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State SC Technical Colleges Developing Innovative Web-Based Enrollment Strategies The SC Technical College System, in collaboration with its 16 member technical colleges, is developing an innovative web portal called SCTechOnline to offer online/internet courses to students across the state. The new website will feature a search engine that allows students to search for online/internet classes at all of the state’s technical colleges and sort their search results by a number of different categories. Although this search capability is nothing new, the hallmark of the SCTechOnline program and the administrative process underlying it is its ability to allow students to enroll in online/internet courses without having to enroll in the college that is providing the class. Once students find the class(es) they want to take, they simply designate a host college–either the technical college nearest them or the technical college in which they are already enrolled–to handle the administrative details of admission and registration. The students simply pay the tuition of the provider college. "The system we’re developing will be a boon for technical college education in South Carolina because we’re making the whole process more convenient and flexible for students, which has always been one of our greatest selling points," said Lawrence Ray, Director of Communications for the SC Technical College System. For students already enrolled in one of the state’s 16 technical colleges, the SCTechOnline system will provide added convenience by allowing them to take for-credit online classes from any other technical college in the state without having to enroll in the college providing the class. These students will not have to do anything more than tell their advisor they would like to take one of the SCTechOnline classes. The SCTechOnline system also will benefit non-students who are thinking about taking an online/internet class because they will be able to choose from the course offerings of the whole technical college system without having to go across the state just to take a class. Even two-year and four-year public and private university students will be able to take advantage of the SCTechOnline system. If these students find a class they want or need, they can simply designate the university in which they are already enrolled as their host college. "We truly believe this system will give us an advantage in the recruitment and retention of potential students," said Ray. "Once implemented, SCTechOnline will be able to offer more people greater access to our technical college’s programs, helping to boost enrollment and continued growth." -30- National Council of State Directors of
Community Colleges
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The National Council of State Directors of Community Colleges is an affiliated council of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). The council provides a forum for the exchange of information about developments, trends, and problems in state systems of community colleges. Through our affiliation with AACC, we also strive to affect national legislation that impacts our colleges and state agencies. This is the only Council that represents the collective interest of state agencies and state boards of community colleges. This council is a valuable forum to help state directors deal with the changes in attitude and policies towards community colleges at the international, federal, state and local levels. We will share information and learn lessons from each other to better serve the interests of our institutions in the coming years. |
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