NSF Science & Technology Indicators 2002

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  1. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has published a major (and voluminous) report entitled Science and Engineering Indicators 2002. Distance education gets some mention.

    A few snippets:
    • Distance education is a rapidly growing and relatively unregulated aspect of higher education. In 2001, the Regional Accrediting Commissions issued their first set of guidelines for the evaluation of electronically offered degree and certificate programs (Regional Accrediting Commissions 2001). Comprehensive data are not available on the number of undergraduate and graduate S&E degrees or the number of programs fully or partially offered through distance education. However, interest in delivering and taking S&E courses and entire programs via distance education is growing (Office of Government and Public Affairs 2000). In 1997, more than 50,000 different on-line courses were offered by postsecondary institutions; 91 percent were college-level credit courses. Approximately 1.6 million people registered for on-line courses in 1998, 82 percent in college-level credit courses at the undergraduate level (University Continuing Education Association 2000). In many ways, these programs are comparable to correspondence programs offered either by for-profit institutions, such as the International Correspondence Schools, or by traditional universities through their correspondence or continuing education units. In IT-related certification programs, this method of delivering postsecondary education may be one of the dominant modes, at least on an international basis.

      Although distance education traditionally is regarded as involving the delivery of courses to remote locations, the techniques of distance education, especially on-line education, can be incorporated in on-campus instruction as well. Universities are finding that significant numbers of on-campus students sign up for distance education courses when they are offered. At the University of Colorado in Denver, for example, more than 500 of 609 students enrolled in distance education courses were also enrolled in regular on-campus courses (Guernsey 1998). On-line courses can be more convenient for on-campus students, giving them greater flexibility in scheduling their time. Professors can augment their on-line courses with Web-based materials and guest lecturers in remote sites.

      Distance Education Trends. The National Center for Education Statistics has conducted two surveys of distance education in postsecondary education institutions: the first in the fall of 1995 and the second in the 1997/98 academic year (National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) 1999b). The first survey covered only higher education institutions, but the second survey covered all postsecondary educational institutions. These surveys document that distance education is now a common feature of many higher education institutions, and its popularity is growing. The majority of courses are at the undergraduate level and are broadly distributed across academic subjects.

      The number of higher education institutions offering distance education is growing. In 1997/98, 44 percent of all two- and four-year institutions offered distance education courses compared with 33 percent in fall 1995. Distance education is more widely used in public four-year institutions than in private four-year institutions, but private institutions are also increasing their use of it. In 1997/98, distance education was offered by 79 percent of public institutions (compared with 62 percent in fall 1995) and 22 percent of private institutions (compared with 12 percent in fall 1995).

      Distance education course offerings and enrollments are growing more rapidly than the number of institutions that offer distance education. The number of courses offered in two- and four-year higher education institutions doubled from 25,730 in fall 1995 to 52,270 in 1997/98. The increases were fairly similar across all categories of institutions (two- and four-year, public and private, and all enrollment-size categories). Course enrollments also increased sharply, more than doubling from 753,640 in fall 1995 to 1,632,350 in 1997/98 (NCES 1999b).

      The availability of degrees that can be completed exclusively with distance education courses has remained essentially constant. Of higher education institutions that offer distance education, 23 percent offered degrees in fall 1995 and 22 percent did so in 1997/98 (NCES 1999b).

      Technologies used for distance education have changed significantly. In fall 1995, the most widely used technologies were two-way interactive video (57 percent) and one-way prerecorded video (52 percent). These were still widely used in 1997/98 (56 and 48 percent, respectively). Internet-based courses, however, expanded greatly. Of all the institutions that offered distance education courses in 1997/98, 60 percent offered asynchronous (not requiring student participation at a set time) computer-based instruction and 19 percent offered synchronous (real-time) computer-based instruction (NCES 1999b).

      Significance of On-line Distance Education. Despite substantial (and growing) experience with on-line distance education, thorough assessments of its effectiveness have been relatively few. Existing evidence suggests that, at least in some circumstances, it can be very effective. The rapid growth and reported success of some on-line distance education programs indicate that they are providing acceptable learning experiences. A review of the literature on on-line classes (Kearsley, Lynch, and Wizer 1995) found that compared with traditional classes, student satisfaction was higher, measured student achievement was the same or better, and student-instructor discussions usually were more frequent. On the other hand, some case studies document that on-line distance education can be frustrating for both students and instructors. The growth of on-line distance education has far-reaching implications for higher education. Although on-line education may expand the pool of people who have access to education, it may also take students away from traditional education. Some scholars express concern that it will undermine the traditional college experience. Some question whether it can match the quality of face-to-face instruction. Moreover, the kind of intellectual and social community that characterizes the college experience may be much harder to achieve through distance learning.

      IT issues for Universities

      IT in general and distance education in particular raise new issues for universities. Distance education brings universities into competition with each other in a new way. Because distance education courses are available to anyone anywhere, they allow universities to compete for students outside their own geographic areas. Top-tier universities such as Stanford and Duke are marketing Internet-based master's degrees to national audiences. New distance education–based universities such as Jones International University (http://www.jonesinternational.edu/), the first on-line-only university to gain accreditation; the University of Phoenix on-line (http://online.uophx.edu/); and Western Governors University (http://www.wgu.edu/) are marketing courses that compete with the continuing education services of universities and colleges that in the past had been the only providers of such services in their regions. Some distance education providers see opportunities to market American university degrees to large student populations abroad. …

      Distance education technologies also raise questions about the role of professors. Some view these technologies as new tools for professors. Others, however, foresee "mass production" education in which packaged multimedia courses will reduce the importance of professors (Noble 1998). The expanding and potentially lucrative new market for on-line course materials raises the issue of whether professors or the university should own the intellectual property embodied in on-line courses. The American Association of University Professors has taken the position that professors rather than institutions should retain primary property rights for on-line course materials (Schneider 1999) and has questioned the accreditation of Jones International University (Olson 1999).

      Brown and Duguid (2000) note that colleges and universities provide three essential functions to learners: access to an authentic community of learning, resources to help learners work within these communities, and widely accepted representations of learning and work (such as degrees and transcripts). Brown and Duguid also note that many proposals for new "virtual universities" fail to provide one or more of these functions. Conventional universities serve all of these functions by combining five elements: students, faculty, research, facilities, and an institution able to provide an accepted degree. Brown and Duguid suggest that these elements will remain but that new technologies will allow the elements to be in a looser configuration, not necessarily combined in a single collocated organization.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 3, 2002

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