The institution ensures the quality of educational programs and courses offered through consortial relationships or contractual agreements, ensures ongoing compliance with the Principles, and periodically evaluates the consortial relationship and/or agreement against the mission of the institution. (See Commission policy “Collaborative Academic Arrangements.”

JUDGMENT: Compliant

STATEMENT OF RATIONALE FOR JUDGMENT OF COMPLIANCE

Southwest Texas Junior College has one type of consortial relationship or contractual agreement with other organizations and institutions for offering and accepting academic courses and credit through a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Virtual College of Texas (VCT).

The Virtual College of Texas (VCT) is a collaboration of Texas public two-year colleges.  Southwest Texas Junior College is one of the fifty community college districts represented in VCT.  Although VCT courses may originate from anyone of the more than fifty public college participants in the state, they have the same admissions procedures and requirements and appear on an academic transcript as any other SWTJC course.  The student pays tuition and fees at SWTJC, and SWTJC pays the Provider College a per-student instructional lease fee.  The cost of the course will be based on the Provider College course fee, plus a $200.00 service charge fee to setup the course in the SWTJC system.

Students must submit an email request before registering for a VCT course to ensure that an existing SWTJC course is not offered online or if an offered SWTJC online course is full.  The VCT course must meet the academic course guidelines of the corresponding SWTJC course.

To ensure the quality of the course offered through VCT, SWTJC’s VCT Coordinator has developed a request form that requires the Vice President of Student Services to review the course syllabus, including the student learning outcomes, and instructor credentials based on SWTJC’s Master Syllabi.

Southwest Texas Junior College participates in the Virtual College of Texas community through a Virtual College of Texas Consortium Agreement that outlines the responsibilities of Host Colleges, Provider Colleges, and Provider College Instructors.

Evidence

SWTJC Virtual College of Texas Memorandum of Understanding
SWTJC Virtual College of Texas Course Reservation Request
SWTJC Virtual College of Texas Course Request Form
SWTJC Master Syllabi Example
Virtual College of Texas Consortium Agreement