E-LECT Collaborative paves way for greater access through a Minnesota-based collaborative called E-LECT (E-Learning for Early Childhood Teachers), faculty at member colleges are working together to offer the Child Development certificate, diploma, and associate of applied science degree online.
This online initiative began in the fall of 2002 when the child development faculty of the faculty-driven E-LECT collaborative met and discovered that three of its instructors were teaching courses online.
Another of its programs was offering online courses taught by adjunct faculty.
Instead of competing against each other, the collaborative decided it should work together and begin offering the Child Development courses system-wide. After all, the collaborative involves campuses from all corners of the state, including the following: Alexandria Technical College, Central Lakes College, Dakota County Technical College, Hennepin Technical College, Minneapolis Community and Technical College, Minnesota State College-Southeast, Pine Technical College, Rochester Community and Technical College, South Central Technical College, St. Cloud Technical College, and St. Paul Technical College.
Faculty from these institutions meet three times a year to discuss trends, state-wide initiatives, individual program status, training resources, articulation between their community and technical college programs, and articulation between two and four-year colleges.
So the subject of online learning made sense and it was important to get everyone on the same page, said Stacey York, E-LECT coordinator and Child Development instructor at Minneapolis Community and Technical College.
"Our underlying assumptions were that some colleges were ready to move ahead quickly into online learning and others were not," said York. "Some faculty already had expertise in online learning, while others were in the process of learning about teaching online. Still, others were relatively afraid of technology and the prospect of teaching online."
Since spring semester of 2002 when only three instructors from the collaborative were offering a total of 9 courses to a total of 95 students, the program offerings system-wide have grown today to 31 courses, 75 credits, 611 students, and 45,825 credit hours each semester. Depending on the semester, between 75 and 90 percent of instructors within the collaborative teach at least one course online.
York said in the last five years there has been a decrease in the number of Child Development programs offered through Minnesota's community and technical colleges, which has created "additional barriers to students seeking credit-based child development training."
"At the same time, we witnessed an increased need for credit-based child development courses," said York.
She cites the following reasons for the increase:
After receiving two grants in 2003 and 2004 to continue down the online path, the E-LECT collaborative is now in the process of redesigning its courses. In May of 2006, a full evaluation of the redesigned courses will take place, followed by a written final report that will be sent to Quality Matters in June of 2006.
The Quality Matters project, a statewide consortium of 19 Maryland community colleges and senior institutions, proposes to develop a replicable pathway for inter-institutional quality assurance and course improvements in online learning. It creates and implements a process to certify the quality of online courses and online components.
"In terms of the interest in these online courses, we are doing very well system-wide, and once we have everything in place and the courses maintain consistency throughout the collaborative, I believe we will be one of the real leaders in the country in terms of our access to Child Development courses," said York.
For more information, please contact Stacey York, E-LECT coordinator, at 612-659-6445, or go to www.elect.mnscu.edu.