5. Program Development

 

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Overview

The Distance Education Department at PCC is committed to helping divisions and individual departments develop the highest quality online and hybrid courses. Our goal is to provide program Deans, Administrators and Department Heads with the information needed to establish online programs, certificates and courses that will best suit the College’s Project 90 Educational Master Plan.

Project 90 & Distance Education

The Project 90 Action Plan Executive Summary includes 15 Action Items that address Mission Critical Priorities. Many of these Action Items are germane to the development of distance education courses. However, the first two are particularly relevant:

  • Systematically increase number of courses available for Transfer and Basic Skills courses until needs are adequately addressed.
  • Develop a comprehensive online education curriculum.

 

The following strategy best describes the priority distance education courses should have in terms of program development:

D2: Develop cohort pathways to ensure program and course series are aligned in a logical sequence for efficient completion.

What this means then, is that online course offerings should:

  1. Be part of a degree or certificate. They should not be standalone courses.
  2. Concentrate on high impact courses.
  3. Be developed by faculty well-versed in current online learning pedagogy in conjunction with the Distance Education Department to ensure:
    • Course quality
    • Compliance with 508 (accessibility), FERPA (privacy) and accreditation standards
  4. Delivered by faculty who have met the training requirements for online teaching.

 

Planning DE Course Offerings

The process to develop and get an online course approved can take up to 300 hours. Because of this, it is important to carefully consider the following questions when making the decision about which courses to offer online.

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The worksheet below is designed to give a better idea of whether or not the department should pursue developing an online/hybrid course proposal in the current C&I cycle.