UW Outreach NetworkUW Outreach Network

Outreach Credit ProgramsWe deliver the university’s credit courses and degree programs to students worldwide.

UW/CC CenterWe serve the needs of students in Casper and central Wyoming with our learning center.

Community Service EducationWe support non-credit opportunities that enhance professional and personal renewal. 

Wyoming Public RadioWe are Wyoming's only National Public Radio member, serving Wyoming for over 40 years.

Outreach Technology & UWTVWe provide technical support for the programs and services offered through the Outreach School and produce award-winning public affairs programming and documentaries.

11 Outreach Regional Centers

Our DivisionsOur Divisions

Outreach Credit Programs & UW/CC

50,308 credit hours (for AY 05-06)

6,627 enrollments3,807 students

Preliminary as of March 2007

Wyoming PublicRadio

Community Service Education

17,145 conference participants in a total of 117 conferences and special events.

3,086 participants in a total of 360 classes.265 participants in 150 online classes.

CY 2006

Outreach Technology Services & UWTV

42 video sites in 24 Wyoming communities.

Bi-monthly documentary

and public affairs programming.

CY 2006

52,700 individual listeners each week listen to WPR.

Listeners spend on average 7.1 hours each week listening to WPR.

Arbitron, Fall 2006

Our NumbersOur Numbers

Given the varied responsibilities and constituencies ofthe divisions within the Outreach School andunderstanding the magnitude of our efforts, we had todetermine

• What common element(s) drew us together, • Upon what values and principles we would base our work,• Our role within the University, and• How to make our potential real, effective, and dynamic.

We needed to make these determinations in order to work inan integrated and purposeful fashion toward common goals toserve the University and the state.

Making Sense of the Diversity of the Outreach SchoolMaking Sense of the Diversity of the Outreach School

One Common Element to Unify the One Common Element to Unify the Outreach School: LearningOutreach School: Learning

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

W. B. Yeats

For the Outreach School, learners are broadly defined: from the listener of Wyoming Public Radio who learns more about the world through WPR’s award-winning news programs, to the enrichment student who enhances his or her life by taking a non-credit course or attending a conference through our Community Service Education unit, to the students who work toward their baccalaureate or graduate degrees at a distance—at the UW/CC Center in Casper and around the state and nation through Outreach Credit Programs. Of necessity, all our efforts at providing access to learning opportunities are supported by the Division of Outreach Technology Services, which maintains the technological infrastructure that enables us to reach students at distance, and by our academic coordinators, who serve learners from locations around the state.

Outreach School Development Case Statement 2006

Community Service Education

Outreach Credit Programs

UWCC

Wyoming Public Radio

Outreach Technology Services

Dean’s Office and Outreach Centers

Envisioning the Outreach SchoolEnvisioning the Outreach School

LEARNING

LEARNING

AccessAccess

LearningLearning

Partnerships & SynergismPartnerships & Synergism

Welcoming GrowthWelcoming Growth

Our ValuesOur Values

Outreach School

University Resources

Learner Needs

Positioned to help the university meet the needs of learners of many ages, interests, locations, and motivations.

Defining our Role: Deliver UW to LearnersDefining our Role: Deliver UW to Learners

Planning helps us know • Who we are • Who we aren’t• What we value• Where we want to go • Ways in which we might get there

This helps us take advantage of every opportunity that presentitself.

We can utilize this knowledge to realize our vision of ourselvesas a School.

Planning as a Means to a Purposeful End: Planning as a Means to a Purposeful End: Making our potential real, effective, and dynamicMaking our potential real, effective, and dynamic

How to Plan?How to Plan?

We weighed the relative advantages of two kinds of planning:

Strategic Planning = Single point forecasting, or determining the goals and

objectives you will achieve in a defined amount of time – regardless of the changing environment.

AND Scenario Planning =

Understanding the futures that await us, the early indicators that signal what those future might mean for us, and strategies that are flexible and robust enough to allow us to succeed in rapidly

changing environments.

We chose scenario planning as the means that best fit our need to achieve the ends we sought.

Our Planning ValuesOur Planning Values

The University of Wyoming Outreach School intends to engage

in scenario and strategic planning in order to:

• Better understand the environment and influences that affect the Outreach School, and

• Be prepared, responsive, and effective in the near, medium, and long term.

We intend to engage in planning and to implement the

plans we define by

• working in an environment of integrity, teamwork, inclusiveness, and collaboration with our various partners and constituents,

• building on the expertise and experience we have developed,

• recognizing and emphasizing our dedication to ensuring the success of all those we currently serve and those we should serve, through both credit programs and programs that take us "beyond credit" to focus on life-long learning, personal growth and professional renewal, and

• seeking to achieve distinction in all we do.

