The changing nature of the demands placed upon individuals in today’s society requires many of them to engage in life-long education. Many postsecondary educational institutions have incorporated in to their mission an extension and public service component to provide for life-long learning opportunities. These opportunities are referred to as continuing education, professional development, extension education, outreach, special programs, public and community service programs. Such programs may be for either undergraduate or graduate credit, or non-credit, may be offered on and off campus, and may be offered through a variety of instructional formats.
The provisions of this standard apply to:
- Off-campus programs and courses for credit, including those at branch campuses, extension centers, or satellite sites, external degree programs, and military base programs.
- Degree-completion programs.
- Distance learning courses and courses taught exclusively on or off campus by special delivery systems, such as computer-based instruction, correspondence, television, video or audio cassette, or through other electronically-accessed means.
- Practices providing credit for prior experiential learning.
- Travel/study and study abroad programs.
- Courses certified by the institution offered in secondary schools for postsecondary academic credit.
- Non-credit community service programs and courses, including those that offer Continuing Education Units (CEU).
- Relicensure courses, in-service, and credential programs.
- Testing, evaluation, and examination procedures for granting degree credit.
- Workshops, seminars, short courses, conferences, institutes, special evening and summer programs.
Off-Campus and Other Special Programs Providing Academic Credit
Continuing education and special learning activities, programs, and courses offered for credit are consistent with the educational mission and goals of the institution. Such activities are integral parts of the institution and maintain the same academic standards as regularly offered programs and courses. The institution maintains direct and sole responsibility for the academic quality of all aspects of all programs and courses through the management and supervision by faculty and institutional administrators. Adequate resources to maintain high quality programs are ensured.
As an urban, access university, Portland State University has provided a range of lifelong learning options for its students for many years. A variety of venues and multiple delivery models are utilized. Over the past ten years, the type of offerings have greatly expanded to include professional development, degree completion, distance learning (e.g., broadcast, online), study-abroad programs, noncredit offerings, relicensure and in-service programs, and special workshop, evening, and summer programs. These offerings directly support the Portland State presidential initiatives. In order to retain the same high quality as on-campus counterparts, special learning programs are reviewed carefully, using the same requirements, academic and financial approval processes and policies, and university guidelines as for all on-campus courses. The University presently faces a need to provide institutional direction to manage the variety of off-campus and special educational programs, which have grown successfully in many different directions.
Portland State University offers a wide range of continuing education and special learning activities, including the following.
- Off-campus programs and courses for credit
- Degree completion programs
- Distance learning courses and programs
- Travel study and study-abroad programs
- Courses offered in secondary schools for credit
- Noncredit community programs
- Relicensure, certification, and in-service programs for professionals in a range of fields
- Workshops, short courses, institutes, and summer programs
Off-campus and other special educational programs operate through a number of departments across campus, reaching out to locations throughout the metropolitan area, state, region, country, and internationally. Programs use a range of formats, incorporating different degrees of face-to-face, distance delivery, and online participation. The following links provide a sample of individual mission statements for units that support the Portland State mission while offering education programs that expand student access:
Off-campus and other special educational programs directly support Portland State’s presidential initiatives, which focus attention on collaboration and community connections, internationalization, growth, and diversity. Extended Studies, along with outreach conducted by other units on campus, has accomplished hundreds of collaborations and community connections. Improved delivery capacity through a greater number of locations and through online delivery has substantially increased enrollment at Portland State, drawing in students who would not have been able to attend a traditionally scheduled program. Portland State’s special programs have also increased diversity on campus and the ability for students and faculty to work with diverse populations:
- Continuing Education through the Graduate School of Education involves students from over 80 school districts, higher education institutions, and agencies in the area.
- The Public Administration programs in the College of Urban and Public Affairs involve partners from around the state, the nation, and a number of other countries.
- The study-abroad program brings international students and faculty to Portland State, including the International Students program, Intensive English Language program, and Summer Session International Professors program.
- The School of Business Administration eMBA program helps to make this degree program available to people everywhere.
Accountability
Portland State retains academic control over all special educational offerings through the following methods:
- Follow guidelines for Policy A-6, Contractual Relationships with Organizations Not Regionally Accredited.
