Committee on Continuing Education

Academic Year 2022-2023

Committee Members: Rafael Teixeira (Supply Chain and Information Management, Chair) Ashley Walters (Jewish Studies, Secretary) Terence Bowers (English) Yu Gong (Physics) Aaisha Haykal (Library)

Regular Guest Contributors: Michelle Futrell (Assistant Dean, Professional Studies and Continuing Education, ex-officio) Mark Del Mastro (Provost’s Office, ex-officio) Aimee Pfeifer (Registrar, ex-officio) Mark Staples (Sr. Vice President and CIO, ex-officio) William Veal (Teacher Education, Speaker of the Faculty, ex-officio)

Overview of Committee Activity, 2022-2023 The Faculty Senate Committee on Continuing Education began the 2022-2023 academic year by convening a meeting involving leadership from each of the schools at the College of Charleston. By inviting school leadership to discuss continuing education (CE) at the College, the committee hoped to gain a better understanding of the non-credit bearing initiatives available at each of the schools, what interest individual schools have in CE at CofC, and what needs and concerns they would like to address in relation to the future of CE and their respective schools. In response to their feedback, the Committee on CE decided to explore technical solutions to address issues with registration, payment, course management, and information retention. One of the main outcomes of this year was collaboration with the Information Technology department (IT), which proposed the purchase of a new software solution (Ellucian Elevate) to address the enrollment management issues hampering CE in various schools. The Committee approved this proposal and the adoption of new software on a trial basis. The Committee sees CE as a potential area of growth, both in terms of community outreach and revenue generation, and believes that the adoption of the appropriate administrative software will help realize the potential of CE at the CofC.

State of Continuing Education at CofC The School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) reported that much of their CE courses/events are offered through the Riley Center. The Riley Center charges a membership fee, but is likely not revenue-generating.

The School of Languages, Cultures, and World Affairs (LCWA) offers a number of ESOL graduate certificate programs. The graduate certificate program is 5 courses (see list below):

EDFS 670 Principles and Strategies for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) (K-12) (3) EDFS 671 Teaching Reading and Writing to K-12 Speakers of Other Languages (3) EDFS 672 Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Education (3) EDFS 673 Assessing Student Performance (3) EDFS 674 Linguistics for ESOL Teachers (3) or LALE 601 Applied Linguistics (3)

The students who enroll in the ESOL graduate certificate are typically graduate students or recent graduates. These courses are open to ESOL graduate students and the public. ESOL students bolster the number of graduate students for the program. The primary website for the certificate may be found here.

Courses are offered asynchronously and synchronously online. Students are both out-of-state and in-state. The main challenge of ESOL graduate certification is managing students, especially non-degree education students. There is no way to track, contact, or advise them. They pay a different rate ($459/credit hour; $574/credit hour) and enroll by applying to the graduate school as a non-degree seeking student. ESOL graduates do not walk at graduation. There is concern that the current structure does not lend itself to a positive experience from the student perspective. We believe the new administrative software will help address some of these issues.

The School of Education (SOE) offers a variety of professional development opportunities for teachers, who need to have their certificates renewed. The SOE offers graduate certificate programs, including the Bachelors+18, Masters+30, and certificate renewal. Regarding professional development courses, 1-, 2-, 3-, or 6-hour courses can begin anytime. There’s no start or end date. There were approximately 435 graduate professional development students during the Fall 2022 semester, which is nearly half of the graduate school. SOE programs serve populations throughout the state.

The SOE offers a cohort program where school districts can bundle courses together. As part of this program, the SOE approaches 5-6 districts at a time through hosted discussions in order to get a sense of whether or not there is interest in creating a cohort. If enough teachers agree to enroll in a training session, the instructors are invited and sign on for one or two years. This can be very expensive, but the districts are willing to absorb the cost and the teachers end up only paying for the cost of just one course.

The certificate program serves professionals seeking to pivot from their current career and get a certificate that gives them credentials to teach in middle or high schools.

The SOE also offers a renewal certificate for educators who already have a degree and need to keep it up to date. These renewal certificates lead to increased pay for teachers, usually $50/credit hour. Sometimes districts will even cover the cost of the certificate for the teachers. Districts have title money or funds so that they can pay the teachers to get certificates. These courses do not count for catalog credit toward a degree.

