The first generation was the introduction of "correspondence" education in the 1800s, especially its use by the land grant universities starting in the late 1800s to deliver agricultural education to farmers in rural areas.
The second generation came with the introduction of "television" to deliver educational opportunities to all people in their homes. This stage began with the commercial television offering of Sunrise Semester and Continental Classroom in the 1950s and expanded with the introduction on public broadcasting of more highly produced telecourses in the 1970s and 1980s, reaching its apex with the quality courses of the Annenberg/CPB Project in the 1980s and early 1990s.
The third generation began to emerge in the late 1980s when colleges and universities began to offer "on-line courses" sporadically, when the Internet was still largely funded by the U.S. government and was a "club" of university faculty and military personnel. This was an era of experimentation and searching for ways to use the "reach" of the Internet while still taking advantage of all that had been learned from the two preceding stages.
As we approach the end of the 20th Century, tele-education in the United States is entering its fourth generation with the introduction of complete "virtual programs" of study. Until institutions of higher education (IHEs, which includes both colleges and universities) achieved a critical mass of on-line courses, it was difficult to know what impact tele-education would have in the United States.A recent study by the Western Cooperative for Educational Communications (WCET), a program of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) (www.wiche.edu), documented the extent to which 1,400 of the 3,000 colleges and universities in the U.S. offer distance education courses and programs (tele-education). The study found that 79% of all the institutions offer one or more distance education course (broadly defined to include correspondence courses, telecourses, Web-based courses, site-to-site videoconferencing, and other delivery modes), and one-third offer one or more complete degree programs at a distance. Those data are consistent with the findings of other recent studies. Most of those institutions offering complete distance education programs do so as an extension of their campus-based programs, which continue to dominate their mission. Only a few U.S. IHEs, such as National Technological University, Western Governors University, and the University of Phoenix, can be considered to be "virtual universities" in the sense that other countries have such institutions.Interest in tele-education at the university level is so great that many traditional universities are rushing to create Web-based courses just so that they can say they are offering virtual learning opportunities. The interest has also spawned the development of a new monthly on-line journal, the Virtual University Gazette (www.geteducated.com/ vugaz.htm) that tracks new programs not only at universities but also those offered by the professions and business and industry. The Gazette is published by Vicky Phillips, CEO of Lifelong Learning (Waterbury, VT), a distance learning consulting firm.Phillips has also co-authored, with Cindy Yager, The Best Distance Learning Graduate Schools, a 322-page publication that profiles 195 accredited graduate schools that offer complete degrees at a distance. Published by The Princeton Review and Random House Publishers, (www.randomhouse.com) the 1999 edition has several chapters of advice for the reader, on such topics as what to look for in distance education programs, how to select among delivery technologies, and how to seek financial aid to pay for the degree. The publication includes degree programs that are delivered through the Internet, videocassettes, audiocassettes, broadcast and cable television, and computer technologies. It also includes a chapter on corporate-sponsored graduate degree programs.
In the first place, our understanding of the nature of learning and the relationship between the learner and the educational institution is changing. At the lower levels (elementary and secondary schools), the emphasis is on learning that is student-centered, project-based, and activity-oriented. It is based largely on the pedagogical theory of the constructivists (i.e., that students must learn to construct new learning from disparate sources of information). At the higher education level, the change is reflected in a more "customer-centered" approach that affects not only how students are treated as they interact with the institution, but the very nature of the courses themselves, making them more practical, with content that the students can apply immediately in their jobs.
Second, the information and communications infrastructure in the U.S. has expanded greatly, to the point where most households have a full range of telecommunications technologies. The technologies are becoming an integral part of life in most households. It is not unusual, for example, for middle class households to have several television sets, cable television service, a couple of VCRs, one or more computers, two phone lines, a cell phone, video games, and more. It is important to note that educational applications are not driving the increased accessibility of these technologies. Commercial interests are driving their expansion. Educators are the beneficiaries of this expanded availability of the technologies.
Third, the technologies have experienced great expansion of functionality in recent years. Whereas in the past, cable television systems were limited to 12 channels, and computer storage was limited to 20 megabytes of storage, and telephone transmission of data was at a slow speed of 1200 baud, now the technologies have much greater capacity and functionality. Cable systems regularly carry 130 channels of programming and are expanding to offer telephony and high speed data access as well as television programs. Computer storage of 8 to 10 gigabytes and processing speeds of 400 megahertz are now available at reasonable prices. Data travel through telephone lines at up to 53 kilobytes per second. And we in the United States are blessed to have an affordable fixed-price telephone pricing system so that we can use the Internet for an unlimited amount of time each month for one low monthly charge. This is something that many other countries do not enjoy.
Furthermore, the technological differences among the media that once separated them from each other are quickly disappearing. The emergence of a single communications platform that supports the interoperability of technologies is no longer a pipe dream. We live in the "age of convergence."
