Session 12a2 Why the Distinction between On-campus ... - CiteSeerX

Session 12a2 Why the Distinction between On-campus and Distance Learning is Blurring John R. Chandler, A. Dean Fontenot, Marion O. Hagler, and William M. Marcy College of Engineering Texas Tech University Lubbock, TX 79409 Abstract - The realization that two-thirds of a typical oncampus course occur outside the class meetings means that much of the material prepared to help on-campus students learn outside the classroom applies to distance learners, as well. Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN) that exploit the World Wide Web are a particularly effective means of realizing learning environments that are useful to both oncampus and distance learners. The graduate distance learning program in engineering at Texas Tech University is a contemporary example of how ALNs can blur the distinction between on-campus and distance learning. The ALN model developed for the graduate distance learning program is being extended to help potential engineering students still at a high school campus bridge the gap to the university by taking first year engineering courses together with a high school teacher who serves as a peer/mentor.

Introduction [1] Most teachers expect college students to accept responsibility for learning the majority of what they need outside normal class meeting times. This approach leads to the oft-stated rule of thumb that college students should spend approximately 2 hours outside class studying and learning the course material for each hour spent in class [2]. If two-thirds of a typical on-campus course occur outside the class meetings, the good news for distance learning is that much of the material prepared to help oncampus students learn outside the classroom applies to distance learners, as well. Computer-assisted learning environments, in particular, can be readily available and useful to on-campus and distance learners alike. Especially since on-line study groups are becoming common, much of a course designed to provide interactive learning environments outside the classroom for on-campus students can be useful, with little adaptation, to distance learners. The main difference for distance learners is in accomplishing the functions that are carried out during class meetings for on-campus students. Specifically, the question is how to accomplish • dissemination to the students of the information that they are to learn during the course,

• communication to all students in the class answers to questions of common interest, • administration of examinations, • collection of student work, • organization of the course, and • motivation of the learners, perhaps through interaction with the teacher and other students [2]. It is easy to see how the increasingly ubiquitous Internet and WWW (in combination with surface mail, fax and telephone) can be used to accomplish all of these functions without recreating a classroom environment for the distance learner. Perhaps providing motivation is the most difficult function to furnish distance learners. Fortunately, distance learners, by the virtue of the fact that they have taken the trouble to become distance learners, usually are highly motivated and may not need as much classroom-like motivation as typical on-campus students. The on-line experience itself provides motivation for some students. Given that the class meeting is not the primary occasion for learning during a course and given that most functions of the class meeting can be accomplished by other means, it seems difficult to justify heavy investment in twoway video links to recreate a classroom environment for distance learners. Investment in enriching the environment in which they learn on their own seems more appropriate and productive. Recreating a classroom environment is not only expensive and accomplishes little that cannot be accomplished by alternative means, it also demands that distance learners congregate at a specific time and place -- a severe disadvantage for many distance learners. Distance learners, as well as contemporary on-campus learners, seem to view on-site, on-demand, highly interactive learning opportunities as the ideal. With computers on the desktops (or laps) of most learners, on-site on-demand, highly interactive learning seems much more nearly achievable for both on-campus and distance learners via the Internet (supplemented by videos and printed items) than via real-time video/audio links or by electronic classrooms. The distinction between on-campus and distances learning thus is blurring.

0-7803-5643-8/99/$10.00 © 1999 IEEE November 10 - 13, 1999 San Juan, Puerto Rico 29th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference 12a2-11

Session 12a2 Distance Learning in Engineering at Texas Tech University The graduate distance learning program in engineering at Texas Tech University is a contemporary example of the blurring of the distinction between on-campus and distance learning. This program is designed primarily for practicing engineers who, because of career and family commitments, cannot continue their education in a traditional university setting. In response to requests from engineers and the companies employing them, the College of Engineering has offered distance graduate education since 1966. Initially, professors traveled to remote sites to deliver courses. In 1992, the program adopted a model in which off-campus students received videotapes of on-campus courses in addition to the supplementary materials provided to oncampus students. The distance learners appreciated the asynchronous approach to learning this approach afforded. In 1995, the College of Engineering committed significant resources to using the World Wide Web in an asynchronous learning network (ALN) mode to improve the quality of the course material distance learners receive and to increase their interaction with professors and peers. Currently, the College of Engineering at Texas Tech University delivers master level courses in all its disciplines of engineering, with just over 80 courses in the distance education catalog. Off-campus students in West Texas, as well as around the country, typically can choose from among eight to ten engineering courses per long semester. The commitment to ALN goes beyond a few innovative professors using ALN for random courses, however. Through ALN, the College offers a complete non-thesis Master of Engineering degree, with specialization tracks in all disciplines of engineering, to qualified distance learners. For more information, visit the Web site aln.coe.ttu.edu.