Our Planning Values Our Planning Values continued…continued…

• Scenario Planning helped the Outreach School prepare for Academic Plan II.

• We will need Scenario Planning to help us be effective in preparing for Academic Plan III and the University’s re-accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association—both of which culminate in 2009.

Scenario Planning, Academic Planning, and Scenario Planning, Academic Planning, and Re-Accreditation: An Overview and Process Re-Accreditation: An Overview and Process of Integrationof Integration

• Sharing an understanding of scenario planning • Sharing an understanding of academic planning at the

University of Wyoming • Sharing an understanding of accreditation and the process of

re-accreditation • Sharing an understanding of how to integrate these processes

An Overview and Process of Integration An Overview and Process of Integration continued…continued…

Honoring the pastBeing effective in the present

Preparing for the future

Scenario Planning

What is Scenario Planning?What is Scenario Planning?

“[Scenario planning] is a tool for ordering our perceptions about alternative future environments in which our decisions might be played out. Alternatively: a set of organized ways for us to dream effectively about our own future.”

(Schwartz, p.4)

Scenario Planning: Thinking “What if?”Scenario Planning: Thinking “What if?”

“Using scenarios is not a matter of memorizing ‘Plan A’ and ‘Plan B,’ because in the real world, A and B overlap and recombine in unexpected ways. It is a matter of training yourself to think through how things might happen that you might otherwise dismiss—to get to know the shape of unfolding reality. To have at hand the answer to the question, ‘What if…’(Schwartz, p. 28)

Scenarios…

are: are not:• Hypotheses• Narratives• Divergent

• Predictions• Theories• Convergent

What is Scenario Planning?What is Scenario Planning?

Scenario Planning ParticipationScenario Planning Participation

Scenario planning requires the participation and perspectives of each individual within the School, for it will take all of us to look for early indicators of change, to analyze those indicators and understand what is happening, to develop and implement strategies for the School to address the futures that face us.

• Brainstorm list of key factors and environmental forces

• Prioritize list and cluster closely related items– This process created the axis of our

matrix

• Brainstorm newspaper headlines for each quadrant

Scenario Team ProcessScenario Team Process

Dynamic Demand

Static Demand

Open Access

Restricted Access

Bucking Bronco Eagle

Armadillo Leap Frog

Four ScenariosFour Scenarios

Static Demand

Open Access

Leap FrogLeap Frog

The Outreach School so effectively prepares its remote Wyoming population for distance learning, students bypass UW for broader educational opportunities from competitors across the country.

Static Demand

Restricted Access

In times of trouble—politically and economically, both nationally and locally—the Outreach School’s resources and public regard could decline. Is it time to hunker down, like an armadillo, and wait out the threat?

ArmadilloArmadillo

Restricted Access

Dynamic Demand

Wyoming’s bucking, boom & bust economy rules this scenario. Can we hold on, and appear to be in control, for the full ride?

Bucking BroncoBucking Bronco

Open Access

Dynamic Demand

EagleEagle

Sometimes, everything comes together perfectly. The Eagle scenario enjoys hi-tech delivery systems, a strong economy, and well-supported distance learning programs. What are the limits of possibilities?

• 2002: Began Scenario Planning with the guidance of Global Business Network

• 2002–2005: Expand the Scenario Planning process, stories, strategy, and ideas across the Outreach School; OS managers follow environmental changes and discuss options.

• 2005–2007: OS Managers undertake second cycle of scenario planning—making it our own, developing new stories, identifying a new strategy for all seasons, identify and begin tracking of early indicators, begin critical conversations.

OS Scenario Planning: OS Scenario Planning: 5 Years of Learning 5 Years of Learning (2002(2002––2007)2007)

• 1998: President Phil Dubois directed the university to begin academic planning to help the institution identify its strengths, priorities and the implementation strategies to reach our goals.

• 1999–2004: First Academic Plan development and implementation.

