Off – Campus Centers’
Five-Year Vision

______________________________________________________

The Off-Campus Centers represent the 8 college credit centers that are connected through the KTS System.  Each center is unique, as it serves the educational needs of the community around it. Stakeholders consist of the entire community, defined as all its citizens, students of area schools and colleges, and the business community. Our visioning has allowed us to better serve our communities with new programs and processes.

To become the Kirkwood locations of first choice by students seeking a learning community atmosphere while re-establishing leadership presence, visibility and service to our centers’ service area. 

Build a culture of support for the disabled within our centers that is based upon broad knowledge, multiple services and the Kirkwood personal touch

• Explore current services provided for the disabled
• Educate all staff in the knowledge of disabilities service
• Investigate community needs and commitment to the services
• Investigate opportunities for grants and monetary support
• Market our culture and support services

Provide a broader range of services and programs to area high schools

• Investigate individual school needs and opportunities for new programs
• Investigate area business needs and commitment to shared programming
• Connect with local schools through service opportunities
• Increase disabilities services through disability access, support equipment and services
• Market our disabilities services to local schools and communities

Coordinate a communication management model shared by all centers

• Design an annual communication plan for the centers
• Train center staff in communication management
• Connect with the marketing department to develop marketing materials unique to the centers to be delivered through communication management

Expand the Learning Community Models that exist

• Identify current effective center-wide and center-unique models
• Study models considering expansion and/or improvement
• Offer additional proactive expansion opportunities in identified areas
• Monitor improvements and re-evaluate models
• Search for grant opportunities and/or monetary support for models

In order to fulfill the stated vision, the IT team will need to increase capacity on several levels.

• Staffing
  • Re-establish full time center directors
  • Evaluate center team skills and ensure that staff have investigating skills for tasks
  • Increase staffing for time committed to the personal touch for disabilities support
  • Increase staffing time to coordinate communication management
  • Increase staff meeting time to coordinate all services
  • Consider grant research time for staffing
• Professional development opportunities for existing and new staff
  • Provide sufficient time and budget to offer opportunities
  • Training in communications management
  • Education and training for disabilities support
  • Training in specific learning community model themes
• Adequate infrastructure
  • Provide equipment supporting disability services
  • Provide marketing materials supporting communication management
  • Increase space and materials to support possible learning communities
  • Increase space and equipment to support new high school initiatives

The team showed strong ownership of the visioning process with 4 directors involved. 

The team historically commits itself to working together harmoniously, sharing responsibilities and successes. Sharing of goals, ideas, materials, techniques and support has always been the basis of our functioning as off campus centers.  The team will continue to build each other and the vision of off campus throughout all of these initiatives. 

Build a culture of support for the disabled within our centers that is based upon broad knowledge, multiple services and the Kirkwood personal touch

• The current level of service to the disabled
• The level of staff comfort within the culture
• The number of community contacts of inquiry and usage of services
• The level of monetary support generated
• The number of students filing ADA accommodations
• The amount of time involved in the education of staff
• The number of services that we are able to offer
• The level of positive feedback from the community
• The number of marketing pieces generated

Provide a broader range of services and programs to area high schools

• The level of Kirkwood programming in our off campus counties
• The number of planning meetings for new programming
• The number of new programs
• The number of enrollments in programs
• The number of businesses involved in planning
• The number of businesses committed to partnerships
• The number of directors involved in service opportunities at high schools
• The number of disabled served in our high school programs
• The number of marketing pieces generated

Coordinate a communication management model shared by all centers

• The level of off campus communication generated through the communication plan
• The number of staff generating communications
• The number of marketing materials designed and communicated
• The level of positive feedback from the target audiences

Expand the Learning Community Models that exist

• The number of effective learning communities identified
• The number of learning communities targeted
• The level of study committed to models
• The type of expansion and improvement opportunities generated
• The number of grant applications and monetary support received

Back