MEETING ACCREDITATION REQUIREMENTS: ARE YOU SERVING DISTANCE LEARNERS?

Authors

  • Kimberly Hardy Florida State College at Jacksonville
  • Katherine Meyer-Griffith University of Tampa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v16i5.286

Keywords:

Distance learning, online learning, student services, online services, accreditation requirements, welcome center, call center.

Abstract

Recent changes in the higher education landscape have called for greater access and accountability in a number of areas, most particularly distance learning. While there is a very significant instructional aspect to this equation, providing effective support and services to students enrolled in online education is becoming comparatively important, especially with accrediting bodies. However, in meeting the needs of this unique population, institutions are discovering that the services they provide to distance learners can be offered to all students, regardless of where they live or how they choose to take their classes. This article provides an overview of the Welcome Center, created in 2009 at Florida State College at Jacksonville, as a model for delivering quality and effective online student services to students, to include strategic planning, assessment and evaluation, environmental work design, functions, staffing, training, and technological systems.

Published

2012-09-24

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 5 (2012)

Section

Invited Papers from the 17th Annual International Sloan-C Conference

License

As a condition of publication, the author agrees to apply the Creative Commons – Attribution International 4.0 (CC-BY) License to OLJ articles. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

This licence allows anyone to reproduce OLJ articles at no cost and without further permission as long as they attribute the author and the journal. This permission includes printing, sharing and other forms of distribution.

Author(s) hold copyright in their work, and retain publishing rights without restrictions