Unit Resources, Strengths and Limiting Factors

Unit Resources, Strengths and Limiting Factors:

The St. George Regional Small Business Development Center Strategic Plan 2012-2015 can be referenced at http://www.dixiebusinessalliance.com/usbdc/doc/stgplan.pdf

1. 
   Operate as a COLLABORATIVE Network with coordinated goals and execution. Adapt Center level tactics to the highest potential client types in their regions.
   
2. 
   Identify HIGH POTENTIAL markets and clients and go after them.
   
3. 
   Increase DEMAND for our services from high potential clients.
   
4. 
   Increase RESPECT from stakeholders and partners.
   
5. 
   Add value to HOST INSTITUTIONS.
   
6. 
   Position Utah SBDC network as a CORNERSTONE in Utah’s economic development.
   
7. 
   All of these Objectives are aligned with the core themes of Dixie State College: core theme one, provide for quality education; core theme two, encourage a culture of values; and core theme three, develop the culture of community in Southern Utah.
   
8. 
   Increase CAPACITY to serve clients.
   

All of these Objectives are aligned with the core themes of Dixie State College: core theme one, provide for quality education; core theme two, encourage a culture of values; and core theme three, develop the culture of community in Southern Utah.

The Adult Studies and Community Services (ASCS) mission is - To develop and provide high quality, credit and non-credit activities that respond to the needs of local communities, educational institutions, government and industry. In a broader sense, ASCS perpetuates the overall mission of Dixie State College by helping students achieve their academic, career, and life goals.

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  assess the educational needs of local communities, educational institutions, government and industry,
  
• 
  provide (when appropriate) credit and non-credit activities designed to specifically meet those needs,
  
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  develop and provide academic, lifelong learning, and personal enrichment activities for people of all ages,
  
• 
  form partnerships with local communities, educational institutions, business and industry to enhance higher education access.
  

ASCS perpetuates the mission of Dixie State College (DSC) on several levels and our activities are based on the core themes of learning, values and community on an expanded level beyond traditional education in credit coursework. With our desire to provide quality education to those students who may not be able to travel to the main campus, we provide access to courses in the Hurricane Valley through an outreach education center, virtually through the flexibility that online courses provide, and a concurrent enrollment program through which high school students may enroll who want to start their college education while still in high school. Non-credit bearing learning plays an equal part in our service to the community that supports DSC. Our Community Education Department in partnership with the City of St. George and the Washington County School District provides continued learning activities for students of all ages and interests. Our ICL Department expands that even further with a complete program of learning opportunities for those senior adults who are lifelong learners.

The following is a list of committees and positions that the ASCS employees serve on and hold.

Improvement and Efficiency, and 2^nd Century Steering.

ASCS School is administered by the Dean, Steve Bringhurst, who reports to the Chief Academic Officer Donna Dillingham-Evans. The school consists of five (5) separate units. The units are: Academic Outreach, Community Education, Conferences and Workshops, the Institute for Continued Learning (ICL) and Police Officer Standards and Training Academy (POST). There will be a specific program review for each of the five units.

ASCS at Dixie State College applies to special learning activities that are outside of the traditional institutional framework. These activities are credit and non-credit bearing. ASCS responds to the needs of local communities, educational institutions, government, and industry. To fulfill its mission, ASCS finds out what needs exist, and then provides (when appropriate) educational services to meet those needs.

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  innovative or non-conventional instructional approaches,
  
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  instructional setting (often not college campus or classroom),
  
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  delivery methods (specifically online courses),
  
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  the intended students, weather public or higher education students, professionals, business and industry groups, or the general public.
  

No single statistic or survey currently meets the intent of assessing effectiveness of the ASCS School. Successful reporting of such an indicator therefore requires multiple methods for gathering information, including surveys, focus group meetings, face-to-face contact, telephone interviews, and participation observations. Staff regularly gathers and evaluates information from these sources. This information enables staff to make adjustments to courses and programs.

Our community education program is a participatory program which involves the City of St. George, the Washington County School District, and Dixie State College. All planning and assessment pieces then are three pronged in implementation and practice. As part of our continuing commitment to a culture of learning, values and community, this program offers a variety of non-credit enrichment classes and community services to all ages thereby extending education beyond the regular credit-bearing education provided by a higher education institution.

