Asynchronous Learning Trends

Introduction

Before reading this, you should read about asynchronous learning at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asynchronous_learning

Some futurists predict that our physical campuses will decay and crumble as higher education alternatives explode on the web. I do not agree! Most of our campuses will thrive and prosper if we learn how to bridge our curriculum gaps with the web and still maintain some of the best of what we traditionally accomplish in classes and other face-to-face encounters with our students. Also, some of our traditional courses perhaps should no longer meet in regularly scheduled class periods even if these courses are only made available to resident students. There may, however, be a shift in emphasis from the awarding of traditional degrees to the awarding of education and training certifications across disciplines. In On the Horizon, May/June 1997, James Morrison contends that by the Year 1004 leading-edge educational institutions will use competency-based certification multimedia learning modules and virual learning environments. The article cited below is one of many articles and speeches from leading educators who consider diplomas and degrees obsolete:

A seamless, cradle -to-grave educational system is within our reach, if we muster the courage and will to create it.

"Diplomas and Degrees are Obsolete," D.N. Langenberg, The Chancellor of the University System of Maryland, The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 12, 1997, Page A64.

This does not necessarily mean that institutions granting diplomas and degrees will crumble and fall as households become linked to the web around the world. On-campus courses will be available for certifications across a wide variety of educational accomplishments.

As network education opportunities increase, traditional universities will have to add more course choices to curricula in order to keep pace with their old and newer competitors. It is tempting to contemplate adding courses by contracting for networked courses developed by and possibly distributed from other universities. However, if high quality pedagogy is to be maintained, there are some significant costs that are being discovered in early experiences with asynchronous networked learning (ALN). ALN appears to be more like the old days where great teachers spent a lot of time with students outside of class. ALN implicitly assumes computer networking and/or CD-ROM hypertext and hypermedia. Producing good ALN materials entails significant training of faculty and reconsideration of reward structures for learning materials development of college faculty.

Results show that network (distributed education) courses will be labor intensive in terms of dealing with student messaging and evaluation of student work. Faculty or teaching assistants must be online to evaluate student written and oral communications. Studies have shown that messaging explodes exponentially if asynchronous network courses are to maximize learning effectiveness. Whether or not the "labor" (faculty, graduate students, or hired guns) will be provided by the "vendor" (say MIT) or the "customer" (say Trinity University) is a matter of conjecture. Most likely, the cost of an imported course will be less than cranking up a traditional or ALN course on campus. However, the cost of "faculty" may not be significantly reduced for reasons discussed in this paper.

Do you recall the praise that I lavished on the ethics website of a Carnegie-Mellon University Philosophy Professor named Robert Cavalier in my March 22, 000 edition of New Bookmarks? See http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book00q1.htm#032200

Robert Cavalier now has an article entitled "Cases, Narratives, and Interactive Multimedia," in Syllabus, May 2000. pp. 20-22. The online version of the Syllabus article is not yet posted, but will eventually be available at http://www.syllabus.com/

The purpose of our evaluation of A Right to Die? The Case of Dax Cowart was to see if learning outcomes for case studies could be enhanced with the use of interactive multimedia. My Introduction to Ethics class was divided into three groups: Text, Film, and CD-ROM. Equal distribution was achieved by using student scores on previous exams plus their Verbal SAT scores.

Two graders were trained and achieved more than 90 percent in grader variabilility. The results of the students' performance were put through statistical analysis and the null hypothesis was rejected for the CD/Film and CD/Text groups. Significant statistical difference was demonstrated in favor of interactive multimedia.

Why Top Universities Will Be ALN Course "Vendors"

Before reading this section, you may want to take a brief look at The Web of Asynchronous Learning Networks.

The following quotation from a high-level Massachusetts Institute of Technology EVAT committee report says it all in terms of why top universities will offer networked courses and programs.

Risks and Opportunities. MIT could easily misjudge the impact of advanced technologies if we are not prepared. If distance education becomes well understood by other universities but not us, we are at risk of losing our reputation as leaders in education. We might find ourselves competing on price with other universities in courses like our freshman subjects. Or, on the other hand, we might overlook the opportunity to capitalize on MIT's name recognition to market education programs for the large number of students who are qualified for MIT but whom we cannot admit for lack of space.

As quoted from the Long Range Recommendations at http://www-evat.mit.edu/report/long.html

In the Executive Summary of that same EVAT Committee Report it is stated that

Of all the possible futures for MIT, the most disturbing is the one in which others find out how to offer distance education using advanced technologies, and MIT either does not learn how, or elects not to offer it. The economic strength of MIT could be seriously undercut by competition as a result.

Competitors will not just come from traditional colleges and universities. Junk bond king Michael Milken is putting together a virtual education training empire known as Knowledge Universe. To date, Knowledge Universe has invested multimillions of dollars to acquire and build an online educational empire that will challenge schools ranging from local elementary schools to Ivy League universities. The goal, according to Milken, is to use computers and networking technologies to make education and training available virtually anywhere in the world. It is too soon to predict when and how fast accredited programs will be online, but traditional colleges and universities are not waiting for the business world to take over market shares.

A message about an online course from the Harvard Law School is provided in Appendix 2.

Another reason universities may one day be vendors of networked courses is that grants have been provided to a significant number of universities to develop asynchronous networked courses. Once these courses are networked on a given campus, it becomes profitable to distribute ALN courses to other universities. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Program in Learning Outside the Classroom has issued a number of Asynchronous Learning Network (ALN ) grants including a $500,000 grant to the new virtual Western Governors University and similar (larger and smaller) grants to Brown University, Cornell University, Virginia Tech, University of Minnesota, Penn State, NYU, UC Berkeley, Stanford University, and many others listed at http://www.sloan.org/Education/ALN.new.html#grants. Also see http://w3.scale.uiuc.edu/scale/ for a description of the program.

Yet another reason for distributing networked ALN courses is they appear to be more effective than traditional pedagogy if they are developed and administered properly. Readers interested in asynchronous learning experiments may want to track the ALN experiments at the University of Illinois (under a $2.1 million Sloan ALN grant for 25 classes in varying disciplines as described at http://ftp.cs.uiuc.edu/CS_INFO_SERVER/ALUMNI_INFO/newsletter/v1n6/sloan.html). experiments at the University of Illinois are discussed at http://w3.scale.uiuc.edu/scale/

From: lanny arvan [SMTP:l-arvan@uiuc.edu]

Sent: Sunday, February 15, 1998 10:20 AM

Dear Prof. Jensen

Andy Bailey just sent an e-mail alerting me to your site. I appreciate all the mention of SCALE's work. I also appreciate your discussion of some of my in-house papers on ALN.

For your information, the server that houses these essays is at http://www.cba.uiuc.edu/~larvan/ALNessays/ALN1.html

Also, you may find the following of interest: http://www.cba.uiuc.edu/~larvan/ALNessays/ALN5.html

This material is all from 1996, though essay 5 was written a bit later than the earlier essays.

