ITEM 108-2802-R0900� ATTACHMENT

 

The submission materials were prepared by Terry Munson, associate professor of business at Montana State University-Northern and lead instructor for this new school business administration program.

 

I.��������� BACKGROUND INFORMATION

 

In December of 1997, members of the Executive Committee of the Montana Association of School Business Officials (MASBO) approached MSU-Northern to discuss a certification program for members.� There had been a variety of certification programs for their organization but none were currently maintained in an ongoing program.� The initial meeting discussed the possibility of such a certification process through MSU-Northern.� Options for this scenario were to have a simple Business Department Certificate program that did not need Board of Regent approval or to develop the Board of Regent approved program.� Course offerings for current programs were given to the committee for their examination and certification needs for the organization were discussed.� The committee took this basic information back to their organization for further discussion.

 

In May of 1998, a second meeting was held.� In their needs analysis, the MASBO group discovered that the number of requirements they wanted for their program was too great for a one-year certificate program.� The discussion then turned to the possibility of an associate degree.� The basic requirements discussed were in two areas.� The first area was the need for general business courses; the second area was a need for specialized course-work for their school environment.�

 

The basic business courses in the current associate of business degree were acceptable for the program.� There were some exceptions, however.� Three courses that were deemed necessary for their requirements were offered only at the Junior (300) level or above.� When the actual course work was examined, the business faculty found that the information MASBO needed was not required in the amount of depth in a 300 level course.� We solved this problem in two ways.� One course was examined by MSU-Northern business faculty and found that the course could be offered in a 200/300 format where the 200 level course would cover the major text topics and the 300 level would have the in-depth information added to it.� The other two courses were covered by joining forces with MSU-Great Falls - College of Technology.� The COT was willing to provide two courses, Risk Management and Technical Writing, for the program.� Marilyn Besich, Business Chair - COT, discussed the two 200 level courses and the offering of these through the various presentation techniques (i.e. Northnet) and will work with us for the success of the students.� The specific coursework required for the degree program is set out as Exhibit A.

 

In addition to the regular courses, there were several topics that were identified as necessary for the daily work environment of the school business people.� These requirements will be discussed in a later section.

 

During the summer of 1998, the associate degree concept was presented in an infant form to the summer meeting of MASBO.� MSU-Northern instructor, Terry Munson, presented the idea and held a one credit continuing education seminar for the group.� Sixty-six members signed up for the seminar with twenty-two of them registering for credit.� The membership showed great interest and it was felt that the associate degree idea should progress.� Since that time, business faculty at MSU-Northern have been researching the special topics and developing course descriptions and syllabi requirements for each of the topics.� This program has been assisted greatly by the willingness of current and retired school administrators to speak with us about the requirements for the program.� These administrators have taught many of these topics as training sessions for high school employees and are willing to provide much of this information to the program as adjunct teachers.� Also, since the last meeting there has been a change in the associate degree taxonomy as outlined by the Board of Regents and those changes were incorporated into the program.

 

The proposed degree has been approved by the internal faculty review process on the MSU-Northern campus.� In addition the provost and the chancellor approved the new degree program. �That approval form is attached as Exhibit B.

  

II.�������� PROGRAM INFORMATION

 

The mission statement for MSU-Northern states: Montana State University-Northern provides an intellectual environment that fosters critical inquiry, professional and technical competency, and social responsibility.� The A.A.S. in School Business Administration complies with two of the concepts presented in that mission: professional competency and social responsibility.� Professional competency is seen in the ability of the students to be educated in the areas of their work requirements.� The program provides an ongoing source for improving the skills of school clerks.� The subject of social responsibility would imply that we must be concerned with the needs of society and must strive to improve that society.� In this case members of that society came forward with a genuine need for their improvement.� We can assist in that improvement.

 

The program, as an A.A.S., is directly applicable to the work environment of its target market.� The target market for this degree is the membership of the Montana Association of School Business Officials.� This membership consists of 499 school clerks in the Montana K-12 educational system.� The proposed plan calls for a cohort group of at least 20 members to enroll during the first year of the program.� There are currently 24 members waiting to be members of that first cohort group.� The plan calls for a second group to enroll during the following year.� After a four year span there would be 80 students in the pipeline for this degree.� Membership in MASBO is constantly changing which allows for an ongoing target market.

 

The assessment of the program would be an annual review of the program.� The review would include MSU-Northern business faculty, MASBO leadership, and the MSU-Northern Provost.� There are several aspects of the program that would be examined.� These aspects would include:

The program would be especially examined in the fourth year to determine the viability of the program continuation.

