High-Quality Physical & Digital Resources

Improve environments needed to effectively service and educate our students in multiple modalities.

GOALS

Satisfaction

Increase employee satisfaction with the work

environment.

Engagement

Increase student engagement and satisfaction with the college website, courses, key services, and facilities.

TACTICS

Create a Technology Strategy to innovatively support high-quality online and in person experiences.

2. Create a Facilities Strategy to innovatively support our mission and vision.

Timeline

Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026...

Strategic planning cone diagram (conceptual).

In the near term, it is the goal of the High-Quality Physical and Digital Resources (HQPDR) pillar to identify innovative, strategic tactics through research and campus open forum data. Upon identifying tactics, we seek to extract prospective impact ideas, and through campus feedback refine them into implementation strategies. By seeking meaningful tactics and proposing bold strategies, we hope to move the needle on High-Quality Digital and Physical Resources. As the strategic plan's strategies are implemented over the semesters to come, successful strategies will influence vision and lead to campus-level evolution.

Tactics

(Technical steps we followed to engage with the campus community as well as referenced data & research. )

Campus Participation and Engagement

Open communication and transparency are critical to identifying shared interest and values in a strategic initiative. The strategic plan group and the High-Quality Physical and Digital Resources pillar hosts open forums at both Puʻuloa and Waiʻanae Moku, to receive feedback and ideas from our constituents:

Convocation Breakout Session, August 21, 2024
Kickoff Luncheon, August, 23,2024
Pūkoʻa no nā ʻEwa Council (all pillars), November 15, 2024
Meet & Eat (HQPDR pillar), December 13, 2024
Campus Council Presentation, September 20, 2024
Faculty Senate Presentation, October 2, 2024
Meet & Eat (all pillars) Waiʻanae Moku, December 10, 2024
Strat Plan Update - Convocation January 8, 2025
Meet & Eat (HQPDR pillar), March 28, 2025
Meet & Eat (all pillars) Waiʻanae Moku, April 15, 2025
Padlet board, Continuous

Supporting Data Sources

The following national, state, organizational, and institutional resources provided insights into the themes and direction of the HQPDR pillar.

Leeward CC Distance Education Student Survey (Fall 2019 - 2024) https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/ed4512/viz/LEE-DE-Student-Survey-FA19-FA24-FEB5/DEStory

Aggregated Campus Feedback (Google Doc) https://docs.google.com/document/d/19b3007DhdtwEAgFwR-jBLhBbdYcYFLbq44FQlW3sUGk/edit?usp=sharing

Padlet board https://uhcc.padlet.org/bhirata3/stratplan

Facing the Future: The Urgent Need for Innovations in Higher Education (2024) Harvard
https://www.sir.advancedleadership.harvard.edu/articles/facing-future-urgent-need-for-innovation-higher-education

Timotheou, S., Miliou, O., Dimitriadis, Y. et al. Impacts of digital technologies on education and factors influencing schools' digital capacity and transformation: A literature review. Educ Inf Technol 28, 6695–6726 (2023). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10639-022-11431-8

2024 Educause Horizon Report (2024). Educause (p. 9) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IbAQhgOWZJZubb8HQwKH8cYJu8nIw7TS/view?usp=drive_link

External Scan (2024). University of Hawaiʻi
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EJnaJlZhWb9Xiw95h0BNHrJYCiVq-fUF/view?usp=drive_link

University of Hawaii. (n.d.). Third decade report [HTML document]. University of Hawaiʻi. https://www.hawaii.edu/ovppp/thirddecade/3D_Report.html

University of Hawaii. (2023). Reimagining UH [PDF]. University of Hawaiʻi. https://www.hawaii.edu/ovppp/stratdirections/Reimagining_UH_Jan_V8_updated.pdf

University of Hawaii. (2024).FY24-29 6-Year CIP Plan - FINAL v.9a 10.31.22.pdf [PDF]. University of Hawaiʻi. (p. 36-37) https://manoa.hawaii.edu/planning/FY24-29%206-Year%20CIP%20Plan%20-%20FINAL%20v.9a%2010.31.22.pd

Impact Initiatives & Strategies

(Specific initiatives and corresponding strategies - events, activities, and steps we have applied in order to advance toward our pillar goals)

Chatbot

Alignment: The committed view this Impact Initiative as applicable to Strategic Plan Goal 2: to increase student engagement and satisfaction with their college website, and aligned with Campus Tactic 1: a technology strategy to innovatively support high-quality online experience.

