University of Alaska
Distance Education Steering Board
The First 45 Days
December 24, 2004
Curt Madison
Chair
Formation of the Distance Education Committees
In August the members of the President’s Ad-hoc Committee for Distance Education voted to
disband. The committee had been in existence for nine months (see Appendix A: PACDE
Formation). The committee felt that it had completed all assigned projects by mid-August. The
committee also felt that as an ad-hoc committee it was standing in the way of a consistent,
institutionalized, effort to address distance education issues as an on-going concern.
August 30, 2004, Dr. Jason Ohler presented the report of PACDE activities to President
Hamilton informing him of the imminent demise of the committee. President Hamilton decided
to follow up on the PACDE efforts with a permanent two-committee structure (see Appendix B:
PACDE final committee report).
On October 7, 2004, President Hamilton delivered a memo creating a new organizational
structure to help University of Alaska face distance education issues. (see Appendix C: Steering
Board and Educational Technology Team creation).
The memo creating the two committees gave until October 21 to complete the selection of
members appointed by the respective MAU Chancellors. All Steering Board committee members
were selected by October 21 with the exception of the Juneau representative. Subsequently Katy
Spangler was nominated and appointed.
Organizational Meetings
The Steering Board met in Fairbanks at the Butrovich Shermann Carter Conference room on
November 2, 2004. The meeting had computer-mediated support facilitated by Dr. Robert
Briggs. The meeting produced a lengthy report elaborating the distance education concerns of the
20 participants. The concerns were focused into critical issues, then parsed into six strategic
goals. The participants enrolled themselves into 90-day work groups to address the first three
strategic goals. The workgroups will report back to the Steering Board no later than March 1,
2005. The entire meeting report can be seen at
http://www.distance.uaf.edu/steeringboard/docs/Report.htm.
The November 2 meeting surfaced 26 critical issues to address before distance education can be
adequately deployed throughout the UA system. (see Appendix E: Critical Issues). The Steering
Board representatives are responsible for communicating the concerns of their campus back to
the main group and to return communication from the group to their respective campuses. No
one expects that the work will go smoothly or quickly. These concerns reach deeply into the
identity and sustainability of the UA system campuses. We expect to take on resource
allocations, normative work load expectations, and technology integration, among other issues.
There are not enough free resources to accomplish all desired outcomes.
Presentations
The Chair of the Distance Education Steering Board made presentations to the following UA
groups:
 Presidents Cabinet 11-11-2004
 Faculty Alliance – November 15, 2004
 UAF Chancellor Cabinet – November 29-2004
 Information Technology Council – December 17, 2004
Workgroup Activities
All three workgroups have been active immediately following the November 2 organizational
meeting.
 Communication Workgroup
 Quality Assurance Workgroup
 Student Centered Planning Workgroup
Campus Visits
The Chair made visits to a number of UA system campuses to explain the new organizational
arrangements, meet with the Steering Board representative and campus Director, and gather
information regarding current strengths and near term goals.
Juneau - November 17-18
MEETING WITH:
Barney Norwick, Instructional Designer
Instructional Design Group – Arlo, Jim Gage, Susie Feero, Maureen O’Halloran, Cathy
LeCompte
Michael Ciri, UAS Chief Information Officer
Robbie Stell, UAS Provost
John Pugh, UAS Chancellor
Jennifer, Faculty Senate distance education liaison
Katy Spangler, Faculty, November 24 in Eagle River
Karen Schmitt, Dean, November 19 in Anchorage
ISSUES:
1. Must separate duties of administrative oversight for local programs and statewide
support services.
2. Distance education should be a strategy to increase student progress towards a degree.
3. Not all programs should be available from all places.
4. Distance delivered courses must be of the same quality as on-campus courses with the
same requirements for instructor and outcomes.
5. Some students are counted as part-time at more than one UA campus when they are
actually carrying a full-time course load.
6. Eliminate the confusion of different calendars for registration, drop, and withdrawal
dates among the three MAUs.
7. There are not adequate incentives for receiving campuses to support students taking
courses from distant campuses.
8. Students on extended campuses sometimes do not have adequate facilities to
participate in distance delivered courses.
9. Faculty need additional professional development opportunities to obtain distance
delivery skills.
10. Job descriptions for the instructional design job family are not adequate.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Define the separation of duties with statewide support limited to pre-admission
services, student self-assessment tools, and online decision support tools.
2. Define the home location of similar programs to protect the development process.
Create a protected monopoly for designated programs.
3. Design minimum requirements for a Learning Center for each extended campus.
4. Provide summer intensive seminars for faculty.
5. Design online decision support tools connected to the Distributed Gateway for
student selection of courses and for administrative course delivery planning.
6. Provide for a common calendar of registration, drop, and withdrawal dates.
7. Create a job family for all levels of instructional media design.
8. Support robust communications among all instructional designers in the UA system
for sharing of expertise.
9. Produce a report of lessons learned from the Nursing Program experience, including
relation to industry, access in small communities, course quality issues, sharing of
fees and tuition, intra-program communication, recruitment.
Anchorage – November 19, 2004
MEETING WITH:
Kim Griffis UAA, Educational Media Services
Darlene Gill, Coordinator UAA Workforce & Professional Education,
Donna Schaad, Director eMedia Services
Academic Steering Committee on Distance Education
ACDLIT – Faculty Senate
Elaine Maimon, UAA Chancellor
Ted Kassier, UAA Provost
ISSUES:
1. Students need to have a system that remembers them. Each time they enroll all known
data should be automatically entered into forms.
2. There should be one centralized application for admission.
3. The admissions process should automatically enforce prerequisites requirements.
4. Student counts should include: part-time, full-time, UA full-time, externally enrolled,
served students, and supported students.
5. Need to find ways to for students to get access to the university without tripping over
the administration.
6. The distance student population does not self-select. Sometimes that is the only way
they can get a class.
7. Need more incentives for cross-MAU collaborations.
8. Computer literacy is too varied across student populations. Need some entry level
skill assessment.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Create a link from the Distributed Gateway to each degree or certificate program site
that has a standard “Program View” with course requirements.
2. Create a tool on the Distributed Gateway to make a “Focused View” related to each
program showing the near term course delivery options for all required courses.
3. Add incentives to the collaboration directives from the UA system.
4. Create entry level online courses to enable students access to the ICDL, or the IC3
computer basics.
Mat-Su – November 24, 2004
MEETING WITH:
Paul Dauphinais, Director
Charles Snare, Assistant Director
Sandy Gravley, Registrar Office
