Lorraine Fox Dodson
Coordinator of Career Services/Counselor
Ldodson@frederick.edu

Marcia Dean
Job Placement Specialist/Advisor
Mdean@frederick.edu

Frederick Community College
7932 Opossumtown Pike
Frederick, MD 21702
301-846-2471
www.frederick.edu


Posted: July 26, 2003     Student Affairs Online, vol. 4 no. 3 - Summer 2003

As we seek innovative and creative solutions to address change in higher education, the need to provide alternate delivery formats for student services has become imperative, especially in meeting the needs of distance education students. As Higher Education provides more online courses to meet the academic needs of distance education students, Student Affairs is challenged to provide these students with student services.

The Career Center at Frederick Community College (FCC) has responded to this challenge by creating an Online Career Center. FCC's mission is to prepare students "to meet the challenges of a diverse, global society through quality, accessible, innovative, lifelong learning." The Online Career Center supports this mission by providing student services in a high quality, innovative and easily accessible format. As we strive to become a Learning College, providing students the opportunity to become full partners in their education, the Online Career Center allows students to assess their needs, research resources, and develop and implement an action plan.

This virtual resource utilizes a differential approach to career development that focuses on matching student traits such as values, skills, interests, and personality to corresponding educational and occupational factors. Through a combination of interactive modules and links based on a five-step career process, career activities were created to take students through self-awareness, career exploration, decision making, preparation, and transition. The end result is that distance education students are afforded the same or similar opportunities to work through the career process and develop a career plan as their on-campus counterparts.

Services provided through the Online Career Center include the following: taking a career assessment to help determine career goals, viewing career tutorials on How to Write a Resume or How to Select a College Major, looking up career information utilizing links to career resources; having a career question answered through "Ask a Counselor," posting a resume on-line, and searching for current job openings using the job board function.

In addition, the site has a Career Center Overview and a section on Frequently Asked Questions to help students learn more about navigating the site. Students and alumni can also access the Career Center's Calendar for upcoming events such as the Careers in Teaching Information/Advising Session or On-Campus Recruitment visits by employers.

The Online Career Center is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. It is accessible from computers located across campus as well as home computers of students and alumni. Four computers in the Career and Transfer (CAT) Center are designated for student use, two of which have the website up and running at all times. Handouts on how to register, log-in, and search the site are located in adjacent information racks.

CAT Center Staff work with students individually or in small groups to introduce the Online Career Center. In addition, classroom presentations are made at the request of faculty, and demonstrations have been held for various affinity groups across campus. A comprehensive marketing campaign was developed to enhance awareness of the site to all users.

Although the technology to create the Online Career Center was initially utilized to develop services for distance learners, its impact has been more far reaching. For our distance learners, it has enabled them to gain access to a wide range of career services without needing to come to campus. It has provided them with a venue for communication and feedback on career and employment issues, and it has created a sense of inclusion showing that they are an important part of the campus community.

The Online Career Center has also become a beneficial resource for students on campus. It has become an integral part of advising and counseling sessions, allowing counselors to show students where they can access resources for self-assessment and career exploration. Students can then go home, go online, utilize resources, and follow up with us as needed. In the classroom, it allows counselors to demonstrate the online tutorials in presentations, giving students the capability to easily review the information for better understanding. Faculty can utilize these same benefits along with the added ability to search for internships with the Co-op students they supervise.

The Frederick area business community benefits as well, being able to post positions directly to our site and to search for potential candidates. Offering this free service to employers helps the College build stronger business partnerships while providing greater opportunities for employment among our graduates.

In conclusion, FCC's Online Career Center is an example of how colleges and universities can use current technology to create innovative student services designed to address the challenging and varying needs of today's learners.

To learn more about our site, go to www.frederick.edu and click on "Visit the FCC Career Center."


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Reprint from Student Affairs Online: http://www.studentaffairs.com/ejournal