Recommendations

The Office of the Provost has dual responsibilities in nontraditional education, those being working with colleges and faculty to ensure high quality content and directing other units on campus to manage the delivery processes. Without coordinated involvement from the Office of the Provost, it is difficult for colleges and faculty to persuade other administrative units to modify procedures designed to facilitate traditional programs to fit nontraditional programs as well. With this concern in mind and the organizational model offered above, the committee recommends the following:

1. A college, department, and faculty should oversee the content of degree programs, courses, workshops, seminars, or any other educational materials, regardless of the delivery model.
   

2. Technologies, essential student services, and all other levels of support needed to develop, promote, and sustain nontraditional education should be available through central administration and easily accessible by colleges.
   

3. An associate provost needs to be responsible for all aspects of nontraditional programs, including the coordination of infrastructure and delivery platforms.
   

4. To the extent possible, the Division of Continuing Education, Florida Campus Direct, and the UF office of Executive Education should be merged, and the functions of those programs integrated under the associate provost responsible for nontraditional programs.
   

5. DOCE currently offers noncredit programs and correspondence courses to thousands of participants each year through workshops at the TREEO Center. This organization does not require college oversight for these programs.
   

6. The infrastructure and delivery platform components should consist of the following functions, which should accommodate nontraditional education in the same manner as they do traditional education:
   

   1. Registrar/Admissions functions
   2. Comptroller functions
   3. Personnel functions
   4. Delivery platforms (e.g. computer-based, video-based activities, CDs, etc.)
   5. Banking functions

       

7. Guidelines for addressing issues that are critical to the success of nontraditional instruction including, but not limited to:
   

   1. Faculty semester assignments

   2. Methods for remunerating faculty efforts in the development and instruction of nontraditional programs

   3. Uniform student/teacher evaluations

   4. Use of student/teacher evaluations in the assessment of faculty for promotion, tenure, etc.

   5. Intellectual property issues with regard to educational materials.

    

8.  An ad hoc committee for the purpose of setting polices and procedures should be established and chaired by the associate provost responsible for nontraditional educational programs. The committee's charge will be to help with the transition from three separate units, DOCE, FCD, and UFExec into one integrated, cohesive organization.
   

9. Some colleges, because of size or resources, have infrastructure and delivery platforms of their own. For colleges without their own infrastructure and delivery platforms, these services should be available through central administration. Faculty from college without such resources may choose services as needed cafeteria-wise. For example, one college may choose marketing and curriculum design services while another might need help with a business plan and yet another college might not need any help.
   

10. Funding for the infrastructure and delivery platforms should be a blend of state allocation and fee-based activities. On-book educational courses do not generate revenues that are directly assignable to specific infrastructures and delivery platforms. On the other hand, off-book educational courses generate revenues that should be appropriately allocated to support infrastructure, nontraditional content and delivery platforms. Ideally nontraditional, off-book programs will generate sufficient revenues to cover all expenses. However, offering some programs at a loss in the short-term may be in the long-term best interest of the university. Therefore, a mechanism needs to be developed such that both on-book and off-book DCE courses have a reasonable opportunity for success.
    

11. The associate provost responsible for nontraditional programs would be responsible for assuring appropriate levels of support and services to all nontraditional programs. The responsibilities would include but would not be limited to:
    

1. Developing a DCE education strategic plan.

2. Coordinating UF's participation in local, state, national, and international DCE ventures.

3. Establishing a predictable and equitable fee that would come from revenue produced by the nontraditional educational activity. The fee level would be set to adequately cover the costs of doing business and to create a fund from which "seed grants" could be awarded to develop other promising nontraditional programs. But this fee would not be so high as to compromise existing programs.

4. Assisting in the development of a business plan to show the expenses involved in the program so that the program can achieve maximum efficiency at the lowest cost.

5. Providing assistance in developing a budget that will adequately provide for the cost of the program and cover the overhead expenses.

6. Providing the assistance needed to assure compliance with state/university rules and regulations while at the same time allowing for maximum flexibility.

7. Overseeing the awarding of limited duration seed grants to provide the capital necessary to establish new higher quality nontraditional programs.

8. Coordinating an array of personnel and equipment that will be available to satisfy these responsibilities and that will meet infrastructure and delivery platform needs of the faculty.

9. Proposing standards for selecting and purchasing equipment, designing facilities, and interconnecting DCE education delivery systems.

10. Coordinating the development of market strategies for DCE education.