We are working on some some more recent evaluation material involving the SCALE efficiency projects. If you are interested, I'll be happy to send it to you (or give you the url) when it is available.

Lanny Arvan l-arvan@uiuc.edu

SCALE, phone: 217-333-7054, fax: 217-333-7427

Department of Economics, phone: 217-333-4587, fax: 217-244-6678

An example course description is noted below:

INTERMEDIATE MICROECONOMICS: I have been teaching my undergraduate course using Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN) to enhance instruction. We have been using a conferencing program called FirstClass to have students interact with each other, me, and on-line undergraduate TAs. We have used FirstClass to have the written homework submitted and graded electronically. This semester we will also be using the Web software "Mallard" for having the students do quizzes online. Click here to go to the Mallard home page of Econ 300. This site is password protected. You can get course information which is not password protected by following this link Course Information. From there you can access some other interesting links.

From Lanny Arvan in the Department of Economics http://www.cba.uiuc.edu/system/faculty/profiles/arvan.html

Professor Arvan provides an online essay entitled "Economics of ALN: 1. Output Effects" at http://www.cba.uiuc.edu/~larvan/ALNessays/ALN1.html , the lead quote reads as follows (emphasis added):

Many of us early adopters of ALN contend that "it works," --- students do better under ALN than in the traditional approach. This essay is intended to provide an economics framework for explaining what is going on here, across disciplines, to suggest future directions for validating our contention, and to aid instructors in thinking about how to use ALN in their course.

In the above essay, Professor Arvan discusses ALN in terms of students classified as "Eager Beavers" versus "Drones"versus "Sluggos." He contends that ALN approaches should differ for each type of student. Another essay of interest by him is an ALN time management essay given at http://www.cba.uiuc.edu/~larvan/ALNessays/ALN5.html

One of the most complete listing of asynchronous advantages and disadvantages can be found by using the search engine at the University of Illinois home page at http://www.uiuc.edu/ On February 12, 1998 this search engine generated 1,494 documents on asynchronous learning topics at the University of Illinois. experiments at the University of Illinois are discussed at http://w3.scale.uiuc.edu/scale/

Click on http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/slide01.htm to see Professor Oakley's PowerPoint slide on grade impacts in the course ECE 270. Early evidence indicates that students do as well or better in acynchronous courses that do not meet in classrooms. Another PowerPoint slide on the same page shows substantial increases in communication between a student and the instructor(s) and other students.

"The Great Debate: Effectiveness of Technology in Education," by Patricia Deubel, T.H.E. Journal, November 2007 ---
http://www.thejournal.com/articles/21544

According to Robert Kuhn (2000), an expert in brain research, few people understand the complexity of that change. Technology is creating new thinking that is "at once creative and innovative, volatile and turbulent" and "nothing less than a shift in worldview." The change in mental process has been brought about because "(1) information is freely available, and therefore interdisciplinary ideas and cross-cultural communication are widely accessible; (2) time is compressed, and therefore reflection is condensed and decision-making is compacted; (3) individuals are empowered, and therefore private choice and reach are strengthened and one person can have the presence of an institution" (sec: Concluding Remarks).

If we consider thinking as both individual (internal) and social (external), as Rupert Wegerif (2000) suggests, then "[t]echnology, in various forms from language to the internet, carries the external form of thinking. Technology therefore has a role to play through supporting improved social thinking (e.g. providing systems to mediate decision making and collective reasoning) and also through providing tools to help individuals externalize their thinking and so to shape their own social worlds" (p. 15).

The new tools for communication that have become part of the 21st century no doubt contribute to thinking. Thus, in a debate on effectiveness or on implementation of a particular tool, we must also consider the potential for creativity, innovation, volatility, and turbulence that Kuhn (2000) indicates.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on education technology are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on assessment are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm

Why All Universities May Be ALN Course "Customers"

Before reading this section, you may want to take a brief look at The Web of Asynchronous Learning Networks.

Synchronous education in a scheduled sequence of classes will face serious new competition of asynchronous education distributed on networks where students learn and communicate most any day and most any time of day and study at their own paces. An example is the new online Western Governors University at http://www.wgu.edu/ . Now all western states are part of WGU and some states east of the Mississippi River (e.g., Indiana) are investigating how to join up. Another example is California Virtual University. Sherri Moore sent me the following message:

July 22, 1998
Please consider adding a link from your Web site to the California Virtual University at http://www.california.edu

The CVU integrates into one site on the Internet the online and technology-mediated classes of 92 accredited California colleges and universities, including Stanford, UCLA, UC Berkeley and USC. In total, more than 1,600 courses are available.

Visitors to the CVU Web site can register to be notified by e-mail when new courses are added by accredited California campuses. The course notification system can be personalized to match specific interest areas. The CVU is a tremendous resource for anyone seeking education online.

Thank you for considering this request
Moore, Sherri [SMoore@VUDesign.ca.gov]

Update in April 1999
California Virtual University will cease operations as an independent distance-education institution, following reluctance on the part of the venture’s partners—the state’s three public-college systems and the association of independent colleges—to put up $1 million a year for the next three years to cover operating costs. CVU will retain its searchable Web site <http://www.california.edu>, which lists available courses at more than 100 participating colleges and universities. Funding already received by CVU, including $250,000 from the Alfred P. Sloan foundation and $375,000 from corporate sponsorships, has already been spent, in part on developing the Web site. CEO Stanley Chodorow said in a mid-March e-mail message that "We just did not have enough fuel to get up to takeoff speed." (Chronicle of Higher Education 2 Apr 99)

Ideally, faculty or other expert help is available online to both help students and evaluate student work and ideas. In addition, asynchronous courses may schedule synchronous virtual online meetings of subsets of students or entire classes of students. Networked courses may thus be synchronous and asynchronous, although the technical learning components are largely asynchronous.

The largest growth opportunities in learning and education lie in networked courses and programs. Everybody expects high-prestige "vendor" universities and corporations to invest in ALN courses and market them based upon vendor name recognition (e.g., MIT or AT&T). Eventually, all universities may become "customers" for ALN courses developed at other universities. Even universities that sell an ALN course in one discipline may contract to purchase an ALN course in another discipline. The main reason will be the need to fill gaps in curricula with more courses than can be feasibly developed and delivered by resident faculty. Current gaps will be more visible as online education opportunities become more popular due to a wide array of specialty courses not presently found in most traditional curricula.

Although US News and World Report and Money Magazine have both given Trinity University the distinction of being Number 1 in its classification (Western Region), there are gaps in the teeth of its curriculum. There are gaps in the curriculum of literally every university, and the gaps are more serious in smaller universities that try to live up to coverage across multiple disciplines implied by the term "university."