Debbie Dickie, Business Office
ISSUES:
1. Mat-Su does not have enough space for the class room demands. There are 15 FTE
teaching faculty and 100 adjunct faculty.
2. Alaska is not ready for a totally off-campus experience. Some on-campus time is
necessary to cement the relationship with the college.
3. The large number of adjuncts implies that we have part-time faculty teaching parttime students.
4. Mat-Su campus wants to be a place of community for the area.
5. High demand areas include Early Childhood and Refrigeration and Heating.
6. Mat-Su is in a prime location for all residents North, East, and West of Wasilla.
7. Students need a self-assessment for proper placement in course sequences.
8. The MAUs need to have common dates for drops and withdrawals, registration, and
start-stop class dates.
9. Need to have at least a two-year look ahead for course delivery plans.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Employ an instructional designer on the Mat-Su campus to give immediate,
proximate help to faculty.
2. Get Early Childhood blended courses up and running by 12/31/2005. Do adequate
assessment of skills outcomes and retention.
3. Create and deliver a 1-2 credit community education class to clarify the vision of
strategy and philosophy for the Mat-Su campus expansion.
4. Make significant improvements to the Mat-Su campus website to include pro-active
contact with students based on their association with the campus.
5. Utilize a common calendar to get class materials routinely delivered to student prior
to the beginning of classes.
Kodiak - December 2-3, 2004
MEETING WITH:
Connie Dooley, Director
Cindy Harrington, Director Early Childhood collaborative program
Jennifer Myrick, Title III coordinator
John Durham, Faculty CIOS
Sue, Registrar
Marjorie Draskovich, Faculty Nursing, expected appointee to the Steering Board
ISSUES:
1. Need clear articulation of classes across MAUs
2. Need online decision making tools to allow students to choose the most appropriate
course for their educational goal and time constraints.
3. Need access to information about all summertime classes offered in the UA system
in one place.
4. Need to have a way to manage the different calendars across the different MAUs.
5. Faculty lack the training to produce good online courses. They need to make sure
classes are prepared in the semester prior to delivery, have adequate interaction
devices with students, have appropriate assessments.
6. Students need appropriate orientation to the role of distance student.
7. Delivery modality needs to be robust to the Alaska environment. It must be
dependable prior to course delivery.
8. Instructors must take into account the special needs of cross-cultural delivery to
create an atmosphere of trust with the students.
9. Create common course designators across MAUs for articulated courses, e.g. HUMS
from UAA and HSV from UAF.
10. The Early Childhood program students have their tuition paid by their employers thus
there is a high need for coordination within the university system to overcome the
variety of calendars.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Assign an instructional designer mentor to all new faculty teaching by distance.
2. Provide an online orientation for students.
3. Provide multiple opportunities for faculty development.
4. Size faculty workload appropriately given the demands of distance delivery.
5. Create blended course delivery that includes a face-to-face encounter, online
components, and audio conferences.
6. Create opportunities for synchronous online advising with students.
7. Deliver a week long intensive for Kodiak faculty to increase their confidence.
8. Create adequate training and incentives to encourage 12 Kodiak faculty to teach at
least one distant course.
9. Encourage participation of the Early Childhood administrators in all distance delivery
discussions.
Kenai and Homer – December 6, 2004
MEETING WITH:
Gary Turner, Director
Mike Hawfield, Faculty, Steering Board representative
Dayne, Faculty
Barb, Faculty
Liz, Student Services
Carol Swartz, Director of the Homer Campus
Andy Veh, Faculty, Chemistry
ISSUES:
1. Need to define the compensation for development and delivery of distance courses.
2. Need to define what is a “distance” course.
3. Need to design delivery around a hybrid model that involves some on-campus time.
4. Need an instructional designer at the Kenai Campus to help faculty.
5. Need to adequately plan for student progress towards a degree when required courses
are not offered locally.
6. Need to solve the intellectual property rights questions.
7. Need to assure that students are getting adequate critical thinking skills in their
distance classes. Keep quality assurance in mind for all aspects of distance delivery.
8. Provide opportunities for faculty development.
9. Not enough course selection for local students.
10. Faculty evaluations need to attune to distance delivery modalities.
11. Need a common academic calendar across MAUs.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Find a way to advise students into distance courses without a detrimental effect on the
campus based courses.
2. Forge common understandings about faculty compensation for distance teaching that
has the backing of the relevant unions.
3. Provide a course offering plan that includes distance offerings from all UA locations.
4. Develop more upper division courses for distance delivery.
5. Design student evaluations of instruction that are mindful of online or two-way video
delivery.
Bethel – December 9-10, 2004
MEETING WITH:
Jolie Morgan, Interim Director
Pam Twitchel, Student Services
Deborah, Librarian
Randy, Faculty, English
Martin Leonard, Faculty, CIOS
Will Updegrove, Faculty, LKSD School Board member
ISSUES:
1. Compare the efforts at UA with other universities to find norms for faculty
workloads.
2. Need to solve the issue of lost student head count for distance delivered programs
such as Rural Health Pathways and Nursing.
3. Rural Alaska lacks good Internet connectivity in many places.
4. Many students lack the basic computer skills to take part in online classes.
5. Need to have good coordination for high school dual credit courses.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Give tuition to the delivering campus and the fees to receiving campus.
2. Disseminate information from national studies and national conferences through the
Steering Board representatives to all campuses.
3. Charge a technology fee to all campus students.
Sitka – December 13, 2004
MEETING WITH:
David Felland, Director
Maureen O’Halloran, Instructional Designer
Susie Feero, Instructional Designer
Cathy Kinsey, Faculty, Allied Health
ISSUES:
1. Need more interactions designed into distance classes.
2. Faculty need to have more training on time management with regard to student
emails.
3. Need more faculty development opportunities.
4. Need more exposure to course design features and software.
5. The role of instructional designer is not well understood by Human Relations.
6. Instructional Designers are sometimes mis-labeled as media development specialists.
7. Faculty are concerned that they are not adequately compensated for the distance
delivery workload.
8. Faculty are concerned that there is not adequate support for students during class
delivery.
9. The UA system has unhealthy competition that stifles program development.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Need to encourage peer-to-peer communication in online course design to relieve
some faculty work load.
2. Organize a UAS faculty conference to concentrate on distance delivery theory, tools,
and software.
3. Create a job family for Instructional Designer that includes levels for webmaster,
education technologist, graphic arts, and instructional designer.
4. Provide clear articulation of courses across UA.
5. Clearly list the expectations for synchronous or asynchronous participation by
