Getting the Buy-In and Budget to Launch Hybrid Courses Right Now

Russell Beard, Director of Information and Communication Services at Big Bend Community College, will present on this topic Tuesday, January 26 at 11:00 a.m. Central. Like all our webinars, it is free. Just register before we go live.

How is one of the smallest community colleges in the state of Washington with one of the largest service districts – 4,000 students across 4,500 square miles – finding the money, time and political will to launch new programs at a time like this?

Russell Beard of Big Bend Community College will show you how.

After twelve years investing deeply in videoconferencing, the college found it was still a struggle to maintain a stable environment over the course of an 11 week quarter. They’d lose a connection, a mic would go out or they weren’t able to capture the visual aids from multiple devices.

Then when the economic crisis hit, they had to take a hard look at their education technology infrastructure, soon realizing they were spending a 6-figure sum to generate maybe 6 FTE credits.

That’s when they decided to move entirely to webcasting via Mediasite.

Beard will present how Big Bend Community College:

• Launched new programs in the face of budget cuts through executive buy in and grant writing
• Moved from having to beg, borrow and threaten faculty to use their technology-enabled classrooms to having a line of faculty waiting to get in
• Determined webcasting with Mediasite to be the most cost effective approach for reaching every one of their constituents with a decent internet connection
• Created best of breed hybrid class offerings with virtual classrooms, lectures and office hours both synchronous and asynchronous
• Leverages Mediasite for creative uses outside of lecture capture in the classroom, including Small Business Administration courses, board of trustee meetings and their State of the College address

About the presenter
Russell Beard is the Director of Information and Communication Services at Big Bend Community College (BBCC). He has served in this capacity at the college for over nine years. BBCC has worked to be an innovator in distant education for over twenty years having one of the largest service districts in the state of Washington. Russell has served on numerous state commissions and councils providing a vision for technology and its use in the classroom not only for BBCC but for all of the Community and Technical Colleges in the state.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity for the live Q&A – register now.