For example, the Business Administration program at Trinity University needs to introduce curriculum coverage of newer business technology courses that are not feasible to develop and administer with existing faculty. We especially need to add elective courses in specialized areas. Examples of the types of specialties are listed later on in this paper. Adding new faculty and course coverage in an array of varied specialties is not deemed an option in the foreseeable future.

A factor in ALN use is hardware, software, and instructor abilities to handle ALN. Potential advantages of ALN in existing courses are so monumental that most campuses are experimenting with ALN at the moment and contemplating more widespread deployment for existing courses. Advantages and disadvantages of doing so are discussed in http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245ch02.htm#Asynchronous1.

Advantages include the following and are elaborated for computer aided learning (CAL) at http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245ch02.htm#Advantages4:

The main advantages of asynchronous CAL are that student learning is self-paced and interactive.

Educators can experiment in creative ways using unique and intriguing WWW sites.

Other advantages are remote delivery of cost-efficient and conveniently distributed "virtual" courses.

Cross-cultural and cross-functional teams of students can be formed in virtual education and research.

Networked learning combines fun and education for students as they surf the Internet in teams or on their own.

Colleges are expanding their markets with CAL in lifelong learning programs.

Both better student performance and higher evaluations of instructors can result.

You must ultimately adopt new learning technologies in your courses and program curricula..

You can experiment with paperless courses.

You can become a part of a world wide movement of researchers experimenting with new and creative ways to utilize modern technology in education.

Accounting educators can react to appeals of the Accounting Education Change Commission.

You will find funding sources for technology research and application increasing at a much faster rate in the future.

You may discover that new technology can lead to more cross-discipline research and applications.

You can avoid teaching toward obsolescence.

You can play a greater part in developing and sharing learning materials with professors and students in foreign nations, notably underdeveloped nations.

Ways to Avoid the Disadvantages of Asynchronous Modules and
Courses are listed below for computer aided learning (CAL) and elaborated upon in greater detail at http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245ch02.htm#Ways2

Try to resist temptations to dehumanize some courses by eliminating face-to-face encounters.

Asynchronous CAL can be extremely effective for learning technical material before coming to class. However, be reasonable about the time expected for network learning outside of class.

Delete as well as add material with each revision (or create optional rather than required links to material of less importance in the course).

Obtain student feedback on CAL modules.

Avoid requiring rote memorization of CAL online material.

Try to avoid getting the image of being a computer hacker more interested in the machines per se than what they can do for your teaching and research.

Remember that it is usually more important to inspire students to want to learn than it is to have them learn technical content in any particular course.

Remember the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) rule.

Try to attain face-to-face socialization benefits in virtual universities.

There are risks of obvious and not-so-obvious copyright violations even in uncontrolled distributions on CDs, intranets, and the WWW.

There are risks of copyright violations due to uncertainties in Education Fair Use Laws covering new technologies.

Research on effectiveness of CAL is often futile due to the pace of technological change, the variation in learning ingredients, and Hawthorne effects.

Results of some experiments in virtual learning at Texas Christian University are reported at http://zeta.is.tcu.edu/~blobert/vle/project.html.

When ALN becomes more widely deployed in existing courses, it becomes much easier to expand the curriulum by "buying into" selected off-campus ALN courses from other colleges and universities.

Bridging the Gaps

At a recent Department of Business Administration faculty meeting considering how to add more technology courses, I suggested that we look into contracting for ALN courses emerging in other universities, business corporations, and public accounting firms. My suggestion was met with extreme skepticism by faculty at the present time. However, I predict that by Year 2010 a significant proportion of required and elective courses will be globally networked by universities and business firms. Vendors having solid gold name recognition for quality will probably have a competitive advantage in distributing ALN courses.

Delivery will not be in the form of the dying synchronous distance education classes transmitted to remote sites by television. Instead it will be in the form of largely asynchronous networked courses on the Internet or intranets. Many of those networked courses will have such prestige "brand names" of Stanford University, MIT, Harvard University, Princeton University, Northwestern University, University of Michigan, University of Texas, University of Illinois, etc. Of course, organizations with less brand recognition may offer selected ALN courses of outstanding quality. Some Internet courses may be given by television networks who face a shrinking market as viewers move to the web. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television networking of adult education and degree programs is now moving to the web (see http://www.pbs.org/learn/). Still other courses are available from prominent consulting and accounting firms such as EDS, Andersen Consulting, Arthur D. Little, Price Waterhouse, Ernst & Young, PriceWaterhouse Coopers, Deloitte and Touche, etc. There are now over 1,600 corporate colleges and universities, most of which are gearing up for online delivery and full accreditation of their courses and degree programs. A rising number of these corporate universities already have brand recognition like General Electric, Motorola, AT&T, etc.

Junk bond king Michael Milken is putting together a virtual education training empire known as Knowledge Universe. To date, Knowledge Universe has invested multimillions of dollars to acquire and build an online educational empire that will challenge schools ranging from local elementary schools to Ivy League universities. The goal, according to Milken, is to use computers and networking technologies to make education and training available virtually anywhere in the world.

Corporate universities are not a new idea. However, their explosive growth in the networking technology paradigm shift is a new phenomenon that makes it possible for traditional universities to bridge curricula gaps. Corporate university programs will increasingly compete with traditional universities for entire degree programs. The McGraw-Hill giant publishing conglomerate has launched its online McGraw-Hill World University described at http://www.mhcec.com/. Before long MHWU intends to network fully accredited degree programs in higher education.

The firm of Arthur D. Little is one of the most prestigious and well known consulting firms in the world. One of its profit centers is the Arthur D. Little (ADL) School of Management described below:

Since 1964, more than 3,200 professionals from over 115 countries have participated in the School of Management's (SOM) Programs. Chartered in 1971, SOM received accreditation in 1971 from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc., and is currently a pre-candidate for accreditation from the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

Introductory statement at http://www.arthurdlittle.com/default.htm

Although not yet available for network distribution, ADL may one day make it possible for Trinity University students to take some of its courses in specialty areas such as the selected courses shown below that are in the present ADL School of Management curriculum:

Management Information Systems
Multinational Management Simulation
National Strategies and the Global Economy
Industry and Competitive Analysis Project
Management of Technology
Strategy Implementation
Systems Thinking Simulation
Business Process Reengineering (BPR)
Creating a Learning Organization
Project Management
Total Quality Management
Transnational Negotiation Skills
Strategic Management of Information Systems

For particular training specialties, many corporations now use asynchronous "Self paced Professional Training" network courses from the University of Phoenix at http://www.uophx.edu/. These include many management topics and selected FASB standards. The prestigious Executive Education Network (EXEN) uses name recognition universities to deliver a wide array of courses, including the following courses listed at http://www.exen.com/evaluations.html:

