IMS Global: A survey of your students found that 87 percent said they were satisfied with the overall quality of the instruction they received and about two-thirds said they would choose Cal State Northridge again as their university. What do you believe differentiates the learning experience at your institution?

JK: I think we have a very sound faculty. As you know, nothing happens without good faculty. And we also have staff who see their role as contributing to student success. That, too, makes a huge difference because students require help and assistance from a variety of people in order to achieve the objectives they have when they come here.

IMS Global: Yours is an institution committed to using advanced technology in the teaching and learning process. Cal State Northridge currently offers more than 100 online academic courses. What changes do you foresee in the near future both within the classroom and beyond?

JK: I definitely see our online presence expanding for several reasons. One, we have space constraints. But more important, it will occur to provide flexibility to the students who attend the university. What we've found is that there isn't just a demand for online courses, but a greater demand for hybrid courses that provide some flexibility and give students the opportunity to have the in-class experience. I also think that as we learn more about learning, it's going to be necessary for us to be willing to change how we approach learning. And the technology is available that gives us some leeway and opportunity to do that.

We are testing and going to bring online this summer a new portal. That's been done as an iterative process with the students telling us what they want and don't want on it. We can't let them make all the decisions, but we do let them drive our thinking.

IMS Global: The California State University System recently was presented an IMS Gold Learning Impact Award for the Math Success and English Success websites it maintains to help incoming students prepare for college work. Could you describe this initiative for us and tell us a little of how and why it has been so successful?

JK: It's been successful, but I think we're only in the early stages and we will see even greater success with it down the line. The goal with this program is to provide students who are in high school at the end of their junior year the ability to learn whether or not they have sufficient math and English skills to place appropriately when they come to the California State University. It's a voluntary add-on, part of the California Standards Test that is a requirement for all California high school students. The scores they make on the tests are reported back to the students through their high school. That's been one of the more challenging aspects of this because you have this huge network of high schools that need to understand and be willing to participate with the CSU in administering the program. The other element of this is that students are able to go to a website, look up their scores and take practice tests, thereby improving their math and English skills through these online short courses. All of the campuses within the CSU are working with teachers in their local high schools to design courses to help students improve their skills in these areas.