Changing Horizons in the Community College: Reinforcing Career Coaching and Online Instruction

AbstractAs many traditional disciplines become enriched by incorporating technology into their fields, education struggles to achieve the necessary requirements in order to deliver successful options to their constituents. Recognizing time and financial constraints, the need for clarity in selecting a vocation becomes more important in the face of the current economic crisis. Offering students a wider choice of programs and courses can present fiscal and logistical challenges. One viable method community colleges can utilize to achieve this undertaking, is creating a strong online career coaching and education program. The purpose of this study is to examine career coaching in conjunction with online education to better serve community colleges who are learning at a distance. This will lead to a better understanding of the role of technology in the classroom and in vocational education and utilizing career coaching to better prepare students and to enhance retention and student. success.Keywords: career development tools, career coaching, online advising, career counseling, web-based career guidance, instructional design, online educationINTRODUCTIONHindered by a crippling economic status, resulting in escalating tuition rates nationally, our community colleges would be prudent to address some critical issues vexing future and current students. Community college leaders today face a number of difficult decisions related to increasing tuition and reductions in state appropriations. Despite unprecedented financial challenges, community college leaders should be proactive in addressing some critical issues facing current and future students. These leaders face a number of difficult decisions related to maintaining open access, increasing tuition, and reductions in state appropriations. Fully exploring the role that technology can play in both the classroom and in vocational education, will enable community colleges to offer opportunities to best serve their diverse constituents through online education and career coaching. Enhancing these programs will help to improve student retention, enhance student academic success, and better prepare community college students for employment in a global economy. Two primary concerns, financial resources and career guidance, are considered essential needs for most community college students (Rosensohn, n.d., OECD, 2004).Many students contemplating applying to a community college desire a variety of options, including majors and learning choices, which can provide them a sharper edge in gaining employment after graduation. A vital need for any student considering entering community college is advisement on specific academic material to review prior to taking the entrance exam. Appropriate advising can reduce the amount of squandered funds typically distributed by federal and state entities (and currently utilized by colleges). Without proper advising students may take classes that are duplication of their knowledge base, which the student might have forgotten, due to exam anxiety.One major student issue that is increasingly being discussed in professional literature, suggesting further empirical research, is career guidance. One topic related to advising at the community college which is increasingly discussed in the professional literature is career guidance. According to Dr. Fritz Grupe (n.d.), founder of MyMajors.com, 80% of college-bound students have not picked a major at the time they enter college, and once enrolled in college, half of all college students' change their major at least once. The lack of clarity of a career choice can diminish a student's natural talents, while they simultaneously accumulate financial burden, in turn often encouraging the startling attrition rates at the higher education level. In spite of this confusion and lack of preparation, many students make the ultimate decision to continue their education by attending their local community college. …