reporting only shows the delivering campus’
involvement. Therefore, the university needs to identify, tabulate, and report all campus
MAU participation that occurs in the delivery of cross-MAU and distance courses. To
address this, a secondary model needs to be established that recognizes all entities
involved in course delivery and support. For example, in the case of a Fairbanks student
enrolled in the UAA Nursing program, UAA would get the credit hours (as is the current
practice) and Fairbanks would get the same number of credit hours – but these credit
hours note UAF’s effort to support and facilitate instruction. It is recognized that this is a
dual reporting of a single course. Therefore, this duplicative calculation needs to be
clearly defined so as not to confuse or inflate the university’s current credit reporting.
Roles:
 VPAA/SAC – Direct appropriate academic and enrollment management
leadership with the development of this duel credit hour reporting model.
 Faculty Alliance – Research implications for this change.
 Student Services and Enrollment Management – Work closely with academic and
IR leadership to assist in the development and deployment of this model.
 Finance/Admin. Services – Research and consider implications for this change.
 IT/ITC – Direct Banner programmers to facilitate appropriate changes to Banner
coding.
 Human Resources – Direct applicable staff to investigate potential impacts.
 Budget and IR – Work closely with academic and student services leadership to
inform and facilitate this change in credit hour reporting.
4. Advising
The university no longer holds exclusively to the traditional site-based model for
academic advising. This is driven by the presence and expected expansion of cross-MAU
programs (e.g., nursing) and distance delivered programs, which requires the university to
offer advising on a distributed basis. Because of these developments, students need and
should expect advising support from any entity within the university system in order to be
successful in their academic pursuits. It is not expected that all areas of the university will
have content experts capable of providing advising to all students in all programs.
However, it is expected that advising staff and faculty will, through the use of training of
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on-site advisors and distributed technologies, be able to provide for students at all
locations. For example, students with a home campus that is different than their academic
campus (e.g., a Fairbanks-based student in the Anchorage-based nursing program), should
be able to receive from Fairbanks either a) direct face-to-face advising, or b) advising
from the Anchorage program, which is facilitated by Fairbanks advising staff, using
phone, email or other systems.
A certain amount of advising can be provided by a UA Distance Education Handbook.
This Handbook is currently under development by Dr. Donna Schaad, UAA, in
partnership with PACDE members. The Handbook will contain general information as
well as campus-specific information for distance education students.
Roles:
 VPAA/SAC – Direct appropriate university entities (e.g., advising center staff,
academic departments, etc.) to develop appropriate processes that will offer
distributed advising, as described above.
 Faculty Alliance – Direct applicable faculty to assist in the development of this
new advising network.
 Student Services and Enrollment Management – In partnership with appropriate
academic entities, assist in the development of processes to implement this vision.
 Finance/Admin. Services – Explore impacts of a distributed advising network.
 IT/ITC – Explore impacts of distributed advising network, particularly the uses of
technology to support advising at a distance.
 Human Resources – Direct applicable staff to investigate potential impacts.
 Budget and IR – Direct applicable staff to investigate potential impacts.
5. Bookstore
As a result of formal surveys and student feedback, as well as staff input, there is a clear
need for a more coordinated and, perhaps, centralized bookstore for students taking
courses at a distance. Currently, UA operates multiple bookstores with varying degrees of
book and supply offerings. These stores range from virtual services, such as those used by
UAS from an out-of-state vendor (MBS), to CRA/CDE’s distance education bookstore
(serving CRA and related students at a distance), to MAU and/or campus-based
bookstores (Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Bethel, etc.).
A recent survey outlined the frustrations students continue to have with book information,
distribution, and ordering procedures. Therefore, it is recommended that the Business
Council (VC’s Administration), in cooperation with applicable MAU and SW entities,
review current bookstore capacities, operations, and functions, and develop a systemwide distance education bookstore strategy that more efficiently and effectively meets the
needs of all UA distance education students.
Roles:
 VPAA/SAC – direct appropriate university entities (e.g., Business Council and
applicable UA entities/staff) to develop appropriate processes that will offer
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distributed bookstore services as described above.
Faculty Alliance – Direct applicable faculty to assist in the development of this
concept.
Student services and enrollment management – In partnership with the Business
Council, assist where appropriate in the development of this concept.
Finance/Admin. Services – In partnership with the Business Council, develop new
strategies for UA distance education bookstore/services.
IT/ITC – Explore impacts of recommendations, with particular attention to any
IT-related recommendations or implementations.
Human Resources – Direct applicable staff to investigate potential impacts.
Budget and IR – Direct applicable staff to investigate potential impacts.
6. Library Services
UA students often require library services from a distance. Although some mechanisms
are in place to facilitate access for such students, the growing number of cross-MAU
degree programs now requires the University to allow student access to ALL UA libraries
– regardless of the student’s academic or degree campus. Therefore, mechanisms and
process must be developed that facilitates this vision with minimal impact upon students.
Similarly, faculty members should have access to library and related resources regardless
of their MAU affiliation. Currently, faculty members from one MAU are often denied
services at another MAU’s library. Again, with the growing number of cross-MAU
programs, seamless access to critical library and instructional-related support is critical
for both student and faculty success. Therefore, it is required that a system be developed
whereby students and faculty have access to ALL UA library and instructional support
entities – regardless of campus or program affiliation.
Roles:
 VPAA/SAC – To direct appropriate Library leadership and related staff to
develop applicable policies and procedures that ensures faculty and students
seamless access to library and instructional-related resources regardless of
academic or program affiliation
 Faculty Alliance – Direct applicable faculty to assist in the development of this
concept.
 Student services and enrollment management – Assist where appropriate.
 Finance/Admin. Services – Explore possible impacts to Banner Finance – as they
related to charges, students fees, etc.
 IT/ITC – Explore impacts of possible recommendations on existing library IT
infrastructure and databases.
 Human Resources – Direct applicable staff to investigate potential impacts.
 Budget and IR – Direct applicable staff to investigate potential impacts.
Drafted by Mike Sfraga and Jason Ohler
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