Provost & Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

MEMORANDUM

TO: Academic Deans

FROM: Mark B. Rosenberg

Provost & Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

DATE: June 3, 2004

SUBJECT: Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) rules on offsite and online courses and programs

At my request, Marie Zeglen and Mercedes Ponce recently met with Dr. Gerald Lord, SACS Associate Executive Director and FIU’s designated SACS liaison. The visit was productive and can serve to alert us to SACS’ concerns about our offsite and online courses.

From the trip, the following key points can be noted:

· SACS expects that all offsite and online programs maintain assessment data on student learning outcomes each time and in each location where the program has been offered.

· The data on learning outcomes must demonstrate equivalence to our main campus degree programs. Contact time must also be equivalenced.

· SACS plans to conduct peer reviews of our Jamaican programs no later than Fall 2004. These will include at a minimum the BS degrees in Computer Science and in Hospitality Management and the BBA in Business Administration.

· Additional peer reviews will be scheduled for programs currently being deployed in China and other locations at a later date. The Law School degrees may also be reviewed.

· SACS is very concerned that its name be protected and not used in any way to certify the quality of programs at our partner institutions—which SACS does not accredit.

If we expect to continue our offshore and online programs, the above SACS standards will need to be met. By this note, I am charging each academic dean and/or school director to assume direct accountability for monitoring learning outcomes for FIU programs under their span of control. Assistance can be provided in this charge from the Offices of Planning and Institutional Effectiveness and the College of Continuing and Professional Studies—however, the core responsibility for student learning outcomes rests with the academic leaders in charge of the program.

c: Senior Vice Provost Zeglen

Director Ponce

Vice Provosts

Office of the Provost

University Park . North Miami, FL 33199 . Tel 305-348-2151 . Fax 305-348-2994 . www.fiu.edu

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