Campus innovations address needs of a diverse student body

ACCELerated Evening College

“The survey suggested that the region’s busy adults wanted to earn a baccalaureate degree but required a program that would accommodate their often hectic lifestyle,” said Stuart Green, vice chancellor for academic affairs at IU Kokomo. “Those surveyed indicated that they had only about 11 or so hours to spend per week on their education but still wanted to move as rapidly as possible to the completion of a bachelor’s degree.”

Previous models delivered evening courses in a standard 15-week term, trying to accommodate both non-traditional and traditional age students. Adult students would typically take one course each semester, earning six credits per year. The ACCEL format reduced classes to a quad or quarter term of 8 weeks, and class time expanded from two-and-a-half hours per week to four-and-a-half hours. ACCEL allowed students to take two courses during a regular 15-week semester, concentrating on one course at a time.

Students could earn up to 18 credits per year, taking one ACCEL course at a time, Green said. “Additionally, instructors were encouraged to integrate the use of online, enhanced instruction into their course delivery, using Oncourse, IU’s online course management system (CMS).”

Despite ACCEL’s initial success in attracting adult students, participants discovered that four-and-a-half-hour classes drained faculty and students alike, Green said. “The program needed structural adjustment to address the fatigue and burn-out that resulted from extending class time beyond the limits of effectiveness.”

At the same time, larger numbers of faculty and students at IU Kokomo had begun to use Oncourse. By 2002, 75 percent of IU Kokomo students had off-campus access to a computer and an Internet service provider, Green said. “Currently, Kokomo is the third highest user of Oncourse, exceeded only by IU Bloomington and IUPUI.

“Given this scenario, ACCEL is evolving to a totally hybrid format, one that incorporates both real-time, face-to-face classroom teaching and asynchronous online instruction,” he said. By fall 2003, about half of the faculty teaching ACCELerated Evening College courses are expected to be using both methods of instruction, potentially reducing in-class time to two-and-a-half hours per week.

“Our goal is to have a fully hybrid adult evening program leading to the bachelor’s degree in general studies by fall 2005,” Green said. “We plan to create 30 hybrid courses, divided between the schools of Arts and Sciences and of Business. The School of Business has proposed a new certificate in entrepreneurial studies for the Evening College that should attract individuals seeking an applied focus and general overview of business practices. The School of Arts and Sciences will provide concentrations in the social sciences and in communication arts.”

ACCELerated Evening College demonstrates how new instructional technologies can be “uniquely applied” to meet individual campuses’ diverse needs, Green said. “While other IU campuses have chosen to pursue fully online offerings, IU Kokomo has been able to fashion a program suited to its needs, using the same cloth or, in this case, the same CMS.”

Green calls ACCELerated Evening College “a model for inter-departmental collaboration.” IU Kokomo’s Division of Continuing Studies houses the program and counsels the students. The School of Business and the School of Arts and Sciences provide and validate the courses. The campus’ Center for Teaching Excellence and Information Technology Services provide training, consultation and support for online instruction. This collaboration “reflects the commitment of the Kokomo campus to work across boundaries to meet the needs of its students,” Green said. Appropriately, he added, it also mirrors “the absence of boundaries in the emerging knowledge and technology explosion.”

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