Remote access via the digital campus

Before accepting this position (even before interviewing for it) asked the Dean how student services will be handled. I know from personal experience that having a good ear for student concerns and the ability to communicate and help them work through systems of the utmost importance. But, it is also necessary to have actual and sometimes real-time access to the services in question. This "mini-campus" will not have direct services in-house and will rely on the larger mother-ship campus a few miles away. As the Dean informed me, "Students will use the support services at the Brandon campus, but much can be done online" 

This actually makes quite a bit of sense and it will be up to me and my staff to know how to access these services and be able to assist students. We will have ready computer access in-house and I have to assume a suitable wi-fi overlay for the facility. If we don't have one it will be a top priority as I want students to have the flexibility to work anywhere within the area (including outside on the veranda). Fortunately the institution as a whole has ramped up its on-line systems for student services. It is currently a bit of a hybrid between computer interface and human face-time but it is several steps in the right direction. However, we won't truly know how efficient the system is for students at the satellite until we give it a try.

On the bright side, according to an article in Converge Magazine, community colleges as a whole are doing a much better job of providing digital access to student services and the academic environment. The article titled Five (5) Digital Community College Trends from 2010, these primarily two-year, commuter institutions hosting a majority of part-time students have seen improvements in mobile access, technical support, multiple platforms to access the curriculum, and career and academic guidance. There is still room for improvement .. what that is exactly I do not know (since I haven't even started the job yet) but I would hazard to guess that we will encounter problems with items such as basic user knowledge, distance interaction with both the virtual and the real, my personal learning curve (and that of my staff), and who knows what else.