Towards a One-Stop Distance Education Department for Hispanic Students: The case of Inter American University – Aguadilla Campus
Hispanic students are part of the generation Prensky (2001) called the Digital Native Students, who grew up using web technologies to learn, interact and find information and services in one place. Hispanic Service Institutions (HSI) have faced the challenge to adapt to this new type of student by acquiring digital technologies and platforms to transform the teaching and learning process, as well as student services. Leading this change, the offices of distance education (DE) have evolved from providing videoconferencing services and online technology training to incorporating an increasing number of student and faculty services. An example of the next step of this evolution in the role of DE offices in a HSI , is the recent creation of the Department of Distance Education and Internationalization at Inter American University of Puerto Rico-Aguadilla Campus (IAUPR-Aguadilla). The ultimate goals behind this innovative integration of services to Hispanic students is to promote student access and success to their individual higher education goals by offering a one-stop digital and physical location for local and distance education students. IAUPR-Aguadilla academic leadership made the decision to integrate the offices of distance education and the office of internationalization as part of an effort to provide increased access to students to their online offerings and Internationalization initiatives. This integration has created a synergy among the different academic and student services departments in the institution led by the Department of Distance Education and Internationalization. This synergy led to the creation of a concerted digital communication plan that included the creation of web pages, social media sites and traditional student support services. The result of the institutional synergy was the creation of a One-Stop Distance Education and Internationalization Department with a physical presence on campus, augmented with Web 2.0 and Social Media Technologies. This innovative approach to provide access to online and international opportunities available for IAUPR-Aguadilla students, has resulted in increases in student participation in online and internationalization offerings and is providing integrated data to inform the decision- making process and improvements. Furthermore, the integration of services has been both, very useful and cost-effective for the institution has it had launched in a short period of time a new web portal designed for both PC and mobile devices, social media sites for online and internationalization efforts, a comprehensive series of faculty training on diverse online technologies for their courses and the recent creation of a new multimedia lab for faculty.
Technologies
The creation of the Department of Distance Education and Internationalization integrated a group of staff members with the academic and technological background to manage a number of technologies that are used in the offering of services. These technologies include the Blackboard platform ( Learn, Collaborate, Portal, Analytics), as well as Web 2.0 technologies and Mobile for the creation of dynamic web pages and You Tube channels. Also, social media technologies were used for the creation of sites, such as the IAUPR-Aguadilla¨ Internationalization and Student Mobility¨ Facebook Site.
Explain project results
The institutional initiative to create and integrated Distance Education and Internationalization Department has resulted in a synergy of human and technological resources in launching a a series of projects focused on providing increased access to students to their online offerings and Internationalization initiatives. This focus on internationalization is included in the course design and faculty training institutional efforts, as well as in very successful student support projects, such as a new web portal, you tube channels and the instiutional Internationalization and Student Mobility¨ Facebook Site.
Why it should be considered best practice?
The creation of a One-Stop Distance Education and Internationalization Department with a physical presence on campus, augmented with Web 2.0 and Social Media Technologies is an innovative best practice to provide increased access for Hispanic Students. This institutional strategy is playing a vital role for UIAPR-Aguadilla predominantly Hispanic student to access their online offerings and Internationalization initiatives. As a result of integration of technology and human resources under one academic leadership in the department, a series of initiatives including a new web portal, social media sites, comprehensive series of faculty training and a new multimedia lab for faculty. have been lunched to increase the quality of course and student services support and internationalization activities in distance education and regular programs.
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