students in the course catalog.
Ketchikan – December 14-15, 2004
MEETING WITH:
Karen Polley, Director Ketchikan
Donna Schaad, UAA PACDE representative
Cathy LeCompte, UAS PACDE representative, Assistant Director Ketchikan
Michael Sfraga, UA Statewide PACDE representative
Jason Ohler, at-large PACDE representative
Scott Christen, Director, Alaska Distance Education Technology Consortium
ISSUES:
1. PACDE dissolved as of 12-15-2004. All funds and projects transfer to the Distance
Education Steering Board.
2. Cisco Academy taught at Ketchikan needs to broaden its student base across the state
for the upper level modules.
3. Quality among online instructors varies too much.
4. Bid costs for development of online courses vary from $3k to $25k thus blocking
adequate financial planning for programs.
5. There is not enough quality assurance at the institutional level for technology support,
professional development, and instructor credentialing.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. See PACDE final report
2. Enroll 20 students in the upper level Cisco Academy courses.
3. Create an online instructor certification course.
4. Provide student support and advising over the web.
5. Provide standard online course design templates with known development costs.
6. Design appropriate student feed back forms and give them some weight in faculty
evaluations.
Proposed activities for the next 45 days
 Plan Summit
 Plan coordination of course design for Allied Health and Nursing
 Plan coordination of course design for Engineering
 Meet with President’s Cabinet in February to present 5 year business plan
 Review Workgroup Deliverables
Appendices
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
PACDE Formation 11-26-2003
PACDE final committee report August 20, 2004
Hamilton Memo 10-7-2004
Steering Board Representatives
Critical Issues from the Steering Board 11-2-2004
Dorman Memo 11-16-2004
PACDE Report of Final Meeting December 15, 2004
November 26, 2003
TO: Systemwide Academic Council (SAC)
1. Jim Chapman, UAA
2. Robbie Stell, UAS
3. Paul Reichardt, UAF
FROM: Mark Hamilton
a. UA President
SUBJECT: Presidential Ad-Hoc Distance Education
Committee
Over the past several years, SAC has taken the leadership role in defining the issues and
challenges of distance delivery facing the University of Alaska. A recent product of this
leadership was the report from the SAC-appointed distance education taskforce. I was
very impressed with this report.
Thank you for taking the lead and commissioning such capable faculty and staff on this
important topic. The issues have been clearly characterized and clarified such that the
only logical next step is for us to take action together to enhance access to quality higher
education for all Alaskans.
As a start, I am creating an Ad-Hoc Presidential Committee on Distance Education to
guide the implementation of the roadmap developed by SAC. The purpose of this group
will be to recommend policies and strategies for the creation and coordination of a
coherent and efficient approach to the delivery of educational programs through distance
technologies.
The membership will be as follows:
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Curt Madison – UAF
Donna Schaad – UAA
Jason Ohler – UAS
Eva Kopacz – Faculty Liason
Mike Sfraga – SW
Dave Veazey – Committee Staff
The Committee will report to me on ideas, suggestions for actions, implementation ideas
and concerns, and I expect they will work closely with you. I will need your expertise
and assistance to inform and implement the recommendations of this group and to
provide advice on academic and MAU specific issues. I feel strongly that it is time to
make distance education a higher priority at the University of Alaska. You have laid the
groundwork for concrete action, and I look forward to our collaboration in the coming
months.
August 24, 2004
Mark Hamilton, President
University of Alaska
President Hamilton:
Members of the President’s Ad Hoc Committee on Distance Education met recently for two days
to discuss a number of issues related to the future of distance education at the University of
Alaska. The attached letter summarizes our thoughts and represents our best thinking on what the
University of Alaska needs to do if it wants to create a stable and responsive distance education
system to serve the needs of Alaska.
We look forward to your response. And I look forward to talking to you on August 30.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jason Ohler
President’s Professor, Educational Technology
907-465-6427 / jason.ohler@uas.alaska.edu
Memo to:
President Hamilton
From:
President’s Ad Hoc Committee on Distance Education (PACDE) members: Eva
Kopacz, Cathy LeCompte, Curt Madison, Jason Ohler, Donna Schaad, Mike
Sfraga
Date:
August 20, 2004
Re:
The future of PACDE and distance education at the University of Alaska
Dear President HamiltonIn November, 2004, you created the President’s Ad Hoc Committee on Distance Education
(PACDE) and gave it the following charge: “…to recommend policies and strategies for the
creation and coordination of a coherent and efficient approach to the delivery of educational
programs through distance technologies.”
It is the considered and unanimous opinion of PACDE members that we have addressed your
charge as best we can and that PACDE should be dissolved as December 15, 2004. What follows
are our final recommendations to you, a progress report on projects currently underway, and a
list of issues that still need to be addressed.
Summary of recommendations. In order to inform possible future directions for the University
of Alaska in the area of distance education, PACDE hired one of the most respected researchers
in the field of distance learning, Dr. Sally Johnstone of WCET, and worked with her to
investigate strategies used by three university systems in their creation of successful institutional
approaches to distance education. Based on this research, as well as our own understanding of
distance education at the University of Alaska, we recommend you take the following steps as
soon as possible:
1. Implement the recommendations of Dr. Sally Johnstone’s WCET report, with the
modifications we describe in this letter. Please feel free to use PACDE’s expertise to help
with this implementation. The cornerstone of her recommendations is the establishment
of the Alaska Regents Virtual Campus (ARVC), which is described in this letter. The
ARVC would be a non-academic body that would help coordinate the distance education
activities of the University of Alaska. PACDE suggests that an alternative name for this
group could be the University of Alaska Virtual Campus (UAVC).
2. Sponsor and serve as keynote at a distance education summit in October to inaugurate a
new era in e-learning and distance education at the University of Alaska. PACDE can
fund and organize this summit if you wish. Summit participants would consist of
members of the two distance education advisory groups that are part of the Alaska
Regents Virtual Campus (ARVC). The advisory groups are described in this letter.
3. Dissolve PACDE as of December 15, 2004. An ad hoc group cannot help UA take the
critical steps necessary in the development of a viable, sustainable distance education
structure. A more systemic approach is needed.
Recommendations – background and overview
PACDE and the consultants it has hired to explore the issues of distance education at the
University of Alaska represent over a century of collective distance education experience. We
have discussed at length the challenges that the University of Alaska faces in the area of distance
education with one goal in mind: the creation of a stable, effective, responsive student-centered
distance education system that will be able to serve the state of Alaska’s distance education
needs in the years ahead. With that in mind, we ask you to consider the following thoughts and
recommendations:

