Increasing access to Northwest Community College's computer technology program through distance education

I am a full time instructor in the Computer Technology Program at Northwest Community College (NWCC) in Terrace BC. The one-year Computer Technology certificate program will be offered for the first time in the 1999/2000 academic year and will replace the Applied Computer Technology Program that has been in existence at NWCC since September of 1996. The BC Ministry of Education has recently given NWCC approval to expand the one-year Computer Technology certificate into two-year diploma program. As a result of the change in the Computer Technology program and its possible expansion to two years, strategic planning and course development are required. This project can be divided into two parts. The first part is the development of a strategic plan to improve student access to the NWCC Computer Technology certificate program through distance education. Part two describes the development of a distance education course offering whose delivery is augmented by on-line delivery via the World Wide Web (WWW). This project will include a formal report of the strategic plan, a written description of the distance course and course development process, and supplementary course materials (web site, course outline, course schedule).--Page 1.