Additional Information about KYVC
Charter Mission Statement
Primary Purposes
Targeted Audiences
Role of the Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE)
Guiding Principles
The Kentucky Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997: The Role of Postsecondary Institutions
KYVC and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)
The mission of the KYVC is to be a student-centered, technology-based system for coordinating the delivery of postsecondary education that meets the needs of citizens and employers across the Commonwealth. Through enabling policies and appropriate technologies, the KYVC shall target initially three primary functions:
- Be a clearinghouse for quality distance learning opportunities provided by existing institutions both within and outside the state, primarily certificate and degree programs
- Offer competency-based credentialing
- Deliver a single point of access to statewide student, library and academic support services
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Consistent with the statewide strategic agenda for postsecondary education, the primary purposes of the KYVC are:
- Enhance and expand educational access, and thereby increase educational attainment across Kentucky.
- Upgrade workforce skills and foster professional development through basic and continuing education.
- Increase collaboration and encourage efficiency and effectiveness in delivering courses and programs.
- Enhance educational quality.
- Increase global competitiveness of Kentucky's educational resources.
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Given the KYVC charge to increase accessibility and attainment of postsecondary educational experiences, KYVC will focus on the primary clients listed below. KYVC also recognizes that the versatility of electronic delivery systems makes the number of potential users/clients essentially unlimited:
- Adult students
- Place-bound and time-bound students
- Employers and employees in business, industry, and government
- P-12 students, teachers, and administrators
- Students living in other states and countries
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The Council on Postsecondary Education, (CPE) is responsible for establishing KYVC policy. CPE shall also ensure that KYVC development occurs in consultation with Kentucky's postsecondary education institutions and consistent with HB 1.
The initial responsibility of the CPE in the development of the KYVC was to identify and adopt an effective, efficient organizational structure and operating unit for administering the KYVC. The KYVC shall not be a freestanding, separately accredited degree-granting institution, but will function by means of standing and ad hoc advisory committees, including an academic council.
Through the DLAC, the CPE will work closely with both public and independent institutions to fulfill the following KYVC-related responsibilities:
- Adopt an organizational structure for managing KYVC daily operations
- Develop new enabling policies.
- Review existing CPE legal responsibilities and policies, including those related to tuition, fees, financial aid, extended-campus (e.g., geographic service areas), academic program development and review, transferability of credit, accountability, and others, in light of the KYVC mandate. CPE shall revise these as appropriate.
- Conduct needs assessments for courses, degree programs, and services.
- Develop a statewide plan for providing and marketing distance-learning access to postsecondary education.
- Identify appropriate providers to meet identified needs.
- Emphasize efficiency in the delivery of coherent programs of study normally leading to certificates or degrees. Also stress efficiency in providing administrative and academic support services to students and faculty.
- Develop and maintain a clearinghouse system that, among other things, will provide single-source access for student and educators to a wide variety of services. Also easily accessible shall be a statewide catalogue of information for students and a statewide schedule of KYVC courses and program offerings.
- Establish principles of good practice and quality standards for educational offerings.
- Facilitate statewide faculty development initiatives.
- Establish processes for measuring outcomes and accountability in order to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of KYVC offerings. Identify pilot initiatives.
- Provide funding incentives that further the mission and purposes of the KYVC.
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The goals of the Kentucky Virtual University shall first be attained through the cooperative efforts of Kentucky's existing postsecondary institutions. Pursuant to the Kentucky Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997:
"The regional universities shall be the primary developers and deliverers of baccalaureate and master's degree programs to be delivered by the Kentucky Virtual University; however, this does not preclude the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville, or independent colleges from offering baccalaureate and master's degree programs or other course offerings, and community colleges and the technical institutions offering associate and technical degree programs or other courses through the Kentucky Virtual University."
Responsibilities of the institutions include:
- Participating with KYVC in identifying the postsecondary education needs of the citizens and employers in the Commonwealth.
- Identifying and developing distance learning courses, programs, and other credentialing mechanisms, that are responsive to the identified needs and that are consistent with institutional missions and the statewide Strategic Agenda.
- Reducing inefficiencies and improving quality in course and program offerings through inter-institutional cooperation, the use of distance learning technologies, and the application of contemporary instructional technologies.
- Identifying or developing high quality distance learning courses and programs that are competitive in the national and international market.
- Providing coordinated student, library, and academic support services for the KYVC that meet the unique needs of KYVC students.
- Participating in the KYVC consistent with CPE adopted policies and the statutory responsibilities of each institution.
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Decision-making processes for all entities and organizations charged with planning, coordinating, operating and regulating the KYVC, including the CPE, the CPE-authorized KYVC coordinating entity, the DLAC, DLAC Work Groups, and education providers, shall be guided by this policy statement in its entirety, including the following guiding principles.