A clear indicator of program effectiveness would be a continuing pattern of program growth and participants. (see the specific program review for each of the five units). The assessment plans of this school will take place within each section of the unit itself, i.e. community education, conferences, etc.. Each unit is currently working on a more formal assessment plan which will be implemented during the 2012-13 school year.

1. 
   ASCS has demonstrated growth in all units the past five years. There has been increased participation in Academic Outreach, Community Education, Conferences and Workshops, ICL and POST.
   
2. 
   ASCS hired a Youth Conference Coordinator to allow program growth, beyond sport camps, into academic areas.
   
3. 
   Academic Outreach is making application for a substantive change in online offerings. This requires a solid online program with a framework in which to offer these programs.
   
4. 
   POST students receive criminal justice college credits towards a Criminal Justice Degree.
   
5. 
   ICL provides four scholarships to DSC students (previously provided two).
   
6. 
   Marketing and customer service has been significantly enhanced via the web.
   

1. 
   Currently, ASCS resources are available to meet its’ mission and support anticipated growth.
   
2. 
   The continued growth of ASCS programs and participants provides the greatest pride to unit employees.
   
3. 
   ASCS recently relocated to the North Plaza Building. This is the first time all five units have been in one location. This has allowed ASCS to be more client and service friendly.
   
4. 
   Availability of facilities could prove to be the largest limiting factor for ASCS. With increasing enrollment and growth of the surrounding community, classrooms, gyms and playing fields will continue to be in high demand.
   
5. 
   The demand for flexibility and the access provided by online courses has grown to far exceed what we are able to offer. The limiting factors here are lack of personnel both in the areas of faculty to teach online and staff to run the online program.
   

1. 
   ASCS will continue to form new partnerships with constituents that will enable it to respond to the needs of local communities, and help students achieve their academic, career, and lifelong learning goals.
   
2. 
   Academic Outreach is moving forward with a portal system which will allow DSC to access single slots in courses taught at other universities by other professors on a space available basis to allow us to bring unique programs to our campus but which also have limited demands. In addition, we are pursuing a substantive change in accreditation status to offer fully online programs.
   
3. 
   The POST Academy is continuing to expand and will add a Correctional certification piece to the existing certifications of SFO (Special Function Officer) , LEO (Law Enforcement Officer) and a 911 Communications Training Program.
   
4. 
   Conferences and Workshops will continue to provide high quality, cost competitive academic programs, sport camps and youth conferences that will promote growth.
   
5. 
   Community Education will continue to partner with the WCSD and City of St. George to maintain and expand offerings as needed
   

See the specific program review for each of the five units for expanded information but numbers of constituents served are summarized here.

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  http://www.dixie.edu/academicoutreach/;
  
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  http://new.dixie.edu/concurrent/;
  
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  http://new.dixie.edu/Hurricane/
  

Community Education – http://new.dixie.edu/ce/ ICL (Institute of Continued Learning) –

POST Academy –http://www.dixie.edu/post/

The Adult Studies and Community Services (ASCS) mission is - To develop and provide high quality, credit and non credit activities that respond to the needs of local communities, educational institutions, government and industry. In a broader sense, ASCS perpetuates the overall mission of Dixie State College by helping students achieve their academic, career, and life goals.

Institutional Improvement and Efficiency, and 2^nd Century Steering.

School of Adult Studies and Community Services by the Dean, Steve Bringhurst, who reports to the Chief Academic Officer Donna Dillingham-Evans.

ASCS at Dixie State College applies to special learning activities that are outside of the traditional institutional framework. These activities are credit and non-credit bearing.

In March of 2008, ASCS hired a Youth Conference Coordinator to allow program growth, beyond sport camps, into academic areas. In the 5 years that these youth conferences have been held, we have seen consistent success.

ASCS recently moved to a new location in the North Plaza Building. The move has been good for Conferences and Workshops. The facilities have enabled Conferences and Workshops to be more client and service friendly.

A search needs to be done to find consistently reliable data that supports the development of conferences and workshops. The development of a survey given to participants to evaluate satisfaction with current structure and request for future options is critical to our ongoing success.

With our commitment to mission fulfillment of promoting a culture of learning, values and community, Conferences and Workshops will continue to provide high quality, cost competitive academic programs, sport camps and youth conferences. We will continue to work with our community in maintaining and forging new partnerships that will enable us to provide services that meet the needs of our student base.. We have plans to develop and administer satisfaction surveys to conference and workshop participants and use the data for strategic planning.