 

The impact of this program would come from the additional enrollment of students.� Student enrollment at Northern has fallen short of its goals for the past few years and, while this program will not erase all the difficulties, the addition of eighty (80) students by the fourth year would certainly help.�

 

Since this program is intended to be a distance-education program, there should be no impact on student services.� The plan will be executed through the distance education/ continuing education group at Northern.� This group consists of the Director, Janice Brady, and her assistant Judy Oveson.� It will not require the addition of any personnel in that department because we follow an already established procedure for the offering of the courses.� The biggest impact will probably be on the library.� The request of distance students for library material will undoubtedly increase.� However, we have found that the electronic sources of the library and those of the Internet are meeting many student needs.� Coordination between the business faculty and the library personnel will be necessary to assess the full impact.

 

The financial impact for this program is minimal.� Since the program will use courses that are already transmitted via the Northnet system, there are no start-up costs for the program.� The summer courses needed for the program are currently figured under the allocation of summer credits for the Department of Business.� Should the need for summer courses exceed the allocation, adjunct faculty would need to be hired at the rate of $500 per credit.� This situation would occur if enrollment were much higher than predicted.� The distance education system meets the accreditation requirements of the Northwest Accreditation Association and will continue to meet those requirements.

 

The relationship to other programs on campus will remain the same since we are using mostly the same courses.� However, members of the School of Arts and Sciences have background experience in some of the communication requirements for this program.� Those faculty members will be included on the list for providing summer classes.� The campus will also continue to provide the general education course-work that is part of this degree.

 

The program also interacts with the Great Falls College of Technology.� Some of the needed course-work can be provided by the COT.� They will supply a course on Risk Management and two communication courses.� While there were no discussions with MSU-Billings concerning this degree, many of our current students are using MSU-Billings Internet courses to meet general education requirements.� Transfer agreements around the state will make this an option for the students in this degree as well.� MSU-Bozeman agreed that they did not have this option in their curriculum and thought it would be a useful degree if students went on to gain a B.S. and then to enter Bozeman�s graduate program on school administration.� This must still be the case because the last two MASBO members that joined the cohort group said they did so because their graduate advisor thought this would be a good background.

 

There are no new requests for space, capital, or equipment.� The biggest obstacle for distance students is access to computers for class projects.� Most business classes have ongoing web page contact with distance students and require either email or web-board activities.� One faculty member, Lanny Wilke, has developed an Internet program sheet so all distance students can instantly see which courses they have taken and those they must take.� Most of the distance students have simply purchased their own computers and do not expect computer facilities similar to on-campus computer labs.� The distance students have also been very generous with their time and equipment and provide access for those students who do not own a computer.

 

 

III.������� COURSES AND PRESENTATION METHODS

 

A:������� CURRENT COURSES

 

The general concept for courses presented for this degree is one of flexibility.�

The current courses (Designated with BUS prefixes) are currently offered in three formats.� They are presented as on-campus courses, as Northnet interactive television classes, and as summer semester courses.� The Northnet system offers the ability for people in many areas of Montana to have the courses offered at a local site and was generally accepted as the method for presentation for the BUS courses.� Since these classes are already presented in this mode it adds no additional burden on the faculty presenting the courses.

 

The current system allows for all business classes to be offered over the Northnet system.� For this degree it is only necessary for the Freshman and Sophomore level courses to be offered.� But since these courses are currently scheduled in the system it is no problem.

 

All of the 63 credits needed for this degree are intended to be offered over Northnet.� However, some general education courses are currently not offered in this format.� Distance students have been able to take the general education courses as face-to-face courses at the higher education institution closest to them or through Internet courses.� For the first year of the program, students will follow the same procedure.� Thus a maximum of 21 credits could be obtained in this manner.

 

The business courses offered via Northnet are identical to other sections of the course offered on campus.� Most of the business courses have only two sections.� One is face-to-face; the other is a combination of face-to-face (Havre campus) and distance format.� The faculty for the business program are:

 

Kevin Carlson, Associate Professor, MBA

Sandra Erickson, Assistant Professor, MBA

Terry Munson, Associate Professor, MIM

Brenda Skornogoski, Associate Professor, MBA

Lanny Wilke, Assistant Professor, M.Ed.

 

The BM prefix courses (College of Technology courses) have been discussed as summer presentation courses.� Discussions about Northnet distribution of these classes has also been initiated.� Further refinement must be developed with the faculty and administration at the COT.