The expanded capacity of the technology has also encouraged the development of new applications, most of which were stimulated by non-education interests, but which nevertheless hold promise for educational applications. Real Video, for example, was developed to "stream" live television and radio programming. But what potential it holds for educational applications! Likewise, video conferencing networks (such as the 400+ site Sprint Video Network) were developed to facilitate business meetings. But what potential they hold for remote site-based distance education!
The telecommunications industry itself is stimulating further change. Industry jobs that did not even exist ten years ago now require training and work force upgrading annually, if not more often. This is having a major impact on the work force itself. For example, in a small area of Northern Virginia, there are 19,000 hi-tech jobs that are vacant because there are not workers with sufficient training to fill them.
All of these changes are converging to create a time of unprecedented opportunity for new ways to deliver and support educational opportunities. Tele-education is a major beneficiary of the changes.
Many institutions have tried various new approaches, and the search continues. One paradigm that holds great promise is the model of "The Four Conversations." The model places a strong emphasis on the dialogic nature of learning. It maintains that all learning consists of four types of dialog:
a. the "conversations" a learner has with an instructor;
b. the "conversations" among groups of learners;
c. the "conversations" a learner has with instructional resources; and,
d. the "conversations" a learner has with him/herself (i.e., reflection).
The challenge for tele-education is to make appropriate use of communications technologies to support each of the four dialogs. An assessment of tele-education programs would examine: how well the programs facilitate the learner communicating with the instructor (asynchronously or in real time); how the learner can contact other students to discuss issues and study together; how the learner has access to the instructional resources of the course and the tools needed to use those resources; and how the program encourages the student to assemble and reflect on the information gotten through the first three conversations.
The second barrier is that the tele-education programs adopt a traditional pedagogical paradigm. They create a learning environment that closely resembles the roles, processes, and resources found in face-to-face learning programs.
In succumbing to these two barriers, tele-education programs fail to take full advantage of a range of resources available to the instructor and learner alike. Furthermore, they fail to employ the full power of some of the new information and communications technologies to support improved pedagogical approaches.
Those who are inclined to doubt the existence of these two barriers should consider the examples shown in the grid below. It shows clearly that most of today's tele-education programs are technology-driven and based on a traditional academic paradigm. The reader is encouraged to plug other programs into the grid. The author is especially interested in learning about programs that might appropriately fall into the lower right quadrant of the grid.
The Dirr Grid Of Tertiary Tele-Education In The U.S.
Traditional
New
Motivating
Academic
Academic
Factors
Paradigm <------------------------------------------> Paradigm
| Technology-driven | | | | | | | |
(a) (a) (a) (a) (b) (b) (b) (b) (b) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (d) (d) (d) (d) (d) (d) (d) |
(e) (e) (e) |
|
|
| | | | |
(f) (f) (f) (f) (f) (f) (g) (g) (g) (g) (g) (g) |
(h) (h) (h) | |
|
| Consumer-driven |
(j) (j) | (k) (k) |
Notes:
(a) Educational television programming of the 1950s, such as Sunrise Semester
(b) Telecourses of the 1970s-80s
(c) Audio and video conferencing of the 1980s-90s
(d) One-off Internet courses and "shovelware" of the 1990s
(These applications tend to be driven primarily by one technology and to follow the discursive approach of a traditional classroom. They transfer the traditional classroom paradigm to a new medium.)
(e) Interactive CD-ROM courses of the 1990s
(Some of today's CD-ROM course projects, while still technology driven, are reaching to use the technologies in ways that were not possible before the advent of today's technologies.)
(f) Video and audio courses of the Annenberg/CPB Project of the 1980s-90s
(These courses had three unique characteristics: first, they were created to serve a social need – to provide tertiary-level educational opportunities to those who could not take advantage of traditional opportunities; second, they took advantage of advanced educational design to allocate to various media the part of the instructional process they could do best; and, third, they had built-in quality control procedures.)
(g) Approach of the Western Governors University
(The suite of products and services provided by WGU is also designed to serve a social need – to make educational services available to larger numbers of learners at times and places of their choosing, using a variety of appropriate technologies.)
(h) Approach of innovative corporate universities of the 1990s
(Some corporate universities are developing new pedagogical paradigms that often mix new instructional approaches (such as shorter, more intense courses) and new applications of the technologies.)
(j) Approach of the University of Phoenix
(This is a highly consumer-driven model that uses a mixture of traditional and newer instructional approaches and technologies.)
(k) New services such as those offered by the PBS ACCESS Project
(While not a program of study, this project is developing a suite of services that will help learners craft an individualized distance education program by taking appropriate advantage of a variety of instructional packages and support services delivered through a variety of technologies.)
