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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 25, 2000)
Students achieve credits for classes from a distance ■The Distance Education program benefits students who will not be in town by offering on-line courses By Simone Ripke Oregon Daily Emerald This summer, the word “dis tance” in the University’s distance education program will gain a whole new meaning. While the distance between a student’s apartment and the Uni versity campus has been bridged by distance education classes for a while, Sandra Gladney, the dis tance education program coordi nator, said some students plan to lengthen it all the way across the United States and even to Europe this summer. Currently, there are 120 enroll ments for 11 on-line summer classes ranging from linguistics and arts and administration to po litical science and geology. Glad ney said she expects the enroll ment to continue to climb. “We expect it to go up, certain ly,” she said. “People are still en rolling.” Gladney said some students have contacted her to make arrangements to take their tests while on a road trip across the country and while traveling through Europe. One student, Gladney said, plans to take tests and submit assignments from cy ber cafes across Europe. “We can accommodate that,” she said. “Students have to be willing to recognize that they will have to get on-line every week.” And with some careful plan ning ahead, that is usually not a big problem, she said. While some summer on-line classes require students to turn in assignments via e-mail and to take tests at proctored sites, others are more project-oriented, and stu dents are not as dependent on fre quent access to a computer and the Internet. Gladney said that while on-line distance education is a great way to take classes without having to go to classes or even be in Eugene or the country, she warned that students should not underesti mate the work that comes with succeeding in such a non-tradi tional setting. “Just because you have flexibili ty doesn’t mean there is less work involved,” she said. “You need to be aware that it’s still an intensive course.” Michele Rutheiser, a senior journalism major, said she has tak en at least a dozen distance educa tion classes and is enrolled for one over the summer. “It’s terrific,” she said. “You re ally have to be motivated and self disciplined.” While Rutheiser has no summer travel plans yet, she said distance education helped her make it through the term when her father recently died and she had to go home to California to take care of family matters. She said distance education gave her enough flexi bility to catch up and study at her own pace and still finish all of her tests and assignments for the class. Rutheiser said that while taking courses without going to classes allows for studying at her own pace, she still feels the quality of education is the same as in the classroom. “I would say that it’s compara ble,” she said. “In some cases, I would even say that it’s been a bet ter experience.” Distance education allows peo ple who are traveling, raising chil dren or have illnesses to continue their education without having to be here, said Kathy Dellabough, an adjunct instructor in the arts and administration department. “In terms of traveling, it’s great,” she said. Greg Miles, the instructor for distance education geology class es, said besides not being tied to campus, on-line classes have the advantage that students can study at times where their concentration level is the highest. So students who tend not to do well in 8 a.m. classes have the option of getting their class work done at night when they might be more produc tive, he said. Promises continued from page 3A said. “I am leaving office with such a nasty taste in my mouth as far as that man goes,” Anoushira vani said. “We were marginal ized.” They said that even when ad ministrators disagreed with their proposals, including Executive Assistance Vice President Dave Hubin, Vice President of Student Affairs Anne Leavitt and Vice President of Public Affairs and Development Duncan McDon ald, the administrators were still curious why students were inter ested in the proposal. With Frohnmayer, they said, that dia logue was never created. Frohnmayer said he has tried to keep in contact with the exec utive and said he has been pleased with how they have han dled a tough and busy year. “The ASUO president, vice president and I had a scheduled series of meetings every other week through the school year in my office,” Frohnmayer said. “Occasionally I had to reschedule — for instance, my severe and well-publicized health problems put a crimp in my schedule — sometimes they had to,” he said. “But scheduled meetings weren’t the only way to communicate. As always, I an swer my phone calls and e-mails quickly, often within a day.” Chen and Anoushiravani also began work on improving light ing on campus, providing cov ered bike racks, improving Inter net access and making federal aid grants a priority in the state government. Big issues, little time Throughout the year, other is sues have overshadowed many of these campaign promises, from the Southworth U.S. Supreme Court case that estab lished the University’s student fee system as legal, to the exten sive work the executive did to pass the WRC to monitor the ap parel factories making Universi ty licensed products. As depart ments completed successful voter registration, diversity and ASUO programs campaigns, Anoushiravani said she was pleased with how they handled the bigger issues that arose and how they remained true to their goal of representing students. Despite what they accom plished, Anoushiravani said she regrets spreading herself so thin this year. She reviewed almost 100 ASUO programs’ budgets to make an executive recommenda tion to the Programs Finance Committee’s hearings during winter term. She also sat on the EMU Board instead of hiring someone else to fill the job. Both added that they wanted to have a better relationship with the Stu dent Senate and the PFC as well. On reflection, both said they’re happy the year is coming to an end and very pleased with what they’ve done and the office they are leaving for Breslow and Mag ner. “We’ve done our job really, re ally well,” Chen said. “We don’t make excuses for anything.” Student Groups, flflwertise your upcoming events in the Oregon Daily Emerald. Special student rates. Call 346-3712 r be Inspired by everything l do remind myself that tall trees and green grass are worth all the rain ' challenge myself and others to consider each side of an issue remember that being part of a six person class at the UO is a once-in-a-lifetime not procrastinate... starting tomorrow challenge my friends to drink responsibly... or not at all. wi .. and MO UO students [80%] hove » or fewer they party Zach Swanson History Major, Honors College, UO 200Q Office of Student Life Data taken from 1998 UO Health center Survey.
