Inter-Institutional Masters Program in Family Financial Planning
The inter-institutional masters program in family financial planning has its foundation in the Great Plain- Interactive Distance Education Alliance (Great Plains - IDEA). Great Plains-IDEA is a consortium of seven Colleges of Human Sciences/Family and consumer Sciences. This group commenced in June 1994, in response to an initiative launched by the University of Nebraska to offer course work Fall 1994 leading to a M.S. degree. The University of Nebraska sought partners who would join their efforts by delivering or receiving courses. The Deans meet twice a year in work sessions and through bi-monthly conference calls to further faculty development in distance education instructional design and technology, develop collaborative and cooperative approaches among faculty and institutions, and to provide impetus for program development (with emphasis on post-baccalaureate credit and non-credit programming).
This partnership has resulted in a network of faculty and administrators working to enhance collective efforts in post-baccalaureate education (credit and noncredit)within this geographic region (http://www.gpidea.org/). Results to date include graduate students who take courses from institutions other than their home affiliation; affirmation of graduate faculty credentials; a curriculum committee who work on acceptance of curricular offerings (course objectives, syllabi, texts, learner outcomes) from alliance institutions; teams of faculty and administrators working to develop consortia degree programs in target areas of family science, family financial planning, and family and consumer science education. Great Plains-IDEA has developed and presented two faculty development national vide-conferences (1995, extramural funded), have conducted a faculty development learnshop for 75 individuals on topics related to the best practices in distance education (1996, extramural funded), and held a one-week intensive learn shop on learner-centered, experiential instructional design for Web-based instruction for 35 faculty (1997, extramural funded) and on Web-based instruction for faculty in July 1999 (extramural and intramural funded). In addition, Great Plains-IDEA has sponsored two work sessions for groups of faculty in two target areas. ADEC President Janet Poley is an on-going resource to the alliance, and Great Plains_IDEA uses ADEC's web pages for listing courses and program of study as well as maintaining its own web pages.
In December 1997, the Deans launched a strategic planning initiative facilitated by Peter C. Bishop. As a result of that session, the administrators re-affirmed their commitment to this efforts, including renewing their interest in inter-institutional, collaborative program development and delivery, established an agenda to continue seeking grant-funding, and when grant-funding was unavailable, and to partially support sessions for administrators and faculty when extramural funding was inadequate. As a result of strategic planning, the following mission statement was adopted:
The mission of the Great Plans IDEA is to serve the faculty and administrators of member institutions by offering workshops, recommending standards, sharing practices and disseminating policy issues and recommendations to allow member institutions to offer educational program with other institutions more easily and thereby give students and professionals access to more high quality education.
A Brief History of the family financial planning initiative:
May, 1997: The Faculty Development Workshop on instructional design for distance education was attended by faculty from seven Great Plains institutions. Goals of the workshop included to increase cooperation and collaboration, so an assignment included teams of faculty across institutions, who were to design "modules" for delivery. One team designed a masters in financial management.
June, 1998: The Great Plans Deans decided to support this faculty idea, and asked faculty to further develop the program. The faculty, in a two day work session, developed objectives for the program, courses, course descriptions, assessment of learner outcomes, and formative and summative evaluation criteria..
February, 1999: The work of the faculty was captured in a pre-proposal submitted in response to the RFP from ADEC Ag Telecommunication Program. The pre-proposal was selected for preparation of a full proposal in April 1999, http://www.adec.edu/ag-telecom/funded/3-47.html which was funded. The faculty work was the bases for the FIPSE proposal (unfunded).
June, 1999: the family financial planning faculty were convened in Kansas City for a two-day work session, further refining the curriculum development. Work commenced relative to preparation of materials to submit to the CFP Board of Standards to register this program. CFP and Certified Financial Planner are federally registered service marks of the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. They are granted by the CFP Board to those persons who have fulfilled a comprehensive educational requirement, passed the CFP Certification Examination, satisfied the work experience requirement and agreed to abide by the CFP Board code of ethical conduct. The Board of Standards lists 106 competencies that must be included in the coursework, and faculty designate which competencies will be covered in the course they teach. The faculty agreed to adopt the same requirements for admission and to adopt the most stringent requirements among these institutions relative to minimum scholastic performance and issues of review of academic progress.
July, 1999: A faculty development workshop on instructional design using courseware for web-based instruction was held, particularly targeting the financial management faculty. Faculty developed units in Learning Space or WebCT, and had hands-on opportunities with CourseInfo.
October, 1999: Faculty met in a one-day work session to continue program refinement.
Spring, 2000: Faculty are working through campus procedures for approval of the program and curriculum approval procedures for new courses; and developing courses for delivery to extended education students through the cooperating instutitions, commencing Fall 2000.
Brif History prepared by Joan Laughlin, University of Nebraska.
Gruaduate Deans and Continuing Studies Administrtors who participated Oct. 29, 2999; Inter-institutional M.S. degree program in family financial planning.
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Iowa State University Kansas State University Jim Guikema, Associate Dean of Graduate School David Steward, Assistant Dean of Continuing Education Sue Maes, Director University of Nebraska T. Newell Decker, Associate Dean, Graduate Studies Arnold Batemman, Assistant Vice Chancellor, Extended Education Randy Leach, Director Business Operations, Continuing Studies North Dakota State University Oklahoma State University Jim Hromas, Dean |
South Dakota State University Texas Tech University Suzanne Logan, Associate Vice Provst, Extended Learning ADEC Great Plans-IDEA Members Mary Winter, Associate Dean, Col. of Family and consumer Sciences, Iowa State Karen E. Craig, Dean CHRFS Univrsity of Nebraska Joan Laughlin, Associate Dean, CHRFS, University of Nebraska Virginia Clark, Dean, col. of Human Devleopment and Education, North Dakota State University Greg Sanders, Associate Dean, North Dakota State University Margaret Weber, Associate Dean, College of Human Environmental Sciences, Oklahoma State Laurie Stenberg Nichols, Dean, College of Family and Consumer Sciences, South Dakota State Linda Hoover, Associate Dean, Texas Tech University |