Distance education at the University of Alaska has been studied and re-studied, and
everything points to the fact that it desperately needs leadership, vision, a mandate and an
organizational structure. An ad hoc committee or single staff member cannot provide this.
In fact, the existence of an ad hoc committee impedes real change because it effectively
occupies the space within the UA organization that a permanent, institutionalized
distance education body could occupy. This is one of the reasons that we ask that you
sunset PACDE as of December 15, 2004.

As we approach the year 2005, the University of Alaska still has no organizational
structure for distance education that spans the campuses, encourages faculty involvement
and provides consistent access and service to students. All of the successful distance
education models PACDE has studied have some form of organizational structure. The
creation of such a structure seems like an obvious and long overdue next step for the
University of Alaska to take. Therefore, we strongly urge you to accept Dr. Johnstone’s
recommendation to create the Alaska Regents Virtual Campus (or alternately, the
University of Alaska Virtual Campus) as soon as possible.

Most of the issues that confound distance education at the University of Alaska - from a
coherent academic vision for distance education, to the identification of home campuses,
to the development of sensible fee distribution mechanisms - cannot be solved effectively
on a case-by-case basis by ad hoc groups or existing committees who already address a
number of areas of responsibility other than distance education. Distance education issues
need to be addressed by a body within the university that has the mandate, support, and
leadership to address such issues.
Organizational Issues. We have reviewed Dr. Johnstone’s report and wish to affirm our support
for her organizational recommendations, with the following observations and modifications:

Based on Dr. Johnstone’s research, universities needing to move from an informal to a
more mature approach to distance education require the involvement of its governing
entity, an idea we fully support. While she recommended the creation of a subcommittee
of the Board of Regents (BOR), we recommend you consider two other less demanding
options:
o appointing a BOR liaison to whom the ARVC would routinely report, or
o requiring a standing distance education update be presented at each BOR meeting
as part of the Academic and Student Affairs Committee report

Dr. Johnstone proposed the creation of one advisory group to help guide the efforts of the
ARVC. We recommend two groups, which are described below. An appendix showing
the new organizational structure is attached.
o Advisory Group (5-8 members with a functional role that touches on distance
education): This is the ARVC’s primary steering committee. It consists of the
director of the ARVC and members from each of the major groups within the
university community (students, faculty, IT, student services, and SAC). This
group would meet monthly by video or audio conference as well as face-to-face a
few times every year.
o Operations Group (16-18 members whose job title and/or description includes
distance education): This group addresses the more daily, operational concerns of
distance education. It would consist of the director of the ARVC and one
representative from each of UA’s fifteen campuses. This group would conduct
business primarily through listservs and other electronic means.

The director of the ARVC would create short-term work teams charged with researching
and developing potential solutions to problems that arise in meetings with advisory and
operations groups. Work teams routinely have a 90 day life span.

Dr. Johnstone recommended that one of the ARVC’s primary missions be “to monitor
emerging statewide work-force needs.” We recommend that this be modified to read “to
respond to emerging statewide work-force needs.”
Next steps. The University of Alaska needs a fresh start in the area of distance education. We
recommend you take the following steps.
1. Create the ARVC. PACDE would be happy to work with you and others on the details
of this.
2. Sponsor a distance education summit inaugurating a new era in distance education.
PACDE can fund and organize this summit if you wish. The summit would consist of the
members of the two ARVC groups described above (Advisory and Organizational). Its
purpose would be to inaugurate a new era of distance education at the University of
Alaska. Total attendance would be about 30-40 people. We have identified October 14-15
as a convenient time for the summit. It would only make sense to have this summit if Dr.
Johnstone’s recommendation to create the ARVC (or UAVC) had been accepted.
3. Deliver the opening address. You and perhaps a member of the Board or Regents
provide the opening address and charge members to help build the distance education
system that students deserve and the state will need to meet the challenges ahead.
4. Disband PACDE in favor of the creation of the two advisory groups described in
this letter. Once the two advisory groups are created, PACDE would be superfluous. As
these advisory groups would be permanent fixtures of the University of Alaska
landscape, rather than ad hoc, they could begin to develop and manage the kind of
institutional approach to distance education that the University of Alaska needs.
Remaining issues. Operational issues that remain to be addressed include the following:










