“Since DCCCD began producing and delivering telecourses in the early 1970s, our district has been recognized for its innovative ways to teach with technology,” said Dr. Pam Quinn, provost for DCCCD’s LeCroy Center.
Contact: Ann Hatch
214-378-1819;
ahatch@dcccd.edu
For immediate release — June 19, 2018
(DALLAS) — Telephone. Telecourse. Teleconference. Online lessons. Distance learning.
The Dallas County Community College District’s R. Jan LeCroy Center has seen it all and done it all when it comes to learning beyond the confines of a bricks-and-mortar classroom. Delivering distance learning from its most basic tools by phone, the center has built a history of advancing learning with advancing technology to deliver online programs to students whenever and wherever they need it to earn a college credential.
Those milestones are featured in the May 2018 edition of Instructional Technology Newsletter, on ITC’s website and in a case study titled “DCCCD: Progress in Distance Education — 45 years of Teaching and Learning With Technology” by freelance writer Julia Dyer.
The study examines the evolution of distance learning provided by DCCCD from 1972 to 2017, an idea embraced by DCCCD’s former chancellor, Dr. R. Jan LeCroy, the center’s namesake.
“Since DCCCD began producing and delivering telecourses in the early 1970s, our district has been recognized for its innovative ways to teach with technology,” said Dr. Pam Quinn, provost for DCCCD’s LeCroy Center.
She added, “Through the years, faculty members working with the LeCroy Center have adopted many technologies to reach students who could not or would not come to campus. Knowing that the collective work done by many talented innovative educators has helped transform education has truly been exciting.”
From the 1970s and beyond 2000, DCCCD’s LeCroy Center for Educational Telecommunications not only offered telecourses locally to students; it also produced and distributed them nationally, becoming a top provider in the U.S. As the years passed, the technologies ramped up, too, using satellites, one-way video/two-way audio, cable (faculty teaching classes on cable from the LeCroy Center), web conferencing, instructional television with fixed-service channels, CD-ROM, video disc, modem classes and full-spectrum use of the internet.
Starting with those early days and moving forward, LeCroy Center staff members and DCCCD faculty helped pioneer distance learning by working together to acquire new technology and then to develop methodologies that would serve students at a distance. That collaborative effort reflected the vision, innovation and success which DCCCD generated by transforming education with technology to meet students’ needs.
Quinn said, “The case study captures that progress using interviews with people who paved the way for progress. Today, more than 36 percent of all DCCCD yearly enrollments and 65 percent of summer enrollments are in online courses. As a result, DCCCD’s colleges have become a very large online provider, and other colleges and universities want to replicate our success.”
The report, which captures some of the technology-related challenges which college faculties faced and how they worked with the LeCroy team to make it happen, also includes a comprehensive list of faculty and their course projects.
Fred Lokken, chair-elect of ITC’s board of directors, was keynote speaker during the "DCCCD Engage 2018: Teaching with Technology Innovations Conference" held at Richland College this spring. He talked about DCCCD’s many years of national leadership in distance learning and about its influence on the field over the past 40 years.
“The ITC wants to take this opportunity to recognize Dr. Pam Quinn, provost of DCCCD’s LeCroy Center and Dallas Colleges Online, and outstanding staff and faculty for their amazing work over the past decades,” said Lokken. “The LeCroy Center has been a national leader of the distance learning movement for the past 40-plus years. Many ITC members have had the opportunity to work with The LeCroy Center, to teach for them and to be mentored and inspired by them throughout the years.”
Dr. Rodger Pool, retired president of Eastfield College, was ITC’s first chair when it was a task force in 1979, and Quinn also chaired the ITC during the 1990s. More DCCCD employees have received ITC’s Leadership to the Field Award than any other institution in the U.S. These employees included Pool, Quinn, Ted Pohrte, and Drs. Ken Alfers, and Jim Picquet.
ITC is a leader in advancing distance education; its mission is to provide exceptional leadership and professional development in higher education to its network of eLearning practitioners by advocating, collaborating, researching and sharing exemplary, innovative practices and potential in educational technologies.
For more information, contact Quinn by email at
pquinn@dcccd.edu or by phone at 972-669-6600.
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