Progress 09/15/05 to 09/14/08
Outputs
During a 3-day meeting that was held at San Francisco State University from May 2005 the consortium members chose the name CariPac to represent this new insular consortium. CariPac unites the insular institutions of higher education in the Caribbean and in the Pacific. The University of Puerto Rico-Campus UPR-M) participated in the assessment of state of DE technology, both locally and among CariPac institutions and concluded that: the College of Agricultural Sciences (CAS) at UPR-M could install DE equipment in the recently inaugurated Food Safety Institute of the Americas' room. CAS needed to acquire DE hardware, user friendly within the CariPac Consortium. Courses on the topics of Human Nutrition and Food Safety at undergraduate (associate and bachelors) level were requested by other CariPac participants in 2006-2007. Course outlines were distributed to other CariPac members for recommendations and approval. Faculty members started recording the videos, preparation of CD and other media. Courses in final form were distributed to all CariPac member institutions in February 2008. Recent upgrades to network capacity provided for University of Virgin Islands through several different ISPs have greatly improved the quality of videoconferencing, both between islands and to the mainland. The increased bandwidth has been beneficial to teaching, file transfer and overall internet access for the faculty and students. The ability to utilize teaching tools, such as white boards and online chats, via video conferencing has been demonstrated and faculty will receive training in these methods. In Palau, the establishment of the Distance Education Classroom has permitted integration of technology with food and agricultural science program. Through the assistance of the RIIA grant the program has been transformed through the use of the DE classroom that offers varieties of online courses in various program areas. The agricultural science program has on board additional faculty with desired credentials delivering program courses. In addition, activities to increase awareness and interest in food and agriculture are being carried out in school around the island. During this time period, Northern Marianas College (NMC) made significant strides at upgrading its capacity at delivering distance education to its constituents and creating class availability for aspiring Natural Resource Management (NRM) degree students. RIIA funds were used to purchase Distance Education equipments and supplies in the Marshall Islands and set up in the new Video Teleconference room. In the Federated States of Micronesia, Phase I had primary goals to review the current situation of Distance Education delivery capacity and to identify limiting factors to the delivery and methodology to overcome these limitations. Overall, CariPac funding has strengthened the capacity of the American Samoa Community College to carry out its resident instruction program in food agriculture sciences and improve its ability to meet the island's unique needs. The ASCC CNR resident instruction program now enjoys a profile and standing with other mainstream instructional programs at the College. PRODUCTS: A workshop was held in Honolulu, Hawaii, January 17-19, 2005. In preparation for the workshop, each institution engaged in a preliminary assessment of their capacity to address each of the three primary objectives. The institutions sent administrative managers and leaders, long-distance communications technicians, and long-distance education specialists to the workshop. In addition to the participating institutions, long-distance communications specialists and program development specialists participated from the University of Alaska, who provided a live real-time demonstration of current technologies. At the workshop, each institution presented a description of their capacities, current resources and programs, needs, and emerging programs pertinent to addressing each of the three primary goals. There was facilitated discussion about how the institutions could best address the three primary objectives, collectively and individually. In addition, a specialist from Washington DC provided presentations on the development of performance indicators and measurements that will be necessary to demonstrate the value and utility of the project's activities. The products of the 2006 Workshop include a technical report on the minimum long-distance communication requirements that are necessary to connect each of the eight island institutions in shared telecommunications efforts. Initial testing has verified that each of the institutions can be successfully connected and a prototype demonstration is currently being developed to connect all of the institutions at the same time. In addition, a prototype long-distance education class is being jointly developed with the University of Alaska to test common use of software development tools, to test the delivery system, and to gauge variations in student interests and capacities to respond to these types of programs. Preliminary performance indicators have been developed and discussed for use in collective and individual project activities. Food Safety and Retail Establishments course (hard copy and CD), finished and distributed. Human Nutrition course (hard copy and CD), finished and distributed. Students prepare and deliver presentations for their courses. OUTCOMES: CariPac grant funding in Virgin Islands was used to fund system upgrades. These improvements facilitated