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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 24, 2001)
Online continued from page 1 will never be completely replaced. Retired professor William Orr, who helped start the online pro gram at the University about four years ago, said he believes only 20 percent of the campus population will take online courses on a regu lar basis in the future. He said students who already live near campus should focus on the full college experience and not spend their time in front of a com puter screen. But he added that students should take classes, whether they’re in a physical classroom or a virtual one. “If you’re on campus, you should take courses any way you can,” he said. Bonnie Morihara, program asso ciate of Distance Learning for the Oregon University System, said she believes the possibility of taking classes exclusively online is real, but there must be better technology before this happens. “Obviously, as we get greater bandwidth and technology it won’t be such a problem,” she said. She said advanced technology may not be available to people liv ing in rural areas of the state, which can hamper their ability to access classes online. Scott Merryman, a graduate teach ing fellow of economics who teach es two online courses, said he thinks online courses are strong, but class rooms provide for better learning. “The learning experience might be better in a classroom setting,” he said. “Usually the students are sat isfied with the class but miss the student interaction.” Morihara agreed and said stu dents can gain a lot from the cam pus experience. But there are times when stu dents are just not able to go to class. She said conflicts, such as jobs and athletic events, are reasons why students opt to take online courses. “They need more flexible time options,” she said. Orr, who teaches an oceanogra phy class online, said the students he receives in class come from dif ferent parts of the nation. He said those in the military frequent his classes the most. “People taking [classes] online are a different breed of students,” he said. Some say online classes are equivalent to classroom learning and may even provide for better un derstanding of the material. “Generally, I think the students learn as much as in a regular class,” Merryman said. He said students who are inter ested in online classes need to keep up with their reading because there is no one to guide them along. Be cause of this, he said, students might prefer to attend classes in ac tual classrooms. Morihara said online courses al low students to not only learn from their professors, but others in the class as well. “In a typical class the only per son who reads the work is the pro fessor,” she said. “Online classes al low for a lot of student viewing, and everyone has a chance to learn from each other.” She said the structure of the classes can provoke stronger thought from students. “The organization of the learning can be enhanced by the think time you have to respond to something,” she said. Orr said he structures his online classes so that students get the most from what they study. He assigns two midterms and one final, with all three being in essay form. He said this cuts down on the amount of time required to write the test, and it helps students understand the material better. Morihara said online classes are a great tool for students to be able to take advantage of, but warned that the classes are not for everyone. “Students who don’t have good time management do much worse in online courses,” she said. “On line classes are not good for pro crastinators.” DPS continued from page 1 be the “next logical step” and ques tioned the need for such a force on campus. In the event that there was be an accidental shooting, Butcher said the University could suffer a lia bility lawsuit. Commissioning officers also may change students’ perceptions of DPS, Butcher said. “It takes away from help and as sist,” she said. “People are going to be reluctant to approach officers.” ASUO President Jay Breslow said he and other student leaders are still a little upset that they were left out of the decision-making process in com missioning officers. But he said the issue is now something outside stu dent government hands, and he has been working with Fitzpatrick to keep a student voice in the process. He said the issue of commission ing officers is one of balancing the needs of the students and also keep ing in mind the right level of authori ty for campus security. “We don’t want to put students in danger or give DPS officers too much power,” he said. Breslow said he has been working with Fitzpatrick to help form an ad visory committee and has been pleased with the level of cooperation from DPS. “Mr. Fitzpatrick is a pretty straight shooter,” he said. While he admitted that he hasn’t kept abreast of DPS’ internal policies, Breslow said he believed the officers who were commissioned received the proper amount of testing and screening. Eugene Police Department Pa trol Captain Becky Hanson said DPS’ commissioned officers will not have much of an effect on how the two agencies handle campus incidents. She said the biggest impact could be if DPS officers frequently make arrests and call the EPD to request a transport for suspects to jail. DPS policy restricts its officers from leaving the campus, Hanson said. Hanson also said in the event of a violent or lethal incident on cam pus, she would hope DPS officers would call for EPD assistance be cause the DPS officers still can’t carry firearms. “You don’t really want a [DPS] officer confronted with that situa tion,” she said. “It’s just really not that safe.” Deborah Carver, the interim li brarian, said her staff has to call DPS several times a week because of incidents at the library. She said several of the library’s patrons are not associated with the University, and often her staff or others using the library encounter some difficul ties with people with “behavior problems.” Carver said the thought that DPS officers have received more profes sional training gives her a better sense of assurance when she calls the department for assistance. “I’ve had a positive reaction to the change,” she said. Library continued from page 1 The University Senate recently passed a resolution of support for a University Library Committee report that outlined the issue and suggested several possible solutions. The com mittee encourages University authors to retain copyrights of their work and learn the pricing practices of the jour nals in which they are published. Taking pressure off faculty who think they have to publish in expen sive journals to advance their careers is also suggested in the report. Psaki said journals generated by non-profit, academic societies charge only 10 to 20 cents a page, while commercial publications charge as much as 60 to 80 cents per page. “It’s so not a local problem,” she said. “It’s national.” David Strom, an associate physics professor, said the physics depart ment has felt the effects of journal cuts. “Every couple years we have to cancel a fraction of our journals the University subscribes to,” he said. Strom said all too often professors feel pressured to publish in expen sive journals because they think they need published clips in order to ad vance in their jobs and gain tenure. “This is often what young profes sors feel they have to do,” he said. Strom said the University Senate plans to work with the library com mittee to help encourage professors to publish through non-profit profes sional publications instead. Deborah Carver, interim Universi ty librarian, said the library chooses which titles to cut by involving pro fessors and getting their feedback about which journals are used more than others. “Some libraries cut only on the ba sis of costs, but we don’t think that’s always the best approach,” she said. But Carver said she is hopeful about emerging alternatives, such as publishing on the Web. “Up until now the commercial sec tor has had a lock on some of the most prestigious and expensive journals,” she said. “But the faculty has gotten fed up and is looking for solutions to solve the problem. ’’ James Schombert, an associate physics professor who teaches as tronomy, said his department has been able to avoid publishing compa nies altogether by publishing on the Web. But he said he is aware that some University departments often need the journals. “All the journals are just too expen sive,” he said. While Schombert agreed the price of academic journals is a problem, he said he does not think publishing companies are purposely trying to swindle money out of college li braries. He said their production costs have increased because they now publish both on paper and on the Internet. “Even though this is a problem, it’s not like someone is gouging someone else,” he said. Schombert said the real problem is that the companies are aware of the situation but aren’t taking action to find solutions to lower the costs. “Publishers are showing no desire to change this because they have a captive audience,” he said. “Libraries have to buy the journals. ” Cash for Books Law School BOOK Buyback ■ Court Cafe at the Knight Law Center April 23-27 & April 30-May 4 10:00 A.M.-3:00 P.M. ■ Main Store April 23 - May 7 Regular store hours Book Buyback conducted by Follett. Powering education.Worldwide. STUDENT TRAVEL NQ MATTER HOW FAR YOU TRAMJIL, YOU’RE ALWAYS CLOSE TO CAMPUS. ^sfiregon daily emerald on the world wide web www.dailyemerald.com
