CyberTimes
toolbar
UPS - click here
March 4, 1998

Education
By PAMELA MENDELS Bio

Online University Set to Open Its (Virtual) Doors

Western Governors University has neither faculty nor campus. But if all goes according to plan, it will soon have students. Sometime late this spring, between 50 and 100 people are expected to ramble through the institution's virtual halls, either enrolling in its unusual degree program or signing up for individual distance learning courses prepared by more traditional educational ventures.

The project, with administrative offices in Salt Lake City and academic offices in Denver, is one of the boldest of a number of recent experiments using high tech for higher education — a trend prompted at least in part by the emergence of the Internet.

The people behind Western Governors University are hoping it will save state governments future education costs, while bringing college-level coursework, workforce training and degrees to a far wider range of people. "One of the major things is to reach an audience that is generally unable to go to campuses to receive the learning they seek," said Robert C. Albrecht, chief academic officer for Western Governors University. "It is truly a distance learning project, to serve those not served otherwise."

But the project is also raising questions about whether electronic "distance-learning" is a sufficient replacement for the campus variety. "There is no substitute for the student actually witnessing a mind at work in a classroom," said Kenneth H. Ashworth, who retired last year after 21 years as commissioner of higher education in Texas. "I have a hard time seeing how that will occur over e-mail."

The project was born about two years ago at the initiative of governors of ten Western states. Funded so far with about $9 million in grants from public and private sources, the university has two main goals.

The first is to act as a kind of online one-stop-shop, through which prospective students can enroll in distance-learning courses from colleges and universities in 16 western states and the territory of Guam, as well as from private companies.

In that respect, the project is similar to other recent initiatives, among them the California Virtual University, which boasts distance learning courses offered by 77 accredited public and private colleges and universities in the state, and the Southern Regional Electronic Campus, which launched in January, listing about 100 mostly Web-based courses from 44 colleges and universities in 15 southern states.


education

New Today
Internet links of interest to readers of the Education column


The second, and more unusual, purpose of Western Governors University is to offer a program in which students earn degrees based on whether they have passed tests proving their competence, rather than whether they have taken the courses mandated in a traditional curriculum. Students enrolled in the degree program will be assigned to "mentors" — professors and others — who will guide students in choosing the classes necessary to train them. If they then pass tests measuring their abilities, they will be granted a degree. In the pilot program, the institution plans to offer two degree programs: associate of arts and associate of applied science.

The motor behind the program is new technologies, in particular the Internet. Students will be able to enroll in classes using a Web site. The classes will be taught through a variety of electronic technologies, from satellite television to the World Wide Web. And Albrecht and others associated with the project say that as more sophisticated forms of online chat and Internet video are developed, the learning potential of high technology will increase.

Dazzling new technologies notwithstanding, however, state officials have a down-to-earth reason for backing Western Governors and other virtual university efforts: money. In the not-too-distant future, colleges and universities expect to be faced with legions of new students — the children of the baby boomers — and state-supported colleges and universities in particular are looking for ways to accommodate them without massive new hiring and building.

Some people are skeptical that virtual education programs are the best response. David M. Rubiales, an American history professor at Yuba College in Marysville, Calif., and chairman of an American Association of University Professors subcommittee that recently drew up a policy paper questioning aspects of new distance learning efforts, wonders how much money virtual courses will save. For one thing, he asserted, the market for such courses is unproved.

For another, when electronic courses are taught well, they demand a lot of faculty time and, therefore, presumably compensation. "Some of my distance education students will call me every day," said Rubiales, who has had experience teaching history in distance education television courses. "I may actually spend more time with them than students in my class."

Ashworth, meanwhile, said he was disturbed that in its degree-granting program, Western Governors University would leave it to a student, albeit guided by a mentor, to develop a course of study. "Students don't know what they don't know," he said. "That's why you have a faculty."

Western Governors officials respond that their project is intended as an alternative to, but not a replacement of, the traditional university. Moreover, E. Jeffrey Livingston, chief executive officer of the project, questioned just how much interaction students sometimes have with their professors in traditional colleges, where a large survey course can enroll hundreds of students. And, he said, students in the Western Governors University degree programs would not be at sea, but working with qualified professionals "picking learning activities mapped to competencies."

For his part, Albrecht, a former associate vice president with the University of Colorado system, agreed that virtual courses were unlikely to save money on faculty salaries, but said they could lead to savings in overhead. If traditional students take only a portion of their course load electronically, Albrecht said, colleges could end up having to spend less on constructing classrooms and dormitories.

Whoever is right, a special 16-member team, set up by four regional college and university accreditation bodies, has convened to decide if the Western Governors University should get an official seal of academic approval in the form of formal accreditation. The Rev. Patrick J. Ford, academic vice president of Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., and chairman of an interregional accreditation commission, predicted it will take at least two years before there is an answer.

The EDUCATION column will be published weekly, on Wednesdays. Click here for a list of links to other columns in the series.


Related Sites
Following are links to the external Web sites mentioned in this article. These sites are not part of The New York Times on the Web, and The Times has no control over their content or availability. When you have finished visiting any of these sites, you will be able to return to this page by clicking on your Web browser's "Back" button or icon until this page reappears.


Pamela Mendels at mendels@nytimes.com welcomes your comments and suggestions.





UPS - click here

Home | Site Index | Site Search | Forums | Archives | Marketplace

Quick News | Page One Plus | International | National/N.Y. | Business | Technology | Science | Sports | Weather | Editorial | Op-Ed | Arts | Automobiles | Books | Diversions | Job Market | Real Estate | Travel

Help/Feedback | Classifieds | Services | New York Today

Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company