FIPSE ONE PROJECT
ANSWERS TO ANTICIPATED QUESTIONS

1. Who can participate? All Oregon community colleges, public universities, and independent colleges and universities are invited to participate. Participation is, of course, voluntary.
   
   
2. Will campuses have to pay anything to participate? The grant is providing funds to employ technical expertise in putting together the database which creates the searchable catalog. The grant will enable us to issue a prototype next fall, with revisions during the period of the grant. We are uncertain how we will fund versions of the catalog three years from now. That will be something we will be exploring over the next few years. Campuses will, of course, be investing staff time in putting together course submissions for the catalogue although we believe courses are currently available in electronic format so that campuses will be able to transfer data electronically. We are hoping, therefore, to reduce the commitments on your staffs' time by following these processes for course submissions.
   
   
3. What courses can be included? We want to include "distance education" courses in the catalog; these are courses students could participate in without having to come to a specific campus (e.g., Web courses, telecourses, CD-Rom courses, interactive video, mixtures, correspondence, etc.). We are looking for courses that are offered at multiple sites around the state (even if students must drive to a receive site) as well as asynchronous courses available to students "any place, any time." There are instances in which a course is offered at several receive sites around the state, and even though students have to drive to one of the receive sites, we do want to include these as distance education courses. If there are any questions about whether some of your courses would qualify, please contact the project staff for clarification.
   
   
4. What will the searchable catalog look like? We are looking at the best examples we can find nationally of searchable catalogs for ideas, and will be surfacing ideas through the project steering committee and other committees. Our goal will be to put up a Web site that is user friendly and offers a range of searchable elements.
   
   
5. What type of information will we need for each course? The elements we believe are most needed by students include:
   • course title, level/number, description
   • mode of delivery/access format (e.g., videotape, interactive video, Internet, CD-ROM, telecourses)
   • technological specifications needed by students to participate
   • time (when offered, how many weeks, self-paced asynchronous)
   • location within state (receive sites)
   • subject (business, nursing, social work, teacher education, etc.)
   • transferability (if lower division is it part of AA/TO or other general transfer degree?)
   • fits within degree pathways

   This is the information we wish to collect on each course to be included in the catalog.
   

6. How will you submit course information to the project? Included with this mailing is a list of database elements we will be conferring with campus contacts about for submission of course information to the catalog (the final list of requested elements may be revised after campus consultations). The final database format will include:
   • data elements proposed (contents)
   • descriptive notes that help to explain the element request
   • maximum length for the information
   • whether the element will be a searchable feature
   • program translation tables that provide quantifiable information on elements
   • glossary of terms used in the database.

7. What about courses on the drawing board right now? We recognize that many campuses have faculty working on Web courses and other distance education courses that may be ready for marketing by next fall. However, we are asking for this first round of the catalog that only distance education courses which are up and running at the time of receipt of the database request be submitted for inclusion in the catalog (in February 1999).
   
   
8. Is it permissible to submit only a portion of an institution's distance education courses? Institutions may submit any of their distance education courses for inclusion in the catalog; you may not wish for various reasons to submit all of your courses at this time.
   
   
9. What if an institution is not able to participate now but may wish to in the future? While we are encouraging all institutions in Oregon that offer distance education courses to participate, there will be another opportunity in the second year of the grant project for institutions to submit additional entries. However, the project budget has anticipated that the majority of the technical database work will be completed in the first year of the project; so if many institutions elect to wait to participate until the second year, we may not have sufficient time set aside to complete the entries and review for accuracy. If your institution is one that would prefer to wait until the second year, we would appreciate your letting us know that to expedite our planning.
   
   
10. When are course submissions due? Campus contact persons will be receiving specific directions in the coming weeks for preparing information for course submissions; we will be accepting course information electronically between March 1 - April 1, 1999. (For campuses unable to submit course information electronically, other processes will be available.)