MICHIGAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENT SERVICES ASSOCIATION

Fall 1998
Park Place Hotel
Traverse City, Michigan
Wednesday, October 14 - Friday, October 16, 1998

Proceedings

Think back to how we did business ten years ago. Now, think about how we do business today—many changes have taken place and most are due to the increased use of technology. We now accept that changes in technology are constant and provide us with real opportunities for enhancements in student services. Our challenge now is to determine the directions that new technology will take us in the next ten years.

The MCCSSA is committed to providing leadership in exploring new horizons. The Fall conference in Traverse City, "Enhance Student Services Through Technology," facilitated by James L. Morrison (UNC Chapel Hill) and Peter Masterson (SCT Corporation), focused on developing a vision of how student service professionals can use information technology tools to further improve our delivery of services to students in the coming decade. The conference illustrated how we can use information technology tools to enhance the value of a conference for participants. We linked to readings to help participants prepare for the visioning exercises and for the hands-on computer exercises on Internet search tools and Web design. We have posted the conference proceedings from each workgroup in the visioning exercise. To facilitate networking after the conference, we have identified participants in each workgroup and have provided their e-mail addresses. And we have an electronic discussion forum for participants to comment on the proceedings. Conference presentations and the biographical sketches of speakers are available at a click of the mouse.

Relevant Reading Materials on the Future of the Community College

Participants were asked to review the following readings prior to coming to the conference (Note: On the Horizon articles are reproduced here with the permission of Jossey-Bass Publishers.) 

Boggs, G. R. "Accepting Responsibility for Student Learning." On the Horizon, 1998, 6(1), 1, 5-6. Campbell, D. "Another View." On the Horizon, 1997, 5(1), 6-8. Cohen, A. "The Constancy of Community Colleges." On the Horizon, 1997, 5(1), 1, 4-5. Morrison, J. L. "Anticipating the Future." On the Horizon, 1996, 4(3), 2-3 Morrison, J. L. "Transforming Educational Organizations." On the Horizon, 1997, 5(1), 2-3 O'Banion, T. "Schooling is Out—Learning is In." On the Horizon, 1996, 3(5), 1-2, 5-6. O'Banion, T. "Gladly Would He Learn." On the Horizon, 1996, 4(1), 1, 3-5. Tait, F. (May 1998). Using Best Practices, Workflow, and Object Technologies to Improve Higher Education Management. The Technology Source.

Conference Program

Wednesday, October 14, 1998

2:00 - 4:00 p.m.	Pre-Conference Dean's Quarterly Meeting
4:00 - 7:00 p.m.	Registration
4:30 - 7:00 p.m.	Hospitality (Sponsored by SCT Corp.)
7:00 - 8:00 p.m.	Dinner (T-shirt exchange)
8:15 - 9:00 p.m.	Community College Education in the 21st Century James L. Morrison What are the driving forces that will affect how we live and learn in the 21st century? How will these forces affect the structure and process of community colleges in the coming decade? What are the implications for student services?

Thursday, October 15, 1998

Developing a Vision of Using Technology to Enhance Student Services in Michigan Community Colleges James L. Morrison

The following portion of the conference consisted of a series of small group exercises to explore how Michigan community colleges are using technology to enhance student services today and develop a vision of how they may use technology in the future.

Note: we worked in small groups of 6-8 people and we used the Nominal Group Process. The details of each group's response to the following exercises are available for review. In effect, the proceedings of each group are co-authored by each person in that group. The discussion can continue via the conference discussion forum. Note that one thread is for participants to contribute their ideas as to how the Spring 1999 conference can capture the ideas generated in the Fall conference to continue the exploration as to how we can use technology to enhance student services.

7:30 - 9:00 am	Breakfast
8:30 - 9:00 am	What were the salient characteristics of our society in 1988? What was going on in the nation? What was going on in society? How did these characteristics affect student services in Michigan community colleges?
9:00 - 9:30 am	Reportbacks
9:30 - 10:00 am	Where are we today? How is the world of today different from that world of 1988? What were the driving forces that caused the world to change? How did these forces affect Michigan community colleges? How did these forces affect student services in Michigan community colleges?
10:00 - 10:15 am	Break
10:15 - 10:45 am	Reportbacks
10:45 - 11:15 am	Where will we be in 2008? What is our vision of using information technology tools to enhance student services? How might the world be different 10 years from now? How are our stakeholders (students, faculty, alumni, trustees, community) likely to change? What will their expectations of student services be? How will student services use information technology in that world?
11:15 - 11:45 am	Reportbacks
11:45 am - 1:00 p.m.	Lunch
1:00 - 1:45 p.m.	Michigan Virtual University Update David A. Spencer, President
1:45 - 3:00 p.m.	A Vision of the Future Peter Masterson & Eileen Ramer, SCT Corporation
3:00 - 3:15 p.m.	Break
3:15 - 4:30 p.m.	Obstacles & Strategies to Realizing the Vision What are the major obstacles in the way of realizing the vision? What should be our strategies in dealing with these obstacles?
4:30 - 5:00 p.m.	Reportbacks
5:00 p.m.	Hospitality (Dinner on your own)

Friday, October 16, 1998

Hands-on Workshop! Using computers on the campus of Northwestern Michigan College, we will learn by doing. James Morrison and Peter Masterson will lead participants through exercises designed to increase competency in searching the Internet and enhancing student services' presence on the Web. Each participant will have a computer for use during the workshop and will receive a copy of Microsoft FrontPage '98 to use in constructing a basic Web page. This session will be held in the James Beckett Building, Rooms 202 and 217.

7:30 - 8:30 am	Breakfast
9:00 - 9:30 am	How to Conduct Efficient and Effective Internet Searches Review Finding Information on the Internet Learning More About Search Engines
9:30 - 9:45 am	Principles of Effective Web Design Review Suggestions for Institutional Web Page Authors Web Design Group: Design Elements
9:45 - 10:45 am	Constructing Your Personal Web Page Using FrontPage Editor
10:45 - 11:00 am	Break
11:00 - 11:30 am	Web Exercise Who are the principle audiences for a community college Web page (e.g., prospective students seeking to update their occupational credentials, prospective students who just graduated from secondary school, current students, legislators)? Assume the role of one of the audiences. What types of information or services will you look for about a college? Search for a community college site outside the state of Michigan that best serves people in the audience you identified above. Identify sites that are not as helpful to people in your audience.(Hint: go to the Community College Web to obtain URLs of community colleges across the nation.) Identify one campus Web page that you found that would be most attractive and helpful to you and one that would not be attractive. What are the criteria you use to make these decisions? What advice would you give either campus?
11:30 am - 12 noon	Reportbacks
12 noon - 12:15 p.m.	Conference Wrap-Up

MCCSSA is able to offer this conference at low costs because of the generous financial support of the Community College Services Unit — Michigan Department of Education, SCT Corporation, and Microsoft.

Pages designed by Lorelei Feldman and Patrick Anderson, 1998.