Fees – consistency related to distance students and distribution model
Tuition allocation, based on either cost or incentive model
Timely receipt of class materials for all students regardless of their location.
Cross-MAU advising
Articulation agreements for course credit transfer across the UA system
Academic priorities for distance delivery program development
Redundant course delivery leading to insufficient section enrollments
Consistent access for all distance students to all student services (advising, testing,
placement, counseling, etc.)
Reciprocal links and common review of distance education navigation on UA websites.
Recommendations and opportunities for professional development
Proposed Budget for 2004-2005 year.
1.
2.
3.
5.
20k - meetings and travel
15k – online science courses
15k – research and publication related to online science courses
8k - travel for science faculty developing the two online courses to MAU for review by
Chemistry and Biology departments
6. 2k duplicate and distribute committee reports
7. 40k - October Summit on Distance Education, (Oct. 14-15)
Total: 100K
1. Project Update
In the report submitted to you last spring, we described a number of projects PACDE had
undertaken. What follows is status report of these projects. PACDE will make sure that all
projects are successfully completed before it disbands.
Project
”Unmet Student Services for
Distance Education Students”
by Payton-Hewlett.
Status
Report
completed,
distributed
“Recommendations for
Increasing Statewide
Services from the University
of Alaska” by Johnstone
Report
completed,
distributed
Comments
In review by student services
personnel to result in action items
addressed by them and the office of
SW Student Services.
In review throughout the university,
and delivered to the Legislative Audit
Committee for Distance Education.
This report serves as a map for the
University of Alaska’s future in the
area of distance education and e-
Two online science courses.
Effort includes: training,
state-wide collaboration, and
a process research project.
Underway
Creation of UAonline
distance education document
archive
Completed:
http://uashome.
Alaska.edu/~jfj
bo/distedhistory
Nearly
complete
Completed for
now, but will
need continual
monitoring
System-wide distance
education student handbook
UA Distributed Gateway –
update
http://distance.a
laska.edu
Focused View/Program View Program View
implementation
and pilot by
UAA
UACP – single point of
In progress
contact for corporate requests
related to distance
learning development.
Projected completion date: December
15, 2004. Students to be enrolled for
Spring 2005.
It will need continually updating
Will be available to anyone who
wishes to use it.
Programs listings and links are
current, but deans and directors will
need to be contacted routinely
Focused View can be implemented
when systems are in place for online
registration and financial aid cross
MAU’s
Two training models developed for
Alyeska; prototype for new employees
orientation for Conoco-Phillips
Proposed Distance Education Organizational Structure
University of Alaska 2004
Board of
Regents
VP Academic Affairs
SAC
University of Alaska - 2004
UAVC Personnel
3 full time positions:
Director, Web master, support
staff.
*ARVC (Alaska Regents Virtual
Campus)
Operations Group (16-18
members)- ARVC director
and one member from each
of UA’s 15 campuses
Work groups – shortterm groups formed by
UAVC director to solve
specific problems
3 half time positions:
distance education
coordinators at each MAU
Advisory Group (6-8
members)- ARVC director
and members from SAC, IT,
students, faculty, student
services
* Could also be called UAVC (University of Alaska Virtual Campus)
October 7, 2004
To:
Craig Dorman, Vice President for Research &
Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs
From:
Mark Hamilton, President /s/ at 8 Oct Pres Cabinet
Subject:
Academic Program Development and Educational Technology
As you are aware, one of my major priorities for the coming years is significantly broadening the
academic degree and workforce training opportunities we offer to our Alaskan students. To
ensure that these opportunities are made available to the largest number of students throughout
the state at least cost, and to improve faculty productivity and course quality, it will be important
for us to maximize our effective use of modern educational technology. We must also align our
business processes, information technology developments, and student services in ways that are
fundamentally student-centric, with a goal of enabling our students at any location, to be served
the best the University has to offer, from any location.
We have already taken some major steps in the required directions. Among these are the
statewide use of the Banner system, successful implementation of “My UA”, and our efforts
toward development of the UA Portal. We have included an Academic component in this fall’s
Operational Reviews to help me and the Chancellors understand each MAU’s strengths and
strategies in order to better differentiate and align our programs, and the chancellors will present
me, for discussion at our December 2004 Council meeting, their priorities for new program
development over the next five years.
An additional step which the chancellors and I now believe is a prerequisite to meeting our
overall goals, is to take more concerted and coordinated actions in the incorporation of
educational technology in our teaching and training programs, in both distance and on-campus
offerings. I have reviewed the recent PACDE and WCET reports1 which offer many relevant
suggestions, and based on their recommendations and with concurrence from the chancellors, I
request that you take responsibility for coordinating statewide efforts in this regard. You are to
be guided by the directives and priorities in the attachment.
cc: Stephen Jones
Elaine Maimon
John Pugh
1
Three decades of past reports on distance education are online at
http://uashome.alaske.edu/~jfjbo/distedhistory
Attachment to President’s Directive on Academic Program
Development and Educational Technology
While your efforts should focus on coordination and extension of the Distance Education
program of the University of Alaska and its MAUs, processes and technologies should
simultaneously enhance faculty flexibility and the development and delivery of on-campus
offerings.

You have the concurrence of the Chancellor of UAF and the Executive Director of the
College of Rural Alaska, to designate the CRA Center for Distance Education (CDE) to function
as a facilitator of cross-campus distributed work groups using on-line web-enhanced tools. CDE
should act as the statewide focal point for the development and coordination of distance delivery
processes and procedures, for recommending relevant technologies to the CITO and his ITC, and
for assisting the MAUs and their faculty and staffs to enhance their distance delivery and
educational technology training and implementation programs, with the provisio that there shall
be no reduction in the level of service and support provided to CRA. To carry our this charge the
CDE Director should chair a Distance Education Steering Board, comprised of representatives
from each campus throughout the UA system, to be appointed by the chancellors no later than 21
October 2004. This Steering Board will deal with day-to-day implementation and operational
issues, and utilize work groups to address issues and recommend solutions. With the assistance
of the CDE Director and his Board, you will provide to me for discussion at the 11 November
2004 President’s Cabinet, the terms of reference and functional charge to this Board.

