Through the Indiana Partnership for Statewide Organization (IPSE), the governance committee for the Indiana College Network, representatives from member institutions oversee policies and statewide procedures. Look in the Coordinator’s Handbook on the navigation bar for the original vision for ICN Learning Centers.

Support for the ICN Student Services Center

The Consortium supports the activities of the ICN Student Services Center and its hotline for learners planning to enter or reenter post-secondary programs. The Student Services Center can be reached by calling 800.426.8899 or by visiting the ICN Web site. Members of the hotline staff are adult learners who identify with other adults wanting further education for their own enhancement or for acquired new skills in the changing workplace.

Indiana Higher Education Telecommunication System (IHETS) contracts with the Indiana Career and Postsecondary Advancement Center (ICPAC) for this important service. The Student Services Center also supports an online conduit for student class registrations to reach both home and originating institutions as well as providing feedback to the student in tracking the process.

Marketing Information Support on the Web

The ICN Web site’s infrastructure is created by staff of IHETS and ICN staff working with IHETS institutions with distance education programs. The ICN Online Catalog offers learners the opportunity to explore the many degree and certificate programs offered entirely at a distance as well as over a thousand courses each semester. With a special ICN Book Bag feature similar to shopping carts on commercial Web sites, the learner can store interesting classes in one Web location while exploring all possibilities and then return to the Book Bag to make thoughtful choices among the relevant classes.

Since ICN’s earliest days, marketing materials have been available through ICN staff. Until the ICN Web site was updated, paper catalogs grew larger and larger every year and more cumbersome to carry and distribute by mail. Now, brochures, flyers, posters, and other items are frequently updated and then distributed to learning centers for their use introducing the Indiana College Network with all its educational opportunities.

IHETS staff keeps track of distance enrollment figures and online surveys give a good picture of Indiana residents who want to pursue post-secondary education classes. Other surveys have included learning center coordinators’ and students’ satisfaction with the Indiana College Network.

Consulting and Training Services

The ICN system of learning centers is similar to a windup pocket watch of individual pieces that together keep time. The system operates with the cooperation of the learning centers and the universities and colleges learning centers and student-support services. To keep every center working well within the system, ICN staff members are available to train coordinators in new centers and older centers with new personnel.

ICN staff members also are available to meet with community groups planning new centers or new post-secondary opportunities for their local citizens. Distance learning and complete degree programs at a distance are very new terms to planning boards, and ICN offers snapshot news of what activities are currently new or being planned elsewhere in the state. If the purchase and installation of technology is requested, IHETS technical personnel are available to respond to questions.

Technology Assistance through the IHETS Help Desk

Much of the technology in each ICN Learning Center has been purchased and installed through IHETS. Customer support is available for these media through the IHETS Help Desk.