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John A. Logan College Attracts Distance-Education Students With Offbeat Courses
Like many other colleges and universities, John A. Logan College entered the growing field of distance education a few years ago. Instead of putting existing courses online, though, it has created a series of noncredit courses in unusual subjects, like the history of the Beatles.
John A. Logan offered its first online course three years ago, when Terry Crain, associate dean of student services, decided that he wanted to teach a continuing-education course on the history of rock 'n' roll. Since then, he has focused his course more on the Beatles. Meanwhile, Tom Bell, director of media services and telecommunications, has started teaching a course on unidentified flying objects.
The two-year college's traditional classroom courses rarely draw students from outside of Illinois, but administrators like to note that the online courses have enrolled hundreds of students from four continents.
Officials say the courses have helped John A. Logan both to achieve greater recognition and to test the technology that it will use to put some for-credit courses online this spring.
"The name of our college has gotten around the country and the world due to our courses in these quirky subjects," says Barry Hancock, associate dean for community education.
"It just blows my mind. I'm not really a Beatles fan or a U.F.O. believer, but you wouldn't believe how many people there are who are interested in the subjects."
This spring, 30 students will take the U.F.O. course; in the fall, 61 were enrolled in the Beatles course.
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John A. Logan works with 13 other colleges in Illinois to attract students to the classes. The partner colleges advertise the classes in their regions, register students, and charge a fee, passing along $15 per student to John A. Logan.
"This is not a moneymaker for us," Mr. Hancock says. "We are more interested in getting students, testing new technology, and sending the name of John A. Logan College out around the world."
This year, administrators hope to add courses in baseball history and winemaking to their repertoire of "quirky subjects," he says.
The courses, which are entirely Web-based, include chat rooms, video, and audio. The U.F.O. course, for instance, features readings and live chats on such subjects as close encounters, alleged government conspiracies, and international U.F.O. sightings.
Mr. Crain, whose rock 'n' roll course started the distance-education effort, says the college has benefited from the choice of entertaining subjects to test-drive its online teaching.
"Myself and the other guy who teach the course are old rock 'n' rollers from way back," he says, "and we figured that if we were going to teach an online course, we should teach it in a subject we really liked."
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