Carnegie-Mellon University

604 Manufacturing Excellence

Center for Creative Leadership

617 Creative Leadership
618 Women as Leadership
619 Assessing Leadership

Harvard Business School Publishing

614 Managing in the Marketspace

Pennsylvania State University

609 Human Resource Management Program
620 Program for Strategic Leadership

Southern Methodist University

606 Mid-Management Program
625 First Line Management Program

University of Massachusetts at Amherst

611 How to Make Successful Presentations

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

605 Leadership into the 21st Century
615 International Business Leadership

University of Southern California

608 Leading Through Change
616 Managing the Global Workforce
626 Implementing Change

University of Texas at Austin, IC² Institute

621 Corporate Entrepreneurship

Sylvan Learning Systems, Inc., at http://www.educate.com/learningcenters/aboutsylvan.html is a leading provider of global education services to families, schools and industry. Recently, Sylvan formed a noteworthy joint subsidiary company with MCI called Caliber Learning Network that is distributed with latest high quality technology. Sylvan also has partnerships in distributed learning with the following organizations:

The National Geographic Society

Johns Hopkins University

Educational Testing Service

The National Association of Secondary School Principals

Children and Adults With Attention Disorder Deficits

One of the best known global Internet education systems with the latest technologies is UCLA’s The Home Education Network (THEN) at http://www.then.com/. Current online programs include the following:

Award in General Business Studies (9 course program)

Cross-Cultural Language and Academic Development
(CLAD) Program (5 courses)

Program in Online Teaching (6 course program)

Pre-MBA Skills and Test Preparation Program (9 course program)

All eyes are now on the Western Governors University ( http://www.wgu.edu ) that is cranking up fully accredited degree programs on the Internet. What is unique about WGU is that its curriculum is comprised of many course offerings from leading colleges and universities in states west of the Mississippi River and as far away as Western Samoa. Some states east of the Mississippi are now seeking to join WGU. Sally Johnstone and Dennis Jones report in (On the Horizon, November/December 1997) that faculty reward structures at WGU will place great emphasis on curriculum design and learning materials development.

Explosion of Corporate/University Partnerships

"E-learning Demand to Double in 2005," SmartPros, January 7, 2004 --- http://www.smartpros.com/x46477.xml

Demand for online courses will almost double in 2005, as professionals and companies realize e-learning's distinct advantages, according to officials at RedVector.com, a Tampa-based company that offers online courses to professionals involved in the design and construction industries.

A recent survey of RedVector.com clients indicates professionals and corporate leaders had different reasons for adopting online education. Professionals cited the variety and depth of course offerings while corporate leaders cited cost savings and relevance of courses to business goals.

Recent research indicates the entire online professional education industry may experience similar growth in 2005:

Spending on online continuing education passed the $9 billion mark in 2003, according to IDC Research, and grew to between $12 and 14 billion in 2004, according to Bersin and Associates. IDC predicts a 30 percent increase in yearly e-learning spending worldwide through 2008. The number of companies using online learning to train employees will grow by 50 percent in 2005, according to Bersin and Associates. Economics has been a driving force behind growth in online professional education. With online courses, companies no longer have to pay travel and hotel costs and employees can be more productive since they aren't spending time traveling.

Growth in online learning is also driven by specialization in course offerings. According to the Distance Education and Training Council, more than 500 companies and organizations now offer online courses focusing on specific industries and professions.

Some universities have programs dedicated to particular firms such as the Ernst and Young's employee masters degree programs (University of Virginia and Notre Dame) and PwC's employee MBA program at the University of Georgia.

When I made a presentation at the University of Georgia on November 13, 1998 my afternoon audience was comprised of faculty members in college of Business (including former FASB Chairman Denny Beresford) who are teaching in the online MBA Program resulting from a partnering of the University of Georgia and PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PWC). All students in the program take this graduate degree program online while continuing to work for PWC (mainly in the consulting division). While I was in Athens on November 12, Denny invited me to sit in on a session in which the program faculty discussed such things as heavy messaging that often results from delivering courses asynchronously.

The partnership mentioned above is one of many in a rising trend of partnerships between corporations and universities for delivery of online and on-campus degree programs. An excellent review of this trend is given by Jeanne C. Meister in a book entitled Corporate Universities (McGraw Hill Companies, 1998). The book is reviewed in T.H.E. Journal, October 1998, pp. 20-26. An online version of the review article temporarily available at http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/current/news.asp

I suggest that you download the above file before it disappears from the web. Among the interesting passages from Jeanne Meister is the following passage (which she elaborates upon in the book):

"It's the way we've always done things" must be changed to recognize that the educational process must focus less on the adult lecturer and more on the student learner. This shift in mindset will foster increased responsibility on the part of learners to take charge of their own learning and hence their careers. Based upon our interviews with scores of corporate university deans and deans of graduate business schools as well as continuing education, we have identified four types of corporate/college partnerships as best practice examples. These include: the development of customized executive educational programs, the creation of customized degree programs, the formation of a learning partner consortium and finally, in some cases, actual accreditation of the corporate university.

The explosion of corporate universities and corporate partnerships with traditional universities offers many new opportunities and challenges. This explosion offers all sorts of non-traditional career paths for educators, especially educators interested in development of learning materials for online courses. There are also some concerns at are mentioned below at http://WWW.Trinity.edu/~rjensen/255wp.htm#Corporate

The Controversial Ernst&Young and PriceWaterhouse Coopers
Funded Masters Degree Programs

Will this become the masters degree in accounting model for all top accounting firms and large business firms in the future? Will more private firms like Ernst & Young (E&Y) and PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PWC) partner with one or more traditional universities and fund a customized program in which the firms are a heavy players in calendar, work load, and student admission decisions? Students in most cases will be existing or incoming employees of the firms.

PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PWC) has a custom MBA program leading to an MBA degree from the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business with the following attributes:

1. Students in the program are all full-time employees of PWC.

2. The program is online in an asynchronous mode.

3. The University of Georgia designs and delivers the courses with full-time faculty.

4. PWC pays the tuition and other fees.

The PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PWC) MBA program is not quite as controversial as the E&Y Master Plan. PWC's program is aimed mostly at existing consulting division employees and is not used as heavily as a recruiting enticement for graduating students. It is aimed at employees who probably were not even business majors. It leads to an MBA degree and does not compete with masters of accounting programs. It does not lead up to taking the CPA examination. It also involves many fewer students than the new E&Y program at Notre Dame and the University of Virginia.

Nevertheless it does suffer from some of the controversies such as the role it plays in admission of students, its role in setting workloads of employees who are working while taking the customized program, and the use of faculty and facilities that are heavily subsidized by taxpayers if the participating university is state supported. Even in the case of private univeristies, private industry is benefitting from the tax exempt status of the university delivering the customized program for the firm's employees.

