Board for State Academic Awards

At a Glance

MERLE W. HARRIS, Executive Director

SHIRLEY M. ADAMS, Deputy Executive Director

Established - 1973

Statutory authority - Sec. 10a-143,

Connecticut General Statutes

Central office – 55 Paul Manafort Drive, New Britain, CT 06053-2150

Charter Oak State College

Average number of full-time and part-time employees - 60

Recurring operating expenses, 2004-2005 BSAA Operating Fund - $ 4.65 million

Organization structure- Main office

Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium

ED KLONOSKI, Executive Director

Average number of full-time and part-time employees - 14

Recurring operating expenses - $ 1.1 million

Organization structure – Main office

Mission

The Board for State Academic Awards (BSAA), established in 1973 by the Connecticut General Assembly, provides diverse and alternate opportunities for adults to earn college degrees. The Board accomplishes its mission through Charter Oak State College and the Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium. Relying on the judgment of professional educators, the Board validates learning acquired through examinations, independent study, work experience, noncollegiate sponsored instruction and traditional study. The Board seeks to:

1. offer coherent, college level curricula and degree programs which incorporate transfer credit, examinations, and other methods of credit and competency validation;

2. develop valid and reliable tests and other methods to evaluate and assess experiential and extra collegiate learning as alternatives to classroom study;

3. provide access to educationally sound learning through a variety of means including computer, video and other electronically-mediated technologies;

4. inform and guide the public about opportunities for earning credentials by alternative means;

5. provide testing and credit registry services, and information regarding such services, to the public;

6. extend access to higher education to all adults who demonstrate the ability to perform on the collegiate level and to foster enrollment and graduation of diverse populations; and

7. encourage innovation in meeting the needs of adult learners and to serve as an advocate for adult learners in higher education.

Charter Oak State College

Improvements/Achievements 2004-05

• Distance 1earning enrollment in credit courses increased 31 percent from the previous year -- from 1828 to 2400 -- and the number of courses offered increased to 98.
• The class of 2005, with 517 graduates, was the largest in the College’s history.
• Charter Oak began offering 5-week online courses, developed by the Public Safety Institute and approved by Charter Oak faculty, to support the College’s Public Safety Administration concentration.
• In Fall 2004, Charter Oak began offering a one-credit online technical literacy assessment, developed by the Technology Fluency Institute, to teach and measure fundamental computer productivity skills necessary for success in school, business and industry.
• In Spring 2005, Charter Oak began offering a free, web-based service that evaluates a student’s writing skills and provides instant score reporting and diagnostic feedback to the student.
• Charter Oak received TANF Bonus Funds and two new grants to support close to 50 new participants in the College’s Women in Transition (WIT) program.
• As is appropriate for a College offering “degrees without boundaries”, 70% of Charter Oak’s non-BPE Financial Aid Recipients received awards for courses taken at other Connecticut colleges and universities.
• The College applied for and was accepted as a member of Alpha Sigma Lambda National Honor Society for non-traditional students. 
• In collaboration with CSACA, Connecticut’s after-school professional organization, Charter Oak began offering online courses as part of the program to award a Credential in After School Education.

Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium (CTDLC)

Improvements/Achievements 2004-2005

· Online courses offered by CTDLC member organizations increased from 1,300 in FY 2004 to 1,600 in FY 2005.  Online student enrollment increased from 20,300 to 25,000 during the same time period.

· CTDLC received its fourth $250,000 grant from the CT State Department of Education to expand its Adult Virtual High School (CT AVHS) for the Adult Credit Diploma Program. This program provides online credit courses to Connecticut’s credit diploma students. The courses, instructors, training, delivery systems and administration have all been created and managed by the CTDLC.

· The Consortium successfully brought the WebCT Vista Learning Management System online for the Community College System. This technology supports all 8,000 Community College courses and is integrated with the Colleges’ SCT Banner and Student Information System.

· CTDLC received a three-year $400,000 grant from the Davis Foundation to support research into program assessment strategies using our ePortfolio platform. 

· The Consortium released version 4 of our ePortfolio platform with 14 institutions paying to use the platform as a key element in their efforts to assess student learning.

· The Consortium created a new tutoring platform for our collaborative eTutoring program. Sixteen institutions, from three states, now use and pay for the system. 

· CTDLC Received a $30,000 one-year grant from the Sloan Foundation to research the reliability and validity of a basic computer skills assessment instrument.

Members of the Board during 2004-2005: Chandler Howard, Farmington, chair; Astrid Hanzalek, Suffield, vice chair; Vincent Socci, New Canaan, secretary; Joseph Halloran, Middlebury; Joan Lamm-Tennant, Fairfield; John Padilla, New Haven; John H. Titley, Esq., Watertown; alumni member represented by Michael Smegielski, Waterbury; and student member represented by Timothy Kulig, Marlborough.