- Involve tenure-track faculty in the development of programs.
- Conduct program evaluation, coupled with assessment of student learning.
- Follow all university policies as followed by on-campus programs, such as admissions, registration, and financial aid.
- Programs awarding academic credit go through the same rigorous approval process as any course or program on campus, including approval as appropriate from the department, school/college, Curriculum Committee/Graduate Council, Faculty Senate, Oregon University System, state or national licensing board, or national accrediting agency.
When working with organizations not regularly accredited, a contract is developed and signed by the University contracting officer for each organization not regularly accredited (cooperative agencies). Contracts stipulate that course offerings are in accordance with Portland State’s mission and goals. Cooperative agencies are sent guidelines for course work, including the number of hours a course must meet, qualifications for instructors, information about course content, evaluation of students, and the guiding principles of the academic unit. For example, to make this compliance easier, the CE/ED faculty handbook is on line and contains the required information needed by external agencies.
The unit that approves the course work (based on the submitted course proposal and instructor resume) is responsible to assist with student recruitment, approve instruction for the course, process course evaluations, approve the locations for the courses, and validate the credentials of the faculty. The University retains records for all of its students in its Banner system (electronic student data base), collects tuition and fees, uses the standard refund policy for self-support courses, and makes library resources available.
Written contracts are executed by duly designated officers of the institution once the outreach and the academic units have approved the collaboration. Contracts outline the work to be performed, the responsibilities of each party, and the renewal policy. Portland State has final authority in all academic areas, and in tuition policies. Student fees and extra costs for materials or travel fees are indicated in advance in the announcement of the course.
Portland State also retains fiscal control for all of these offerings by having the above described contracts with all organizations that are not regionally accredited (e.g., programs offered in conjunction with Executive Leadership Institute for governmental institutions, programs offered in collaboration with Continuing Education in the Graduate School of Education), and collecting all fees related to academic instruction as is shown through a variety of contract examples. Examples of the range of contracts include: a credit contract with CE/ED; noncredit contract with Portland Development Commission; contract with Challenge high school program; co-admission contract; an articulation agreement with a community college partner; a contract with Oregon Center for Advanced Technology Education (OCATE), and contracts with international universities.
Quality Assurance
Portland State has been fortunate in its ability to hire instructional designers through the Office of Information Technology’s, Instructional Research Services, and through Extended Studies. Both offices work with faculty one on one and in groups to ensure that both the pedagogical and technical aspects of courses are of high quality and appropriately utilized. This collaborative endeavor has been named “Portland State On-Line.”
Portland State On-Line works to identify the types of courses and programs where the University’s centrally supplied resources should be focused, based on student interest and faculty readiness. Collaboratively, the Advisory Committee on Academic Information Technologies (ACAIT) developed a strategic vision for distributed learning at Portland State. ACAIT has also developed quality guidelines as part of the University’s effort to ensure that distributed learning activities are of high quality.
Portland State University does not differentiate the policies and procedures governing its continuing education, special programs, distance delivered programs, and travel study programs from those of the rest of the University. The same admissions policies apply regardless of the location or delivery mode for the program; the same registration procedures are followed regardless of the type of program; the same process for programs approval exists for all programs and courses regardless of how they are delivered; the same standards for granting academic credit are used across all programs; equivalent student services are available as appropriate; the same transfer policies are used across all courses and programs and made explicit to students; and an equitable fee structure and refund policy is generated for every continuing education and special program.
The Center for Academic Excellence has provided summer institutes for faculty who want to develop skills to teach online. Instructional designers follow up by meeting individually with faculty as they put courses online. All distance-delivered courses, for example, are designed to allow interaction between faculty and students, and among students themselves. In addition, the Millar Library has hired a distance librarian and developed processes so that students have access to all of Portland State University’s academic resources.
Portland State continues to develop targeted off-campus programs and courses for credit. For example, continuing education in the Graduate School of Education offers a range of graduate education programs at the Portland State Salem Center, and in districts throughout the state, including Initial Administrator Licensure, Continuing Administrator Licensure, Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction, and the ESL/Bilingual endorsement.
