Sydney Brown, Extended Education and Outreach Instructional Design Technology Specialist and J-school Alum, walks through an online lecture at Extended Education and Outreach office.
Photo: Marlenia Thornton, NewsNetNebraska
As paper, pencils and mail carriers have given way to computer connections, distance education from Nebraska has gone global. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which this year is marking the one-century point in what was long called correspondence schooling, once focused on rural Nebraskans who lived hundreds of miles from campus.
Today, the university's electronic campus reaches students the world over. Just recently Sydney Brown, a technology specialist at the school, was chatting - via computer link - with the Middle East, for instance
"I sat at a table with an education administrator from Saudi Arabia," Brown said.
The university, which is celebrating distance education at the Lied Center of Performing Arts in Lincoln Nov. 9-13, has been a big player in distance learning since at least 1909. Back then, it could take days to cross the state by horse.
"Everything was exchanged via postal mail," said Laura Wiese, who coordinates recruitment for the university's Extended Education & Outreach (EE&O) effort.
The system has advanced alongside technology. With telephones came telephone-intensive courses, for example. Then, television brought video-broadcasted courses. Today, with the Net simplifying connections, UNL offers 499 courses and 26 degrees through online courses-- the same degree available through traditional schooling.
Through all the change, the driving force still comes down to people who want to teach and others who want to learn. Technology is secondary as long as "you've got instructors and students who want to share information," Wiese said.
But the nature of the schooling can be different - often for the good.
"Students who are shy in person are not online," Brown said.
She added that distance education can solve social problems, reaching people in countries where leaving home may not be socially acceptable or safe.
Added Wiese, "Students can learn from each other globally."
Distance learning does still need to shake off the perception that it's second-rate compared to conventional classroom schooling, a view the Net is helping dispel. Course materials and lectures in the online world can be every bit as challenging as work on campus.
Senior sociology student Angela Koch reads for class on Blackboard, which is the same Web site distance learners use to access their classwork. Photo: Marlenia Thornton, NewsNetNebraska
Sometimes, online course are actually more challenging for teachers, says Trudy Burge, a technical communication coordinator at UNL. If her students don't have assignments to submit every couple of days, she explained, they may miss important news on Blackboard, the university's online information center for students. She added, "I've found that I have to keep them busy."
The Net also creates special challenges for both students and teachers. For one thing, students have to read the material more closely than they normally do online, where scanning is the common tack.
"[Students who miss assignments] are clearly not even reading all the content," Brown said. "They scan it, just like they would a regular web page."
There is no clear-cut way to deal with such hurdles, but they don't discourage Burge.
"This area [of education] is still growing and evolving, and we're still learning," Burge said.
Miscommunication wasn't a problem for senior advertising major Matthew Artz.
"I took an online course and I loved it," Artz said.
He lives in Lincoln and takes traditional classes most of the time, but the convenience of the online course led him to try it out.
"I never had to worry about scheduling problems," Artz said. "I just did it on my own time."
One feature Burge and others in the field have learned well is professor-student communication. Until recently, professors emailed students' assignments back to them with comments attached. Now, rather than send comments and suggestions as text, a program called Jing allows professors to record a short video explaining the graded document.
With Jing, professors can be sure the tone of their messages is not misconstrued, Burge said. Having graphics to show along with her own voice to explain herself helps Burge be as objective as possible toward students.
Sydney Brown, Extended Education and Outreach Instructional Design Technology Specialist and J-school Alum, walks through an online lecture at Extended Education and Outreach office.
Photo: Marlenia Thornton, NewsNetNebraska
If they're in town, students can come in to talk with professors face-to-face. According to Brown, most online students at UNL live on campus and take a distance course for scheduling reasons. These students want a ‘blended' style of course, in which they go to class, but maybe only once a week.
The next 100 years could make online schooling - or a blend of it and on-campus learning - the norm. Already, paper, pencils and mail carriers are going the way of the eight-track player.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
