The Electronic University Consortium (EUC) is designed to meet the needs of the state's variety of students, those seeking specific courses for personal or professional interest and those pursuing degree programs to be delivered at a distance. In order to provide courses that can lead to degree programs delivered without attendance on a campus, a process for coordination of course offerings needs to be established for the EUC. Responsibility for review of proposed courses with regard to principles of course and delivery readiness resides with the individual university. Each will develop local processes to ensure adherence to these principles. Oversight for course coordination will rest with the Course Coordination Committee.

Review for Course and Delivery Readiness

Each university offering courses for distance delivery has the responsibility for ensuring that all faculty involved in the development and offering of such courses adhere to the Principles of Course Readiness and Principles of Delivery Readiness and are provided with adequate support to do so.

Each faculty member involved in the development or offering of a distance course will review the course with respect to these principles and will attest to its readiness. Each is encouraged to enlist the assistance of colleagues, both within and outside their institutions, as well as of instructional designers in reviewing and providing suggestions for the course. It is recognized that the applicability of specific components of these principles will vary depending on the course delivery mode, subject of the course, and other factors. Delivery of high quality instruction, regardless of delivery mode, is a professional responsibility of each faculty member. It is appropriate that their judgment be respected.

When faculty members from two or more universities are collaborating in the development of a course, these individuals and their respective universities share the responsibility for ensuring the quality of the offering.

The Vice President for Academic Affairs or his or her designee will ensure that such review occurs prior to the offering of the course. Issues with regard to readiness will be resolved at the campus level before the course is offered.

As a course is offered, it is expected that faculty will use feedback from students and others to improve the offering.

Coordination of Course Offerings

A system-wide EUC Course Coordination Committee will be created to coordinate the development and offering of courses via distance delivery methods.

The EUC Course Coordination Committee will be composed of a member from each institution to be identified by the Academic Vice President, and will include the EUC Chief Operating Officer. Members of the committee should have experience in teaching at a distance. The committee will be responsible for

• Gathering and maintaining information on the plans for distance education course and curriculum from each university;
• ensuring that all campuses are aware of course and curriculum development plans throughout the state and are given the opportunity to collaborate;
• reviewing the schedule of courses/sections to be offered;
• providing an external evaluation of course readiness and providing constructive suggestions to course developers. Its role in this regard is advisory and is intended to foster course improvement, not to function as an approval body;
• facilitating cooperation among the universities.

Plans for courses to be developed or delivered via distance education need to be coordinated first on campus, and then submitted through the Vice President for Academic Affairs or designee to the EUC Course Coordination Committee. The committee members will then communicate these plans to their respective campuses, identify interest in collaboration, and ensure that all faculty so interested are put in communication with each other. The faculty members who wish to collaborate will then determine the form this collaboration will take and will report back to the committee as well as to their Academic Vice Presidents.

The EUC Course Coordination Committee will coordinate all requests for scheduling of delivery of distance courses and report these to the EUC Coordinating Committee. The EUC Coordinating Committee will then report all requests together with its comments to the Academic Affairs Council for their action. Reports on collaborations will be submitted periodically to both the EUC Coordinating Committee and to the Academic Affairs Council for their information.

Curriculum Development and Delivery

Effective use of system resources requires a variety of approaches to course development and delivery. These include:

Franchising of a module, course or set of courses to a particular university. This involves the identification of one university as the sole provider.

Brokering of a module, course or set of courses into the state regental system from another entity, which may be an organization or other university course provider.

Contracting or work for hire of a faculty member, and typically curriculum development team (including instructional designer, technology specialist, etc.) who create a module, course or set of courses.

Collaborating on development of a module, course or set of courses, which combines individuals from multiple universities to create a course.

Modularizing creates curriculum in small single units or "modules" that enable delivery singularly or in various combinations. This could be done through all methods above.

Course Duplication and Replication

Effective use of resources at our universities support collaboration and discourage duplication of course development. A single course offered via different methods of delivery are replication not duplication. This replication enables students to access education through the technology available to them, and as best fits their learning style. Hence, coordination of distance education course development and delivery is essential to the future of each institution.

Multiple Sections of Courses

Establishing consistent course outcomes is a goal of collaboration across multiple sections. A distance education course offered via a particular delivery method may need to have multiple section offerings to provide sufficient instruction with adequate faculty/student interaction. When this occurs, the course outcomes will be consistent across all sections utilizing a variety of strategies to achieve those outcomes. It is the responsibility of the faculty teaching multiple sections of a single course to ensure that such consistency exists. To meet demand and campus workload issues, multiple universities may participate in delivery of these multiple sections.

Course Enrollment

In an effort to provide the same course quality as on campus, course section enrollment will be determined by what is appropriate to the discipline and to the technology being used to deliver the course. Enrollment limits may need to be established to reflect initial and continuing delivery circumstances.