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The Florida Senate

2011 Florida Statutes

F.S. 1004.091
1004.091 Florida Distance Learning Consortium.
(1)(a) The Florida Distance Learning Consortium is established to facilitate collaboration among public postsecondary educational institutions in their use of distance learning to increase student access to associate and baccalaureate courses and degree programs, to support institutions in their use of technology, and to help build partnerships among institutions, businesses, and communities.
(b) The Board of Governors and the State Board of Education shall exercise joint oversight of the consortium and shall establish, in consultation with the consortium, the administrative and operational guidelines and processes of the consortium.
(c) The consortium may contract for administrative services with a public postsecondary educational institution. The fee charged by the institution for administrative services may not exceed the actual cost for providing the services.
(2) The Florida Distance Learning Consortium shall:
(a) Manage and promote the Florida Higher Education Distance Learning Catalog, established pursuant to s. 1004.09, to help increase student access to undergraduate distance learning courses and degree programs and to assist students seeking accelerated access in order to complete their degrees.
(b) Beginning with the 2011-2012 academic year, implement a streamlined, automated, online registration process for transient students who are undergraduate students currently enrolled and pursuing a degree at a public postsecondary educational institution and who choose to enroll in a course listed in the Florida Higher Education Distance Learning Catalog which is offered by a public postsecondary educational institution that is not the student’s degree-granting institution. The consortium shall work with the Florida College System and the State University System to implement this admissions application process requiring all state universities and state colleges to:
1. Use the transient student admissions application available through the Florida Academic Counseling and Tracking for Students system established pursuant to s. 1007.28. This admissions application shall be the only one required for the enrollment of the transient student defined in this paragraph.
2. Implement the financial aid procedures required by the transient student admissions application process, which must include the involvement of the financial aid officers.
3. Transfer credit awarded by the institutions offering the distance learning course to the transient student’s degree-granting institution.
4. By July 1, 2012, provide for an interface between the institutional system and the Florida Academic Counseling and Tracking for Students system in order to electronically send, receive, and process the transient admissions application.
(c) Coordinate the negotiation of statewide licensing and preferred pricing agreements for distance learning resources and enter into agreements that result in cost savings with distance learning resource providers so that postsecondary educational institutions have the opportunity to benefit from the cost savings.
(d)1. Develop and operate a central instructional content repository that allows public school and postsecondary educational institution users to search, locate, use, and contribute digital and electronic instructional resources and content, including open access textbooks. In the development of the repository, the consortium shall identify and seek partnerships for the purpose of sharing instructional content. The consortium shall collaborate with the public educational institutions to ensure that the repository:
a. Is accessible by the learning management systems used by the public postsecondary educational institutions and the local instructional improvement systems established pursuant to s. 1006.281.
b. Allows institutions to set appropriate copyright and access restrictions and track content usage.
c. Allows for appropriate customization.
d. Supports established protocols to access instructional content within other repositories.
2. Provide to the chancellors of the Florida College System and the State University System recommendations for promoting and increasing the use of open access textbooks as a method for reducing textbook costs. The recommendations shall include:
a. The undergraduate courses, in particular the general education courses, that would be recommended for the use of open access textbooks.
b. A standardized process for the review and approval of open access textbooks.
c. Strategies for the production and distribution of open access textbooks to ensure such textbooks may be easily accessed, downloaded, printed, or obtained as a bound version by students at either reduced or no cost.
(e) Identify and evaluate new technologies and instructional methods that can be used for improving distance learning instruction, student learning, and the overall quality of undergraduate distance learning courses and degree programs.
(f) Identify methods that will improve student access to and completion of undergraduate distance learning courses and degree programs.
History.s. 1, ch. 2009-92; s. 5, ch. 2010-155; s. 5, ch. 2011-63.