AIM degree
continued from page 1A
can be played and replayed at a
student’s leisure. On-line docu
ment sharing and chat rooms will
make possible virtual small-group
work. Real time on-line bulletin
boards will allow students to ex
change their thoughts at anytime,
free from the limitations of a dis
cussion section that may meet
only once or twice a week.
“If a student has a great idea at
3 o’clock in the morning, they can
share it right then,” Sheehan said.
But there are some concerns
that the great flexibility afforded
to students by an on-line course
will be a detriment; there will be
no fixed time for students to focus
all of their attention on the subject
as there is in a traditional lecture
or discussion course, she said.
Sheehan doesn’t discount the
value of the social skills and face
to-face interactions that happen
in a bricks-and-mortar classroom.
There are fears that “people
skills” may be lost when e-mails
replace discussions in the wired
university. AIM administrators
said they are not concerned be
cause the program is offered only
to students with at least five years
of professional experience be
yond a bachelor’s degree.
“I don’t think on-line will ever
replace on-site,” said Linda Et
tinger, the project director of the
AIM on-line degree. “But it can be
very helpful for a particular seg
ment of the population.”
She expects the program to ex
pand higher education offerings
to students who may not have
pursued a graduate degree be
cause they didn’t live near a uni
versity or continuation center.
This July, 15 students will be
selected for the program’s inaugu
ral quarter. They will pay the
same tuition as students enrolled
in the traditional curriculum.
The degree program is part of a
statewide project to enhance dis
tance education programs. Seven
teen programs at eight Oregon
University System institutions are
being upgraded or started from
scratch in an attempt to create a
“second generation” of distance
education in the state, said the
project’s director, Holly Zanville,
who is also the OUS associate
vice chancellor for academic af
fairs.
The “first generation,” which
was implemented over the last
Web site
continued from page 1A
the organization’s goal to promote
cooperation among campuses
across the state.
Traditional students who live
on campus and work will benefit
from this new service as they will
be able to find courses that fil
their schedules, project director
Holly Zanville said.
The site also allows ambitious
high school students, who may
not have transportation, to take
lower division-college courses via
the Internet or through other tech
nological methods, such as live
video and CD-ROM.
“Students are able to pick
what’s most useful for them,’
Zanville said.
Not all of the courses that insti
tutions offer are available on
x
decade, was based mostly on de
livering lectures over the state’s
satellite interactive video net
work. As student demand for
faster delivery of courses increas
es, the state is looking to deliver
distance education at higher
speeds via the Interne*
OUS secured $1.4 million from
Congress to implement these pro
grams. Dollars were allocated for
the Learning Anytime Anywhere
Partnership by the 1998 Amend
ments to the Higher Education
Act of 1965. Oregon’s grant pro
posal was one of only 29 to be se
lected out of the 653 that the De
partment of Education received in
1999.
The AIM program received
$124,250 to set up its on-line de
gree program, which will run par
allel to the existing on-site pro
gram. An additional $57,000
If a student has a
great idea at 3 o'clock in
the morning, they can
share it right then.
Kim Sheehan
AIM adjunct professor
grant came from eCollege.com, a
Denver-based Internet learning
provider.
OUS is studying out-sourcing
the technology behind on-line
learning to private companies
such as eCollege.com, WebCT,
EduSOFT and click2learn.com,
said Zanville.
“We don’t all have enough in
frastructure to run this stuff,” she
said.
As the new programs and part
nerships are implemented, OUS
will evaluate them for feasibility
and cost-effectiveness. A draft set
of guidelines to cover the academ
ic, technical and service concerns
of taking higher education on
line, will be presented to the State
Board of Higher Education this
summer, she said.
Ettinger sees the many ad
vances the state is making toward
on-line higher education as steps
in a necessary direction.
“Technology will continue to
evolve,” she said. “There’s not a
lot of definite information avail
able yet about on-line education
because it’s happening right now.
“I think the whole state is going
to learn a lot through this
process.”
ONE’s new site.
“We’re not promising courses
in all areas,” Zanville said.
Only the courses that students
need and faculty members want
to teach are available. More than
20 subject areas are offered, plus
professional and graduate level
studies.
The distance education catalog
includes descriptions of the
courses that are found on the
searchable catalog. In addition,
admissions information and ca
reer pathways are provided on
the site.
“There is a lot of good back
ground information provided,”
Greydanus said.
Through a grant from the Fund
for the Improvement of Postsec
ondary Education, the OUS estab
lished ONE in 1998 to increase
access to college programs, ac
cording to the ONE pamphlet.
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