College participating in pilot project
by Lindsey Frankovich
TC NewsTexarkana College is now participating in the Readiness for Education at a Distance Indicator (READI) program, according to Dr. Van Miller, director of admissions.
READI is a pilot project for Internet students. TC will be testing the READI program for the next six months to see if Internet students are current with computer terminology, applications and typing (words per minute).
"We hope this will be something useful for the students and the college," Dr. Miller said.
Beginning in the first summer semester, all Internet students will be expected to complete an online assessment prior to the start of instruction.
"If a student can't open a file or use a mouse, this will show them that Internet classes may not be for them," Dr. Miller said. "They may want to utilize the classroom."
The READI program will provide valuable feedback to students and the college about Internet instruction. According to Dr. Miller, "A national company has made this possible for us to try for free."
"As a school, we want to see how students adjust in the Internet courses, to see if this is a good tool," Dr. Miller added. "The one downside of online courses is the higher drop rate."
Before taking the assessment test students will have to enter their e-mail address in the system to receive their test results. As soon as the test is completed, the Web site will send the results to the student and to the college. The college will then use this figure as a commutative average.
"We're not using this to tell people they cannot take the course," Dr. Miller said. "Maybe in the future, but not now. We are doing anything we can do to make sure our students are successful in completion of these courses."
For more information, log onto texarkanacollege.edu; on the homepage, click on student links, then click on item number four, info on Internet classes, which will link to the READI Web site. Username is 'texarkana'; password is 'student.
"Anyone's welcome to check it out," Dr. Miller said.
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