Details: A committee member had previously explored applying chatbots to increase student support. When reviewing the landscape, it was determined that Leeward CC Library had a chat bot service and that Leeward Student Services was contracting another chatbot service called Ulu (by Ocelot). Leeward Academic Services was using a chat bot called Tidio for professional development support of Lamakū. It was also mentioned that the University of Hawaiʻi, Information Technology Services (ITS) was using an additional chatbot service. Each service operated independently from the others. Further inquiry determined that the UH ITS chatbot would not be shared with Leeward CC. The Leeward Library chat bot and the Leeward Academic services chat bot were also not available for scaling up to a large audience. The Leeward Student Services Ulu bot was actively being used with students and seemed to have scalable potential. As a test of the service, the HQPDR committee worked with Student Services to submit five Leeward DE related questions.

Additionally, new University of Hawaiʻi President Hensel shared on her welcome webpage, a strategy that she used at Georgia State to address the “Summer Melt” that involved a chatbot to provide efficient, effective, timely, and personalized answers to questions from accepted students who had yet to start the semester. She recognized the contribution that technology, specifically chatbot services, could play to increase engagement and provide a high-quality digital experience to students.

Status: HQPDR was able to conduct a limited pilot of 5 distance education questions within the Leeward CC Student Services chatbot service.

Next Steps: Looking down the road, it may be possible to work with Leeward CC Student Services to expand the Leeward Ulu chatbot to incorporate additional DE question and or AI support, funding pending.

Lamakū Student Ambassador Program

Alignment: The committee viewed this Impact Initiative as applicable to Strategic Plan Goal 2: to increase student engagement and satisfaction with their college courses, and aligned with Campus Tactic 1: a technology strategy to innovatively support high-quality online experience.

Details: The University of Hawaiʻi took a step forward toward High-Quality Digital Resources when it transitioned from Laulima (Sakai) to Lamakū (Brightspace) for itʻs online management system. Starting in Spring 2025, Leeward CC online courses transitioned to being delivered via the new Lamakū LMS platform. In addition to the increase of cognitive load this placed on the instructor to re-invest in their course and adjust their course delivery to a new platform, it also increased student apprehension and cognitive load required to learn to be successful within this new platform.

The HQPDR is comprised of counselor, instructional faculty, student representative, and instructional designer to describe a few, with years of direct personal experience with online learning and lines of communication to peers and colleagues with similar first-hand experience. The consensus was that there was a clear need to support our Leeward students in the transition.

The committee reached out to campus stakeholders from the Learning Resources and Writing Center, Kīpuka Native Hawaiian Center, and Waiʻanae Moku to successfully pull together the Lamakū Student Ambassador Program and use pillar funds to pay the student employees for their time. A strategic plan Kuali Build request was approved for this pillar initiative for compensating student employee time dedicated to serving as Lamakū Ambassadors (tutors, Power/ Peer Mentors) for this initiative and for a tablecloth and flag to be used at strategic plan campus events by all pillar committees. The program involved developing in-person Lamakū training as well as a Lamakū site for peer tutors focused on Lamakū, as well as planning events during the first week of school. The Lamakū Student Ambassador Program was comprised of several sub-initiatives for the Spring 2025 transition:

Lamakū and You! An informational flyer, Lamakū and You!, was designed to communicate with students the various ways the campus was providing student support for Lamakū. The flyer was disseminated to 4294 students enrolled in online, 20 were printed and disseminated to counselors, it was also disseminated to deans, division chairs, administrators, and instructors prior to the semester starting, and contained information and resources for Lamakū.
Lamakū DE Student Orientation Challenge An invitation was sent out to all Leeward students enrolled in an online class to attend this orientation focused exclusively on the Lamakū interface and navigation. Two sessions were offered on the Saturday before the semester started. A classroom was reserved to provide students with an in-person, hands-on orientation to Lamakū. The session concluded with a simulated Lamakū course site activity in which students worked with a partner to complete a hands-on worksheet (Google Doc). The pillar chair facilitated both sessions along with assistance from a student peer mentor from the Lamakū Ambassador group, a total of 5 participants attended this Saturday event (feedback). The activity was also shared later in the week at Success Connection Workshop - Succeeding in Lamakū (Student Edition) at which time an additional 12 participants completed the hands-on activity and provided (feedback).
UH Online Learning Orientation Each semester the Leeward CC Educational Media Center collaborates with UH Online to direct Leeward students to participate in the UH Online, Online Learning Orientation. There were 140 Leeward participants for the Spring 2025 semester. The online orientation is primarily focused on general tips for students to be successful in online learning. Covers basics & myths, communication & netiquette, academic integrity, technology troubleshooting, and resources.
Welcome Table Lamakū The committee worked with the campus Welcome Committee to offer a Lamakū specific welcome table with the tutors and peer/ power mentors from the LRC & Writing Center, Kīpuka Native Hawaiian Center, and Waiʻanae Moku to host Lamakū Welcome Tables on the first two days of the spring semester. The welcome tables were intended to field basic Lamakū questions on access, identify, navigate, and course layout. Planning Document with details. The number of interactions over the two days: Learning Commons Concourse (37), Waiʻanae Moku (3), Native Hawaiian Center Kīpuka (56)
Lamakū Tutoring A total of 38 Lamakū tutoring appointments were made over five weeks (summary) with the Learning Resource Center/ Writing Center tutoring services (in-person or online) January 13 (week 1) through February 14, 2025 (Week 5). Students served included Native Hawaiian students, student parents, and non-traditional returning students. These populations often balance academic, work, and family responsibilities and benefit from personalized academic support.
Success Connection Workshop - Succeeding in Lamakū (Student Edition) The Leeward Learning Resources Center/ Writing Center offers a series of self improvement workshops for students, faculty, and staff called Success Connections. The pillar committee chair worked with the center coordinator to schedule and present a session entitled Succeeding in Lamakū (Student Edition) (slides). A total of 17 participants attended the session with 4.3 out of 5 stating that they learned useful information from this session.

