Remote Learning Classes Booming Community Colleges Will Seek $7 Million To Meet Demand

Community college officials Thursday told legislators they will seek a $7 million supplemental budget appropriation to meet burgeoning demand for off-campus learning.

Classes extended by video, the Internet and other remote technology serve 26,000 students, representing a full-time enrollment of 4,000, more than some community college campuses, said Jan Yoshiwara, director of educational services for community and technical colleges.

Thanks to a linkup between all state learning facilities, she said, enrollment growth has reached 25 percent, more than triple the rate of just a few years ago.

Every class offered online fills to capacity, Yoshiwara said.

She said distant learning classes are reaching women, the young, the employed and others who don’t have time to make the trip to one of the main campuses.

“They can’t come to us. We go to them,” said Mary Carr, dean of instructional services and telecommunications at Spokane Community College.

She said college officials estimate they could spend $10 million across the six-county, 12,000-square-mile district to purchase new technology and provide training in its use.

“There’s a lot of things to do out there,” Carr said.

To help, she said administrators are pursuing corporate partnerships and grants. A student technology fee has been imposed.

But consistent legislative support is critical, she said, noting that employers like Avista Corp. say they can use hundreds of SCC graduates.

Yoshiwara said the additional funds would be used to further integrate systems serving community college campuses around Washington.

Students would be able to check catalog offerings with a single mouse click, she said, or reach a help desk open 24 hours a day to accommodate work and other schedules.

Members of the Energy, Technology and Transportation Committee also heard testimony from business and community leaders who asked for legislative action that will hasten the delivery of affordable, high-speed telecommunications to rural areas.

G.J. Pierman, the owner of a data-storage business in Moses Lake, said he wants public utility districts given authority to provide telecommunications services in the same way they deliver electricity.

He said he attended a conference at which US West Communications Chairman Sol Trujillo acknowledged the company would not invest in rural areas.

Pierman said he understands US West’s economics, but added that the state would benefit if alternative service providers were given incentives to locate east of the Cascade Mountains.

Art Hill, president of a Spokane company that does online technical publishing, said the area will not attract high-tech jobs that pay good salaries if communications links are not state-of-the-art.

Sen. Lisa Brown, the Democratic committee chairwoman from Spokane, said lawmakers will reassess a variety of possible ways to expand telecommunications services next year.

Restructuring the universal fund that subsidizes rural phone service or giving utility districts more authority will be a challenge, she said.