Distance Learning: When The Classroom is Your Living Room

The University of Cincinnati is featured in a new report on distance learning in Ohio. The Ohio Learning Network reports that in fall of 2004, the state gained more than 10,000 more distance learning students than the previous year. UC’s growth in distance learning, both in its number of students and variety of programs, is contributing to that statewide growth.

As of autumn 2005, UC’s Office of Institutional Research counted 1,031 students enrolled in an undergraduate degree program offered through distance learning, and 906 of UC’s distance learners pursuing graduate degrees -- a total of 1,937. That's a 200-percent increase in just the past two years.

Over the five-year period from fall 2000 to fall 2005, UC’s Office of Institutional Research reports students enrolled in UC distance-learning degree programs jumped from just over 200 to nearly 2000.

UC Students Enrolled in Distance Learning Degree Programs

• Autumn 2000 – 213 students
• Autumn 2001 – 245 students
• Autumn 2002 – 386 students
• Autumn 2003 – 642 students
• Autumn 2004 – 1,213 students
• Autumn 2005 – 1,937 students

The University of Cincinnati Criminal Justice program has the largest number of students enrolled in a UC distance-learning program, with 599 students in fall 2005.

UC’s growth in distance learning reflects a national trend as well. In a Sloan Consortium survey of more than 1,000 of the nation’s higher education institutions, the report found that 65 percent of those schools offering graduate courses in the classroom also offered graduate courses online, and 63 percent of schools offering classroom undergrad courses provided undergraduate courses online. The 2005 report, Growing by Degrees – Online Education in the United States – also found that the percentage of institutions that considered online education a critical long-term strategy grew from 49 percent in 2003 to 56 percent in 2005.

“As part of our UC|21 Strategic Plan that defines the new urban university, distance learning is among the growing list of options that provide opportunities for students,” says Anthony J. Perzigian, UC Senior Vice President and Provost for Baccalaureate and Graduate Education. “Through UC’s high-quality distance learning programs, the university continues to achieve academic excellence while meeting student expectations for convenience and flexibility.

“Furthermore, distance learning enables UC to reach new markets, to expand the reach of its degree programs and to enhance its competitive edge in the rapidly evolving world of higher education,” says Perzigian.

UC’s first distance-learning program came about more than 20 years ago when the College of Applied Science pioneered the Open Learning Fire Science program through correspondence courses in 1984. Now providing instruction through the Web and E-mail correspondence, the program reported 95 students enrolled last fall.

The University of Cincinnati now offers a total of 14 distance learning degree programs spanning six different colleges, and the majority of those programs came online within the past five years.

The majority of UC’s istance learning programs are delivered online. A total of 10 colleges offer some form of distance learning, whether it’s a degree program, certificate program, or individual courses.

Click here for colleges that offer degrees through distance learning

Examples of UC Colleges Growing With Distance Learning

• College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services:  As part of its UC|21 strategies to achieve academic excellence, build relationships and partnerships, and create opportunity, Dean Lawrence J. Johnson says the College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services aims to increase enrollment in existing distance learning programs by 10 percent in each of the next five years, as well as create a new program per year, enrolling 500 new degree-seeking distance learning students over a five-year period. Get details on where DL programs are growing in the college.
• College of Allied Health Sciences:
  Associate Dean Gilbert Hageman says the college is “bursting at the seams” with students filling the classrooms, and says distance learning will continue to grow and address the goals of UC|21.
  Get more details on where distance learning is offered.
• College of Nursing
  The college launched distance-learning options for two of its master’s of science nursing specialties last fall.
  Get more details on distance learning  in the College of Nursing.

UC’s Distance-Learning Technologies

The majority of UC’s distance-learning programs are taught online and access their syllabi, course information, chat sessions with fellow students, discussion boards, resource center, online testing and grading and more through an interactive course management system called Blackboard.
Learn more about Blackboard and other UC methods of distance learning.

Student Profile of UC’s Distance Learners

The majority of UC’s students in distance learning degree programs are part-time. As of autumn 2005, there were 95 UC distance-learning students taking full-time class loads and 1,842 taking classes part time. Their average age is 35. More than 66 percent are female; 65 percent are Caucasian and 14 percent are African-American. Students in UC’s distance learning programs of study originate from all 50 states, as well as the armed forces in Europe and the Pacific. They also originate from more than 20 countries. The highest number of international students, 30, report they’re Canadian citizens.
(Source: Office of Institutional Research)

The Distance-Learning Student: A Matter of Convenience

Considering that the average age of the UC distance learner is 35, it’s likely they’re juggling a college work load around a full-time job and a full-time family. Ann Millacci, assistant professor and coordinator of the CECH educational leadership distance learning program, says the majority of her students, for example, are working as full-time teachers. “Our exit interviews show students like the flexibility of the program, because they can do their school work late at night or on weekends, after work and when the kids have gone to bed. Their schedules made it too difficult for them to take courses on a physical campus.”

36-year-old Ligia Hendrie is one example of a UC distance learner with a packed schedule. She’s one of the students enrolled in the Spanish ECLC program. A mother of three, she works at a Head Start Center in Watertown, NY. She says she moved to New York from El Salvador six years ago and became a UC distance learner to become a better teacher and fulfill her job requirements. “It’s very convenient to be able to study at home, and I don’t need to take the time off from work (to travel to a physical classroom),” she says. “Plus, my school work does not take me away from my family. I can watch my class right in my living room with my children.”

Angie Butcher of Wellston, Ohio, is a 2004 associate degree graduate of the ECLC who is now pursuing her bachelor’s degree through the UC distance-learning program. She first started in the program because as an employee in a Head Start center, federal requirements mandated her degree. “I had a husband, two boys and a job. The college that’s closest to my home is 40 miles away and that drive would have added more hours on being away from home.”

