Cal State Online, an up-and-coming online university program, recently published documents on its website in order to improve communication with the pubic.
Students and faculty may provide feedback on the program by submitting comments on calstateonline.net, or by dialing in to one of two upcoming open forum calls scheduled for March 20 from 4 to 5 p.m. and March 29 from 9 to 10 a.m.
Although the details of the program are in the works, executive director Ruth Claire Black said that she hopes students join the comment calls and include themselves in the development process.
“We don’t want to spend a lot of energy and time to add services that are not in interest,” she said. “We want to make sure that services provide value in many different perspectives.”
The first open forum call was on March 12.
Black said the questions brought up were overall thoughtful and focused on trying to understand the project. Some of the topics included concerns regarding intellectual property rights and the services provided, she said.
“There is usually a fear that the online programs may be less than a face-to-face program and the people wonder if the faculty will know who the students at the other end are,” said Otto Benavides, a professor at Cal State Fresno. “But it’s something that allows [students] to be flexible because they can study the materials at any time.”
Benavides is a member of Cal State Online and currently teaches online courses.
He said that online programs may benefit students because they are scheduled for convenience.
Benavides is available for student questions 24/7 via Skype, email, cellphone and discussion boards, among other things. Benavides said this teaching style is possible because of the low class sizes he teaches online.
Black said she hopes to keep class sizes at a maximum of 30 students.
“One of the things I think we dream about as board members is keeping classes relatively small,” she said. “We don’t envision doing any mega-system online classes. Our goal is to keep class sizes small.”
The development of the program is ongoing, and the information on the website will be updated as it becomes available.
Many Cal State Universities have appointed a campus communications liaison to collect comments, feedback and concerns from each campus. Cal State Long Beach has yet to appoint a campus communications liaison.