I cannot even find a web site discussing the PWC MBA program at the PWC web site. You can read about it at
http://www.cba.uga.edu/mba/home/deanbio.html

Two universities are participating in the E&Y customized program. The program is an employment fringe benefit and even provides income ($1,000 per month) in addition to tuition, fees, room, board, and books. In the September through April period, students can live at home, take two distance education courses while earning a full-time E&Y salary that is not limited to $1,000 per month.

Ernst & Young (E&Y) has a funded customized program leading to an Masters of Accounting degree from the the University of Notre Dame or the University of Virginia. The web site is at
http://www.ey.com/careers/masters/default.asp

Notre Dame's web site of interest is at http://www.nd.edu/~acctdept/careers.htm#2

My interests in the Ernst & Young partnerships with Notre Dame and the University of Virginia are somewhat different than my interest in the PWC MBA partnership. In the first place, an E&Y partnership does not entail networked learning in a heavy way. Two of the ten required courses are distance education courses delivered in remote E&Y offices while students are working full time. Those two courses are synchronous rather than asynchronous on the web. The Readiness Program and eight graduate courses meet in traditional classroom settings while students are in residence on the university campuses.

My interest in the E&Y masters degree programs is focused mainly upon the combination of student recruitment, curriculum design, and the way that program at first seemed to me to be doing something that is impossible. What seemed impossible to me were the following points that I concluded immediately after reading the packet of materials being sent to universities to distribute to undergraduate students and the information at the E&Y web site on "The Master Plan" at http://www.ey.com/careers/masters/default.asp

The program mixes former accounting majors having 10 or more courses in accounting with other business majors having as few as two courses in basic accounting.
Students who are not former accounting majors must attend a five-week Readiness Program that provides 10 credits of undergraduate accounting credit.
The custom E&Y program is a lock-step program for all students and does not have separate tracks for accounting versus non-accounting majors. E&Y will not fund taking of additional undergraduate accounting courses other than those provided in the five-week Readiness Program.
After taking ten courses for 30 credits from Notre Dame or UVA, the capstone course is a non-credit CPA Review Course delivered by E&Y instructors.

The fact that the masters degrees are designated as accounting degrees and that the capstone course is the CPA Review course, leads students and people like me into believing that these degrees enable graduates from the E&Y program to sit for the CPA examination. Although many of us that teach in universities having some form of masters programs in accounting try to some extent to avoid having the CPA examination dictate our curricula, we generally do make it possible for our graduates to meet the minimum requirements to sit for the CPA examination in our own states and many other states.

The Masters in Accounting degree is free in the sense that E&Y pays a salary plus providing funding for all tuition, fees, room, board, and travel costs. In return, the student is indentured for three years and must repay the education costs if he or she should voluntarily leave E&Y before the three year commitment is satisfied.

What concerned me more than any other thing in all of this was a claim made (in the student application form and at the E&Y web site) that reads as follows:

"We worked with the universities to ensure that the Master's Program offers you the best education through a schedule which also allows you to develop skills and knowledge to prepare you to excel at Ernst & Young."

This said to me that this program and its curriculum plan were "the best" vis-à-vis what students can get from other masters programs in accounting, including our program at Trinity University. There was no detailed curriculum information available on the E&Y program, but it appeared to me that given the five things enumerated above, it would be impossible to accomplish such our own program for students not having more accounting prerequisites.

Admittedly, I jumped to some erroneous conclusions prior to learning more about the E&Y Master Plan curriculum. Belatedly, it now appears to me that graduates from the E&Y program will not be allowed to sit for the CPA examination in Texas and some other states unless they take nearly an extra year of accounting coursework before or after completing the masters in accounting degree program funded by E&Y.

I sent my first message about the E&Y Master Plan to the aecm list serve and expressed some of my off-the-wall concerns in my web document at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm#ErnstandYoung . Those two things resulted in email messages from various educators, including messages from Notre Dame faculty members Tom Frecka and Kevin Mislewicz. I reproduced Tom's message in the above web document.

Kevin's message was less detailed, but it did give me my first insight into the curriculum. Kevin informed me that the E&Y Master Plan's curriculum differs only slightly from M.S. in Accountancy curriculum that Notre Dame offers to students in its regular program. The main difference is the lock-step calendar for the E&Y Master Plan and possibly fewer choices due to the customized E&Y calendar. That calendar reads as follows:

Mar-April (Preparing): CD-ROM Review Course on Introductory Accounting
May-June (Home&EY): Readiness Program for non-accounting majors (10 credits)
June-Aug (University): Core Program on campus (9 credits)
Sept-Aug (Home&EY): Distance Learning (3 credits, one night per week)
Jan-April (Home&EY): Distance Learning (3 credits, one night per week)
June-Aug (University): Core Program on campus (15 credits)
Aug-Nov (Home&EY): CPA Review Program

The E&Y Master Plan curriculum plan at Notre Dame is shown below:

Summer, 1999

Negotiations/Communication

Taxes and Business Strategy

Financial Statement Analysis (same as MBA elective)

Fall, 1999 Distance Learning (Synchronous)

Finance (Investments, same as MBA elective)

Spring, 2000 Distance Learning (Syncrhronous)

Business Risk Analysis

Summer, 2000

Advanced Assurance Services course

Special Topics in Financial Reporting (securitization, derivatives, hedging,...)

Business Consulting Course

Advanced Finance Course (still being developed)

Advanced Technology Course (to be developed jointly by ND, UVA and E&Y)

TOTAL GRADUATE CREDIT HOURS = 30

Non-accounting majors will also receive 10 undergraduate credits for the Readiness Program

Financial accounting (4.5 credits)

Managerial accounting (2.0 credits)

Auditing (2.0 credits)

Taxation (1.5 credits)

The above Financial Reporting & Assurance Services curriculum appears to me to be an outstanding curriculum for former accounting majors. It also appears to be an outstanding curriculum for non-accounting majors since there does not appear to be all that much accounting in the program, at least not to the point where prerequisites in intermediate accounting, income taxes, auditing, and managerial accounting are necessary. However, for non-accounting majors there is a major drawback relative to virtually all masters of accounting programs in the U.S. In many states, especially Texas, the graduates would not meet the requirements, in my judgment, to apply to sit for the CPA examination. If taking the CPA is important to such a graduate and passing it is important for career advancement in E&Y, the non-accounting graduate from Notre Dame will have to take more accounting courses just to sit for the CPA examination unless he or she can sit for the examination in some state that has less explicit application requirements than Texas. The Texas requirements include 30 credits beyond basic accounting courses that cover the following::

Intermediate Accounting

Advanced Accounting

Auditing, Internal Accounting Control and Evaluation

Financial Statement Analysis

Accounting Theory

Not-for Profit Accounting

Six credits of Income Tax

Accounting Systems

Accounting Report Writing

Other recommended courses and areas are suggested in the law

At this point in time, I must assume that the UVA curriculum for the E&Y Master Plan will be somewhat similar to the Notre Dame curriculum. I viewed the curriculum for regular students not part of the E&Y program at http://www.commerce.virginia.edu/ms_accounting/requirements.htm . That curriculum is a much more traditional master of accountancy curriculum than the above Notre Dame curriculum. However, I cannot imagine business majors having only one or two basic accounting courses entering that UVA curriculum without taking intermediate accounting and some other prerequisite accounting modules. Most certainly I cannot imagine such students being mixed in with former accounting majors in many of the listed UVA graduate accounting courses. At this point, however, my comments are restricted to the above Notre Dame curriculum.