faster and more effective communication for enhanced video conferencing capabilities. Program participants reported a marked improvement in the stability and quality of the transmission. The UVI communication link was tested with University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) to assess the speed and efficiency of UVI's Internet capabilities for pc-based distance education. In Puerto Rico, A distance education room with a12-port MGC IP-Polycom was prepared. Two courses, Food Safety and Food Nutrition, were prepared in CD and hard copy (HC) and delivered to each CariPac institution. The videos were recorded in the DE room that also has VTC capabilities. In Palau, for the first time, students enrolled in the agriculture science program have increase and the number is increasing every year. The retention rate has also increased and we are seeing many new students enrolling in the program. Student recruitment and awareness program is ongoing during special school events and annual college recruitment program targeting high school students. In Northern Mariana Islands, they enhance courses of study and degree programs, curricula and instructional materials and technology; developed and use alternative methods of delivering instructions; enhanced educational equity and strengthen student recruitment and retention. These actions include the assessments of the distance education capability of our two outer islands (Rota and Tinian), the purchase of Elluminate Live Software and the funding of much needed NRM classes. Marshall Islands, Instructors were hired to teach the SC101: Introduction to Agriculture (4 credits) course every semester. The number of students enrolled in the course, increased every semester. The technology survey and the assessment of the Learning Barriers has determined the limitations and the future focus of Distance Education efforts for COM-FSM. It is evident that any incorporation of DE methodology between campuses will be asynchronous, will be centralized at the state campuses and will be facilitated by a trained instructor. The benefit therefore will be access to academic capacity from other institutions rather than a budgetary saving for the college. In American Samoa, the establishment of a student laboratory that includes distance education capabilities: A dozen computers were purchased by CariPac funds, student lab use is documented by daily sign-in sheets, 2 Lab Assistants were hired and trained to supervise the lab, ASCC CNR is able to have video-teleconferences which has been used by students for instructional purposes, increase in student enrollments and declared majors, and (6) In Phase I, there were 29 declared majors. In Guam, 5 high school students were part of a 5 week summer internship following senior agriculture and food science faculty. Equipment was purchased to begin the internal infrastructure of a soon to built distant education classroom. Ten modules were taped to be used as a tool in an introduction to agricultural class. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: We have created a web site that will be used to disseminate the activities of this consortium. It is listed as www.caripac.org. And a brochure that is sent on demand. FUTURE INITIATIVES: The CariPac consortium directors will continue to lobby for support within USDA/CSREES and NASULGC to ensure that we remain a priority issue for annual funds. This will also include speaking with our delegates in the United State Congress for their support and budget request each year. We believe that these current funds and future funding will allow us to build up the capacity needed to support our resident instruction programs at each of our insular institutions. We will respond to each RFP to ensure we have continuous funds.
Impacts
Quality of inter-island videoconferencing was improved, based on student and faculty feedback. Video conference and distance education facilities have been used by faculty three times for the delivery of Food Safety courses for an audience of graduate and undergraduate students and food industry personnel. Students enrolled in the food and agriculture science program has increased by more than 100% and students are choosing to stay in the program until completion. With the grant assistance to continue the efforts we will see the first generation of food and agriculture science program graduates with bachelor or masters degrees in Palau. Elluminate Live Software has positively affected NMC. The software has been tested and is actively being used throughout NMC's instructional sites. NMC was able to cover the cost of additional instructors to teach NRM core courses during Summer 2006 and Fall 2007. NRM is scheduled to have its first 3 students graduate under the program. The number of students enrolled in the course, increased every semester. A Land Grant employee received financial assistance to support his studies at the University of Hawaii,he is pursuing his Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture; Food Safety and Food and Nutrition courses received from University of Puerto Rico. This provided feed back for UPR to improve the courses for later distribution. These later distributions have been evaluated for use in the COM-FSM Nursing Program when it is authorized and have been replicated for distribution to COM-FSM state campuses and to state Departments of Health.
Publications
- Kelly, Doug. 2006. Evaluation of Manageable Barriers to More Effective Delivery of Distance Education at the College of Micronesia FSM.
