J Scott Christianson's List: Distance Education

"I think that US campuses who think that China is a huge market for them are mistak

"I teach for a Research I University MBA program. Quality control involves giving me a 1 sentence description of the course. No one every checks to see what I am doing in class, how I could improve, etc. But ONLINE Education has to be controlled and regulated for quality? Give me a break. " - Scott

"I think that it is on the rise everwhere. Don't think that it has as much to do with the economy as with a culture shift that has finally reached the tipping point"- Scott

"People need to realize that high quality distance education will often cost more than traditional classroom learning and you have to plan how to pay for it when you start programs. Think of the MOVIP program in Missouri--depending entirely on state revenues, never creating any intellectual property of their own, and trying to compete and kill off programs like the MoVIP (the had the acronym originally) at MSU. Then when the state funding was cut, the program was over, leaving little of value left over. Frankly DL in the state would be farther ahead if it had never happened. "-Scott

"Geography doesn't matter. Quality matters. Cost matters. I can't count the number of times that the old, outdated academics have tried to put up barriers to distance learning, in order to protect their realms. Nelson is right, this is a bad piece of regulation that should be stopped asap."-Scott

"A lot of what is happening in the comparative growth of student enrollments reminds me a lot of what happened with tech and networking companies in the 90s. I remember that Avaya (then lucent) was very happy that they had 9% growth per year, which historically was great. But everyone else in the same market segment was experiencing 25-30% growth. Same thing here in MO. The big regional institutions are very happy with their 4-5% growth in enrollments that are happening now. Meanwhile Ozark Technical College--with an aggressive DL program--is growing at 16% per SEMESTER. Soon it will be bigger than Missouri State University."-Scott

"It will be interesting to follow the outcome of this conference and discussion. Is a Distance Education instructor different from a "regular" faculty. I think they might be. There is a different skill set that is required to not only teach, but to also evaluate student understanding and learning at a distance. At the research I institution where I sometimes teach as an adjunct, the view is still widely held that distance learning is inferior, and that in-classroom teaching by a tenured prof is the pinnacle of educational perfection. Any offerings via distance education would need to be closely monitored. But since I teach in a traditional classroom, no such quality control is needed. No wonder University of Phoenix is eating everyone's lunch!" -Scott

"I like DigitalChalk's pricing model, pay as the content is consumed. This type of service makes a lot of sense for Higher Education--a hosted solution that you only pay for as you need/use it. Allows for use in courses that are only offered once a year or once every other year--thinking of advanced graduate offerings in the sciences."--Scott

"I can't agree more. Distance Education is becoming mainstream with both non-traditional and traditional students. Some undergraduates at the University of Missouri,  who are living on a campus, are taking courses from either MU or another institution, in order to fit their curricular needs, work schedules or interests.  Student are creating their own educational "mashup" to meet their needs."-Scott

"This article needs to separate 'Online' from 'Distance" Education. Not all Distance Education Technologies are created the same. Some students will do very well in a traditional correspondence course and others will do horribly without the daily interaction and discipline found in a traditional classroom. Same goes for asynchronous 'Online' courses. That is why I have tended to favor synchronous (preferably video based) forms of distance education, where the interaction between student and teacher (and student to student) most closely mimic those types of interactions that you find in the traditional classroom. By using this type of technology instead of online only, you can increase the field of students who will be successful in the course. When I taught an online course (via blackboard), I made sure to have at least one "GotoMeeting" conference with the students each week. It was not perfect, but just having the weekly interaction via voice and computer screen (without having to type and type to ask a question), increased comprehension and gave the students a chance to interact and get to know each other better." -Scott

"I think that in five to ten years from now, every school will regularly use some virtual education to supplement their curriculum.  Likewise, I think that we'll see that every 2 and 4 years institution will either be offering a lot of courses via distance education or will be also supplementing their curriculum.  The days are gone where educators can bury their head in the sand and hope that distance education goes away." -Scott