You should form an Educational Technology Team led by members of your staff and the
CITO, with MAU representatives from appropriate functional areas, to ensure that policies and
procedures associated with distance education are aligned with on-campus support and delivery,
and with other academic program development and student service efforts. The Chair of this
team should broadly oversee and support the efforts of the CDE Director in his statewide role.
With the assistance of the Chair of this Team, you will provide to me for discussion at the 11
November 2004 President’s Cabinet, the terms of reference for its operations and a set of
overarching principles and guidelines for its efforts; these should include as a minimum

-promoting efficient collaborations across MAUs;

-developing robust, efficient and consolidated distance delivery (e.g., course
management) systems, while ensuring that most instructional design and distance delivery
resources be located at campuses close to faculty, and (with the exception of the historical
relationship of CDE with CRA) that courses developed for distance delivery remain the property
of their academic programs;
o -promoting faculty development at each campus to explore the integration of
learning theory and instructive practice using advanced educational technology
and distance techniques;
o -encouraging statewide distance delivery across MAU boundaries through fair
and equitable cost-sharing incentive practices; and
o -prioritizing distance program development to meet needs identified by the State
Distance Education Consortium and MAU academic priorities as defined by SAC.
o As an initial priority, you should direct the efforts of the Team and Board to
ensuring that current distance delivered programs, and in particular the Nursing
and Allied Health programs, are significantly improved. In addition, an early
goal for CDE and the Board must be to redesign the UA Distributed Education

Gateway to enhance it as a visible, active clearinghouse of system-wide distance
education offerings, and to recommend steps to adopt a single sign-on feature for
the UA course management system.

You should plan on short-term supplemental funding for FY05 and FY06 of $350K/year,
plus on-going base general fund of $400K/year stating in FY06, as the planned initial
commitment to UA’s educational technology enhancement program. Prior to release of this
funding (beyond an initial $100K FY05 to facilitate planning), you will provide to me, for
discussion at a President’s Cabinet, both near term priorities and long term programmatic
emphasis and a budget plan for FY06-FY09, including a business plan for funding strategies to
augment state general fund resources.
University of Alaska Distance Education Steering Board
UAS
Juneau – Katy Spangler
Ketchikan - Cathy LeCompte - Assistant Director
Sitka - Susie Ferro - Educational Technology Faculty
At-Large - Jason Ohler - President's Professor for
Distance Education
UAA
Anchorage - Donna Schaad - Director Educational
Media Services
MatSu - Charles Snare - Assistant Director
Kenai - Mike Hawfield - Faculty
Kodiak - Connie Dooley - Interim Director
PWSCC - Doug Desourcie - Dean of Instruction
UAA– Orson Smith – Engineering Faculty - Chair
Academic Steering Committee for Distance Education
UAF
UAF – Robert Perkins – Engineering Faculty
Chukchi College (Kotzebue) - Tom Pennington Education Faculty
Northwest (Nome) - Joe Mason - English Faculty
Kuskokwim College (Bethel) - Heidi Simmons Distance Education Coordinator
Bristol Bay (Dillingham) - John Bruder - Math
Faculty
Interior-Aleutians - Holly Royce - Student Services
TVC Melissa Brown – ABUS Faculty
CES – Bill Butler – Associate Director
Staff
Chair - Curt Madison - Director Center for Distance
Education
Admin Assistant – Donna Hertzler – Center for
Distance Education
Webmaster - TBA
Email
228-4523
747-7725
465-6427
cathy.lecompte@uas.alaska.edu
susie.feero@uas.alaska.edu
jason.ohler@uas.alaska.edu
786-4452
ands1@uaa.alaska.edu
745-9752
235-6078
486-1220
834-1666
786-1910
pfces@matsu.alaska.edu
inmch@uaa.alaska.edu
cdooley@kodiak.alaska.edu
ddesorcie@pwscc.edu
afops@uaa.alaska.edu
474-7694
4423400x115
443-8414
543-4521
ffrap@uaf.edu
zftdp@uaf.edu
842-5109
x304
474-5207
455-2871
474-72546
nfgjm@uaf.edu
Heidi_Simmons@fc.bethel.alaska.
edu
rfjab@uaf.edu
fnhas@uaf.edu
ffmcb@uaf.edu
474-5197
curt.madison@uaf.edu
474-5602
fndmh1@uaf.edu
Critical Issues facing Distance Education at University of Alaska
1. Assessment and quality control for coursework
2. Course-development support for faculty -- training, development, etc. Instructional
designers who know technology and pedagogy
3. Adequate Technical Support for students -- a help desk that answers and FTF support in the
field
4. Development of trust among campuses to allow the university components to work together
5. Uniform registration policies
6. Managing differences of start-date/end-date and class-time-blocks, and classes that are not
semester length
7. Credit for tenure and promotion for faculty teaching distances classes
8. Equitable credit for workload of teaching distance courses
9. Incentives for collaboration rather than competition
10. Assuring student preparedness for a given class (prerequisites, assessments of competency,
etc.)
11. Assuring quality of instructors
12. Keep the focus on Learning with technology as support, rather than focusing on technology.
13. Understand the market
14. Managing differences in course naming and numbering systems.
15. Equitable distribution of tuition and fees
16. 24 X 7 advising for students
17. Seamless transfer of credits across MAUs
18. Common planning for programs, not just courses
19. Make a single source for information about all distance courses a student could take
20. User-friendly to the student - simple!
21. Establish an unambiguous definition for access, and define who the system is to support
22. Address the needs of special needs learners
23. Student access to phone, internet, and computer technology
24. Training instructors to use appropriate pedagogy for the technology availalbe
25. Prioritizing which students should be allowed to enroll in which classes
26. Planning for distance education, sequencing courses for programs and degrees, and sharing
planning
University of Alaska Statewide System



