/* Howard Davis and I have been invited to draft a page
   or two on (the future of) online learning at UVM. 
   Here's what I've written ... 

   Comments, suggestions, etc, invited ...
*/



re:     comments on online learning [draft]
to:     Faculty senate Technology Committee
from:   steve cavrak
date:   2002.05.01

The following comments outline an approach to “online”
learning, both in general, and at the University of
Vermont

First, a pair of observations

1. The bulk of pre-university and undergraduate learning
is “online.”

(a) The historical distinction between “television”
(broadcast, cable, satellite, internet) and “telephone”
(telephone, cellphone, internet) is vanishing under the
guise of “digital convergence.”

(b) “Online learning” is for the most part
“extracurricular” learning, i.e. the “teachers” are
often not even considered teachers at all.

(c) The curricular content of these online sources,
however, is rapidly growing both informally (through
self publishing on the web) and formally (via text
books, research and technical reports, thesis work,
scholarly journals, professional society. In some sense,
the web is the textbook.

2. Online learning in a university environment is not a
separate activity, but is a part of the university
experience.

(a) The distinction between “classroom teaching” and
“distance learning” come, for the most part, from a
political debate not grounded in observation of how
students actually learn.

In short, online learning is here, and it’s here to
stay.

What then, should the University of Vermont be doing to
make best use of this online environment. Three lines of
approach offer the most promise.

(1) Open Courseware, Open Knowledge, Open Source
Initiatives

(a) The open couseware initiative, initiated by MIT, but
with a growing number of participants, is aimed at
putting “all” course materials online. In addition to
the already “digitized” written material, this
initiative will digitize other material, including
lectures, presentations, etc. The goal of the initiative
is to make all of these materials as widely available as
possible.

(b) Included with the open courseware initiative is the
development of the computer tools that support the
identification and distribution of these course
materials; these software products will be distributed
as open source products allowing widespread development
and contributions.

(2) Deep and distributed support[1]

(a) at the simplest level, participation in the online
learning environment requires supporting faculty access
to technology - access, training, and trouble shooting.

(b) at the course level, converting existing material
and developing new courseware, will require significant
intellectual work on the part of both faculty and
students. The development of “course” based courseware
can be fostered by undergraduate internships, honors
courses, faculty workshops, as well as support services.

(c) at a deeper level, whole curricula will require
redesign and development. The ready openness of
courseware will blur the distinctions between, for
example, Chemistry 1, Geology 101, Biology 210, etc. - a
student trying to understand an impact of acid rain for
a Civil Engineering course might well use “courseware”
from all three courses. Couseware will “find” the
student as often as the student finds the course. New
curriculum developments can be fostered by developing
graduate level courses and program as well as faculty
recruiting.

(3) Developmental support

(a) The Open CourseWare initiative is not occurring in a
funding vacuum. Federal agencies as well as private
foundations are actively encouraging this activity. UVM,
with it’s strong undergraduate programs is well
positioned to benefit from these funding sources

(b) The University would be better positioned to compete
for these funds, as well as make stronger contributions
to the overall initiatives by encouraging programs such
as the Computer Science offering in Arts and Sciences,
strengthening the existing bioinformatics and  medical
informatics offerings, encouraging digital library
projects, developing a Computer Science offering in
Education, developing an doctorate level program in
Educational Technology in the College of Education, etc.

---------------- 

[1]The MIT Open Courseware is designed to put 2,000
courses on line by 2012 with an annual budget of $7.5
million - $10 million, a per course cost of $50,000.
Since this initiative is funded by grants from the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the William and Flora
Hewlett Foundation, this represents “new” revenue for
the Institute. For more sources, see
http://web.mit.edu/ocw/