The Oklahoma State Legislature and the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education have partnered to put forth an initiative to strengthen the state's intellectual power in hopes of preparing its citizens to compete in the global, knowledge-based economy of the 21st Century. As a starting point for the Oklahoma Learning Site Initiative, the Oklahoma State Regents set forth two goals: (a) to improve the quality of life of the citizens of Oklahoma and (b) to improve Oklahoma's rankings on national economic indicators to achieve a condition in which Oklahoma's growth rate on national economic indicators is consistently above the national average (National Center for Higher Education, 1998).
This descriptive study examined the barriers to implementation of the Oklahoma Learning Site Initiative and provided research data concerning the learning sites and the response to the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education Policy. Questions were addressed through focus group interviews with students, faculty, and administrative staff as well as indepth interviews with 14 chief academic officers of the state institutions in the state of Oklahoma. Policies and procedures were examined and participants were asked to respond as to how they functioned and took responsibility for ascertaining and aggressively meeting the educational needs in their respective communities. In serving those needs, these institutions were examined concerning use of the programmatic and course expertise of sister institutions.
Four barriers were identified from the collection and analysis of the data: communication, faculty buy-in, money, and technology. Evident in each barrier was a sense of collaborative effort on the part of students, faculty, administrative staff, and chief academic officers. The initiative represented a collaborative effort on the part of all institutions involved in the study. It appeared that implementation of the Oklahoma Learning Site Initiative was well underway.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:etd-2044 |
| Date | 01 May 2004 |
| Creators | Plumb, Robin L. |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Electronic Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | Copyright by the authors. |
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