Extended Education
Evergreen Faculty approved implementing the Extended Education program at Evergreen with the understanding that an assessment would be implemented regarding the program's success at the end of three years. The program officially offered a curriculum starting in Winter 2006. The Extended Education Program offers all types of courses throughout the year.
At the end of the first year, an Annual Report was developed to assess the success of the program for 2005-06.
Background
Late in 2002, The Financial Futures Group (FFG) was charged by Evergreen president Les Purce with assisting the college to take greater control over its financial resources by identifying opportunities to create new revenue and/or reduce expenses through improved efficiencies, while remaining true to our mission and values. The FFG received over 100 ideas from the community. The idea suggested most often was to offer some form of continuing education at Evergreen, now referred to as Extended Education (EE).
Extended Education has been suggested in the past and is identified in Evergreen's Strategic Plan as a program worth exploring. Accordingly, the FFG put EE on a "fast track," i.e., it was the one idea they felt should be investigated as soon as possible. The President accepted this recommendation on January 13, 2003 and directed Academics to 1) prepare a report to assess the feasibility of conducting a EE program at Evergreen, 2) use summer school as the vehicle to test a few pilot EE courses in Summer '03 and '04, and 3) if EE is deemed feasible, recommend a permanent organizational structure.
For this project, Amy Betz was hired as a Special Projects Coordinator to work with an interim EE planning team consisting of Don Bantz, Bill Bruner, Andrea Coker-Anderson, Carolyn Dobbs, Tami Johnson, Beckie Kjer, Betty McGovern, Kitty Parker, Char Simons, Caroline Tawes and Walter Niemiec. The EE team framed its work around the following guiding principles:
- The core values established by the Core Values Group of the College Budget Council.
- The philosophy of the Center for Community Partnerships:
"Community-based learning is experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human and community needs together with structured opportunities intentionally designed to promote student learning and development. Reflection and reciprocity are key concepts of community based learning.
The engaged campus, like the community-based learning student, recognizes that knowledge cannot be separated from the purposes to which it is directed. The engaged campus is not just located within a community, it is intimately connected to the public purposes and aspirations of community life itself. The engaged campus is unable to separate its unique responsibility for the development of knowledge from its role of knowledge in a democratic society to form the basis for social progress and human equality."
The EE team is highly cognizant of the fact that if any EE type activity is launched at Evergreen, it must be undertaken primarily to support these core values and, secondarily, to provide additional revenue to support Academics as a whole.
Most of the ideas for EE activities have originated from Evergreen faculty. The EE team is actively being encouraged to respond to several faculty-sponsored initiatives such as:
- Teacher certification programs and education courses
- Conference-linked courses, e.g., a national Yoga conference that took place in summer '03
- Summer high school programs in multimedia, sciences, art, etc.
- Sustainable Agriculture workshops
- Certificate Programs
The EE team established a six-month work plan to culminate in its final Feasibility Report (see report below). The team concentrated its efforts on the following areas:
1. internally (record keeping, registration, financial feasibility of each class, advising, narrative evaluations, space scheduling and coordination with Conference Services, accounting services, Banner interface, and collecting ideas from faculty and staff regarding their vision and concerns for continuing education at Evergreen, etc.)
2. externally (interviewing private, public, and third sector agencies to determine their needs, develop new community partnerships, marketing research, publications, Web site expertise for on-line marketing and registration).
Reports
The Feasibility Report (PDF, 67 pages) and the Cost Analysis Report (PDF, 10 pages) are a result of the many meetings and interviews the team members have had over the year. A copy of this Feasibility Report and Appendices are on reserve in the Library. A copy of the April 7 Faculty Meeting presentation (PDF, 5 pages) and the answers to faculty questions (PDF) from that same meeting are also available. Additional reports and information will be added to this site as they become available.
Timeline
At the end of June 2003, the committee recommended that more time be spent on internal feasibility and recommended that Evergreen test a few EE courses and workshops as an expansion of summer school to determine the actual issues and challenges they will present. The EE team is working on a modest set of offerings that will begin in summer '04.
The EE committee will present extended education to faculty on April 7, 2004, with a follow-up meeting on May 19, 2004 for discussion. A vote by the faculty whether or not to offer EE will be in Fall 2004.
Contact Information
Do you have concerns or questions? Email us now: Extended Education