Status: Completed - The initiative ran from January to February 2025.

Next Steps: The EMC and Leeward Distance Education Committee will continue to recommend the UH Online Learning Orientation to students and instructors looking for a Lamakū orientation for students.

Examples of Quality Online Course Experiences

Alignment: The committed view this Impact Initiative as applicable to Strategic Plan Goal 1: to increase employee satisfaction with the work environment, and Strategic Plan Goal 2: to increase student engagement and satisfaction with their college courses. The committee viewed this as aligned with Campus Tactic 1: a technology strategy to innovatively support a high-quality online experience.

Details: Some students have reported frustration with the wide range of methods found within Lamakū (varying course by course) to accomplish similar tasks, which led them to miss assignments and deadlines. This issue appears to stem from the varied approaches instructors take to course design, organization, and layout in Lamakū, the University of Hawaiʻi’s new online learning platform. As instructors explore Lamakū’s capabilities and refine their courses, each is developing their own structure and style—often through trial and error—in search of what works best for them and their students.

Although the University of Hawaiʻi provides Lamakū course templates and Quality Online Standards, instructors may find it challenging to implement these resources effectively without concrete, contextualized examples. While instructional designers are available to assist, many instructors prefer to learn from their peers and see real-world course models in action.

Could we accelerate the development of consistent, high-quality courses by curating a catalog of actual Lamakū course examples? Such a resource could help instructors better understand and apply effective practices, reduce variability across courses, and ultimately improve the student experience.

Lamakū Spotlight on Innovation & Appreciation Project

Status: Now Available

Next Steps: To be determined

Our Approach & Process

The committee is interested in identifying and implementing ideas and initiatives that will have a broader impact on the college. The committee charge was to identify potential actions and deliver an impactful initiative item on behalf of the college. The committee followed an open and transparent process of gathering campus ideas and feedback through Campus Participation and Engagement events. Submissions were reviewed and refined to identify commonalities and themes. The committee then further refined, researched, and wrote expanded summaries of each of the selected ideas. The committee then methodically assessed Aggregated Campus Feedback according to criteria in a Strategic Plan Idea Evaluation Framework and ranked them accordingly. The short list of the three top impact ideas was then shared back to the campus community via the Next Impact Initiative survey in order to gauge campus community values and interest. At the conclusion of the campus survey, the committee will meet to discuss your feedback and identify our next Impact Initiative. Once the committee identifies our next Impact Initiative, it will be shared at our campus Meet & Eat session at which time the campus will be asked for specific implementation strategies for the committee to consider.

About the Committee

The committee is comprised of representative stakeholders from the campus community. The strategic planning committee works independently to identify and implement strategic initiatives related to the campus strategic plan. It is important to note that while committee members are actively involved within other campus and may be members of other decision-making bodies, as members of the strategic plan committee they identify and assess impactful ideas with an open mind and without bias. Committee members regularly participate in campus initiatives and bring their knowledge and experience of existing campus initiatives to the strategic planning conversation.

A diverse committee representative of the campus community.

Hirata, Brent Academic Services (Chair)

Riseley, Leanne Administrative Liaison

Parker, Max ASUH Rep.,

Jovenal, Dianne ASUH Rep. (Sept. 26, 2024)

Kaeha, Kainoa ASUH Rep. (Pre Sept. 26, 2024)

Dag, Faustino (Dag) Business, Mgmt

Inoshita, Ann Language Arts, English

Francis, Darci Math and Sciences, Math

Gross, Pete Math & Science, ICS (2024 - Spring '25)

Okamura, Grant O&M, Aux & Facil Srvc Mgr

Keim-Fortuno, Nicole Student Services, Counseling

Appendix:

Pillar Chair Meetings:

2024: April (2, 9, 23, 30), May (6, 21), July (2), September (3, 19, 24), October (1, 22), November (7), December (2, 20)

2025: January (23, 28), February (20, 25), March (25), April (10)

Committee Meetings:

2024: April (24), September (20, 26), October (10, 28)

2025: January (2, 24, 31), March (6, 24), April (3)

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