The programs described below share some common characteristics:
"We believe that what a person knows is more important than how or where that knowledge was gained. Since 1971, we have been providing adult learners the means to demonstrate and validate the learning they have achieved, whether by traditional college classroom study, college-level proficiency examinations, or evaluated military and industry training."
Regents grants its credits and degrees by evaluating the student's prior learning, offering exams for various courses, and "banking" credit earned through various other pathways. The College currently offers 30 Associate and Bachelor degrees in Business, Liberal Arts, Nursing, and Technology. A Master of Arts Degree in Liberal Studies has just been added.
A large portion of the Regents College student body is comprised of members of the U.S. military community. Because they are transferred often, military personnel have often found it difficult to pursue college degrees. Regents overcomes that barrier by recognizing credit earned at any U.S. regionally accredited IHE as well as training courses sponsored by the Department of Defense, other government agencies, and business and industry. Credit award is based on the recommendations of the American Council of Education (ACE), and the College awards over 50,000 college credits annually for military experience alone. Since 1971, over 79,000 adult learners have earned Regents College degrees, and more than 33,000 of those graduates (42%) are military service members.
Regents College currently enrolls approximately 17,400 students per year. About 11,000 of them are pursuing Nursing degrees (making Regents the largest Nursing program in the United States); 4,000 are in Liberal Arts; 1,300 are in Business, and 1,100 are in Technology.
Regents offers a wide range of support services for its students. Its "Electronic Peer Network" supports Discussion Groups (allowing members to participate in threaded discussions related to areas of study and special interests), Chat Rooms (allowing students to participate in real-time discussions with other students), and a Student Directory (facilitating contact among students). In development are a Book Exchange (allowing students to buy and sell used books for courses), a Message Board, and a Distance Learning Center (which will contain student ratings of distance courses and examinations taken from U.S. colleges and universities).
In recent years, Regents College has greatly expanded the availability of its course examinations by partnering with Sylvan Technology Centers. Through those Centers, Regents College exams are available six days per week throughout the United States and in Canada, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Saipan (Northern Mariana Island), and the Virgin Islands. The College has also partnered with Specialty Books, one of the nation's leading collegiate bookstore operators, to provide its students with access to almost 600,000 course books and computer software that they can order by a toll-free phone call, with shipment promised within 24 hours.
Regents College is sensitive to the fact that most of its students are working people with limited resources. Accordingly, they try to keep their costs low. For instance, the current fee for evaluation of a potential student's prior learning portfolio is $150, and half of that will be credited toward enrollment fees if the student decides to enroll in the College.
Today, National Technological University is a cooperative effort by 50 major universities to provide graduate and continuing education for today's busy professionals and managers. The member universities are linked by satellite telecommunication and compressed digital video technology to more than 1,000 work locations internationally, and by interconnections to other regional networks to another 350 sites in North America.
By means of instructional television, professional workers can remain at their job sites and tune in to courses offered by top faculty and experts of the nations' leading engineering schools and other organizations. In 1996-97, they were able to choose from more than 500 academic courses providing 22,000 hours of instruction, plus another 500 days or 3,000 hours of continuing education. In that same year, 1,300 working professionals and managers were admitted to NTU degree programs. Continuing education enrollment exceeded 110,000.
NTU offers 14 master's degree programs designed specifically for technical professionals. It does not award bachelors or doctoral degrees. All academic courses offered by NTU are delivered on NTU's instructional television network via satellite to member organizations located around the world. There is no resident campus. There is a one-time fee for access to the NTU Network, which does not include the tuition and registration fees for courses taken at the site.
Today, with over 61,000 students, the University of Phoenix promotes itself as the largest private accredited university for working adults. It has provided degree and certificate programs to more than 371,000 persons in the United States, Puerto Rico and dozens of foreign countries.
The cornerstone of the University of Phoenix's educational philosophy is the recognition of the distinction between the younger student (still deciding on a career) and the adult student (who has already established personal and professional goals). They have developed academic programs that allow mature students to benefit from the integration of work and school. Most of the University's faculty members are working practitioners, experts in their field.
The University of Phoenix offers graduate and undergraduate degree programs and certificate programs, many of them on-line. It has structured its courses so that students take one course each five to eight weeks because research shows that adults learn best in an atmosphere of concentrated immersion. The program runs throughout the calendar year, allowing students to start anytime at their convenience.
Courses are offered on-site at University of Phoenix learning centers situated in fourteen states several foreign countries, as well as through the World Wide Web.
The University of Phoenix is owned by the Apollo Group, a company that is listed on the NASDAQ stock market.
Here is how Western Governors University (WGU) portrays itself to students:
WGU is a real university, just without a physical campus. What that means to our students is that there are no limits. You can take some of the best courses from institutions all across the country, all without ever leaving home!
One interesting aspect of Western Governors University is that the initiative to create it came from the Governors of thirteen states who recognized that they could not individually afford to provide sufficient continuing education opportunities to adults in their states. So, they pooled their resources to create a single, region-wide institution.
