Simple online services for students

In an effort to respond to Don’s comment after our presentation, when I arrived back on campus I contacted our Student Services staff to get an update on what we are currently doing to support our online students. These services are, of course, available to any student, not just those participating in online courses.

As a medium size community college with modest resources we have attempted to provide simple straightforward support for students. There is nothing very flashy in this list. I am also posting the list as I received it from the individuals involved so that in some cases you can see their thoughts on how a particular effort is working. Other portions of this post simply list what is available on our website. Perhaps this will be of some assistance to Don and others.

On line services for MCC students

Advising: http://www.mchenry.edu/ATC/
On the Advising & Transfer website we offer the following links for the students to use:

• MCC degree and certificate information
• College visits from four year schools
• Transfer Guides and Transfer Links to both four year and two year programs
• Advising and Transfer Center events
• Review of graduation requirements and procedures
• Request to send transcript to another school
• Attend a New Student Orientation session
• Explore college, major and career resources
• Information on Distance Ed
  
  There are a lot of good tools on the Advising website for the students to use, but a majority of the students do not take advantage of them or use them. We did a seminar last Fall for MCC101 called (B)log in Learning how to use the Advising website, which was successful but we only reached a few students. We also briefly show the benefits of the tools in our New Student Orientations but the students have too much to learn in a brief session to remember to use them. If Advising had a link on the main page of the MCC website students would use it more frequently.
  

Athletics: http://www.mchenry.edu/Athletics/

• Online athletic prospect inquiry form accessible from the athletics home page and easily submitted for follow-up by our staff
• MCC Athletics Fast Facts page that lists all contact information, sports offered, staff/coaches names & titles etc.
• Web site provides head coaches bios, scores, records, schedules and rosters for each year’s teams
• The MCC ScotStars Sports Camp brochure is online and downloadable
• Links to the NJCAA, NJCAA Region IV, Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference and NCAA Clearinghouse web sites
• Press release news and information on multiple pages based on subject matter
  
  
  Future plans:
  
• FAQ that will go online this summer for prospective athletes and parents
• Updated athletics brochure will be on the site shortly and be downloadable
• List of MCC athletes that have transferred on to 4 yr schools
• Athletes’ parent/family insurance form online, in 2007-2008, so that parents can fill it out and submit it electronically
  
  

Counseling: http://www.mchenry.edu/Counseling/Index.asp

• Self help resources
• Career resources
• Virtual pamphlet collection
• Link to American Psychological Association Help Center
  
  

Career Services: http://www.mchenry.edu/CareerServices/

• Job Search Assistance
• Job Journal
• Recruiter information
• Links to job search websites
• Information on Job Fairs
• Recruiters on campus
• Workshop information
  
  

Developmental Learning Lab (will be implemented fall 2007):

Online assessment and self-paced skills building for English and math students from home or with tutor assistance in the “A” Lab.

Enrollment Services:
http://www.mchenry.edu/Admissions/Become.asp
http://www.mchenry.edu/Registration/
http://www.mchenry.edu/FinancialAid/Index.asp

• Online admissions application (this will be better when students can pay their admissions application fee online as well – Todd is working on this)
• Class registration (the last survey we had about IREG was very positive)
• Class withdrawal (part of IREG)
• Set up payment plan (no complaints – part of IREG)
• View unofficial transcript (no complaints – part of IREG)
• Transcript ordering (in February 2007 71.9% of students ordered transcripts online)
  

These services have worked out well for MCC, we have not received complaints on how they work. The biggest problem is that students forget their PIN numbers and want us to give them their PIN number over the phone and we will not for security reasons.

Currently being implemented:

• Automated Degree Audit
  
  

Library: http://www.mchenry.edu/library/
Off-campus students whether taking formal distance learning classes or just studying at home, have access to learning resources. Access of this sort is provided through the on-line catalog, electronic databases, electronic books, electronic magazines (over one million full-text articles), the World Wide Web, a virtual tour, “e-mail a reference librarian service”, and the library’s home page. The home page contains guides helping students identify Internet sites that contain materials relevant to their studies. The library purchases online versions of book sets, if available, to provide more student access.

Recruitment: http://www.mchenry.edu/FutureStudents/index.asp

• “Ask MCC” Discussion board
• Information request form on the web site
• Recruiting email
• Web site resources through the Recruiting pages
• Resources for high school students and parents, returning adults, and summer student.
  
  

Special Needs: http://www.mchenry.edu/SpecialNeeds/

• List of services available
• Guidelines on services provided http://www.mchenry.edu/downloads/pdf/specialneedsguidelines.pdf
• One-on-one tutoring, extended testing times, test readers, and alternative text formats are provided to Special Needs students enrolled in online classes. Students may make these requests for support at anytime during the academic year.
  
  

SAGE Learning Center: http://www.mchenry.edu/SageLearningCenter/index.asp
Online instructors provide tutoring to their own students through live chat.
Tutoring for individuals in online classes and for the entire class through faculty requests. The Sage Learning Center is currently doing a feasibility study to bring online tutoring to MCC (particularly since the Illinois state supported IVCTutor is terminating on 1 July 2007.)

Student Life: http://www.mchenry.edu/StudentLife/
How to start a student organization, list of student organization, and calendar of events on campus

Testing Center: http://www.mchenry.edu/TestingCenter/index.asp
The Testing Center provides proctored testing to MCC online classes in the Testing Center by faculty request. In addition; the Testing Center supports other colleges and universities throughout the nation by proctoring their distance education students. Other colleges send pencil and paper tests to the Testing Center to be proctored for a fee of $10 per hour or online tests for a flat $20 fee.