Purpose of the Study. This study was conducted to determine the responsiveness of Lake-Sumter Community College to the needs of its community in the field of lifelong learning and to evaluate that responsiveness. The student investigated areas where the needs of the community are not fully met, to examine the causative barriers to community service and to present recommendations for the reduction of those barriers whereby the college might improve its community service. / Small community colleges with limited budgets and personnel need definitive processes to find answers to problems. The study was conducted to determine the demographic correlation between enrolled non-credit students and the general population of the institution's service area. / Seven research questions were proposed, centering around gaining a current view of which segments of the population were being served, facilitating factors and barriers to enrollment and effectiveness of the courses offered. / Procedures. Procedures for the study were divided into five categories: (1) review of literature; (2) constructing a demographic data base of the institution's area; (3) development and administration of an instrument to determine the demographic characteristics of the non-credit students in the institution; (4) classification and processing of the data; (5) analysis and presentation of the data. / The instrument used was modified from one used by Nickens in a previous study, with added questions to determine student perceived barriers to enrollment, factors which facilitated enrollment, and what information media were effective in acquainting the population with course offerings. / Findings. Findings indicated that in general Lake-Sumter Community College was most responsive to the needs of white, married, female Lake County residents, in the 45 to 65 years of age group (especially those with some previous college), from a family with an income in excess of $12,000 per year. However, it was not as responsive to the needs of the black, separated male residents of Sumter County in the 15 through 24 years age group (especially those with a 7th grade education or less), from a family with a yearly income of $3,999 or less. / This study revealed perceived barriers to registration such as those of distance to the classroom, lack of knowledge of offerings, and inability to pay the fees. The perceived facilitators to enrollment focused upon overcoming those barriers. / The study indicated that most (94 percent) of the students were very satisfied with their courses. In terms of enrollment the present informal means for determining courses appeared adequate. / Recommendations. The study contains recommendations to the college: (1) to improve access by offering more outreach classes, planning some free classes, and rotating classes to different evenings; (2) to improve safety by improving campus lighting; (3) to make offerings more responsive to disadvantaged public's needs by setting up an appropriate advisory committee; (4) to increase dissemination of course information by evaluating media on the basis of dollars per traceable registration and making appropriate adjustments in media budgeting. / Recommendations for further research included: (1) surveying students earlier in the term to capture those who might dropout; (2) include non-students in the survey; (3) survey non-credit students at another institution similar to Lake-Sumter Community College; (4) construct a comparison of student demographics to population demographics to population demographics for evaluative purposes; (5) probe possibility of recruiting instructors for free courses. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-02, Section: A, page: 0509. / Thesis (Educat.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74069 |
| Contributors | ALLAN, WALTER EVERETT., The Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 126 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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