UDMessenger

Volume 12, Number 4, 2004


Shortening the distance in learning opportunities

Tom Setzer, an engineer at a nuclear power plant, works varying shifts and periodically is on call around the clock.

Stacy Gehm is a part-time operating room nurse in Binghamton, N.Y., and the full-time mother of an active toddler.

Russ Conte, another engineer with a busy work schedule, recently spent three weeks in China on company business.

All these working professionals say they would find it difficult, if not impossible, to attend traditional college classes. And, yet, all three are pursuing degrees at the University--in Gehm's cases, 210 miles from her home.

The key is distance learning, in which the UD Online program handles the administrative and logistical aspects of delivering courses, usually in a web-based format, to students in their homes or workplaces. In content and student work assignments, the distance-learning courses are identical to their traditional classroom counterparts.

"Ninety percent of the faculty who teach distance learning classes are full-time faculty, and many are senior faculty," James Broomall, assistant provost for professional and continuing studies, says. "Typically, it's the same faculty members teaching the same courses they do on campus. And, if you earn a degree through distance learning, it's the same degree, conferred by the same college."

Distance learning at UD began in 1988 as a program called FOCUS, Flexible Options For Continuing University Studies. Supported in part by a Unidel grant, FOCUS set up three special classrooms in Pearson Hall where faculty members could be videotaped teaching their usual classes. The tapes then were made available to distance-learning students, who could view them at their convenience. About 100 students enrolled in FOCUS classes that first year.

Today, although some courses continue to use what Broomall calls the "Candid Classroom" video format, most distance learning classes are computer based. They may use the Internet, web-streaming video, CD-ROMs, web-enhanced videotapes or a combination of formats. The key to all these courses, administrators and students say, is the scheduling flexibility they provide.

?Last year, more than 3,500 students took courses via UD Online. Some, like Setzer and Conte in mechanical engineering, are pursuing graduate degrees. Others, like Gehm, a registered nurse with a two-year college degree, are enrolled in programs to earn their bachelor's degrees. And, still others are part-time students taking occasional distance learning courses, either for credit or to earn a noncredit certificate.

Some are even traditional, on-campus undergraduates who find a particular course impossible to fit into their regular schedule. Upperclass students in good academic standing are allowed to take a course through distance learning, although some academic units require advance permission before they enroll.

"Our primary mission remains the same--to extend the campus to those who can't come to campus--and our primary audience remains the adult student," Broomall says. "However, we've seen an increase in interest from regular, matriculated undergraduates who need a convenient alternative when it's just not feasible for them to attend a traditional class."

Those scheduling problems arise most often with undergraduates who have a heavy work schedule or participate in a time-consuming sport or other extracurricular activity, he says.

For part-time adult students, several degrees can be earned almost exclusively through distance learning, although most require participants to spend a week or two on campus in special orientation or capstone sessions. These degree programs include two geared particularly to professionals working in fields with round-the-clock schedules--nursing and the hospitality industry.

In the Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management (HRIM), students who never completed their degree or who have a bachelor's degree in a different field can earn a bachelor of science degree in HRIM through distance learning. Judith Miller, the department's distance-learning adviser and coordinator, says all HRIM courses are offered in a web-based format and can be taken according to an individualized schedule that fits each student's work and family responsibilities.

"We have a very diverse group of students," Miller says. "Historically, you didn't always need a four-year degree to succeed in this field, but now, you really do. More and more working professionals are coming to realize that they need to complete their degree, but their schedules make that very difficult."

Not all general education courses and electives that a student might need to fulfill the 120-credit degree requirement are offered in a distance format, so some students take some traditional classroom courses--at UD or, perhaps, at a community college--in addition to the online HRIM classes. As with all distance learning courses, the online format means an HRIM student can view a lecture, complete an assignment or contribute comments to a discussion group at any hour of the day or night. Some exams can be taken online from a student's home, while other professors require the exam to be proctored at a school or worksite convenient to the student.

"Some professionals working in the hospitality field want to take classes at midnight, others only on weekends, and still others in seasonal industries might be able to take four courses at a time in the winter but can barely fit in one during the summer," Miller says. "Distance learning allows them to adjust their class schedules."

In engineering, the number of graduate courses available in a distance format has increased from six (with 15 students enrolled) in spring 1994 to 21 (with 63 students) in fall 2003. Working engineers can earn their master's degrees in mechanical or electrical engineering entirely via distance learning, and selected courses in chemical and civil engineering and materials science also are offered online, says Kathy Werrell, assistant dean of engineering and director of the Engineering Outreach program.

Conte calls the graduate program in mechanical engineering "rigorous" and "challenging," especially for those with full-time jobs. "However, the distance learning courses have made it much easier to manage," he says. "I am able to work at my own pace and watch lectures on my own schedule."

When his employer sent him to China, he says, he took a VCR and lecture tapes along "and didn't lose a step."

Setzer, who expects to complete his master's degree this spring, says the high-quality sound and video of the lectures made viewing them seem almost like being in the classroom. When he had a question that wasn't answered in the lecture, he says, he e-mailed the professor and generally received a detailed explanation by the next day.

"With my work schedule, I'm just not a Monday to Friday kind of person," he says. "The fact that UD had this distance learning option is the only reason I was able to do graduate work at this time."