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As we move into the fall season with cooler days and nights, playoff baseball, and the colorful trees, another regular occurrence is the Fall edition of the iJournal. In preparing for the fourteenth edition of the iJournal, I must comment on the past year. Last November, we read the farewell notes from the former editor and good friend, Sharon Donoff. The well received Winter iJournal focused on collaboration between Academic and Student Service leaders and programs. Our spring edition, examining the construction boom occurring on campuses and how to address it, was also favorably received. Feeling that I had carried on well the legacy of Editor Donoff, I then rested for the summer, or at least tried too. On an aside, I get a lot of questions on how is retirement going and find I respond, like many retirees who have preceded me; I do not know where the time goes as I am busier than ever. And one thing that takes a lot of time is the internet, e-mails from different accounts and utilizing this tool to find information. It is a curse and a benefit. So thus is born the Fall edition.
The Impact of Online Eduction
The editorial board felt that we needed to examine this online tool. What is the impact of online education and services on how we address instruction and student services? This edition will provide the readers with ample material to be challenged and to learn new ways to better serve our students. Of course, new ways are relative as many things that we explore on the internet are old and new at the same time. But, the vast potential of this means of communication is explored in the writings of five authors. We do know that the requirements of matriculation dictate that all students must receive the same level of service whether they are an on-the-ground student or a distance learner. We know that there are lots of resources that can be used to support the distance classroom. But how do we make all this work as we struggle with the myriad of projects and problems that come at us regularly? This edition will hopefully give you some tools to get an upper hand and better serve our students.
Transforming Higher Education
The journal opens with a piece from a previous submitter. In Higher Education in the 21st Century: The Impact of Online Instruction and Services, Dr. Omid Pourzanjani challenges us to imagine a time when online education will transform the manner in which knowledge is transferred and obtained in a virtual higher educational setting. Our next writers, Dr. Lisa Petrides and Dr. Cynthia Jimes, explore one of Omid’s concepts in Open Educational Resources: Toward a New Educational Paradigm. This article explores the purpose of open educational resources and how to best use these resources to augment material that will meet the teacher’s and learner’s unique needs in a higher educational setting. We change our focus in our third article to how to serve students via the web. Mary Rider outlines the path that counseling services migrated to the Web to better serve students in Online Counseling at a Community College: Grassroots to the Web -- One Counselor's Journey. Jim Maraviglia outlines an effort to provide the capability of all campus departments to communicate directly with prospective students of his university in Online High Touch: Using Technology to build Student Connections with the University. Our last article details a redesigned service for potential students and their families. Michael Burton’s California Launches Entirely Redesigned College Info Website offers those pursuing higher educational opportunities in California information to simplify their research.
The iJournal received one article for general interest that suggests a technique to address the student equity plans required of community college campuses. In Student Services Leaders and Equity: Your Campus is Changing, Are You Ready?, Pam Luster challenges student service leaders to go beyond the required student equity plan and engage in meaningful dialogue on the campus with various impacted groups.
Conferences and Workshops
Our staff development section provides information on the annual CSSO Annual Fall Drive-In Workshops in October, the upcoming NCSD 2006 Conference in Tacoma Washington and the NASPA Regional Conference for Regions 5 & 6 in San Francisco. These are all excellent leadership and staff development opportunities. Check them out.
Our End Note again comes from a regular submitter, Dr. John Baker. In Make College Count: Changes needed in Terms and Attitudes towards Students, John suggests that terms used by college personnel more often hurt students rather than help them.
All in all, there is a variety of approaches to online education and the delivery of instructional and support services to students. It is hoped that the insights provided in this edition will benefit your efforts to address the power of services online and assist in addressing the challenges. Additionally, the insight on how to help students via student equity, web info on colleges and addressing terminology should evoke new systems on your campus to better serve our students at our community colleges and others in the higher educational institutions.
I hope all of our readers will be sure to subscribe if you have not already as the iJournal comes out three times a year and is free to subscribers. I urge you to support our sponsor and I want to thank ACT for their continuous support of this web magazine. As we march into the fall and then the holiday season, I wish you all the best and will see you again next year in March.
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