History of IEC

In October 1999 the Presidents' Council (leaders of the seven publicly funded institutions of higher education in Idaho) directed the Chief Technology Officer (State Board of Education) to pursue the planning of Idaho's future in distance learning. The Presidents hired Northern Lights, Inc., to provide an analysis of the current state of distance learning in Idaho, an analysis of the trends in distance learning, and a projection for the future of distance learning in Idaho.

February 2000 the presidents and provosts met jointly to review the Northern Lights, Inc. (NLI) report and to decide on the next steps. The report included information from each institution:

BASIC PROFILE

Years in Distance Learning Business

Growth over the past five years

Current geographic markets

Profitability

LEARNING MODEL

Accreditation

Courses and programs

Students

Faculty

Pedagogical Model

BUSINESS MODEL

Course production and delivery

Faculty support

Learner support

Marketing

Expansion strategy

INFRASTRUCTURE PROFILES

INSTITUTIONAL STRATEGIC PLANS

SPREADSHEET OF FOR-CREDIT COURSES DELIVERED ELECTRONICALLY

This report provided the means - the information and data -- for building relationships between Idaho's seven unique institutions. The lack of funding, always an issue, curtailed the sequential phases of the NLI project (continued data collection and analysis, needs analysis, cost/benefit analysis), with one exception. The presidents wanted a web site developed that would provide a single portal to all of the distance learning opportunities our seven public colleges and universities provide.

The State of Idaho contracted with National Information Consortium (NIC) to provide a statewide portal for all agencies, emphasizing e-commerce. The State Board of Education (and its institutions) are included in that contract. The Idaho Information Consortium (IIC is the local office of the NIC group) unveiled "Access Idaho" on May 3, 2000.

The IIC provides, at no cost to the institutions, the necessary hardware and software to host the distance learning web site, the Idaho Electronic Campus. The Board and participating colleges and universities provide the necessary data and information in an agreed upon electronic format. The institutions' representatives will cooperate with Access Idaho exploring ways to enhance web page content. The Board (or its agent) maintains the content of the web site. Access Idaho trained the Board's agent to do ongoing, remote maintenance of the web page content prior to the "go live" date of August 1, 2000.

The focus of the Idaho Electronic Campus web site is to provide Student Services or Support Services to traditional students as well as to individuals seeking professional development and lifelong learning opportunities. The purpose of the site is to link prospective students to the hundreds of electronically delivered courses from the state's seven publicly funded institutions. A key component of the Idaho Electronic Campus web site is a searchable database of the courses offered. Students can search by a variety of fields (e.g., course title, instructor, method of delivery).

The site directs the students to the specific institution for detailed information about:

• Admissions
• Registration
• Credit transfer
• How programs and courses are delivered
• Financial aid
• Prerequisites and other enrollment matters
• Tuition and fees
• Refunds

The site focuses on "value adding" [ease of use, adaptability, timesaving, cost savings, quality and relevance]. To that end, the site links to

• Learning Styles sites for personal inventories and other helpful distance learning materials.
• Distance learning requisites: hardware, software, Internet access, and glossaries of networking and technology.
• Libraries and information resources
• Free Application for Federal Student Aid