2002 Excellence in College and University Distance Education Awards

ADEC presents Excellence in College and University Distance Education Award

Great Plains IDEA Top Winner

April 17, 2002
American Distance Education Consortium

The Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance (IDEA) was honored Monday, April 15 by the American Distance Education Consortium at the All ADEC meeting held in conjunction with the ITEC-Ohio Windows on the Future Conference held in Columbus, Ohio. The Great Plains IDEA received ADEC's National Excellence in College and University Distance Education Award.

CD-ROM: Great Plains Interactive Education Alliance

ADEC has selected the Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance (IDEA) to receive its Excellence in Distance Education Award in recognition of the alliance's interinstitutional graduate program in family financial planning; the faculty development opportunities provided by the alliance; and the alliance's creation of model policies and practices for distance education alliances. Virginia Moxley of Kansas State University accepted the award, which includes $5,000 and a trophy. Other ADEC member deans associated with the Great Plains IDEA include Antigone Kotsiopulos of Colorado State University, Mary Winter of Iowa State University, Marjorie Kostelnik of the University of Nebraska, and Lona Robertson of Oklahoma State University.

Formed in 1994, the Great Plains Alliance serves member institutions by offering faculty development opportunities; recommending standards, policies, and practices for distance education; and by creating a marketplace for sharing distance education courses and programs.

The alliance offers an interinstitutional distance education master's degree and post-baccalaureate certificate in family financial planning which currently enrolls over 50 students. They are in the final stage of development of interinstitutional distance education master's degree and certificate programs in youth development and gerontology and are developing a comprehensive national program devoted to serving the certification needs of family and consumer sciences teachers.

ADEC members Kansas State University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have chaired this collaborative team. Colorado State University, Iowa State University, Michigan State University, and Oklahoma State University are other involved ADEC institutions. North Dakota State University, South Dakota State University and Texas Tech are also members of the Great Plains IDEA.

The Kansas State University Master of Agribusiness (MAB) program provides a comprehensive skill set needed for a successful agribusiness career. It frees the student from the barriers and challenges distance education may present. This is the first distance education masters in agribusiness in the United States and it is receiving considerable attention from individuals and institutions throughout the world.

This program has involved faculty from many different departments from within the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as involvement of faculty from the University of California-Berkeley and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. MEPP is a financially self-supporting program which provides models for program planning and budgeting as well as student support, library access and Internet utilization. It has demonstrated the importance of marketing, evaluation and student support in promoting student satisfaction and future enrollments.

The Oregon State University Department of Fisheries and Wildlife is offering a total of seven distance education courses in such diverse topics as Multicultural Perspectives, Ecology and History, Geographic Information Systems, Birds, Salmon and Wildlife Conservation. Enrollments in these courses totaled 207 for academic year 2000-2001. Several of these courses have received awards from the Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE). Each of these courses is incorporated into OSU's offering of the Natural Resources Degree.

Doc@Distance is a joint doctoral program offered by ADEC member Texas A&M University and Texas Tech University. The program utilizes several distance education strategies and unique combinations of teaching methods, which gives administrators the ability to diversify and expand academic curriculums and enables universities to reach out to students who would not otherwise have access to a doctoral degree in agricultural education.

ADEC, which comprises 63 universities and other organizations, is headquartered at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It offers degree programs, academic courses, advanced placement courses for high schools, nonformal education courses and certificates using a variety of technologies. Member institutions offer their programs through the consortium, and several ADEC offerings are designed and taught by more than one university.

The ADEC catalog and detailed information about ADEC's programs can be found on the Web at http://www.adec.edu.


	E-mail Site Manager: webmaster@adec.edu	Last Updated: May 6, 2003