Cover article in May 2002 "University Business" about Connecticut DL

The cover article in the May 2002 issue of "University Business" magazine is about the Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium. Click on the picture below to see the article:

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Snippets:

• The multi-institution virtual university is the Holy Grail of higher education. A few attempts have met with success; others, such as California Virtual University and Western Governors University, have been well-documented disasters. ... Yet, why has this consortium succeeded, where others have failed? Primarily because it was able to solve some of the largest problems facing online-course clearinghouses by making a few key decisions. Most importantly, CTDCL developed a built-in method for converting disparate courses and credits into whole degrees. The Consortium grew out of a 25-year-old IHE (Charter Oak State College) that acts as a "credit bank," aggregating courses into degrees.
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  Other states are taking note. There's even a national initiative now underway... t is now the American Council of Virtual Universities. In April, the Council held its first board meeting.
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  For CTDLC, the problem of aggregating courses for degrees was never an issue. In fact, the concept of the Consortium came from an institution that had met this challenge 25 years ago: Charter Oak State College (www.charteroak.edu). "It's our ace in the hole," says Klonoski [pictured on cover].
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  The idea of a state-based consortium (with in-state and out-of-state tuition, membership restricted to state institutions, and funding coming from state government) is contradictory to the reality of digital learning as boundary-less. ... A nationwide system seems to be the next Holy Grail, but it could be another disaster because the challenges are many. ... [W]ill states tolerate funding for a system that supports out-of-state students? ...
  

 

Not necessarily. The "distance" in "distance learning" doesn't have to be unlimited; it can be regional, even within a state, to serve specific needs. For example, the University of Washington offers a three-year distance learning MSW program on the Olympic Peninsula.