System-Level Accountability Scorecard
Assessments: Progress toward Implementing the Strategic Plan

High Quality Learning Programs & Services Indicator 9: Program Development - Programs are responsive to current and future market needs.

Measure 9C: Course Delivery Methods

Definition: Measure 9C reports the various methods by which courses are delivered to students (click here for a short list of Course Delivery Methods Definitions). For both day of week and time of day measures, the denominator is the total number of course sections. For the day of week measure, the numerator is the number of course sections with meetings in each day of the week. For the time of day measure the numerator is the number of course sections with a start time on or within each hour of the day. For the media measure the denominator is the total number of media sections, and the numerator is the number of sections using specific types of media (click here for a printer friendly PDF copy of this page).

Significance: Measure 9C is significant in that it indicates the extent of diversity in course delivery methods that are offered to meet the needs System students.

Measure: Figures 9C-1a shows the percentage distribution of instructional types across all credit course sections for fiscal year 2004. Figure 9C-1b shows this distribution for non-credit courses. An instructional type is displayed if it represented at least 5 percent of total sections in any one of the institutional categories (college, university or systemwide), and is then displayed for all institutional categories. Instructional types that represented less than 5 percent of all sections in all institution categories are aggregated into “All Other Types”. The data show that, for System credit courses, 56 percent of all sections are Lecture, while for non-credit courses, Lecture represents only 4 percent of University course sections and 10 percent of College sections. Contract/Custom Training represents a significant proportion of non-credit instructional types (29 percent of university sections and 50 percent of college sections).

Measure 9C-2: Figures 9C-2a through 9C-2d show the percentage distribution of the times of day course sections are offered, for fiscal year 2004. The analysis includes courses with instructional types of lecture, lab and lecture/lab. For credit courses, Monday through Thursday are the most prevalent days, with 40 percent to 50 percent of sections having meeting times these days. Less than 2 percent of credit courses at colleges and universities have meeting days on weekends; however, for non-credit courses, 16 percent of sections meet on Saturday and 7 percent meet on Sunday. For credit courses, at the System level, the most prevalent start time is the 8AM hour, with 13 percent of sections starting on or within this hour followed by the 9AM hour and 6PM hour (each with 12 percent of sections starting in these hours).

Measure 9C-3: Figures 9C-3a and 9C-3b show the percentages of course sections that are offered using the various types of media. It is important to note that the denominator for the percentage is the number of course sections that use any type of media, not all course sections. In fiscal year 2004, 5.4 percent of credit course sections and 6.7 percent of non-credit course sections used one or more media types. Internet is the most prevalent form of media used with 56 percent of System media sections offered for credit, while 96 percent of non-credit media sections used Internet.