Project Eagle I (Part B) Executive Summary

The original Project Eagle was a multi-year strategic initiative by St. Petersburg College (SPC) to build a national model for increasing access to four-year degrees and work force training for students attending community colleges. The project continued from 1999-2003. Upon its conclusion in 2003, Project Eagle II began and it provided additional funds to move from an anytime, anywhere leaning environment to an everywhere, all-the-time learning environment. The current project is a continuation and extension Project Eagle II, which gave St. Petersburg College the impetus for the current undertaking. Since this is a continuation of Project Eagle II, and Congress named this appropriation "Project Eagle I", the label (Part B) will be added to distinguish it from the previous projects.

Project Eagle I (Part B) will allow for the full achievement of the program objectives from the previous project and more. The two projects by design will coalesce on some of the objectives as stated in the previous proposal and quoted in the budget section of this proposal. Through this appropriation, SPC will be able to automate and enhance its television Broadcast operation, purchase software for a student-based Internet portal, and sustain the goals and objectives of the previous award.

Over the next three years (July 2004 - June 2007), with the funds from Project Eagle I (Part B), St. Petersburg College proposes to:

Enhance the SPC Television Broadcast operation through the use of digital storage and automation;
Develop a robust college portal that integrates all electronic student services and is supplemented by a help desk so it becomes the one stop shop for students needing online support and information.
Formulate, implement, and disseminate an evaluation process of a nationally awarded outstanding distance education program.

As a continuation Project Eagle II (P116Z030112) and through the additional funding from Project Eagle I (Part B), St. Petersburg College will sustain the following goals and objectives:

Extension and continuation of online course and expand program development at the certificate, associate and baccalaureate levels;
Analysis and enhancement of current online courses to encompass innovative technologies;
Explore, test, and implement (in new and existing courses) models for standards-based learning objects, mobile computing and production activities, and video-on-demand;
Consolidate and integrate electronic academic and student support services;
Serve as a model for best practices and evaluation techniques, including the development of a formal comprehensive ongoing system for assessing quality of online programs and instructors.

SPC will accomplish these objectives by:

Transferring all of the videotape library to digital files;
Integration of live promos and live programming on SPC-TV;
Design and implement an online support service standards;
Formulate and implement an online student code of civility;
Create and implement an evaluation tool for Educational Technologists;
Focusing on the trend toward mobility in computers in both capturing educational materials and developing applications for mobile devices like PDA's;
Providing support for faculty during transition from the current course management system to the new one;
Adding to the repository of reusable learning objects/shared content objects and provide leadership in the national debate on evolution of standards, e.g., SCORM and other compliance issues like ADA, in this arena;
Extending of a multi-phased video initiative, including newly developed educational materials, to be incorporated in classes and developed for SPC-TV, and refining the systems for archiving, organizing, and utilizing a video-on-demand (VOD) system partially purchased with Eagle I funding;
Creating model courses that include these new technologies and applications; then refining the concept of mentors to work with the Educational Technologists to extend/expand training initiatives;
Augmenting cyberservices for online students to include cybertutoring;
Refinement of a database driven interface that allows for regular updating of information for Project Eagle courses in development and redevelopment;
Additional purchasing and upgrading, where appropriate, equipment and software for faculty and course development to take advantage of video applications and infrastructure advances;
Through project and contractual staff, developing, and testing a methodology for assessing learning outcomes and using the results to improve learning, including an ongoing research evaluation and dissemination component.