V IC E PR E S IDE N T FOR R E SE AR C H
IN TE R IM V IC E PR E S IDE N T FOR AC ADE M IC AFFA IR S
V IC E -C H AIR , ALAS KA ST ATE C OMM IT TE E FOR R E SE AR C H
202 BUTROVICH BUILDING
P.O. BOX 755000
FAIRBANKS, ALASKA 99775 -5000
Phone: (907) 474-7451
Fax: (907) 474-7570
30 November 2004
TO:
Karen Perdue, Chair, UA Education Technology Team
Curt Madison, Chair, UA Distance Education Steering Board
FROM:
Craig Dorman, VPAA/R
SUBJECT:
Actions Following President’s Cabinet of 11 November 2004
Your 11 November presentations to the Chancellors and President were well received, and
should serve as the basis for follow-on briefings to SAC, Faculty Alliance, and other interested
groups. It is important that all interested constituencies be fully informed of your charge and
actions. Based on discussions and decisions at the Cabinet meeting, please take the following
actions:
1. Advertise for and hire the Assistant Director of CDE, the Distance Education webmaster, and
the administrative assistant, as approved by the President (Action: Curt Madison). Identify Fund
1 requirements to support an appropriate portion of Karen’s salary. Coordinate with Randy
Weaver and Pat Pitney to identify and move funds (Action: Karen Perdue). Continue to refine
additional budget items for FY05 and FY06, identifying both costs and resources (Action: Both;
for Cabinet nlt 2/05).
2. Design a second generation UA Distributed Education Gateway to include decision making
tools to enhance it as a visible, active clearinghouse of system-wide distance education offerings.
Work with Steve Smith and Statewide ITS as features get proposed. (Action: Curt Madison).
3. Ensure that the Work Plans from the 90-day Work Groups established at the November 2,
2004 Steering Board meeting are passed to ETT for review and comment by March 1, 2005
(Action: Curt Madison). The three groups are:
 A student-centered, knowledge-focused approach to course development, scheduling,
sequencing and marketing;
 Quality assurance for course design, delivery, and connectivity; and,
 Communication Plan for informing and getting feedback from stakeholders.
4. Request each Campus representative to identify IT and logistics capabilities and issues in the
regions they serve, to provide a more comprehensive basis for planning and investment. (Action:
Curt Madison; this should proceed in parallel with current work group efforts)
5. Host a Summit near April 1, 2005 for ETT and DESB with appropriate stakeholders to assess
the distance education issues facing UA. The structure of the Summit and agenda should be
drafted by January 15, 2005. (Action: Curt Madison and Karen Perdue with assistance from ETT
and DESB).
6. Draft ‘White Papers’ on the following topics, for discussion at and recommendations from the
Spring Summit, to help SAC and the Chancellors make related decisions (Action: Curt Madison
and Karen Perdue with assistance from ETT and DESB):
 Steps to adopt a single sign-on feature for the UA Course management system (including
the characteristics of that system, a decision roadmap for selecting one, and the
relationship to MyUA Portal);
 Enrollment management, to include priorities of the types of students we are attempting
to serve with distance offerings, and associated cost structures based on state needs,
including impact issues related to fees and incentives.
 Policies regarding program development to avoid inter-MAU duplication and
competition, while promoting innovative use of technology in all course offerings.
 Review of current state of the Nursing and Allied Health efforts for UA. (Action: Karen
Perdue with assistance from ETT)
7. Coordinate UA funding requests through ADETC with special emphasis on the FY05 100k
Arctic Engineering effort, and FY06 requests.
8. Conduct an inventory of existing DE investments and personnel at the MAU level by Jan 30,
2005. (Action: Karen Perdue with IR).
cc: SAC; UA VPs; Education Technology Team
Final Report
Presidential Ad-Hoc Distance Education Committee
December 23, 2004
Introduction
The Presidential Ad-Hoc Distance Education Committee (PACDE) was organized under a memo
from President Hamilton on November 26, 2003. On December 15, 2004, the committee
completed its final meeting in Ketchikan before officially dissolving. All funds in the PACDE
accounts will be transferred to the Distance Education Steering Board who will administer the
funds associated with the ongoing activities.
The committee completed a significant amount of work during its existence However, many
issues facing distance education at the University of Alaska remain unresolved. PACDE
recommended that a permanent follow-on structure be put in place to address the ongoing issues.
The Educational Technology Team and the Distance Education Steering Board will take up from
where PACDE has left off.
The members of PACDE met in Ketchikan to summarize their work and highlight the most
pressing near term issues facing the University. Present in Ketchikan were: Cathy LeCompte,
Donna Schaad, and Curt Madison. Jason Ohler and Mike Sfraga joined the meeting by audio
conference.
The issues fall into four categories: Distance Education Information, Academic Advising,
Participation Incentives and Standards for Distance Education. First, information about distance
education needs to be made more visible. Not all distance courses are currently listed on the
Distributed Gateway. It is not obvious from the listing what the delivery modality is for each
course. Programs that allow distance education are not easily found. Statistical definitions about
distance course usage are not consistent from campus to campus. Tools do not exist to facilitate
planning for student demand for distance courses. We should do a lot more to manage the
information regarding distance education to aid data based decision making by students, faculty,
and administration.
Second, academic advising for distance students is sporadic and inaccessible. The typical
distance student can not readily visit a campus during regular hours to get academic advising.
That means that distance students are prone to making inefficient choices for course selection
and other avoidable mistakes. The University should make it easy to contact the full range of
advising services through communication tools at a wide variety of times. The advisors would
need to be knowledgeable about distance education itself as well as about distance delivered
courses available to students.
Third, the campus administrative units need to have more incentives and fewer disincentives
surrounding distance education. The costs associated with distance delivery need to be covered
by appropriations, grants, initiatives, or negotiated splits of tuition and fees such that distance
students can bring a net gain to a campus rather than a net loss. The University currently gives
conflicting messages by urging local campus entrepreneurial activity while at the same time
urging collaboration. Performance metrics must recognize the value of collaboration by counting
collaboration outcomes as a basis for additional funding.
Fourth, standards for distance education activity need to be established. Directors need some
guidance about the normative reward for faculty effort associated with course development and
course delivery. The instructional design support team roles need to be standardized across the
system aimed at quality assurance. Routine technical support for both students and faculty need
to be established at known threshold levels.
Ongoing Activities
1. Distance Delivered Science Courses with a Lab
RECOMMENDATION: Complete the construction of the entry level Chemistry and Biology
courses with a lab by distance. Complete the writing of a peer reviewed article for publication
describing the process, implementation, and decision points. Complete a website addressing
science courses delivered by distance. Make presentations to interested UA faculty about the
process and quality assurance of the two courses.
ISSUES: Entry level science lab courses are a choke point for distance students. UA faculty are
skeptical of the obtained quality of a lab course by distance.
PACDE identified a choke point in the progress of Alaska students as they prepared for high
demand health careers. Students that want to take part in the various nursing and allied health
programs need to be able to take a science course with a lab. Two known gateway courses are
Biology and Chemistry.
The PACDE group decided to support creation of these courses by an RFP process to find
interested faculty members. A biology professor was found at Northwest Campus in Nome and a
Chemistry professor in Kenai. The Instructional Design Team at UAF worked with the biology
professor while the Instructional Design Team at UAA worked with the Chemistry professor.
Both courses are set to enroll students for Spring 05 semester.
The development of the two science courses was meant to address the challenges of making a
course with a distributed work group, establish the roles of the team members, and further the
understanding of delivering an accredited science lab experience by distance.
Jason Ohler is taking the lead to write a peer-reviewed journal article about the process including
decision points, successes and failures. In addition, Dr. Ohler is leading the effort to create a
website devoted to teaching science by distance. The website will be ready to launch by May 15,
2005.
We understand that the science faculty throughout the UA system are naturally skeptical about
the quality and feasibility of delivering the science lab experience. Early in the Spring 05
semester, we will coordinate meetings of the course creators and interested faculty members for
demonstrations and review.
2. Human Resource Job Family
RECOMMENDATION: Create a system job family called INSTRUCTIONAL MEDIA that
better reflects the knowledge, skills and abilities, experience, education and functions for staff
who support the development and delivery of distance education.
ISSUES: Instructional design is a new field for higher education. The skill sets of practitioners
do not fit in existing job families. There is a large variation among the HR solutions in the UA
system.
An ideal job family would recognize the skill sets necessary for instructional design and group
them according to industry standards. The job family would also suggest a progression ladder for
practitioners from entry level to master to aid grading of job levels.
PACDE suggests the following areas of concentration:
 Webmaster/Media Specialist – this job area has a strong working knowledge of
digital media, especially with online resources. Skills include information
architecture aimed at logical navigation in hypertext material.

