EDGE: Booklet and Web Site

The EDGE Strategic Discovery Process exists in two discrete forms: paper-based booklets and an electronic database. The database is the actual "living" EDGE document, while the booklets represent recent snapshots of the database’s contents. Therefore, while the books are intended to serve as the SACS Consulting Team’s primary documents, the database may in some cases contain more up-to-date information. In addition, the database will permit Consulting Team members to conduct searches for specific kinds of information. Consultants should feel free to choose the form with which they would be most comfortable. Below is a description of the both the booklets and the database.

The Booklets

The print-based version of the EDGE Strategic Discovery Process comprises five booklets. The first booklet contains the EDGE report and appendices, including the Steering Committee’s summaries of all four phases. The remaining four booklets contain the complete contents of the database for each of the self- study’s four phases.

The Database

The database can be accessed on the World Wide Web through the EDGE Web Site (http://www.spjc.edu/central/edge/home.html). From the home page, users can search for individual EDGE Committee reports on the database or for all of the reports from a given campus. The EDGE Web Site also contains an electronic version of this report as well as numerous ancillary items of interest.

INTRODUCTION

Forward iv

EDGE Steering Committee vi

SACS Self-Study Flow Chart vii

SACS Self-Study Components viii

Tradition of Excellence 1

The Evolving Focus 3

Strategic Discovery Goals 5

Implementation 6

EDGE Committee Guide 7

ROAD TO EDGE STRATEGIC DISCOVERY 11

Strategic Planning Model 13

Timeline 14

Events by Date 16

SUMMARIES

Executive Summary 18

Summary of Phase I Responses 20

Summary of Phase II Responses 25

Summary of Phase III Responses 32

Summary of Phase IV Responses 36

EDGE Committee Action Plans 40

Questions for Consultants' Consideration 66

APPENDICES

Appendix A: EDGE Committee Members 67

Appendix B: Collegewide EDGE Survey 74

Appendix C: Project Eagle 80

Appendix D: Program Chair & EDGE Committee Chair Retreat 102

Appendix E: EDGE Business Forum, July 22, 1999 106

Appendix F: Planning Retreat Report, January 27, 1999 127

Appendix G: Student EDGE Forum, March 22, 1999 139

 

In 1997 we were selected to co-chair the Alternative Self-Study. Why? Because we were mavericks! &endash; or as Dr. Esther Oliver phrased it in persuading us to serve &endash; we were pioneers in introducing new strategies for teaching and learning, Guy in developing an online A.S. degree in Veterinary Technology and David in converting an extra Mac SE to a server and developing online Composition courses.

These early journeys of discovery proved to be relevant to students and in a sense served as a catalyst for the College at large. The EDGE Strategic Discovery Process has been a natural next step, enabling us to serve as virtual tour guides as individuals and departments throughout the College embarked on their journeys into uncharted waters. The process has turned out to be a significant and meaningful learning experience for both of us.

While the EDGE Committees were on their journeys, we were also following a new route. We were challenged with learning the tools and techniques of the strategic discovery process. We only hope the Committees benefited from their quests as much as we have. Our experience validates a truth that we already knew: Learning is good for you, regardless of the subject.

We know that higher education has excelled at living with constant change and at incorporating new information into the content of our disciplines. Steve Gilbert, President of the American Association of Higher Education, notes: In the past "new knowledge was generated within a framework that was assumed to change rarely if at all," but today the framework is changing even more rapidly than the content.

And as rapid changes in technology and pedagogy occur, St. Petersburg Junior College also faces changes in student demographics and expectations, fluctuations in funding, and challenges posed by increased competition where there had been little before. Thus, a critical leg of the EDGE journey has been to discover the institution’s capacity to change.

To this end, those of us engaged in the EDGE process considered the College’s internal and external environments and how the College might best take advantage of available benefits and opportunities. To ensure that EDGE is not a one-time special project, we have worked with the College Family to integrate the EDGE Strategic Discovery Process into the institution’s Strategic Planning Process, including annual Unit Planning. Since some of the answers we discover today will be inadequate in tomorrow’s environment, such integration will enable the College to better respond to the constant flow of new information.

Dieting may provide a useful analogy: We can’t just diet away a few pounds and then resume our previous eating habits. If we want to keep the weight off we must learn a new way of eating. Likewise, a one-time study won’t remain useful for any length of time in an environment that continues to change so rapidly. The EDGE process removed a few pounds and, we hope, made us reflect on our eating habits and contemplate long-term organizational solutions that will better enable St. Petersburg Junior College to respond to change.

In a recent interview, John Chambers, President of Cisco Systems, was asked to forecast the next major milestone for the Internet:

"Education over the Internet," Chambers said, "is going to be so big it is going to make e-mail usage look like a rounding error in terms of the Internet capacity it will consume.

