Beyond the Administrative Core: Creating Web-Based Student Services for Online Learners
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Overview

Description
Goals and Objectives
Evaluator
Department of Education Required Statement for Publications

Beyond the Administrative Core: Creating Web-based Student Services for Online Learners was a Learning Anytime Anywhere Partnerships (LAAP) project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education. It was a three-year project (January 2000 to December 2002) involving three institutional partners, Kansas State University, Kapi'olani Community College and Regis University and one corporate partner, SCT. Each institutional partner developed a Web-based student service to meet campus needs as well as capturing the "story" of institutional change involved in moving the student service to the online environment. The development and implementation process defined and refined by the partners informed a set of guidelines for other institutions to follow.

Students participating in distance education academic programs must have access to student support services. However, one of the biggest gaps in online education is institutions' inability to provide time- and location-independent access to a complete array of student support services. In the rush to get courses and programs online, institutions often neglect student services as a whole. When student services are considered, the most common services that are incorporated into a time- and location-independent format are those within the "administrative core" (admissions, financial aid, registration, etc.). 

Like traditional campus-based students, online learners need to access other support services such as tutoring, academic advising, personal counseling, career counseling, and library services. It is unrealistic to expect that those students who do not come to campus for their education will, in fact, be able to come to campus to access student services. 

Higher education institutions and other providers must take advantage of technology to deliver student services to online learners in a way that effectively meets their unique needs. This project is supporting three institutions as they plan, develop, implement and test different student services online.

Proposal Goals and Objectives

Goals
  1. Recognize online learners' needs for student support services, defined broadly, and in a variety of contexts.
  2. Use this knowledge of needs in guiding the development of commercial and "home-grown" Web-based products adaptable to online learners needs in a variety of contexts.
  3. Develop a variety of customizable service modules based on individual student profiles and including the usually neglected services.
  4. Develop basic guidelines and Web templates for institutions interested in creating a comprehensive Web-based array of student services for online learners.
  5. Track the processes involved in "re-engineering" student services in the partner institutions.
  6. Produce comprehensive case studies of these processes.
  7. Disseminate widely both at the end of the project and beyond the lessons and products of this project, including the software package, student services guidelines, and case studies.
Objectives
  1. WCET and partners design and initiate processes to foster a process for exchanging information and ideas.
  2. SCT develops commercially available software package with modules focused on the neglected student services.
  3. Partner institutions develop Web-based student service modules.
  4. Partner institutions implement changes in staff roles resulting from new approach.
  5. WCET and partner institutions track institutional change processes throughout the project.
  6. WCET and all partners produce guidelines and standards for Web-based services.
  7. All products are reviewed for compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines developed through W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative.
  8. WCET and all partners disseminate project results both during the project and after its completion.

Evaluator

The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) served as the external evaluator of the project. LAAP projects were evaluated based on their ability to address the following performance issues: access, impact on learning, quality, flexible education design and delivery, collaboration, workforce impact, and dissemination/distribution.

Department of Education Required Statement for Publications

The contents of this website were developed under a grant from the Learning Anytime Anywhere Partnerships (LAAP), a program of the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

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