Lake Region Community College Foundation
Report date
July 2017
What has been most instrumental to your progress?
Several key lessons were learned during this grant; however, the central theme in each item relates to the collaborative process aspect. Collaboration required both trust and tenacity. The collaborators rose to meet barriers and were able to successfully develop a new degree that is delivered between two institutions on behalf of the deaf community. While LRSC and MiSU are members of the same state higher education system, each had its own policies and procedures which needed to be navigated in order to progress on the project. Significant effort in the area of building collaborative partnerships was made in order to align the two systems so that students could move between them effectively. Aligning both the curriculum and the delivery system and the education of those developing and utilizing the new curriculum and method of delivery required more time and funds than expected.
Key lessons learned
The first lesson learned was that even though MiSU and LRSC are within the North Dakota University System, each campus is unique. In North Dakota, the campuses function as 'silos' within a semi-integrated system. Each is at a different stage in integration of higher-level processes such as institutional policy, budget, etc. Aspects such as enrollment, financial aid, veteran status, and advising, as well as departments such as marketing, IT, distance education, and the business office needed to be coordinated. Even though the two institutions are within the same state system, day-to-day business is not handled in a uniform manner. An underestimation of the significance of the situation resulted in collaboration processes taking longer than estimated.
The second lesson learned was the discovery of unanticipated barriers related to technology needs--both in software and dedicated classroom space--to support student access. LRSC had not yet purchased and transitioned to the standardized online software, and MiSU required a dedicated interactive video room for the ASL students to access required courses. ASL is dependent upon visual access between students and faculty. Limited visual access was a huge barrier to overcome. Nevertheless, the team worked diligently through effective collaboration making budget and faculty training adjustments to meet the project's overall goal. The timeline needed extending.
The third lesson learned was the discovery of a faculty knowledge deficit regarding distance learning and curriculum-building. LRSC faculty had to learn to use Blackboard software in order to convert the courses already developed from LRSC's expiring software system, eCollege. LRSC could not purchase access to Blackboard as the purchase was made on behalf of the whole university system, so LRSC had no control over the start date for access. Significant time and money were spent to develop the curriculum and educate faculty and staff on delivery of the material.
Reflections on the community innovation process
While being inclusive and resourceful were certainly key, collaboration was most important. Much dialogue occurred to reach testing and implementation of the solution to the need for more interpreting professionals for DHH individuals. Collaborations reflected innovation in three distinct ways: 1) Curriculum content, 2) Distance program delivery, 3) Collaboration of existing state systems. Several unanticipated/under-anticipated challenges developed after the project was underway:
1) IVN capabilities at MiSU were not able to accommodate the new curriculum load making it necessary to create a new IVN classroom dedicated to ASL instruction.
2) Some course conversions from face-to-face/IVN to online delivery were needed; however, LRSC and MiSU used different online platforms.
3) Differences existed between LRSC's and MiSU's procedures for handling student enrollment processes.
4) North Dakota state budget cuts have resulted in a downsizing of staff at MiSU.
1) IVN capabilities at MiSU were not able to accommodate the new curriculum load making it necessary to create a new IVN classroom dedicated to ASL instruction.
2) Some course conversions from face-to-face/IVN to online delivery were needed; however, LRSC and MiSU used different online platforms.
3) Differences existed between LRSC's and MiSU's procedures for handling student enrollment processes.
4) North Dakota state budget cuts have resulted in a downsizing of staff at MiSU.
Progress toward an innovation
Before 1975, 85% of DHH students were educated in special schools. Today, 85% attend local public schools. Interpreters work in a variety of settings, but educational interpreting is a vital piece of their preparation. A recent study identified a weakness in interpreter preparation: Little or no content was related to the needs of DHH students in public school classrooms and related education issues. The study found interpreter candidates were ill-prepared for providing services in a K-12 setting and working on a school team. By contrast, our program is innovative in that content in deaf education, public school issues, and collaborative skills is a robust component due to integration of MiSU's special education coursework. Interdisciplinary practices are becoming the standard in health care and education. This year has allowed us to witness the benefit to students from both interpreting and special education programs taking some coursework together and learning about each other's future professions. We believe this model is innovative and will better prepare our interpreter candidates and our special education candidates to meet the needs of the DHH students they will serve.
What it will take to reach an innovation?
N/A
What's next?
Collaborators certainly intend to continue the project. This grant allowed us to establish a complete 2+2 bachelor-level degree in interpreting. Now that the program is up and running, efforts will focus on building the program, maintaining quality coursework, and growing student enrollment. Grant funds also supported development of a promotional video which will be used to market the program to potential students. The video may be viewed on the LRSC website: www.lrsc.edu/academics/programs/american-sign-language-interpreting-studies. A complete evaluation of the project would include measuring the collaboration of the participating entities, tracking student completion of the 4-year degree, and successfully placing students into the workforce. Feedback from the community of graduates would be helpful to modify delivery and course content, if needed.
If you could do it all over again...
One piece of advice might be, 'Don't assume. Be prepared to work harder than expected!' As described earlier in this report, some unexpected barriers were discovered and needed to be overcome. The collaborators had not realized the significant difficulties in working through the changes required in academic systems. Layers of administrative management and years of embedded processes and even new processes in transition took more time than anticipated to break down and re-build. Clearly, legislative impact on the budgets of both campuses was not anticipated. Forecasting these barriers may have prompted us to have additional stakeholders involved earlier in the process, which could have brought these barriers to light sooner. Also, 'Sometimes you don't know what you don't know.' As noted in the innovation diagram, the process does not usually take a straight line toward a goal. One must understand that progress involves 'detours,' but with persistence, one can still arrive at the right destination.
One last thought
The collaborators are grateful for the financial and procedural support this grant has provided. We conceptualized this idea long ago; however, it may have remained only an idea without this award. The project proved to be more challenging than expected. Structural barriers delayed implementation and testing of some goals causing us to be unable to measure student enrollment benchmarks as planned. Nonetheless, we are confident we will meet and exceed the benchmarks as this partnership continues and the program matures. Thank you for helping to 'make great ideas happen!'