Palomar's Mission, Vision, and Values Aligned to Distance Education

A colleges Mission, Vision, and Values communicate the purpose of the college. Let's take a look at how Palomar's Mission, Vision, and Values support and align with Distance Education.

Vision and DE

Transforming lives for a better future.

With the vision to transform lives, we need to remember that we are focused on all lives meaning the full diversity of our students. Community college students attend college at diverse ages, with different experiences, and varying goals. Online learning provides the opportunity to transform lives of students who do not fit into the traditional in-person college experience.

Mission and DE

Palomar College respects each of our students' experiences and supports them to achieve academic success. As a community college, we encourage our students to embrace the best version of themselves and prepare them to engage with our local and global communities.

Providing the opportunity for Distance Education means providing an opportunity for students to learn in the modality that best suits their experiences and goals. Distance Education also provides the opportunity for students to develop valuable skills in digital literacy and communication to prepare them to participate and engage with global communities.

Values and DE

In creating the learning and cultural experience that fulfill our mission, we are committed to serving our community, including historically and currently marginalized and racially minoritized populations. In doing so, we are guided by the core values of:

Access: We make education possible for everyone.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: We recognize and respect diversity, seek to foster a culture of inclusion and belonging, and strive to address inequities.

Academic Excellence: We provide quality programs and robust course offerings to support students who are pursuing transfer-readiness, general education, career and technical training, aesthetic and cultural enrichment, and lifelong education.

Student Focused: We offer a caring and supportive environment that addresses the holistic and distinct needs of our students.

Community: We are an integral part of our region and strive to foster meaningful relationships within our college and local communities.

Distance Education is a key to providing access to education and helping to equatize education through opportunity. Faculty who teach a Distance Education course are provided training to develop and facilitate an excellent online experience for our students. We offer our services online to support students's needs and we take care to develop an learning community through DE.

Palomar's Educational Vision Plan 2035

As a community, Palomar crafted our new Educational and Facilities Vision Plan 2035! This plan establishes the vision for Palomar’s educational and student support programs and facilities over the next twelve years with a significant update in year six. The Educational and Facilities Vision Plan 2035 is the new plan that has replaced the Educational and Facilities Master Plan 2022, which concluded in 2022.

DE and Vision Plan 2035

The Educational and Facilities Vision Plan 2035 includes several goals and ideas for the future of Distance Education at Palomar College, these include:

Goal 1, Objective 9: “Implement and support a comprehensive and equitable distance education program”
Goal 3, Objective 6: “Invest in the infrastructure needed to grow enrollment through online educational programs.”

Additionally, the EVP includes the following comments about DE:

“The EVP goals call for intentionally planning for online programs and maintaining online academic and support services.”
“An opportunity exists for the District to intentionally build its online programs and offerings while supporting on-campus programs and offerings.”
“Create a technology-rich environment that supports Hyflex, hybrid, and online instruction.”
“Palomar College must market and ensure students have easy access to its programs and services at the San Marcos Campus, education centers and sites, and online to minimize the loss of service area residents to other community colleges.”
“the District’s free flow analysis showed that many service area residents attend other regional community colleges. Palomar College can regain some of these enrollments by offering future-focused programs and services in convenient locations and through distance (online) education.”
“To meet the needs of its service area, the District will increase enrollment at the San Marcos Campus through the expansion of online and hybrid course availability, opportunities that support skills development in the workforce, increases in Middle College and dual enrollment options, and partnerships with business, industry, and public and private universities.”