The ALN Model in Engineering at Texas Tech University Each course in the distance learning program is taught concurrently with an on-campus section of the course. Offcampus students typically receive videotapes of the lecture component of the course, and on-campus students can check out videotapes for review. By implementing ALN methods, the time devoted to the lecture component of the courses in most cases is less than half that typical of a traditional oncampus classroom course. Experience shows that administrative activities, lecture notes, ancillary reading, class discussion, collaborative projects, interactive exercises, and many other components of college courses are more effectively delivered over the Internet, offering our faculty and students a high degree of flexibility in choosing

when and where they participate in the course. The Internet also can deliver some multimedia materials and activities. During the fall 1997 semester, the College offered an allInternet course for the first time. Short, streamed, video segments replaced videotaped lectures. By the Spring 1999 semester, the number of all-Internet courses has grown to four courses for academic credit and three professional development courses. Each course is developed as the semester progresses, and no courses are “canned.” Each time the course is offered, new tapes are produced and Internet materials are refined, so instructors can readily respond to new developments in their field and to student questions. Currently, two instructional design/technology specialists with a well-articulated model for ALN approaches support the faculty during the course development process. Working with faculty, they have developed software solutions for providing effective instruction via the Internet. Interestingly, students in the program are not burdened with having to purchase software to receive course content because the team has opted to use either server-side software such as web/database interfaces or software with viewers that can be distributed at no cost. One of the most popular features of all the ALN courses is web-based asynchronous discussion. These groups provide a continuous opportunity for students to obtain feedback through interacting with their professor, peers, and in many cases, outside experts. One important aspect of the pedagogical environment is that all-class discussion involves both on-campus and off-campus students equally in a more considered, higher level discussion than normally is possible even in face-to-face class meetings. Most faculty report that they spend significantly more time interacting with their students in these forums than they do in the traditional classroom setting. Because these methods are proving so effective, many of our faculty are adopting ALN methods in all courses they teach. Thus, on-campus undergraduate and graduate programs both benefit from the development of the distance learning program.

Process Model for Asynchronous Course Development The course development process for distance and asynchronous delivery at Texas Tech provides for a continuous improvement cycle that takes into account new research, analysis, and training. The following list describes the elements of the process model: • Educational Research/Model Development. The educational research focuses mainly on learning models, instructional design, and technologies for

0-7803-5643-8/99/$10.00 © 1999 IEEE November 10 - 13, 1999 San Juan, Puerto Rico 29th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference 12a2-12

Session 12a2 delivery. The results of the research indicate developments and refinements in the distance education model. • Training – Instructional Design. Faculty training focuses on methods and technologies to organize content into the distance education model and includes elements such as constructing effective assignments and exercises, interacting with students in Internet environments, and promoting collaboration among students. All faculty teaching in the distance education program participate in this training. • Course Design. After the introductory training, faculty work with distance learning program staff to convert specific courses within the parameters of the distance education model. This step includes planning and course design through examining how the course is delivered in the traditional classroom and deciding how it can best be delivered via distance education––– including the technologies that will be necessary for implementation. • Training - Implementation. This training is geared toward helping faculty to become proficient in using the technologies necessary to create and deliver course content and interact with students in electronic environments. This second type of training prepares the instructor to take an active part in the course implementation and to make adjustments during the semester. • Course Implementation. Materials are prepared and placed in the appropriate format as determined by the course design. Distance learning staff assist the instructors in this conversion process. Just as with traditional courses, adjustments are made during the course of the semester to respond to student feedback, new information pertaining to topics addressed in the course, and any other developments that arise during the semester. • Analysis. Both formative and summative evaluations identify areas for course improvement and further refinements of the distance learning model for the distance learning program. Elements of the evaluation include: 1. assessments of how well course modules and exercises meet pre-defined objectives, 2. student perceptions of the success of individual course modules and the course as a whole as indicated in student surveys, and 3. instructor perception of the level of success for various elements of the course as indicated in instructor surveys. These evaluations are performed on-line and posted to a database over the Internet.