Educational Technician – this job area has strong working knowledge of media in
direct support of instruction both in a classroom and in support of classroom
functions.

Graphic Designer – this job area concentrates on graphic design for online and print
publication.

Instructional Designer – this job area begins with overall knowledge of digital media,
educational technology, and learning theory. Instructional designer entry level
requires advanced degrees with a preference for teaching experience at the postsecondary level.
The general job family expectation is that the entry level of all but the Instructional Designer
would not require a four year degree or extensive experience, but it would require a portfolio
review. The master level in each category except Instructional Designer could be attained with a
four-year degree in a relevant field or equivalent experience.
Instructional Designer is the top classification. Entry level requires an advanced degree in a
relevant field and experience teaching. A strong background in learning theory is required for
entry level. The master level of Instructional Designer includes expertise in team management
and project management.
3. Distributed Education Gateway
RECOMMENDATION: Maintain this site as a one-stop for students taking distance education
courses. Coordinate distance information with Departmental level websites.
From the site students should be able to seamlessly search for UA programs, find courses that
support the distance programs of their interest, plan their course for study in the long and short
term, register for courses and link to all other services.
ISSUES: The current site is a good foundation but has not been upgraded since inception four
years ago. New decision making tools are necessary to glean full effectiveness from the listing of
courses. The current site does not contain all available distance courses.
PACDE suggests the following actions:

Establish centralized creation and maintenance of the site with input for the design
coming from the student users and distance education support staff.

Clarify the process of coding courses and programs for inclusion on the Gateway.
Accuracy of the information hinges on the initial entry into Banner by the Registrars and
the affiliate campus registration personnel.

Add specific improvements, including: offer a search page of all listing offered via
distance, indicate clearly the delivery modality, indicate if the course has synchronous or
asynchronous demands or both, offer seamless registration, check for program listing
accuracy, and links to all other sites and services dealing with distance delivery at UA.

Add a Program View to the Gateway. A Program view is a complete listing of courses
necessary to complete a course of study. The list should include all courses from the
delivering institution and may include any acceptable course delivered by other UA
institutions. It is maintained on the department website to insure accuracy and linked
from the Distributed Gateway. It is identified by the Program View icon.

Add a Focused View to the Gateway. A Focused View is a complete listing of courses
within a program available during a particular semester. The Focused View would allow
students to see what courses will be available in future semesters. This provides a
planning tool for students and advisors. It is maintained on the department website and
linked from the Distributed Gateway. It is identified by the Focused View icon.

Develop and maintain a transition web page that links students to gateway and contains
relevant information for prospective distance education students. This page could be a
link from each campus web site.
4. Funding Plan
RECOMMENDATION: It is important that the Funding Plan for sharing of distance education
courses is simple and easily managed by Banner. The Funding Plan should consider division of
tuition, fees, and foundational support to create adequate incentives for campus participation.
ISSUES: The division of tuition and fees is not uniform across MAUs and across programs.
There is general confusion about the interrelation of funding and headcounts. Distance delivery
of education is rapidly changing as student choices for courses changes. It is virtually impossible
to expect students to a simple, single geographic location while pursuing their educational goals
even within a single semester.
PACDE suggests the thorough investigation of the following:





The institution providing the instruction should receiving adequate funding to pay faculty
who deliver courses as well as all expenses related to course delivery.
The institution providing student services should be compensated for those services.
Coordinating or facilitating entities should receive funding (Current DE fees).
Lab fees (if appropriate) should support students at their home campus.
Subcommittees from ETT and Steering Board should meet early in January to develop
the issues pertaining to a funding plan. The development of a financial model should be a
central activity of the March summit.
The home campus designation should be made simple. Students should select a Home Campus
rather than have a home campus assigned. The assumption is that a student would select the
home campus that is most proximate to where they live and is where they receive their services.
That institution remains the student’s home campus until the student requests a change.
First 45 Days Addendum
The UAS Distance Education Committee would like to add the following issues to their
identified list in this report.
The Distance Ed committee at UAS has some other issues we respectfully wish
to add to the list on that report:
-Intellectual property related to distance delivered materials.
-Lack of clerical support for distance faculty (ie, some end up doing
mailings, etc.) -The credit hour/seat time issue. Still very important in
some units at UAS.
-Curricular review of newly proposed classes: campus and unit