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Volume 3 Issue 6June 1999

Online Student Services Center at Coastline

Rendell Drew
Dean of Students, Coastline Community College

Cheryl Chapman
Educational Technologist

In the fall of 1997, Coastline College was awarded a two-year TMAPP (Telecommunications Model Applications Pilot Projects) grant from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) to design, develop, implement, and evaluate online registration, counseling, and advisement services. One objective of this project was to draft a plan and develop a model that could be replicated by other colleges interested in providing online student services.

The target audience to be served by the Online Student Services Center (OSSC) includes distance education and working adult students, non-native English speaking students, and advanced placement/college preparation high school students.

Services Offered
Services will consist of online registration forms, a Web-based Career Planning and Transfer Guide, the Student Educational Plan (SEP), the college schedule, and catalog. Interactive, real-time counseling sessions will be offered via the Internet, Coastline's Edu-Cable channel, and high school and industry-based videoconferencing systems. E-mail and listservs will be used to provide asynchronous personal or group counseling and advisement services. Existing counseling/orientation videos are being adapted for Internet and cable delivery. College transfer events will be cablecast live with opportunities for call-in questions from students.

Desktop videoconferencing equipment has been installed in the adjunct counseling office located at the Coastline College Center to extend the options for students to contact a counselor. There is also an effort to determine how improved video streaming technology can be used for delivering advisement and counseling to students at a distance.

Project Advisory Committee and Task Force
One of the first steps involved in the process, was to develop an Advisory Committee and Task Force to complete the objectives of the grant. Rendell Drew, Dean of Students at Coastline College, and Project Director of the grant, assembled the Advisory Committee to include one member from each department of the college. Multiple departments were involved to inform the college as to how the project may affect each department.

Students will be accessing information in a different way, and the more informed the college is, the more assistance they can give to the students. Eventually, the Online Student Services Center will be integrated into the college’s main Web site.

The Task Force consisted of a smaller group of individuals from Computer Services, Student Services, Distance Learning, and the Office of Instruction, who worked together to complete the assignments and coordinate the activities. Contact with the district office was also important to ensure that the online forms, processes, etc., would complement the new computer system being implemented by the district.

Distinguishing Between Advisement and Counseling
The next step was to gather the counselors and hold several sessions to create content for the Web site. Cheryl Chapman, an adjunct professor at Coastline, was hired as a professional expert to implement this process and develop the OSSC website.

In these sessions, they discussed the difference between advisement and personal counseling, so the information on the Web site would be beneficial for all students, and those requiring additional assistance could find the materials or services they need. The technology was explained and ongoing training sessions were scheduled throughout the project. The counselors will learn the skills necessary to use e-mail, the Internet, videoconferencing and online forms.

As one may imagine, the road to total acceptance was not entirely smooth, but interest and understanding grew as the training continued and the project unfolded. Demonstrations were helpful to explain how the equipment would work in the field.

The Storyboard and Frequently Asked Questions
In subsequent meetings, Cheryl met with the counselors to create an outline of the Web site. A table of contents was established, and the counselors provided content for their own contact pages (using a template), the Career and Transfer Center, and the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) concerning advisement and counseling.

The Financial Aid department provided content for their section of FAQs, and the appropriate links were added for the college catalog, schedule, career and transfer guide, and distance learning department. Sections pertaining to Spanish and Vietnamese translations, students with disabilities, the message from the dean, and general college information were also incorporated.

Decisions concerning who will provide future content and maintenance are still under way. This will be an integral part of the project’s future.

Online Registration Prototype
While the counselors were busy gathering information, an outside professional expert, Brian Schiffman, was hired to design and program the prototype for an online registration form and Student Educational Plan (SEP). The Internet forms store the data in a database, which can be integrated into the district or college system.

Several levels of access are built into the system for the student, the counselors, admissions personnel, the registrar, and the dean. The student can request a password, register, submit a working copy of a proposed SEP, view the document, but can not change it. The counselor reviews the working copy, contacts the student and can then make recommendations and changes to the SEP, but not the registration information. The registrar is able to accept a registration form and process it.

At this point in the beta testing, the dean has access to view and edit all documents, such as entering information for a new counselor. In order for a college to implement this type of online registration, there should be one database system so the information can be integrated and cross referenced, creating a more seamless and less redundant process.

Following an evaluation period with counselors, distance education students, administrators, and others, necessary revisions will be made and a final recommendation will be given in the summative evaluation to the Chancellor’s Office.

A Home for the OSSC
One of the earlier challenges was to find a cyber-home for the Online Student Services Center. As in many colleges, server space is a commodity, so finding some ‘virtual’ space was a priority. The computer services department, under the direction of Barbara Meguro, was able to locate a server that could host the prototype Web site, while the registration database was hosted off-site during development the beta testing period.

Colleges planning to include online student advisement and counseling services, need to plan in advance to have robust servers and backups with reliable access. If the services are available, more students will be accessing the site, and there will be greater demands on the server. A new Dual Pentium III 450 Internet/Application server has been purchased and will be installed before the end of the Spring 1999 semester, to move the database to the college and continue the beta testing phase.

Presently, the temporary home of the prototype site is http://vcs.ccc.cccd.edu/ossc. Comments should be directed to Cheryl Chapman at chapmanc@pacbell.net or Rendell Drew at rdrew@cccd.edu .