This is part of what prospective students read about in their proposed "Master Plans":

ERNST & YOUNG LLP

Your Master Plan
Information For Prospective Candidates Interested in
Ernst & Youngs Master of Science in Accountancy Program

Make this Program part of Your Master Plan

Leader…winner…visionary…standard-setter…bold…willing to take risks…Do these words describe you? They definitely describe Ernst & Young and its focus on the entrepreneurial spirit. Over the past three years, Ernst & Young LLP has been the fastest growing of the largest multinational professional services firms. And, as indicated by our record growth in 1998, our momentum continues to accelerate. We attract multi-talented, motivated individuals who seek to be on the cutting edge of technology and knowledge. Thus, we have developed a unique Program in which Ernst & Young will pay for you to obtain your Master of Science in Accountancy at a premier institution while working at the firm.

Why should you apply? As a young professional, you most likely desire to distinguish yourself early on from other business graduates to jump start your career. Enrolling in the E&Y Masters Program is the first step. Every professional at Ernst & Young is dedicated to growth and speed to market, speed to reacting to new opportunities, and the speed to stay ahead of the competition. We are no longer just in the business of debits and credits. Thus, we seek professionals who are committed to becoming the top business advisors in the ever-changing global marketplace. Do you want to position yourself ahead of the rest? Completing a Masters degree while working at Ernst & Young offers you that opportunity.

Ernst & Young has established Programs with two top tier schools; the University of Notre Dame and the University of Virginia. These Programs promise to be premier graduate experiences with customized and innovative curriculums. Obtaining your Masters degree from one of these Programs provides you with an exceptional opportunity to begin your career with a competitive edge.

This is a highly competitive Program and we expect to recruit the best business school candidates. Please see your E&Y campus recruiter for your school, or if unsure of your E&Y recruiter, please contact one of the contacts listed below to see if you qualify.

A message from Tom Frecka
Director, M.S. in Accountancy Programs,
University of Notre Dame

Bob Jensen's reply comments are in red.

Hi Tom,

I added a few comments below your comments. I appreciate your prompt response.

My comments have been added in red to your message.

Thanks,

Bob at rjensen@trinity.edu
Professor Robert E. Jensen http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business Administration
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
Voice: 210-736-7347 Fax: 210-736-8134

-----Original Message-----

From: thomas frecka [SMTP:Thomas.J.Frecka.1@nd.edu]
Sent: Monday, February 15, 1999 9:30 AM
To: rjensen@trinity.edu
Subject: Notre Dame/E&Y M.S. in Accountancy Program

Bob,

Just read the stuff about the program on your web site. Thought I might set the record straight on a few points:

The program is for both undergraduate accounting majors and for non-accounting undergraduate business majors. The latter group will start with the Readiness Program. I don’t consider this very "controversial."

Comment from Bob Jensen:
It is controversial to the extent that some states require 21 to 24 credits of content that is traditionally covered at the undergraduate level. Since you only offer 10 undergraduate credts of undergradutate accounting content, I do not see how it will be possible for graduates of your program to meet the requirements to take the CPA examination in states like Texas.

The E&Y program is also controversial in that E&Y does not provide funding for this program for any of its employees at any colleges or universities other than Notre Dame and the University of Virginia. To my knowledge, other universities were not even given a chance to bid on this program. It might be noted that unlike the E&Y and PWC programs, all universities have a chance of receiving funding for the new KPMG program that funds a Masters of Taxation degree for employess in the tax division.

(2) Students will continue to consider employment at other firms. In order to receive "free" tuition, the E&Y students must remain with the firm for three years. If they leave, they will need to reimburse E&Y for the pro-rated cost of the program. I presume that many students will not want to incur this liability.

Comment from Bob Jensen:
Yes but the E&Y funded masters degree is a fringe benefit not being offered by any other firm as part of the plan to recruit undergraduate students. Other firms may have to join this band wagon just to compete for top students. Since most new hires hope to stay with a large public accounting firm for at least three years, the three year indenture is no big deal. I assume that if they are terminated by E&Y, their debt for the masters degree is waived. In reality, the E&Y Master Plan is one of the largest fringe benefits in the history of public accounting firms. For all practical purposes it is even more than a "free" masters degree.

One question that comes to mind is how this fringe will be taxed by the IRS? That will be a major bite not anticipated my many applicants. The tax implications should be mentioned in the E&Y application for the program.

(3) Both Notre Dame and UVA have signed a Letter of Understanding with E&Y. The agreement gives both schools complete control over the curriculum. In our case, it was important for us to have a curriculum that was exactly consistent with the requirements for our existing M.S.in Accountancy Degree Program. We also have complete control over admission decisions and students are expected to follow all of the Notre Dame rules.

Comment from Bob Jensen:
When I posted my earlier concerns, I thought you were constrained by the requirement in many states that students have 30 or more hours of accounting to sit for the CPA examination and particular accounting, auditing, tax, and systems courses. Now I realize that you are not constrained by this requirement. It appears that graduates from your M.S. in Accounting program will not be able to sit for the CPA examination unless they take more accounting courses other than accounting courses you require in the program and as prerequisites for the program.

(4) Distance learning courses will be taught by faculty at ND and UVA.

In our case, we have a great deal of experience with distance learning, particularly in our Executive Programs. In fact, our program won an award for best distance learning in higher education last year.

Comment from Bob Jensen:
I have never questioned the quality or integrity of the University of Notre Dame or UVA. These are very presitigious programs. I have featured the BAM program at UVA in a document at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/265wp.htm . In my technology workshops I rate Notre Dame's business school faculty and building among the most advanced programs I know of in technology applications.

(5) Our program is not comprised of more accounting courses than competing programs. The program is designed to meet AACSB accreditation standards and 150 laws that limit the amount of accounting included in such programs. RE communication/speech courses, our program includes a required negotiations/communication course and a required consulting course. Re the CPA exam, our program should cover the requisite accounting material, but CPA review is E&Y/the participants’ responsibilities, not ours.

Thank you for this clarification. In my earlier concerns I thought that you were intending to make students eligible to sit for the CPA examination and would offer a more traditional masters of accounting program that had more accounting prerequisites and/or more accounting courses required in the program. Now I realize that your program is not intended to make students elgible to sit for the CPA examination in many states.

(6) There will be no undergraduate accounting material covered in the 30 credit hour degree program.

