Perceptions of Online Distance Education within the North Carolina Community College System by Chief Academic Officers and Chief Distance Education Officers.

The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of chief academic officers (CAOs) and chief distance education officers (CDOs) regarding faculty satisfaction in areas of released time for training and course development, workload, overall support of distance education, and extra compensation. One-hundred-sixteen surveys were sent out by e-mail to all 58 community colleges in North Carolina. The data for this study came from the returned surveys. The combined return rate of surveys was 78%. The SAS Institute program procedures were used for the analysis of the data. An alpha level of .05 was used for all statistical analyses. Results of this study showed differences between the CAOs and CDOs regarding faculty satisfaction on key issues. One reason for this could be more frequent contact of faculty with CDOs than with the CAOs. Recommendations for further research include: This study should be replicated in 2 to 3 years to ascertain what changes have occurred in North Carolina community colleges; Similar comparative studies should be made regarding community colleges in other states; Additional studies should be conducted in North Carolina to gather comments and concerns directly from faculty members; The following recommendations are made to improve distance education in North Carolina: Adequate technology funding for distance education programs in North Carolina community colleges needs to be acquired; A state formula should be developed to enable the sharing of FTE for community colleges in North Carolina that provide joint distance education programs; Long-range plans for supporting and training faculty members and funding distance education programs should be developed in North Carolina community colleges; Community colleges without written distance education policies should develop them; Community college administrators should become better informed about the needs of distance education faculty members and programs; and A state wide task-force needs to be developed to study the needs of distance education faculty members and programs in North Carolina