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Executive Summary

A wealth of data were generated by the GSAMS Policy Report. Highlights from the study are briefly summarized below. For more in-depth information the reader should refer to the detailed final report.

• Most of the respondents were from K-12 institutions and universities/colleges.
• Most GSAMS sites have been in operation five or more years and distribute their programming statewide.
• Policies in teaching, training, and evaluation were in place for the majority of GSAMS organizations surveyed but not in administration/management and the technical areas.

• GSAMS units reported to a variety of personnel across organizations.
• Most programming was delivered between 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
• Outside users were charged approximately $30 an hour and oftentimes were required to use a facilitator to run the equipment.
• Those serving in Distance Coordinator and Director's positions were not given workload credit by their organization.

• Most instructors volunteered to teach via GSAMS due to their interest in this relatively new teaching format and were not given incentives to do so.
• The greatest difficulties experienced by distance instructors across organizations dealt with equipment problems and effectively managing all of the sites during instruction.

• Training began within six months of the GSAMS installation and was delivered at the home site by organizational personnel when requested by interested distance instructors.
• Despite the discovery that GSAMS instructors were not required to go through training in most of the organizations, the biggest training problem identified by the majority of respondents concerned the use of untrained instructors for GSAMS classes.

• Most organizations employed a full or part-time technical person to oversee technical problems.
• Media specialists, technology trainers, and distance coordinators/directors served as technical problem solvers for the GSAMS sites.

• GSAMS evaluations focused on the effectiveness of GSAMS in delivering course content, student satisfaction with GSAMS, and distance instructor effectiveness.
• Evaluative data were used by administrators to make programs decisions.
• Developing and using a reliable distance evaluation form was the greatest evaluation need expressed by the study's participants.

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