Comments from Bob Jensen:
This is both a strength and a weakness. It is tough to mix former accounting majors with non-accounting majors who have only had a five week Readiness Program.

I would appreciate it if you would correct the erroneous impressions conveyed by your article.

Comment from Bob Jensen:
I have added you message to the web document so that your concerns are fully stated in your own words. I apologize for jumping to the conclusion that you were trying to offer a curriculum that enables students to sit for the CPA examination in virtually all states.

The message came from
Tom Frecka
Director, M.S. in Accountancy Programs,
University of Notre Dame
February 15, 1999

Deere Contracts With Indiana University for Online MBA Degrees in Finance

"Deere & Company Turns to Indiana University's Kelley School of Business For Online MBA Degrees in Finance," Yahoo Press Release, October 8, 2001 --- http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011008/cgm034_1.html

MOLINE, Ill., Oct. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Deere & Company, the world's leading manufacturer of agricultural equipment, has entered into a Web-based academic partnership with Indiana University's Kelley School of Business to provide a Master of Business Administration degree program for Deere's finance professionals, beginning in August 2002.

The customized online program is designed as a three-year course of study to be completed in parallel with the participants' full-time job responsibilities. Course content is centered around the business knowledge, technical skills, and behavioral competencies for Deere's future leaders to use in responding to challenges facing the company. Kelley's senior faculty designed the program specifically for John Deere, with input from the Deere finance division's senior management team.

``This is a rigorous program drawing from the strengths of both the Kelley School and the Deere management team. It is designed to create value for our enterprise and allow us to attract and retain high-quality employees,'' said Nate Jones, chief financial officer at Deere & Company. ``Graduates of this program will learn skills that help them better meet the challenges of improving business performance and delivering value to shareholders.''

``The Kelley School of Business takes pride in its ability to build curricula,'' said Dan Dalton, dean of the Kelley School. ``Our faculty's talent in educational innovation enables us to create close relationships with the corporate community and construct programs according to their specific criteria. We are delighted to extend this ability to include a corporation with the integrity and strong international reputation of John Deere.''

The MBA program curriculum will consist of twenty courses structured to meld individual student goals with the organizational needs of Deere & Company. Each academic year will consist of three twelve-week sessions. The program will be launched each year with a one- to two- week residential module on Indiana University's Bloomington campus.

Teaching tools will include discussion and debate forums, on-line testing, audio streaming and video streaming, simulations, and time-revealed scenarios for case-based learning. Course materials may be accessed directly from the Worldwide Web. The program will use only full-time tenure-track faculty recognized for their quality of teaching in other Kelley School programs.

The John Deere MBA program is a customized adaptation of the Kelley Direct Online MBA program, which is the first fully online MBA offered among nationally ranked top-20 business schools. It has been available since 1999 to qualified working professionals who continue their employment while earning their degrees. It was created in collaboration with the Kelley School's corporate executive education clients, who voiced a need for MBA skills throughout their work forces. About 150 students are enrolled in the Kelley Direct Online MBA program today.

Bob Jensen's threads on universities that have similar contracts with other universities are given at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm

Tools and Innovations in ALN Technologies

Before reading this you may want to visit the tools site at http://www.uwex.edu/disted/interactive.html

"Seven Problems of Online Group Learning (and Their Solutions)," by Tim S. Roberts and Joanne M. McInnerney, Faculty of Business and Informatics, Central Queensland University, Australia --- http://www.ifets.info/journals/10_4/22.pdf
Roberts, T. S., & McInnerney, J. M. (2007). Seven Problems of Online Group Learning (and Their Solutions). Educational Technology & Society, 10 (4), 257-268.

ABSTRACT
The benefits of online collaborative learning, sometimes referred to as CSCL (computer-supported collaborative learning) are compelling, but many instructors are loath to experiment with non-conventional methods of teaching and learning because of the perceived problems. This paper reviews the existing literature to present the seven most commonly reported such problems of online group learning, as identified by both researchers and practitioners, and offers practical solutions to each, in the hope that educators may be encouraged to “take the risk”.

Keywords
Online collaborative learning, CSCL, Group learning, Group work, Free riders

HTML slide shows on the tools of ALN technologies are provided at the University of Illinois web site http://talon.extramural.uiuc.edu/ws97/intro/tsld033.htm and http://talon.extramural.uiuc.edu/ws97/intro/sld033.htm

A Power Point presentation is available at http://www.online.uillinois.edu/oakley/presentations/CACUBO_Links.html

The tools mentioned by at the by Andrew Wadsworth at http://talon.extramural.uiuc.edu/ws97/intro/tsld033.htm include the following:

Print --- good ALN courses may not be entirely paperless. W. Crawford and M. Garnow state (as quoted by Eli Noam in Educom Review, March/April 1998, p. 18)

Print is not dead.
Print is not dying.
Print is not even vaguely ill.

Videotape --- this is still cheaper than storage and transmission of high volumes of digitized video, although random access, searching, and freezing on frames are huge limitations.

Audiotape --- this is still cheaper than storage and transmission of high volumes of digitized audio, although random access, searching, and freezing on frames are huge limitations.

Email --- email and the Internet comprise the core technologies of ALN communications. Cost, efficiency and ease of use have no equals to email and the Internet. The main drawback of email is that responding to email communication is labor intensive (humans still answer the messages) and there are no volume controls other than refusals to answer all or certain types of email messaging. WalMart, for example, naively installed a customer email answering service only to discover that the flow of message become a roaring stream that was overwhelming. Very few retail corporations openly respond to more than a small fraction of email messages. Many conceal email addresses of employees.

Voice Mail --- this can reach users and educators at times when they do not have access to computers.

Bulletin Board System (BBS) - the electronic version of a cork board with tacked messages. The electronic version, however, is easier to search and index.

Facsimile or FAX - with advances in email that allow for graphics, audio, and other file attachments, FAX technologies are losing out to modern email. However, for many organizations (such a Microsoft, Dell, etc.) cannot handle email traffic, so that sometimes the only way to transmit facsimiles is via FAX, postal services, or other express mail services.

Internet and the World Wide Web - email and the Internet comprise the core technologies of ALN communications. Cost, efficiency and ease of use have no equals to email and the Internet. A drawback of the world wide web, however, is flow capacity (bandwidth) that can make transmissions very slow. Also there are huge differences between being connected to arteries (e.g., T1 lines) versus capillaries (modems). Students on campus have tremendous comparative advantages if they can use arteries and avoid the capillaries to households outside the campus. Some advocates of ALN having great successes with ALN on campus may not have the same success with modem users.

To Wadsworth's list we might add some extensions of the above technologies.

Chat Lines --- these are actually technologies for supplementing asynchronous messaging (like email and the Internet) with synchronous messaging where students and faculty are assembled at the same point in time from various parts of the world to have synchronized communications. Older technologies include teleconferencing and video conferencing. Newer technologies include text, audio, and video conferencing via computer networks.