Degree-completion Programs
Portland State’s degree-completion programs have grown to include an additional 350 students at four sites – Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Mount Hood Community College, Clackamas Community College, and the CAPITAL Center - all involved in high-quality, accessible programs designed for working adults.
The Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science’s Compressed Work Week program, for example, is specifically designed for working professionals in Washington County seeking to advance their careers by completing an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or computer science, all useful in the high-tech industry in the county. The program is offered in partnership with the Oregon Center for Advanced Technology Education (OCATE), and Portland Community College.
Distance-learning Courses and Courses Taught Exclusively On or Off Campus by Special Delivery Systems
The Distance Learning Center supports over 30 streaming video courses per term on its website for access by OCATE students involved in the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science, by a Chinese institutional partner in Shanghai for Portland State students there, and by various other regional and local students. Developments in online curricula and regional support structures are addressed in ACAIT’s Guidelines for Further Development of Distributed Learning at Portland State University, which anticipates scales of change as participation grows. Courses available on WebCT at Portland State have grown from 75 in 1998, to over 300 in Fall 2004.
Portland State’s Independent Study program offers the state’s largest number of flexible-format distance-learning courses for high school students. The University currently delivers 41 semester-based courses on topics that include business, English, math, biology, earth science, health, economics, global studies, government, history, psychology, and current issues. All courses are designed to meet state and federal benchmarks and are taught by teachers who meet the "highly qualified" criteria of the federal No Child Left Behind legislation. Portland State also partners with others in Oregon, including school districts and the Oregon Department of Education, to develop and deliver online dual credit and Advanced Placement courses for Oregon high school students and other high schoolers beyond state boundaries.
Travel/Study and Study-abroad Programs
Since 1994-1995, Portland State has sent over 2,300 students on study-abroad or internship positions around the world. Currently, Portland State sponsors over 125 study-abroad programs in 37 countries. The Education Abroad office has been working with Portland State faculty to develop short-term education abroad programs for Portland State students. These programs serve educational goals of students, and also allow Portland State faculty the opportunity to teach in other countries as a result of the President’s Internationalization Initiative. Overseas experiences are organized and approved in keeping with Policy 2.4 – Study Abroad Programs, p. 40 and earlier discussion of Policy A-6 – Contractual Relationships.
Portland State is in the process of completing an International Asset Map to collect and maintain information about international connections in an easily accessible database. This effort by Extended Studies and the Office of International Affairs will foster collaborative efforts with new and existing partners, for example:
- Identify Portland State's international relationships with other institutions, locally, regionally, and worldwide
- Build new collaborations and maintain existing partnerships
- Provide information to students and faculty interested in joining Portland State as it moves toward a goal of internationalization
- Foster collaboration between departments, institutions and the community.
Portland State has provided educational access to people across the world. The Hatfield School of Government, for example, recently entered into an agreement with the Okuma School of Public Management at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, to provide educational exchanges for students and faculty. Such agreements must be reviewed by all relevant units on campus and must bear the signature of the University’s Contracts Officer to attest to compliance with Policy A-6.
Courses Certified by the Institution Offered in Secondary Schools for Postsecondary Academic Credit
In five area high schools, Portland State’s University Studies Program offers courses for any high school senior motivated to try college-level work, providing 15 hours of freshman college credit, while also fulfilling high school credits. Students are taught by teams composed of both Portland State and high school faculty. The Challenge program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences trains high school teachers who offer courses in the high schools for both high school and college credit.
Relicensure Courses, In-service, and Credential Programs
Through several academic units, Portland State attracts about 10,000 students annually in over 1,400 relicensure, in-service, and credential courses for Pre K-12 teachers at a variety of locations throughout the region. Portland State University has made several changes since the last accreditation visit in its work with cooperative agencies:
- It has formalized the acknowledgement of all instructors offering credit courses through Extended Studies by awarding them courtesy appointments.
- Continuing Education holds quarterly meetings for discussions between Graduate School of Education faculty and administrators and “visiting faculty.”
- Portland State University collects all fees for credit courses.
- Portland State University contracts with cooperative agencies ensuring that Portland State University makes all academic decisions regarding all credit courses.
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