Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance

Colorado State University, Iowa State University, Kansas State University, Texas Tech University Michigan State University, University of Missouri, Montana State University, University of Nebraska North Dakota State University, Oklahoma State University, South Dakota State University

Projects Replicating the Great Plains IDEA Model

Community Development - Early Childhood Higher Education Options
Hispanic Educational Telecommunications System

In 2002, faculty representing the colleges of Agriculture, Architecture and Arts and Sciences convened to focus on academic implementation using a replication of the inter-institutional Great Plains IDEA model. Eleven states with twelve institutions (five institutions representing current Great Plains IDEA institutions and seven institutions not affiliated with Great Plains IDEA) agreed to participate in the development of the Master’s degree in Community Development. Resulting from this intense meeting of community development faculty, a draft Master’s curriculum consisting of five core courses and five specialization tracks was developed. Faculty teams were also identified and put in place.

This project is adapting the Great Plains IDEA model to an in-state setting at Kansas’ private colleges, large flagship universities and state colleges.

In 2002, Kansas restructured teacher licenses and put the state on a fast track to build a collaborative statewide academic program. The State Board of Education approved standards for an early childhood license, unified endorsement (birth through grade three). The new license unifies early childhood education and early childhood special education and expands the early childhood license from birth through kindergarten to birth through grade three. Special education content and skills will be infused into the early childhood curriculum to include both typical and atypical child development so that teachers are prepared to teach all children. Consequently, there is an urgent need for institutions to modify/redesign their early childhood and elementary education programs to meet the new license standards. As a result, a group of over 20 Kansas early childhood faculty from community colleges, private colleges, and state universities formed the Early Childhood Higher-Education Options (ECHO) Consortium www.parsons.lsi.ku.edu/edu. ECHO is working cooperatively to develop online courses to address the thirteen standards in the new Kansas early childhood license, unified endorsement (birth to grade three).

ECHO faculty have participated in two professional development online teaching workshops. They have a high level of professional commitment and see collaboration as an exciting opportunity to learn from each other, provide wider access to specialized faculty expertise (i.e. autism, gifted, family structures, developmental stages), and enhance the knowledge and skills of early childhood teachers. In the future, they plan to collaborate on performance-based assessment of teaching skills to meet license standards, practicum sites and supervision, teacher license renewal and community college articulation agreements. The collaborative development of online courses that meet the early childhood unified endorsement standards will ultimately provide vulnerable young children with improved early education.

The Hispanic Educational Telecommunications System (HETS) is a consortium of community colleges, private institutions, state universities, and city universities established to expand Hispanic higher education access through telecommunications and distance learning initiatives. HETS is designed to serve the Hispanic community through distance learning. HETS established the Virtual Plaza, the first interactive bilingual portal to provide access to a diversified offering of online courses and mentoring support services.

In January 2003, HETS invited Kansas State University FIPSE LAAP project staff to attend their winter board meeting to initiate discussions about applying the Great Plains IDEA model to their initiative to offer inter-institutional online programs to meet the needs of Hispanic audiences. Kansas State University has been asked to help identify academic programs for potential collaboration among HETS institutions; develop an online collaboration resource center; and encourage the formation of collaboration teams.

The Institute for Academic Alliances at Kansas State University can provide you with further information and assistance in developing collaborative academic programs.