Real and Psuedo Audio/Video --- these are huge innovations for ALN. Downloadings of large audio/video files can be very time consuming and require computer capacity to handle the storage. The user is put on hold while audio or video files are being downloaded. Real audio/video commences to playback immediately without having to wait, and psuedo audio/video commences when only a portion (e.g., 10%) of a file has been downloaded. Real audio makes it possible to have radio broadcasts around the clock over the Internet, and these broadcasts can come from any part of the world. Examples of real audio application in courses along with the use of other ALN tools can be found in the Power Point slides at http://www.online.uillinois.edu/oakley/presentations/UIUC_ALS_Links.html

You can download a version of RealPlayer from http://www.real.com/ As an illustration, Paul Krause's streaming video Accounting Information Systems lectures are linked and explained at http://WWW.Trinity.edu/~rjensen/ideasmes.htm#Krause

One of the more innovative applications of real audio online is in Beth Ingram's macro economics course at the University of Iowa. The web address is http://www.biz.uiowa.edu/class/6e002/audio/index.html

You can read more about web streaming at http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#Web5

Wireless Communications --- portable computers can now be turned into cellular telephones such that students can communicate with faculty and each other with the flick of an antenna on the side of the computer. Email sending and receiving devices are now being (experimentally) installed in wrist watches. A good web site for remote control technolgies is at http://www.networkcomputing.com/909/909r2.html

Speech Recognition Software --- new technologies in this area allow for digitization of "normal" speech. Conversion of normal conversations greatly facilitates storage, search, and random access retrieval of all or portions of such conversations. You can read more about speech recognition technologies at http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#Speech1 .

Text to Audio Conversion Software --- this is the flip side of speech recognition. One of the most innovative web sites in the world is the Bell Labs web site that allow you to type in text and then choose how you want it read back. You can read more about audio conversion at http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#Text2 .

Interactive Graphics on the Networks --- this includes VRML allowing for 3-D images to be manipulated (resized, turned, scrolled, etc.) over the Internet. One of the best web sites for VRML is at the San Diego Super Computing Center at http://www.sdsc.edu/vrml/ At this site, my favorite demonstration service is the mathematica surface modelling utilitiy at http://www.tisny.com/vrml/math.html

Studio Classrooms --- these were pioneered by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Jack Wilson at http://www.rpi.edu/dept/science/www/Interactive_learning/classrooms.html Large lecture halls are replaced by "studios" where pairs or small groups of students learn interactively on computers. The emphasis is on asynchronous learning rather than synchronized presentations. More recent applications are summarized in "Teaching on the Web and the Studio Classroom," Syllabus, April 1998, 37-39. The Syllabus web site is at http://www.http://www.syllabus.com/

Probably more important than the tools are the clever ways in ALN for using these tools and the possibility for abusing the tools. For an analysis of these issues, please click on http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245ch02.htm#Tablebig experiments at the University of Illinois are discussed at http://w3.scale.uiuc.edu/scale/

Once again I remind you to visit the tools site at http://www.uwex.edu/disted/interactive.html

MUD, MOO, and MUSH Extensions

A somewhat bolder extension of ALN pedagogy entails having students create their own avatars and learning worlds. MUDs are Multi-User Dimensions or Multiple User Dungeon, or Multiple User Dialogue. These are extensions of Dungeons and Dragons that seduced "adolescents" into a network world of imaginary places. Now there are serious social and education MUDs. Some of the many types of MUDs and MUDding are reviewed http://www.lysator.liu.se/mud/faq/faq1.html.

There are extensions such as Object-Oriented MOO applications that, along with MUDs, have become serious educational experiments and applications. For example, in Technological Horizons in Education THE (http://www.thejournal.com), March 1997, pp. 66-68, the Director of Information Resources (Michael Conlon) at the University of Florida reports on the MOOville writing workshop for over 2,500 students per semester at the University of Florida. A summary of the article is provided by Jensen and Sandlin at http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245ch02.htm#Advantages5. An example of the network learning features of MOOville is by Conlon as follows:

When an instructor assigned a short play for students to read, instead of discussing it by talking face to face with each other, each group of students would go to its workspace in MOOville and conduct their discussions online. Students were not allowed to address each other verbally. At their workstations, students had to type in their ideas for other group members to read and respond to; they also had to respond in return.

The MOOville pedagogy has become exceedingly popular with University of Florida faculty and students. Dr. Conlon concludes the following:

To those who say that a subject as complicated as writing cannot be taught with computers, we say that it definitely can, especially when the computer becomes the gateway to an environment that draws students in and excites them about expressing themselves through writing.

Another less extreme extension is the MUSH which, like a MUD, is an electronic space in which multiple persons (players, users, students) socialize, create "worlds," and interact in gaming or serious episodes. For a discussion of the history and applications of MUSHes, see "The Mush Manual" by Lydia Leong at http://galaxy.neca.com/~soruk/manual.html. The variations differ more in terms of underlying software codes than in purpose and application.

Types of ALN Contracting

Costs of development of a virtual university are discussed by Murray Turhoff at http://eies.njit.edu/~turoff/Papers/cbdevu.html The abstract reads as follows:

This paper is an update of one that the author published in 1982. It deals with the costs and effort required to set up a first class academic program for 2000 students that is made up of students and faculty scattered around the world. The establishment of such a University would cost less than the addition of a single classroom building on a physical college campus (approximately $15 million US).

There are of course many options as to scale and magnitude of effort. In terms of new courses at a university, the most expensive option is probably on-campus development of either a traditional or an ALN course internally. The alternative option is to contract for selected ALN courses from other developers (vendors). In some instances the price of importing a course may not be significant (e.g., when the course is developed using state funds with the proviso that other institutions in the state are to share in the results). In other instances, the price may be very high (e.g., where the vendor both develops and administers the ALN course).

Bill Graves discusses various "micro market" scenarios in "Adapting to the Emergence of Educational Micro Markets" in the September/October 1997 issue of Educom Review (pp. 26-31). Many universities will probably take on some form of the first scenario on Page 30 that reads as follows (emphasis added):

A traditional institution (college or university) can move selectively to offer online versions of existing courses and degree programs. This is already happening in many institutions in an ad hoc incremental manner that adds value to the institution’s core programs.

For example, adding an array of ALN business technology courses would add value to our existing core programs in Business Administration at Trinity University. ALN courses bridge key gaps in the core program. The second scenario, according to Dr. Graves, is to become a "meta" university like the University of Utah that is retaining its traditional market niche while exporting several networked courses to the new online Western Governors University. The third scenario is to become a "mega" university aggressively marketing world wide online degree programs.

Other examples of these ranging alternatives are provided in the Appendix of this paper. To skip to this Appendix, click on Appendix: Links to Some Key Web Sites.Appendix.