"E-learning," insists Chambers, "if done right, can provide faster learning at lower costs with more accountability, thereby enabling both companies and schools to keep up with changes in the global economy that now occur at Net speed. Schools and countries that ignore this, he says, will suffer the same fate as big department stores who thought e-commerce was overrated."

Clearly, this is one of St. Petersburg Junior College’s challenges as it enters the new millennium, and we hope the EDGE Strategic Discovery Process will enhance the institution’s ability to meet the ever-changing educational needs of business and the community at large.

With that in mind, as an indication of the pace of change, let’s consider some of the many innovations we have witnessed since the start of the EDGE Strategic Discovery Process in the fall of 1997:

• Ground was broken at the Seminole Campus for the initial building, which opened last fall. Already a second phase is under construction to house the College University Center, a program that did not exist two years ago.
• The St. Petersburg Junior College Center @ USF St. Petersburg was established.
• The College opened the Corporate Training Center at the ICOT business park.
• A second ground breaking took place for the Leepa-Rattner Museum on the Tarpon Springs Center.
• New financial and human resources administrative software systems have been installed.
• More than 50 courses are now available online, and many more courses use the web as a significant learning and administrative tool.
• Over 40 occupational certificate programs were developed as part of A.S. degree programs.
• Project Eagle, a five-year FIPSE grant, was awarded, enabling the development of 160 distance learning courses and the placement of supporting technical/curriculum development staff on six sites.
• Videoconferencing labs were installed at the six sites.
• An orientation video was developed for new students; a CD-ROM is in progress.
• Telephone registration was implemented; online registration is being piloted.
• Instructional, student support and administrative computers have been purchased and installed at an unparalleled rate to replace and expand student labs, faculty development centers, library labs as well as to upgrade computers on the desks of faculty, program directors, administrators and support personnel.
• Library automation and Internet capabilities are continually being increased.

The EDGE discovery process further reinforced our strong convictions that higher education is going through major transformation, that the rate of change is increasing, and that the College’s ability to process and respond to new information must continue to accelerate. The findings and recommendations of the EDGE Committees support these convictions and give encouragement that the College is up to the challenge.

In working on what we call the EDGE Strategic Planning Process, it has been a pleasure for us as co-chairs to meet, get to know, work with and learn from so many fine people throughout the College. Their enthusiasm and willingness to trust us (or at least humor us), to do the extra work requested, and to encourage us in our task was much appreciated. One of the many pleasures of working at the College is the widespread spirit of collegiality and cooperation that we experienced everywhere we went, at every meeting and event. A hearty thanks to everyone who has participated!

Guy Hancock,

David Hartman,

EDGE Co-Directors

Kay Adkins, Associate Vice President, Occupational Programs

Susan M. Anderson, Director, Library Services

Martha E. Campbell, Faculty, Communications (current FGO President)

Susan S. Demers, Faculty, Legal Assisting

Brad E. Jenkins, Program Director, Engineering

Sean McCormick, Student

Sandra J. Mills, Instructional Technology

Linda Nielsen, Provost's Office, St. Petersburg Gibbs Campus

Kristina O’Daniels, Operations Manager, Corporate Training Services

Angel L. Rosado, Jr., Faculty, Criminal Justice

Joe Smiley, Program Director

Mary T. Smith, Associate Provost & EA/EO Officer

Lucien E.Tomski, Director, Institutional Effectiveness

Lynda G. Womer, Program Director, Distance Learning

Jean M. Wortock, Faculty, Nursing, formerly FGO President

Iris R.Yetter, Associate Vice President, Staff and Program Development

Traditionally the accreditation process leading up to a visit is a comprehensive study involving a college’s meeting standards established by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. This kind of self-analysis is characterized by an in-depth study of the standards of the Commission of Colleges’ Criteria with high involvement from personnel from all segments of the College.

Recently an alternative approach to the accreditation process was established by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools as a strategic study as opposed to the traditional comprehensive study. The alternative approach consists of two parts:

1. A focus study on some strategic topic defined by the institution that is of major concern to the college and will be of value to it.
2. An audit compliance of SACS standards as opposed to the traditional approach.

St. Petersburg Junior College has chosen the alternative approach, and the focus study is a STRATEGIC DISCOVERY PROCESS of teaching and learning entitled EDGE &emdash; Exploring Digital and Global Education: Discovering Work and Learning Strategies for the New Millennium. While the focused study and the audit compliance together constitute the institutional self-study, there are some significant differences between the two components as outlined in the following columns:

For St. Petersburg Junior College, one commitment has always towered above the rest, and that is the belief that the College’s primary mission is to find ways to best meet the needs of the students. As changes in demographics, economics, technology, and corporate and family culture steadily change and evolve, the College must prepare to ensure that future learners have the blend of skills and values necessary for success. Toward that end, faculty, administrators and staff in every unit of the College have been fast at work (a) examining and codifying current activities, practices and processes and (b) exploring new avenues to continue to provide a quality education that will meet the needs of students in an ever changing world.

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