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Pima Community College officials Wednesday presented a draft three-year plan that focuses on improvements in student learning, remedial education and redesigning student services like financial aid.

The plan, which coincides with the college's preparation for its 10-year reaccreditation process in 2010, calls for creativity and innovation in addressing the most important issues for the college, said Chancellor Roy Flores as he presented the plan to the college's governing board.

"The main purpose of the plan is to improve instruction and you see that throughout," Flores said.

The college has to question some long-term practices and seek to be more nimble in how it delivers programs and maximizes the use of its facilities, Flores said.

Provost Suzanne Miles said improving student learning includes efforts to create more effective learning environments, including hybrid courses that include online instruction, distance education and different course lengths.

"We need to meet the educational needs for Pima County students, no matter what their intent is," she said.

Remedial education is a crucial challenge for the college, with 80 percent of Pima students needing to start below college level in at least one subject. About 60 percent need at least two remedial classes and about 30 percent of students in remedial classes don't pass.

The college will focus on early assessment and placement, incorporating technology for new instructional models and having more full-time and specifically trained faculty members teaching remedial courses.

Flores said the college will use technology to streamline and add consistency to various procedures, many of which are paper-based and manually performed tasks that closely impact students. Students often complain of barriers and obstacles in the system, including receiving contradictory information from different parts of the college when they look for answers.

"We're doing things the way we did them at the very beginning. We're looking at moving from the process we instituted in the 1980s to processes that are more nimble and responsive to the students," Flores said.

The board questioned administrators about how some of the improvements will be made and emphasized that making procedures easier for students should be a top priority.

"If we can sign up for classes as easily as we can buy books from Amazon.com, that ought to be the goal," said board member Scott Stewart.

College administrators will now make adjustments to the draft plan and return to the board in May to request formal adoption.