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Progress 09/15/05 to 09/14/06
Outputs
During a 3-day meeting that was held at San Francisco State University from May 26 to 28, 2005 the consortium members chose the name CariPac to represent this new insular consortium. Guam was able to increase the educational opportunities, scholarships, in the food and agricultural sciences, increase distant education capabilities and participate in distant education activities in conjunction with other insular institutions in the CariPac consortium, and increase interest in agriculture and food science majors by targeting high school students through summer internship programs. Virgin Islands increased the educational opportunities in agriculture for undergraduate students at UVI and improved distance education facilities and participate in distance education activities in conjunction with other insular institutions in the CariPac consortium. Pohnpei, enhanced courses of study and degree programs, curricula and instructional materials and technology development and library resources, enhanced instructional delivery systems and development and use of alternative methods of delivering, and enhanced student recruitment, retention and educational and enhance educational equity and strengthen student recruitment and retention. Northern Mariana Islands, improved distance education facilities and provide training for food and agriculture sciences, increased the number of courses offered through the NRM program by hiring additional faculty and increase student recruitment and retention by twenty five percent. Palau, improved the current curriculum in the agricultural science program, developed strategies to recruit high school graduates to take up agricultural science as career, develop alternative means of instruction especially in non-laboratory courses by improving distance education and video- teleconferencing facilities and provide training to professors of agriculture sciences, and recruit highly qualified teaching staff in food and agriculture sciences. Marshall Islands worked on designing a certificate program in agriculture that will be offered at the local institution, improved distance education facilities in local institutions, and improved recruitment strategy from the local high schools for students in the food and agriculture science program. American Samoa established a distant education facility for agriculture and life science students and provided scholarships for two ALS graduates who have been accepted into an accredited degree program in agriculture or food sciences. Continued scholarship assistance would be dependent on future funding. Puerto Rico improved distance education facilities and provide training to professors of food and agriculture sciences, augment 20 percent the number of students in critical areas of food and agricultural sciences, especially in agriculture economics, in order to increase the number of underrepresented professionals, and designed curricular sequences Professional Certificate Programs to be offered on line to increase opportunities to students across the island and among interested insular land grant and CariPac members. PRODUCTS: A workshop was held in Honolulu, Hawaii, January 17-19, 2005. In preparation for the workshop, each institution engaged in a preliminary assessment of their capacity to address each of the three primary objectives. The institutions sent administrative managers and leaders, long-distance communications technicians, and long-distance education specialists to the workshop. In addition to the participating institutions, long-distance communications specialists and program development specialists participated from the University of Alaska, who provided a live real-time demonstration of current technologies. At the workshop, each institution presented a description of their capacities, current resources and programs, needs, and emerging programs pertinent to addressing each of the three primary goals. There was facilitated discussion about how the institutions could best address the three primary objectives, collectively and individually. In addition, a specialist from Washington DC provided presentations on the development of performance indicators and measurements that will be necessary to demonstrate the value and utility of the project's activities. The products of the 2006 Workshop include a technical report on the minimum long-distance communication requirements that are necessary to connect each of the eight island institutions in shared telecommunications efforts. Initial testing has verified that each of the institutions can be successfully connected and a prototype demonstration is currently being developed to connect all of the institutions at the same time. In addition, a prototype long-distance education class is being jointly developed with the University of Alaska to test common use of software development tools, to test the delivery system, and to gauge variations in student interests and capacities to respond to these types of programs. Preliminary performance indicators have been developed and discussed for use in collective and individual project activities. OUTCOMES: The majority of these funds for this phase were used to begin to purchase the needed infrastructure software and hardware to secure the development of a distant learning site for each of the insular institutions. Each of the eight insular institutions have built the basic infrastructure to either receive or transmit or carry out both of these functions within their distant learning sites. In addition, the University of Puerto Rico has nearly completed two web-based courses in food safety and nutrition for distribution to the other consortium members. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: We have created a web site that will be used to disseminate the activities of this consortium. It is listed as www.caripac.org. FUTURE INITIATIVES: The CariPac consortium directors will continue to lobby for support within USDA/CSREES and NASULGC to ensure that we remain a priority issue for annual funds. This will also include speaking with our delegates in the United State Congress for their support and budget request each year. We believe that these current funds and future funding will allow us to build up the capacity needed to support our resident instruction programs at each of our insular institutions. We will respond to each RFP to ensure we have continuous funds.
Impacts
The greatest impact is that for the first time in the history of these insular land grant institutions there is a funding mechanism to begin to re-build the resident instruction program that was lost in 1992. The funds have enabled each of these institutions the capacity to establish a distant learning center, offer more courses and provide students a means to work in the food and agricultural industry. We have a long way to go but this is the best start we have had in a very long time. Our geographic and political isolation is not as apparent when all eight insular institutions work as one collective group.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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