Distance-delivered Early Admissions Courses for High School Students and Faculty Some high schools have invested heavily in two-way video/audio facilities, which limit learning opportunities to synchronous education at specific sites. This approach does allow face-to-face interaction, to a certain degree, among students at two or more locations. Students at the remote site, however, generally do not experience the same degree of interaction with teacher and peers, no matter how good the connection or the teacher, as those who engage in chat rooms, e-mail, or threaded discussion lists. The reasons are obvious: • the interaction with two-way video/audio is limited by time and the depth of field of the camera— in other words, if the camera is not pointed at the student, the other class will not be able to the see the student and then he/she ceases to be “part of” the class; • the lines that carry the connection, currently, are often inadequate to avoid breaks in the video, thus making the technology more visible than the content; and • the interaction and collaboration between students and groups is almost impossible because video is limited to defined connections between sites. The ALN model at Texas Tech University for distancedelivered education holds promise as a flexible and cost effective means of circumventing many of these difficulties while providing richer learning opportunities for high school students. Specifically, application of the ALN model at Texas Tech permits distance-delivery of first-year undergraduate engineering courses to high school students who achieve early admission to the university. An especially important point is that the combination of early admission and ALN can ease the transition for students from the high school learning environment to the college learning environment [2]. This strategy has potential as an effective recruitment tool for the College of Engineering. The distinction between high school and college is not only the size of the campus, but also the structure of the classroom, the expectations of the students, the sociological break for the student from childhood to adulthood, and the degree of responsibility for learning. The public school system, or almost any K-12 environment, changes from the play-and-learn environment in pre-school and kindergarten to the sage-on-the-stage environment of secondary schools. Undeniably, laboratories in middle schools, high schools and even colleges break down the barriers of the traditional proscenium classroom, but the twin requirements of synchronicity and proximity often limit collaboration. By integrating the Early Admission Engineering Program (EAEP) to the ALN model already established in

0-7803-5643-8/99/$10.00 © 1999 IEEE November 10 - 13, 1999 San Juan, Puerto Rico 29th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference 12a2-13

Session 12a2 the graduate distance education program at Texas Tech University, students can participate in on-line learning, or web-based learning, and become a part of a university classroom without physically attending a class on campus. Because geography ceases to be an unbending constraint, students can gain experience in the university learning environment without experiencing a sudden dramatic shift when they arrive on campus. When high school students (high school seniors during the initial stage of the program) participate in the Early Admissions Engineering Program, they can earn 3 hours of academic, transferable credit that can apply toward a degree. The EAEP courses are the same courses in curriculum and design as the freshman-engineering course for each discipline. If they wish, students can select a course in their chosen curriculum, giving them the opportunity to know if that is the course of study they truly seek. For instance, Computer Science 1405, Introduction to Computer Science, addresses the “discipline of computer science and its relationship to problem solving” and introduces the student to software tools and applications, as well. On the other hand, Industrial Engineering 1105 treats The Laws of the Fifth Discipline, Concept of Equifinality, and The Concepts of the Learning Organization. This course offers a broader-based understanding of the multi-discipline and multi-focused areas available to engineering students. With an EAEP course, then, the high school student bridges the boundary between high school and college, and presumably circumvents the dramatic social change from the daily structured environment of high school to a less structured but more integrated mentoring environment of the university. Eventually, students will be able to take core curriculum courses in the Early Admission program. Even now, they can CLEP out of English, Math, History, and some of the social sciences. Thus an EAEP student can arrive on campus with some experience in the university environment and credit for several courses required for a degree in engineering. In the Texas Tech EAEP courses, the high school teacher takes on the role of facilitator/mentor for the high school student. The high school teacher is “taking” the course along with his/her students and has the option of taking the course for academic credit toward a degree, for continuing education unit credits toward professional development, or simply to learn more about engineering along with the student. Regardless of the motivation, a high school teacher who serves as a mentor for an EAEP course should be better prepared to discuss engineering as a possible career choice with high school students. The high school teacher and university professor are expected to meet, virtually or face-to-face, on numerous occasions in order to go over content and facilitate duties of the high school teacher. The Web, the telephone and the