Becky A. Smith serves as the liaison for Academic Outreach to all committees, councils, etc. with regards to the areas included in Academic Outreach and reports to the Dean of Adult Studies and Community Services (ASCS). She is currently serving as part of several councils and committees - Academic Council, Accreditation Steering, Administrative Computing, Deans’ Council, Dixie Educational Master planning Executive (DEMPEC), Five County K-16 Alliance (K-16), Information Technology Governance, Institutional Intercollegiate Athletic Council, Red Storm Professors and Utah Association of Concurrent Enrollment Partnership (UACEP) Professional Development opportunities for all faculty come from within their academic departments. Sheila Cannon is part of the larger ASCS team. The part-time secretaries at the HEC have been involved in taking college courses in the past relative to their pursuing degrees. Meetings are held as necessary to acquaint them with new technologies utilized at the HEC and in policies and procedures for the campus as a whole.

The Academic Outreach Division is relatively new. Specific effectiveness assessments have not been completed for these delivery modes. Assessment of courses offered in all three areas are done by the department/schools under which they are assigned.

English 1010, Math 1010, Math 1030, and Psychology 1010. These courses are technology intensive concurrent enrollment courses which were developed by a team of educators from Utah Higher Ed and Public Education. These courses are meant to be taught in a blended environment and are available to any institution statewide to use for both concurrent enrollment and college sections. The legislature has funded ten additional courses. This will standardize our offerings in these general education areas and make it easier to find faculty who will have a base from which to teach these courses.

campus. Courses offered in any of these outreach pieces are staffed and mentored through the academic department under which it resides. These creates a bond between the department and its outreach offerings. The Hurricane Education Center is a very nice facility originally built through donation of very generous people in the Hurricane Community. It is open five days per week to support testing and study in addition to its course offerings. It provides students from the East side of the county with a classroom and support facility geographically closer to home. It is currently adequately staffed and funded for the offerings we have there but there is room for growth. Online courses have been limited to only those courses taught by faculty who had a desire to move their instruction online. However, in recent history the demand for the flexibility and access provided by online courses has grown to far exceed what we are able to offer. Our nursing and dental hygiene have been developing an online program for their upper division students. As was mentioned in the major changes above, we are expanding our online offerings to offer a complete online program at DSC to be the umbrella under which online courses will reside and meet program standards as set by accreditating bodies. The limiting factors here are lack of personnel both in the areas of faculty to teach online and a larger staff to run the online program. Online courses are part of a faculty’s regular load – full or adjunct status. It receives no additional pay or workload. This does limit the desire of many faculty to go to the extra work of teaching online.

Our plans for the future are to continue to put our foundations in place for more and more offerings in each of these outreach areas. Our plans are to continue working with departments on campus in offering these outreach benefits and to increase our offerings in all areas. We are moving forward with a portal system which will allow DSC to access single slots in courses taught at other universities by other professors on a

space available basis to allow us to bring unique programs to our campus but which also have limited demands. Our plans for online offerings is to have 20% of our course sections offered in an online environment by 2020 by trained online faculty. A modification of that which is fast growing is offering blended courses which have both a f2f component and an online component.
Department at a Glance:

The Academic Outreach Division was established in the 2008-2009 school year. It was at this time that these various departments were brought under one umbrella and one supervisor. Numbers of students served in all three areas during that time are as follows:

*Decrease attributed to the elimination of a computer literacy course that could no longer receive CE funding. Had a large enrollment on campus and particularly at the Hurricane Education Center.

Community Education Division is a unique program encompassing three separate entities. Dixie State College, City of St. George, and Washington County School District each have their own Mission Statements, Goals, and Objectives. Community Education follows the Dixie State College Mission Statement by providing community services responding to the needs of several surrounding counties and educational institutions through alliances with various government and business entities.

Community Education supports the stated mission of Dixie State College.

The mission of Dixie State College Community Education is to provide programs and services for the community and college which develop and strengthen the college’s goal of being a comprehensive state college. Programs are designed for all ages and emphasis is given to special populations with unique needs. The division offers and coordinates a broad spectrum of programs, which are included in non-credit categories, based on the expressed needs of program participants. The division is a strong proponent of lifelong learning, advocating for individuals, families, and groups.
Vision Statement

Community Education reflects the importance of strong partnerships among homes, schools, and communities. It is concerned with the delivery of recreational, social, cultural, vocational, academic, and human services. Along with these programs, it features a process of mobilizing human resources, recognizing community needs and using public facilities.