Sustainability and the Division of Continuing Education

The Kansas State University Division of Continuing Education, while not a unit that directly produces any academic or research activity, nevertheless is contributing to sustainability. The Division contributes in several ways: with more efficient management practices, with educational techniques that contribute to business continuity in times of catastrophic campus closures, in energy savings for off-campus students, and in using distance education technology to help preserve small towns in rural Kansas. DCE also provides efficient and energy-saving means for on-campus faculty, staff, and students to do collaborative work. The most important ways that DCE contributes to sustainability are in providing energy-saving alternative means for individuals to participate in lifelong learning and completion of college certificates and degrees.

Type:Energy Conservation

Impact:

Management practices

DCE was among the first units at K-State to adopt computerized management practices. One of these practices, for example, the “credit course worksheet,” provided a fully online means of achieving multiple approvals and a permanent record with no paper records whatsoever.

Because of DCE’s close collaboration with the Office of Mediated Education, DCE also helped to introduce the “K-State Online” workspace to the campus, resulting in students and faculty converting many paper-based activities to the online environment. Objects that included such papers as course handouts, course rosters, student examinations, and other instructional materials migrated to the online environment. DCE certainly helped to promote and encourage such activities. Having materials and forms online saves paper, copying, and the mailing and handling efforts that would otherwise have to be expended. Any accurate measure of these efficiencies is probably incalculable, partly because faculty are willing to provide more materials online than they would have provided in hard copy, specifically because of the cost savings.

Business continuity and sustainability of core services

After the experience of Hurricane Katrina and its effect on the higher education institutions in the New Orleans area, K-State DCE recognized that distance education technologies and online communications are able to maintain the important educational business of the university, even when the physical campus is completely unusable. If Kansas should experience a catastrophic shut-down such as we have seen at other campuses after hurricanes and floods, it is likely that our state-of-the-art technology and K-State’s comfort level with online teaching and business operations will provide continuity that will keep students and teachers connected productively. At least 10,000 students each year already participate in one or more online courses, including students who are already on campus. This means that nearly all the faculty and a large majority of the students would be able to shift to online learning quickly if it were necessary. The value of such business continuity has not been calculated for K-State, but it would be very significant in the event of a catastrophe.

Savings of fuel and energy for off-campus students

For K-State’s off-campus students (those who do not attend any classes on campus), online education saves them travel costs of time, fuel, food and lodging, plus it allows them to continue to work full time, resulting in a large net advantage in direct costs and energy usage compared with relocating to the campus as a full time student. The off-campus services also make it possible for K-State to attract and retain thousands of place-bound students who otherwise would not be attending college at all, thus contributing to the overall productivity of the university with relatively less investment in physical infrastructure.

Preserving small towns in rural Kansas

Telenet 2, which provides a variety of video and audio conferencing services, makes a special contribution to sustaining small towns in rural Kansas. Using the technology for conferencing, Telenet 2 makes it possible for police, fire fighters, health and social service workers, and other professionals to acquire and maintain their licensing, certifications, and skill updating to stay qualified and skilled in their professions. They can afford to do this via Telenet 2 because they do not have to leave their communities (time savings), they do not have to travel to another site (fuel and transportation infrastructure savings), and they do not have to buy food and lodging in another community (cash savings). Because of the nature of small town budgets, these service providers simply would not be able to exist without some form of on-site training, and Telenet 2 accomplishes on-site, live, real time training through information technology without anybody traveling anywhere. Without police, fire fighters, and these other professional services, which in small towns tend to be part time and/or volunteer services, the towns would not have the services at all, and would not be sustainable as viable communities.

Energy savings through virtual conferencing

In addition to sustaining core services in small rural communities, the Telenet 2 Office also saves lots of travel and energy for other activities. In this sense of serving the campus community directly, Telenet 2 is purple as well as green.

An audio or video conference with TELENET 2 on the K-State campus is a green way to meet. Participants reach for the phone on their desks or travel only short distances to a video conference site for meetings. Big gas bills, airline ticket expenses and hotel bills are not involved. Also, the time saved by attending a meeting locally via T2 audio or video conferencing is dramatic.

K-State faculty and administrators use both T2 conferencing methods for academic, research, and university business meetings - all things K-State. Examples include:

• academic classes for distant students throughout the world
• collaboration with other universities by bringing students and/or instructors at several universities together for a team taught course,
• guest speakers for academic classes,
• oral exams with committee members or students at distances as close as Oklahoma and as far away as Dubai,
• trainings and workshops for continuing education units,
• organization or alumni board meetings,
• departmental staff meetings,
• job search interviews,
• collaboration on research

Credit: Betty Stevens

Tagged:communication, distance-education, paper-waste, technology