Another interesting aspect of WGU is that the administration chose not to try to develop and operate all the subsystems of the university within the university itself. One of the first steps they took in creating the university was to solicit proposals for the development of the "SmartCatalog," the library, and the university bookstore. They were among the forerunners in implementing the idea of "unbundling" and "outsourcing" selected university functions. WGU even outsources its instructional program, with courses being provided by about two dozen "education providers."
The academic program of Western Governors University is young and expanding. Currently it consists of an Associate of Applied Science in Electronic Manufacturing Technology and an Associate of Arts degree program, as well as many individual courses taught by faculty members and professionals at institutions and corporations that are participants in WGU.
The September 25, 1998 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education ran a story about WGU under the headline, "Few Students Enroll at Western Governors U." Was this an early warning signal that the bloom was off distance and virtual education? The story reported that only 75 persons had applied for admission in first the two weeks after the University opened its World Wide Web site for enrollment! The University had projected that up to 5,000 students would enroll in its first year. They were certainly off to a slow start. University officials said computer glitches were partly to blame (some people were prevented from connecting to the site for ten days). They also pointed to the fact that the University had already filled thousands of requests for information by mail prior to the initiation of the Web site. (Author's note: the University did not have a very effective campaign to promote the opening of its Web site for enrollment. It might take some time before the University's name is firmly embedded in the various search engines that learners use to find such opportunities.)
The institutional response to the California Virtual University idea by the IHEs in the state was swift and strong. When it was launched in the beginning of 1998, 65 public and private accredited colleges and universities were listed in the University catalog, offering about 800 distance education courses. Six months later, the participation had grown to 95 institutions offering about 1,600 courses. Ultimately, 240 colleges and universities were expected to participate in CVU within three years.
Like the Western Governors University, the California Virtual University had strong support from the state's governor (since voted out of office). Also like the WGU, CVU planned to "unbundle" the traditional functions of the university. Not only would it rely entirely on its participating institutions for the instructional component, it also turned the operation of its Web catalog of on-line courses to a non-profit foundation that was formed by educators. In effect, the California Virtual University Foundation, which includes the state's main university systems (the University of California, California State University, and California Community College organization) and several corporations, such as Sun, Cisco Systems, Pacific Bell, Oracle, and International Thomson Publishing, would operate CVU as an independent institution. Each of the corporate partners contributed $75,000 to CVU's start-up costs. The University also received a $250,000 grant for its launch from the Sloan Foundation.
In spite of the early enthusiasm for CVU, it encountered an unexpected hurdle. The three participating university systems (University of California, California State University, and California Community College system) balked at funding CVU at a rate of $1 million each for three years. The headline in the April 2, 1999 issue of The Chronicle Of Higher Education read, "California Virtual University Will End Most Of Its Operations." The story told of major changes in the University's status because of the funding shortfall. After only eight months after being spun off from the state government, CVU would "cease operations as an independent organization with a mission of promoting distance education to students and professors. CVU will, however, retain a presence on the Internet." The California Board of Regents agreed to "maintain CVU's searchable World Wide Web site which lists available courses from more than 100 participating institutions." The ultimate fate of CVU remains to be seen.
Another force driving acceptance of tele-education is learner and teacher acceptance. Many faculty members have traditionally viewed tele-education programs as second-class education. They believe that unless a student can sit at their feet and listen to their wisdom, they are not receiving a first-rate education. On the other hand, students and employers do not share that view. For students, access and convenience are primary concerns, and tele-education programs have both of those characteristics. Employers look for quality educational programs that can be pursued conveniently by their employees. Since recent research has shown on more than one occasion that tele-education programs are "equivalent" to traditional programs, students and employers have taken that as evidence that they are being well-served by these convenient programs. That confidence of the students and their employers has led to an increase in enrollments in tele-education courses, which, in turn, has begun to attract the attention of administrators who are constantly seeking ways to increase enrollments in their institutions. In some cases, the faculty are the last to embrace the idea of tele-education. Consequently, the pattern often goes: employer à learner à administrator à teacher.
A third factor contributing to the growing acceptance of tele-education in the U.S. is an improving technology infrastructure. In the U.S., the communications and information technology infrastructure needed to support and use tele-education is quickly becoming available to all IHEs and to more than half of all learners. Almost all IHEs already have Web pages; four out of five are offering one or more tele-education courses; and one out of three already offers at least one complete degree program on the Web. Most institutions have high-speed access to the Web. As for individual learners, almost all have telephones and VCRs in the home; almost half have a computer with access to the Internet. While there is some chasm between the "haves" and the "have nots" in terms of the quality of the equipment they have, the rapid drop in cost of even the most sophisticated technologies is closing that gap.
All of this points to a continued expansion of
tele-education in the years to come.