mail can support interaction between the professor and the high school teacher. In EAEP, the distinction between distance learning and on-campus learning blurs on multiple levels: • the student remains “on-campus” at his/her high school and continues his/her high school education while gaining experience in a university learning environment, • the student becomes both a high school student and a university student at the same time, • the high school student and the high school teacher are “peers” in the process of “taking” the course at the same time, so the distinction between student and teacher blurs, • the high school student can build peer relationships with other students in the entry level engineering course that, hopefully, will develop into peer-mentoring relationships once the student becomes a resident student at Texas Tech, and • the student becomes as familiar with taking courses with on-line content as with taking courses in a familiar high school classroom so that the medium of delivery for courses becomes invisible to the student. Retention is a serious problem at Texas Tech University, and determining the causes for the lack of retention in the College of Engineering is a continuing effort. However, it seems plausible that if a student knows what a discipline includes before enrolling in the discipline, then the student, the department, the college and the university all benefit. The student benefits by entering the university with at least one engineering course, hopefully more, already on a transcript. By taking a course in which a faculty member in the discipline is the teacher of record, the student begins to understand the constraints and demands of the curriculum and the responsibilities of the student as learner before choosing a particular discipline. Thus, the student can change direction or at least consider other disciplines before spending a great deal of money on tuition, room, board, etc. Also, even though the EAEP student has the option of coming to Texas Tech to attend classes on campus, as long as the student remains a high school student at the time of taking the course, the student does not pay resident fees and must pay only in-state tuition. Some EAEP students may find that engineering is everything they thought it would be, and more, and thus confirm their choice to pursue a career in engineering. Other students may discover that engineering is not what they want and decide to pursue another curriculum. If so, the student not only has saved tuition on a discipline that does not interest him or her, but also has avoided accumulating course hours that might or might not apply to a curriculum more suited to that student.

0-7803-5643-8/99/$10.00 © 1999 IEEE November 10 - 13, 1999 San Juan, Puerto Rico 29th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference 12a2-14

Session 12a2

Conclusions The ALN model developed for the graduate distance learning program in engineering at Texas Tech University • offers flexibility in scheduling to both students and faculty, • exploits the World Wide Web and the U. S. mail to avoid costly video links and wired classrooms, and • permits incremental development of learning materials that benefit symbiotically both on-campus and distance learners. These features allow application of the basic approach to non-traditional distance learners. High school teachers and their students, for example, can enroll in first year engineering courses as a student/mentor team. The experience can help students make the transition to studying engineering at the University and can help the high school teachers become more knowledgeable career counselors for high school students interested in pursuing engineering as a profession. The same features may allow more effective cooperation of liberal arts institutions and colleges of engineering in providing 3-2 dual degree programs. Cooperative master degree programs in engineering between such institutions are another possibility this model affords.

Acknowledgements We would like to thank the SBC CLEAR Project for implementing the Early Admissions Engineering Program, and Lubbock Independent School District and the LISD School Board for approving the EAEP Articulation Agreement between LISD and Texas Tech University.

References 1) The Introduction has been extracted and adapted, with permission from the publisher, from: Hagler, Marion O., and Marcy, William M., “Computer-aided Instruction,” in Webster, John G. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Vol. 3, pp. 648-668, Wiley, New York, 1999. 2) Hagler, Marion O., and Marcy, William M., “Strategies for Designing Engineering Courses,” J. Engr. Educ. Vol. 88, 1999, pp. 11-13.

0-7803-5643-8/99/$10.00 © 1999 IEEE November 10 - 13, 1999 San Juan, Puerto Rico 29th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference 12a2-15