 

B:������� NEW COURSES

 

The new courses proposed for the program (MAS prefix) have been discussed as summer offerings or as special weekend seminars held throughout the year.� These courses become highly specialized to meet the needs of the school business officials and we propose to use a variety of people who have taught or currently teach these topics.� Many of the special needs of this group have been spelled out in various documents from organizations that monitor the quality of education in the state.� The Montana Code of Law, Safety Requirements for Schools, Guidelines for Student Activities, Pupil Transportation, and Food Services are some of the documents examined for this degree.� These documents were used to develop the specialized courses in the program.� We have received much interest from both active and retired school superintendents and principals who have provided those classes.� The coordination of these individuals and the availability of the courses will be one of the main scheduling factors to consider, but so much cooperation has already be shown it would appear that this will not be a major obstacle.

 

C:������� COHORT GROUPS

 

One concept that has been discussed for this degree is that cohort groups be used to develop absolute times when courses would be available for the group.� The initial discussion has been to begin with a cohort group of 20 people and develop the course presentation outline.� This route appears the most feasible for presenting the needed courses on a timely basis.� As of May 1, 2000, twenty-four MASBO members have expressed a desire to begin the program this fall.

 

D:������� INDIVIDUALIZED DISTANCE LEARNING

 

Another idea that will support the presentation of this program is the development of individualized distance learning packages.� These packages could include internet courses, combined internet and Northnet presentation, videotaped lecture/project combinations, and weekend class sessions.� The adoption of any of the proposed presentation methods would increase the accessibility for this program.

 

 

IV.������ TRANSFERABILITY

 

A.������� Transfer Of Courses Into The MSU-Northern Program

 

1.�������� Transfer into the A.A.S. program.� Northern has a variety of articulation agreements with other institutions.� Courses matching those articulation agreements will readily be accepted into the program.� The key requirement here is that residency requirements for MSU-Northern must be met.

 

2.�������� Transfer into the Bachelor of Science program.� All of the BUS and ACCT prefix courses are part of the Bachelor of Science in Business Technology program and will transfer directly to that program.� The General Education core will also transfer to the Business Tech program.� The other courses do not transfer to that program other than to count as overall credits to reach the 120 credit limit.� All of the courses in the A.A.S. degree would transfer into the Bachelor of Applied Science degree with a business concentration.

 

B.������� Transfer of the A.A.S. degree to other universities.

 

The Associate of Applied Science degree is not transferable to any other university program due to the current definition of A.A.S. degrees. The only possible method would be if another university would have a Bachelor of Applied Science with a concentration in business.� In that situation, the decision as to which courses would� transfer would not be made by MSU-Northern.

 

 

 

V.������� STUDENT EDUCATION PLANS

 

Detailed student education plans cannot be provided, however, the major points will be listed here.

 

1.������ Two year plan: This plan would require that the student be a full time student taking 12 credits per semester for fall and spring semesters plus 9 credits in two summer semesters.� This is not the target market for this degree but the option must be available.

 

2.�������� Three year plan: This program would require that students take 8 credits in each of 3 fall semesters and 7 credits each semester during the spring and summer semesters. Many students currently follow roughly this type of a schedule.

�

3.�������� Four year plan: This plan assumes that a student cannot enroll for more than 6 credits in any semester.� This program would take 11 semesters to complete.� It would require a detailed plan developed by the program advisor and the student.� Many current students are following this type of schedule also and this option is available to them.

 

4.�������� Five year plan: Due to the ever changing nature of the business environment, it is not recommended that students extend an associate degree to five years or beyond.� However, some students are forced into this scenario.� A continually adapted plan would have to be developed���� in this case.

 

VI.������ SUMMARY

 

From the information provided above it is evident that a great deal of time was given to this effort.� The degree was formed to meet the needs of school business officials throughout Montana, while following the degree taxonomy and residency rules currently in the University System.

 

The program uses current courses to provide a foundation of business skills and develops new courses to meet the specialized needs of the program�s students.� At the same time many types of presentation techniques are being discussed to give students even greater accessibility to the program.� Individualized courses and cohort groups are but two of the options being discussed.

 

Transferability of an A.A.S. degree is somewhat limited under its current designation but avenues are available for those students that wish to extend their education beyond the associate level.� The Bachelor of Science in Business Technology as well as the Bachelor of Applied Science is available for the student.

 

As with any course offering, the planning of the degree course sequence is a requirement.� Even with a variety of options available it will take careful advising of students to keep them on track in the obtaining of the degree.� Faculty advising will be the key to this procedure.

 

The Associate of Applied Science in School Business Administration fills an expressed need in the Montana community and will be a degree that can grow to meet the changing needs of that community.

Exhibit A

 

MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY � NORTHERN

DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS

 

ASSOCIATE OF APPLIED SCIENCE in SCHOOL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

 

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             *�� New Courses

����������� ** MSU-Great Falls College of Technology Courses

 

 

 

Exhibit B