Butcher was one of the program’s distance-learning pioneers when it launched in 2000. “Did it take me longer than two years to attain my associate’s degree? Yes it did. Why? Because I chose to take it slow and never felt pressured to take more classes than I could handle in one quarter.”

The Distance-Learning Workload: A Matter of Discipline

While many students would agree that distance learning is more convenient than the traditional classroom that does not mean it’s less work. In fact, some would say distance learning involves even more work as well as discipline when there’s not a set schedule like the traditional classroom. A survey from the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost for Baccalaureate and Graduate Education found that UC’s distance learners generally believed that in order to be successful, students:

• Needed to be self-starters to keep up with the workload
• Needed to be organized and have strong time management skills
• Needed to be willing to learn technical skills to navigate online learning
• Needed to be goal-oriented

Nicole Loseto, a mother of an eight-year-old and a six-year-old, earned her UC master’s degree in educational leadership while working as a teacher in an elementary school in Brooklyn, N.Y. She was among the first in the cohort of 22 students to graduate from the program in summer 2005. Yes, there was a convenience factor to online learning, she says, plus, she could work at her own pace. “But there was a lot of reading and research involved, and I needed to gauge well into the week ahead to plan time to do both.

“I thought the volume of work was a lot greater than when I obtained my master’s of science degree in education at a college in New York,” Loseto says. “I was researching more online articles and reports for the UC degree, and using technology on a regular basis. In addition to the regular workload, the asynchronous discussions with fellow students online were a lot different than the discussions held in the classroom. Online, you have to detail your point of view in writing, which took more careful thought and was more time-consuming. You also have to be careful of your submissions and responses to make sure that your intended meaning is clear. Online participation is a critical component as well.”

Plus, Loseto says that if potential students believe they can do all of their work in their pajamas, they’re wrong. Loseto was required to document her administrative internship in a New York school during the last year of her distance learning UC program. “I documented journal entries every day and kept a log of my hours served in the internship. The daily professional field experience alone, with my mentor’s help, could take up to two hours a day.”

“Distance learning is not any easier than the traditional classroom, nor does distance learning negate from the quality of a University of Cincinnati degree,” says Brenda Smith, adjunct instructor and program coordinator for the UC Addiction Studies program. “Some people mistakenly believe that distance learning lessens the integrity of a college degree, but it’s the same UC degree that our students are earning when they come to the classroom.”

Loseto adds that UC became her choice for distance learning because she was seeking a nationally accredited degree, and she says she found what fit her needs after researching the UC online degree in educational leadership, as well as researching the college and its mission.

The Faculty Perspective

Faculty development for distance learning is supported by the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost for Baccalaureate and Graduate Education, resource centers in University Libraries and Medical Libraries, the Faculty Technology Resources Center (FTRC), which provides consulting and technological tools for faculty developing distance learning courses, and the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CET&L), which started with a Web site and became a physical presence on campus when it opened in Zimmer Hall in 2002 and which is now housed in Langsam Library.

Faculty have also explored distance learning through workshops sponsored by the FTRC and the CET&L as well as their individual colleges. “When faculty have individualized questions or challenges, we can provide them with an individualized set of resources,” says Wayne Hall, vice provost for faculty development. Hall adds that developing a distance learning course typically involves a certain up-front time commitment from faculty members as they build their own expertise with the technology.

Melody Clark, UC academic director for distance learning, says the "distance-learning environment provides an opportunity to think through all aspects of instructional design and how best to meet teaching and learning goals and objectives, from practical considerations of designing effective instruction in the context of emerging technologies to analyzing teaching-learning behaviors in this new environment."

Eugene Rutz, director of the ACCEND program in the College of Engineering, adds that the more individualized attention to distance learning students requires a greater time commitment than the physical classroom. “In a classroom, there’s one person who is teaching in front of many students. In that one hour, the teaching, dialogue and questions are all handled. But for distance learners, there may be one student who’s in class at 2 a.m. and another taking class over the Internet in the afternoon. Discussions and questions need to be managed so that instructors use time wisely. This can be accomplished through discussion boards, posting frequently asked questions for all to see and using teaching assistants to answer ‘generic’ e-mail for large enrollment courses.”

Rutz adds that he feels developing distance learning courses has enhanced his skills in the traditional classroom. “When you’re developing a course for distance learning, you pay a lot of attention to presentation. You want to take the materials and make it engaging for the student who is taking courses online. Those enhanced presentation skills can also make your classroom presentations more engaging.”

Michael Lively, information technology analyst for the FTRC, says UC is now becoming a national pioneer in designing re-usable Web templates to set up distance learning programs, which will remove a considerable portion of the time needed to set up a course. The FTRC, working in conjunction with the CET&L is now in the process of copyrighting the design.

The Physical Campus

If they all had a square mile to claim as their classroom, the Ohio Learning Network reports that Ohio’s 37, 421 e-learners would nearly fill the state’s 40,000 square miles. Adding up all the campuses that make UC, there’s 12,730,176 square feet. Provost Anthony Perzigian says that the virtual classroom will not bring an end to the brick-and-mortar campus that celebrated rising enrollment this year and is completing construction of the MainStreet corridor that blends campus life with learning. 

“UC prides itself on its comprehensive system of learning and research while also maintaining a commitment to an accessible and affordable education. UC has a long history of providing credit and non-credit courses in nontraditional formats, including evening and weekend classes. As part of UC|21, distance learning is a growing part of the mix of options from which individuals can choose,” says Perzigian.

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