The KYVC shall:
- Implement the vision, goals, and objectives of the statewide strategic agenda for postsecondary education.
- Recognize institutional missions and their respective strategic plans.
- Effectively and efficiently utilize existing resources, including faculty, services, and information technology, to accomplish its goals.
- Capitalize on and create synergies among the educational resources and services of in-state institutions, both public and independent.
- Use regional, national, and international resources to meet the needs of students that cannot be met by in-state institutions.
- Use available state resources, including public schools, in the delivery of post-secondary education.
- Develop importing and outsourcing options where appropriate. Use educational best practices across the country and globe to conceptualize, develop, deliver, and evaluate instruction, student services, and faculty development.
- Respond promptly to demonstrated needs for programs and courses by providing instruction, learning resources, and student services where and when needed.
- Respond promptly to demonstrated needs for programs and courses by providing instruction, learning resources, and student services where and when needed.
- Promote faculty and staff reward and recognition systems that value innovative uses of alternative delivery systems.
- Recognize, evaluate and, where appropriate and feasible, adopt state-of-the-art technologies and processes that can best serve Kentucky's needs.
- Integrate, to the maximum extent possible, assessment of the KYVC with the CPE's existing accountability and comprehensive data base systems.
- Address intellectual property and copyright issues.
- Produce high quality student learning.
As Approved, July 13, 1998, Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) Policy Statement Guiding Development of the Kentucky Virtual University (KYVC)
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KYVC and SACS—Substantive Change Procedure
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (COC)
Commission Organization and Members
Frequently Asked Questions regarding Accreditation
Accreditation Procedures, 2000 Annual Meeting Information
The Consulting Network
1998 Criteria for Accreditation
General Information on the Accreditation Process
COC Staff Directory
On June 16, 1999, Mary Beth Susman, CEO of the KYVC, wrote to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) to officially notify them of the start up of the KYVC and the nine pilot projects to be brought online by Fall of 1999. Since SACS accreditation resides with the institutions providing the curriculum and not with the KYVC, Dr. Susman's letter served mainly as a notification of the new presence of a statewide initiative.
On February 14, 2000, Dr. James T. Rogers, Executive Director for the SACS Commission on Colleges, notified the KYVC that the Executive Council of the Commission had approved the proposal that Kentucky be allowed to have a single statewide review for a substantive change for all of the KYVC's providers when necessary. By July the KYVC provider institutions designated their KYVC contacts for SACS information.
Dr. Tom E. Benberg, Associate Director of SACS
Commission on Colleges, visited the KYVC in the last week of
July 2000 and determined that a statewide review was not necessary
at this time. He asked that more information regarding Kentucky's
unique approach to collaborative online programs be forwarded
to SACS. The individual institutions involved in these programs
offered via the KYVC will take on this task of further notification.
After discussions with the KYVC liaisons, Randolph Hollingsworth,
the KYVC Special Projects Coordinator, developed a monograph
(PDF document) regarding the KYVC. This document can be
used by the provider institutions as they develop their reports
for SACS and need to include data on the policies and procedures
of the KYVC.
Other than the usual decennial reviews, the KYVC provider institutions need to continue to simply notify SACS of online distance learning activities on a regular basis, and the KYVC will continue to facilitate this notification process whenever necessary. Perhaps at a later date, Kentucky institutions may find it useful to have a statewide review facilitated by the KYVC.
Rationale of KYVC Facilitation and Objectives of a Statewide Review with a Joint Prospectus
- Coordinate process that leads to a successful substantive change review for institutions offering programs via KYVC
- Save time/expense in following SACS procedure (1 visit, 1 report)
- Formulate template for all KYVC provider institutions to follow so to cut down on wasted effort or procedural misunderstandings
KYVC as "Alarm Clock:" Calendar of Events
- Institution notifies SACS of its plan to initiate or expand its distance learning program via KYVC.
- An institution reaches 25% of a program being offered online via KYVC.
- KYVC alerts institution's SACS liaison of need to begin gathering data for further notification regarding growth of online program; KYVC determines if more than one provider institution has reached a similar level and, if desired by the provider institutions, facilitates a joint notification of SACS.
- Information gathered from KYVC databases incorporated into the provider institution's notification.
- If SACS determines that a review of a particular institution is necessary, the KYVC will act in a supporting role to provide any additional necessary information to the provider institution.
- If SACS indicates that more than one institution, or a collaborative program, needs to be reviewed, then the KYVC will coordinate the submission of a joint prospectus describing the multiple provider institutions' distance learning plans regarding the KYVC.
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