Friday, April 13, 2001

As Distance Education Evolves, Choices Reflect the Cultures of Institutions By DAN CARNEVALE At Mercy College, in New York, every general-education course that students can take online is also available in the traditional face-to-face format. But at Fairleigh Dickinson University, in New Jersey, none of the online courses offered have face-to-face counterparts. For some subjects, students either take the course online or not at all. Neither institution has a written policy requiring courses to be created in a certain way, but the two institutions are polar opposites in terms of online-course creation. Officials at both say their practices serve the needs of their students and faculty members. The difference between them illustrates an often overlooked fact of distance education: that practices for developing online courses evolve in ways that reflect the culture of the institution doing the developing. At Mercy College, faculty members tend to replicate online courses from existing classroom courses because they don't want an online course to be students' only option for studying a subject, says Frank B. McCluskey, dean of online learning at the college. "We take the classes that exist physically and then morph them online," Mr. McCluskey says. "You can take it either way. We want our students on campus to have different avenues toward getting a degree." One reason the college limits online offerings is that administrators are worried about retaining students, he says. Studies have shown that students are more likely to drop out of online courses than traditional courses. Some observers have speculated that this is, in part, because a student must be more self-motivated for an online course than for a traditional one. Mary Knopp Kelly, a psychology professor at Mercy College, says that its faculty members aren't restricted in how they create courses, but that the culture of the institution dictated a pattern of creating online courses out of traditional ones. "I don't think anyone has ever said that we couldn't offer something online that's not in a classroom," Ms. Kelly says. "That's just the way it's developed around here." A few courses covering special topics are available only online at Mercy College, Mr. McCluskey says. One example he mentions is an international-business course. Students from five different countries participate in the course, which wouldn't be possible if it were offered on campus. But at Fairleigh Dickinson University, online education is central to the institution's mission, says Michael Sperling, who is interim dean of Fairleigh Dickinson's University College and is the institution's distance-education coordinator. Because it is promoting online education, the university has created courses that don't have face-to-face counterparts. "By practice, that's generally the case," Mr. Sperling says. "But it's not policy." But the practice means that students often have to take a course online if they want to take it at all. That's all right with the university, Mr. Sperling says. Administrators want students take at least some courses online. Starting with this fall's freshman class, students will be required to take at least one online course a year. With the Internet and computers becoming more important in daily life, he says, it's crucial for students to be able to perform tasks like organizing a team project online and using the Internet for research. "To be a well-rounded, proficient college graduate, it's a 'skill' you have to have -- and we say 'skill' in quotes because it's not just surfing the Net, it's being able to use the Internet effectively," Mr. Sperling says. "It's a very different motivation than what other people are doing." For example, the university is developing an online course called "Global Challenges" that will be required for all students, he says. It will be an interdisciplinary course covering armed conflict and environmental growth from various world perspectives. The course will touch on issues drawn from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, he says. He adds that the university made it an online course to emphasize its global perspective. J. Michael Adams, the president of the university, pushed the idea of requiring students to take at least one online course a year, Mr. Sperling says. Since then the Faculty Senate has endorsed the plan, and the program has been on the fast track. "By no means are we looking to convert our university to an online university," he says. "That's the last thing we're trying to do." But faculty members have recognized that students learn differently online, Mr. Sperling notes. Because the university mixes purely online courses with traditional face-to-face courses in a degree program, students get the best of both worlds, he says. "We're not using it as a tool of convenience for students," Mr. Sperling adds. "We're doing it because we believe the Internet is very effective at helping students learn." Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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