• 2003–2004: Second Academic Plan developed. • 2004–present: Implementation of AP II. • 2007–2009: Develop AP III.• 2009–20014: Implementation of AP III

Academic Planning: Academic Planning: Moving the University Forward Moving the University Forward (1999(1999––2014)2014)

• Direction

• Participation

• Focus

• Implementation

• Assessment

The Process of Academic Planning: The Process of Academic Planning: University of Wyoming AP II University of Wyoming AP II

I. Areas of Distinction – what we are or could be really good at in our academic programs:

• Cultural Endeavors, the Arts, and the Humanities

• Environment and Natural Resources

• History and Culture of Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain Region

• Professions and Issues Critical to the Region

• Science and Technology

Academic Plan II FocusAcademic Plan II Focus

II. Institutional Issues • The Learning Environment • Scholarship and Graduate Education • Diversity, Internationalization, and Access • Structure of the Curriculum • Faculty Development and Program Planning • Educational Infrastructure • Outreach, Extension, and Community Service • Enrollment Management

Academic Plan II FocusAcademic Plan II Focus

• The importance of accreditation. • UW’s accreditation: specialized and all-

institution. • Accreditation cycle: 10 years

– Last visit was in 2000. – Current process

• Self Study (2–year process: 2007-2009)• Accreditation Visit (late 2009 or early 2010)

University Accreditation: Higher Learning University Accreditation: Higher Learning Commission of the North Central AssociationCommission of the North Central Association

How do we do this all at once in a productive and effective

fashion?

Scenario Planning, Academic Planning, and Re-accreditation

Integrating Outreach School Scenario Planning, UW Academic Planning,

and HLC Re-accreditation Process

Outreach SchoolOutreach School

Decision Making

Who’s responsible?

What’s the procedure?

What’s going on?

Outputs

(Decision and communication of decision)

Inputs

(Demand)

To Do Lists! (Internal & External)

We Did It List!Feedback

What’s the difference? Does it matter?

General Decision-Making ProcessGeneral Decision-Making Process

Important

Urg

ent

Setting PrioritiesSetting Priorities

Dynamic Demand

Static Demand

Open Access

Restricted Access

Bucking Bronco Eagle

Armadillo Leap Frog

Outreach School’s Four ScenariosOutreach School’s Four Scenarios

The mission of the Outreach School is to

extend the University of Wyoming’s educational programs to the state of Wyoming and beyond

Outputs

How have we decided to implement this vision in the near, mid, and long term?

Inputs

What are we called upon to do in the near, mid, and long term?

Feedback

Facing the FutureFacing the Future

The mission of the Outreach School is to

extend the University of Wyoming’s educational programs to the state of Wyoming and beyond

Outputs

How have we decided to implement this vision in the near, mid, and long term?

Inputs

What are we called upon to do in the near, mid, and long term?

Feedback

Understanding the Environment, Setting Priorities, and PlanningUnderstanding the Environment, Setting Priorities, and Planning

Urg

ent

Important

Demand

Access

The mission of the Outreach School is to

extend the University of Wyoming’s educational programs to the state of Wyoming and beyond

Outputs

How have we decided to implement this vision in the near, mid, and long term?

Inputs

What are we called upon to do in the near, mid, and long term?

Feedback

Scenario Planning, Academic Planning, and Re-Accreditation Scenario Planning, Academic Planning, and Re-Accreditation

The UW Self Study for the Higher Learning Commission Re-Accreditation: Putting it all together for others to understand

ACCESS• The Learning Environment• Diversity, Internationalization, and Access• Technological Infrastructure• Outreach, Extension, and Community Service

PARTNERSHIPS & SYNERGISM • The Learning Environment • Scholarship and Graduate Education• Diversity, Internationalization, and Access• Faculty Positions and New Programs• Technological Infrastructure• Outreach, Extension, and Community Service • Enrollment Management

WELCOMING GROWTH • The Learning Environment • Scholarship and Graduate Education • Diversity, Internationalization, and Access• Structure of the Curriculum • Faculty Positions and New Programs • Technological Infrastructure • Outreach, Extension, and Community Service •Enrollment Management

LEARNING • The Learning Environment • Scholarship and Graduate Education • Diversity, Internationalization, and Access • Structure of the Curriculum • Faculty Positions and New Programs • Outreach, Extension, and Community

• The Outreach School has a renewed vision from our scenario planning.

• The University has new direction from the President: Access, Excellence, and Leadership.

• Academic Affairs has new issues for Academic Plan III.

• The University will integrate the HLC re-accreditation self study into the academic planning process.

• The Outreach School will be an essential part of university planning (AP III) and assessment (self-study).

Where do we go next?Where do we go next?

Scenario planning requires the participation and perspectives of each individual within the School, for it will take all of us to look for early indicators

of change, to analyze those indicators and understand what is happening, to develop and

implement strategies for the School to address the futures that face us.

DiscussionDiscussion