Distance education, for the purposes of this committee, is the learning that occurs when instructor and student are separated by space or time and communicate primarily via the application of technologies. Excluded from this definition is asynchronous course delivery for the on-campus environment.
Other Internal Policies
During the year, the Committee continued to discuss the internal policy statements that had accumulated informally from the past. After suitable revisions and deletions, a full set of internal policies was approved.
Policy on Promotion and Tenure
The Committee ended the previous year by asking for comments on its proposed policy on promotion and tenure from the FS Promotion and Tenure Committee and the FS Faculty Status Committee. These comments were received over the summer and incorporated during our fall meetings.
The final policy statement was accepted in April by the FS Executive Committee, Academic Affairs, and the FS Promotion and Tenure Committee. The policy statement will be appended to the University Promotion and Tenure guidelines as a link for the clarification of distance education issues.
Policy on Course Assessment and Review
Penny Diebel presented her revised policy statement on distance education course assessment and review. Changes were discussed and accepted. Supporting materials were reviewed and revised by members Filimban and Stephens. Dinsmore created a Web site to host the supporting materials that maintain the look and feel of the Faculty Senate Web site, is linked from the FS Distance Education Committee page, and is controlled both by individuals on the Committee and by Vickie Nunnemaker.
The final policy statement and its supporting materials are available on the Committee’s new supporting Web site (http://oregonstate.edu/groups/dec/).
The Committee identified several parties on campus with interest in course assessment and review, such as Academic Affairs, the FS Advancement of Teaching committee, the FS Computing Resources committee, the FS Curriculum Council, and the FS Promotion and Tenure committee. The next step is to solicit comments from these parties.
