Technology increases distance-learning options

by Ruth Scott

SBJ Contributing Writer

Technology continues to create more options for students with busy schedules. Area colleges and universities are utilizing various distance learning techniques to make it more convenient to finish a degree or receive required continuing education.

Southwest Missouri State University has been offering telecourses over public access television for more than 10 years, said Gary Ellis, director of distance learning and instructional technology. Telecourses are usually geared toward people who are interested in coming back to school but find it difficult to come to campus, he said.

"That was before we called it distance learning," he said. Now, distance learning also includes online and interactive video courses.

Internet classes are usually targeted toward a graduate-level market, Ellis said. "Many people who take these courses are already working and want to further their degree." He said SMSU started a master's degree program in computer information systems about 2 1/2 years ago.

Tracy Rakowski is coordinator of Internet-based instruction at SMSU. She coordinates support for students in the Internet classes, such as organizing registration and textbook orders for out-of-town students. She also facilitates the help desk for students with technical and nontechnical questions.

Library services also need to be arranged for students in online classes, she said. "If the instructor assigns supple-mental readings, we can put them on reserve on the Web."

According to Rakowski, the interest in online courses is definitely increasing. "We offered two courses last fall for the master's in administrative studies program," she said. "One was almost full, and one was actually over capacity."

Many professional organizations and some state credentialing bodies will accept distance learning as a continuing education method, said Becky Quinn, director of the Center for Continuing and Professional Education at SMSU. While the department does not offer any classes for academic credit, she said, "we offer continuing education that many professions are required to report to state of Missouri and credentialing organizations."

She said many professionals prefer to use distance learning for their continuing education because it is more efficient and less expensive.

Beginning this fall, the Center for Continuing and Professional Education will offer its first online correspondence course for professionals who work in long-term care.

The course will be asynchronous, Quinn said, which means students will be able to access the class anytime and anyplace, whenever it is most convenient. Synchronous classes, on the other hand, require all students to be online taking the class at the same time.

"Both types of classes can be interactive," Quinn said. "In an asynchronous class, students can send e-mail to the instructor if they don't understand something. The instructor then e-mails or faxes a response."

The instructor can also assign students to chat rooms and give them a research project, she said. "The student could converse with other team members in a chat room and access a virtual library."

Rakowski said it is common for teachers to have the students publish their research papers as Web sites. Even tests can be given and scored online.

Drury College began its first online classes last spring, said Gary Rader, coordinator for online courses. The classes are asynchronous, but Rader said the students do participate as a class.

"Student partici-pation is visible," he said. "Students are aware of other people in the class, and they have discussions through chat rooms, bulletin boards, listserves and e-mail."

He said the flexibility of asynchronous classes is an advantage, because it allows students more time to reflect. "Students might have two days to respond to a question. They can post an answer at midnight, 6 a.m. or 6 p.m., and it doesn't make any difference."

Rader said classes can be blended, with half of the sessions meeting during the semester on campus, and the other half on the Internet. All courses have one mandatory meeting at the beginning of the semester and one mandatory final exam proctored on campus.

Harold Richardson, dean of industry and extension services at Ozarks Technical Community College, said he is in the process of putting together a proposal to try online courses.

"We don't have a plan for it right now, but it is in the works," he said. "We're trying to determine the feasibility of doing it." He said OTC might offer some noncredit classes online in the upcoming school year. "It's still in the planning stage, not in the implementation stage," he added.

Richardson said he believes the demand exists for online courses at OTC, especially for business clients who participate in employee training.

"Rather than leaving work for a three-hour training session, the employees could stay at work and be trained online."

Interactive video is another distance-learning technique. According to Ellis, SMSU has been using this particular method for about five years.

"There are a growing number of locations in southern Missouri where classrooms are set up for interactive video classes," Quinn said. Through BearNet, the university's interactive video network, the SMSU Springfield campus can connect with the West Plains and Mountain Grove campuses, as well as sites in Neosho, Joplin, Nevada and Lebanon.

"Any place that has an interactive classroom with technology matching ours can be a learning site for us," Quinn said. And schools are not the only sites. "Some libraries are getting them, and there are some commercial interactive sites, such as Kinko's," she said.

Diana Garland, associate director of academic outreach in the College of Continuing Edu-cation and the Extended University at SMSU, has worked with the system for about three years. She schedules the programming for the different classes and coordinates where students go for instruction.

The interactive video classes are usually junior-, senior- or graduate-level courses. For nursing, general business and some areas of elementary education, "students can take their first two years at the West Plains Campus and complete their last two years with interactive video courses," she said. "We also have an interactive master's of business administration program."

Many of the students in outlying areas work during the day and take the interactive video classes at night, Garland said.

"The students are really very appreciative that they are able to get this education in their location," she said. "They can work an eight-hour day and take classes close by, instead of having to leave work early and drive several hours to campus."

Right now, OTC is not offering any interactive video classes for credit, said Don Simmons, vice president for academic affairs. However, the technology is being used at OTC for a distance learning project with Republic and Willard high schools.

"We hope in the future to offer for-credit interactive TV classes," Simmons said. "The biggest advantage of interactive TV would be if we had two people in one place, three in another place, and five somewhere else. Then we could run the class from a central location."

He said specialty courses are the most likely candidates for interactive video classes in the near future. "We might need a specialized instructor and not have enough students in one location to form a class."

Drury is also investigating the technology for interactive television classes, according to Rader. "We're cautiously and systematically exploring the idea," he said. "We have to consider the needs of the student body."

Besides the advantages, Quinn said, there are some drawbacks to distance learning. "Some people can't learn that way," she said. "Some people are not self-directed enough to work that way. They need to have a certain schedule."

Age and maturity have a lot to do with a student's success, she said. "There are some older people who don't find this way of learning to be helpful," she said. "Younger people, if they are mature enough and self-motivated enough, can be very successful with distance learning and interactive video. They grew up with TV," she said. "This just happens to be live, and you can interact with it."

Telecourses and interactive video are offered at the same cost as on-campus classes, Ellis said. "There are differential fees for Internet courses." It is difficult to determine the costs, he said, because "the Internet isn't the traditional way of doing things. You can't start with where you are and build from there. This is all new, so you have to start from the ground up."

Quinn said she estimates that by 2010, any degree that is now offered in an on-campus format will be available online somewhere.

"In my opinion, the whole system of education in our country is going to change dramatically in the next 10 to 20 years," Quinn said. "It will place tremendous burdens on teachers and administrators."

While it is expensive to acquire and update technology, she said, "there's no way we can prepare students without technology to compete with those who have it. As a community, we've got to be willing to keep investing in technology."

"Students are driving the adoption of technology," Ellis said. "Nationwide, we are finding that if there is some sort of online component related to the class, students are more likely to take it."

According to Rakowski, inquiries about the Web-based program have increased dramatically. And Garland said demand continues to increase for the interactive video courses.

"Our department is really new," Garland said. "As we hire additional people they will try to determine the needs in the area. I see it really growing within the next two years."

For the spring of 2000, she said, the room at the TeleCenter in Nevada is already full for the nursing and the MBA programs.

Rader said Drury hopes to expand the number of online classes offered. "Many of our students live in outlying areas or are single moms. They can take online classes to build up hours toward a degree."

Students at Drury cannot finish a degree completely online, he said, but "we want to offer students as many choices as we can to help them finish their degree. We will take it as far as the demand for it exists. It's definitely the wave of the future."

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