Individual adjunct professors teach these courses. They go through the same approval process through the SOE, which includes a minimum of a Masters+18 hours. Occasionally, regular faculty teach these courses, but it is not common. An administrative council approves the syllabi. The SOE utilizes a tracking system for registration and course completion.

The School of Science, Mathematics and Engineering (SSME) indicates that it does not offer much by way of CE. Many CE students are retirees who take classes for free. The school also mentioned the Stono Preserve, which offers events with groups who are external to CofC but attend for free. The SSME indicated that there are creative ideas out there and if there were sufficient support, then people would gravitate toward it. The SSME is unfamiliar with developing certificates for non-matriculating students.

The School of Business (SOB) has robust CE offerings, as evidenced by their dedicated staff and center for CE. After the College dismantled the school of professional studies, the SOB absorbed a number of the offerings. The SOB offers a variety of CE courses, including exam prep courses (ex. certified professional manager); professional development (recertification or retirement planning; global logistics and planning; digital marketing bootcamp; real estate); executive education (team building); project management certificate (can be taken by current students and non-degree students).

Enrollment in these courses vary from 2-3 students to 50-60 in the custom courses. All of the programs outside of the certificate are assigned an independent index number and they are not offered unless they will at least break even. The SOB does not offer any asynchronous courses. Courses are taught online via Zoom.

Faculty are eager to offer these courses and are compensated on an add-pay basis. Typically, the SOB gauges interest and then finds instructors to teach a course. These courses are mainly taught by adjuncts or people from the community, especially the exam preparation courses.

Professionals who are interested in taking CE courses contact the Continuing Education Department. Additionally, the SOB would like to partner with local institutions like the Chamber of Commerce and explore additional opportunities.

Support for Continuing Education Representatives from the various schools appreciate the decentralized nature of CE at CofC, which allows them to pursue CE initiatives best suited for their schools, departments, and programs. At the same time, they would like to see some centralization in terms of policies, procedures, pay, and technical support. Several school representatives articulated a particular frustration with the registration process, the additional administrative work for staff to manage CE students, and a need for a centralized database to gather information on and gain insight into students matriculated in CE courses.

The committee reached out to Mark Staples, Sr. Vice President & Chief Information Officer, to discuss potential software options which could address these pain points. Mark proposed Ellucian Elevate, a class registration software designed specifically for continuing education and workforce development programs, which also integrates with Banner. The committee engaged with Ellucian and they offered a demo for the committee, school leadership and administrators, and various stakeholders from the Office of the Registrar.

The Committee agreed with the purchase contingent on the approval by the schools and others affected by the new software as well as a review by IT of other software options that might be more suitable in terms of price, implementation cost, benefits, etc. The response was generally good, and the proposal was taken to the Cabinet, a group of VP-level senior administrators, for a vote. The Cabinet voted to purchase the software. Implementation will begin Fall 2023 with the School of Business serving as a test case. Mark indicates that implementation across campus will take 2-3 years.

We agree with this purchase based on the demo, subject matter expertise of College staff and leadership, and its interoperability with existing campus software. The decision to purchase registration management technology goes beyond the knowledge and scope of this committee, and we recommend that all areas impacted by such software advocate for their perspective and opinion. We want the College to be flexible and able to change if the software no longer meets the needs of campus.

Potential Action Items for 2023-2024 The committee feels that the implementation of a registration software for CE will address many of the issues raised by school leadership. Looking forward, the committee discussed potential action items for the 2023-2024 academic year, including:

• Reconvene leadership of the various schools to talk about the state of CE in their schools. We envision this taking the form of a Continuing Education town hall or brown bag lunch.
• Monitor the implementation of the new software solution (Ellucian Elevate) and offer support where we can.
• Address the issues with CofC’s Continuing Education website, which is outdated, does not reflect the array of CE courses being offered at CofC, and is not user friendly.
• Establish guidelines for CE across campus, which would include adopting a non-credit bearing course proposal form. The School of Business currently has a form for these purposes and might be a useful model for other schools.
• Explore opportunities for CE course development with the CETL.
• Address the issue of incentives for faculty, programs, departments, and schools; add to the Faculty/Administration Manual (pitch to the Faculty Senate and have them vote on it); propose compensation and evaluation benefits to the Provost (such as add pay and/or service).

We look forward to hearing the Provost’s insights and recommendations in relation to our findings.