A study of the current practice of private sector distance education receive-site coordinators in administering university formal and non-formal distance education programs
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to define the private sector's receive-site coordinator's role and current practice associated with the day-to-day management of a distance receive site by describing what private sector receive-site coordinators do in practice. Descriptive data were collected in six areas: demographics, private sector receive-site coordinators' reporting relationships, distance education equipment and usage, tuition support for students at receive-site locations, private sector receive-site coordinators' knowledge of distance education, and the private sector receive-site coordinators' current practice.Many organizations in business and industry in the private sector invest in distance education systems and programs as a means of providing educational opportunities for their employees. These organizations assign the duties of managing their receive-site location to an employee in their organization. The polices and procedures of organizations receiving distance education programs, the job level of the person assigned the receive-site coordinator responsibilities, the knowledge level of the receive-site coordinator, and the practices of the receive-site coordinator are variables that influence employee participation in distance education programs. Additionally, those variables impact distance education university administrators in administering and marketing the university's distance education programs to organizations. Yet, there is very little literature that speaks to the distance education receive-site coordinators' role or the knowledge and skills required to manage a distance education receive-site location.By conducting this research, the private sector receive-site coordinators' practice was described. It was concluded that private sector receive-site coordinators are a non-homogenous group of mostly training and development professionals with undergraduate degrees and have the responsibility of managing the day-to-day activities of receive-sites by incorporating the duties of a private sector receive-site coordinator with their otherday-to-day work activities. The private sector receive-site coordinators' job responsibilities span a variety of tasks that include marketing programs, helping students overcome problems, assisting with course logistics, and installing, operating, and in some cases, maintaining distance education equipment. It was also concluded that university administrators viewed the role of the private sector receive-site coordinator as a key element of the distance education system.