UB enters distance learning area with two MFC telecourses

With the telecourses, MFC will revive a 1970s approach that is a "proven way of distributing education to the public," Lopos told the Faculty Senate Executive Committee at its Feb. 26 meeting.

The telecourses-one on nutrition that would be taught by Peter Horvath, assistant professor of nutrition and physiology, and one on the American cinema taught by Brian Henderson, professor of media study-would be televised on the Adelphia and TCI cable systems, he said.

While the courses would use "pre-produced" videos and some printed material and texts, Lopos said the UB instructors would review the material and "put the UB mark on it" by possibly changing the emphasis or providing additional material.

Students also would have access to the instructors via e-mail and telephone office hours, he said, and MFC would provide advising and other services.

In addition, MFC would host an on-campus orientation session and there might be an on-campus final exam.

The courses are designed for "the non-traditional, adult student who, because of work, family and other responsibilities, can't come to campus," Lopos said.

Fifty or 60 institutions around the country are successfully using telecourses, he said, adding that the research data has shown no significant difference in learning outcomes between telecourses and face-to-face, on-campus learning.

He admitted that telecourses "won't work for everybody. We have to work with the student to help him or her decide if it is compatible with their needs and learning styles," he said.

The telecourses are just one of several ways that MFC is approaching distance learning-or, as Lopos prefers to call it, "access learning:"

· MFC will take Project Connect-an elaborate and technologically sophisticated fiber-optic network that includes the new distance learning lab in Baldy Hall-on the road this summer to introduce people in the region to MFC and, "by extension, UB."

MFC will host live, interactive sessions, dubbed "dean's coffees," at sites throughout Western New York. During these sessions, MFC officials will discuss continuing-education and adult-education courses offered by the college using two-way audio and video communication.

"The idea is to get people to know who we are, that we're out in their neighborhood and they don't have to come to campus (to take a course at UB)," Lopos told senators.

MFC has identified three computing courses that will serve as a pilot project for an Asynchronous Learning Network (ALN). Lopos described ALN as "completely computer-mediated instruction" available anytime, anywhere.

Courses would be put on a server, and students would have access to materials whenever they wanted. They could talk to other students in "chat rooms," as well as link to other resources, Lopos said.

He noted that there are issues that the university must address that are unique to distance learning, including having flexibility in such university policies and procedures as "drop/add," and the imposition of certain fees.

"A student taking a course in their home in Hamburg should not be required to pay infirmary fees, parking fees....We tend to nickel and dime our nontraditional students to death," he said.

While the fees themselves may not amount to much money, they become a larger share of a student's cost if he is only taking one course at a charge of $500, he added.

"These are questions that need to be addressed if the institution is going to start talking about distance learning."