Slide 1:
Hello again, and welcome to COM 333, Communicating through Internet.  Today - lecture number 11, “Online Higher Education and the Internet.”

Slide 2:
Well, there’s a mini-revolution going on in academe - as we call it, the academy.  And this revolution involves delivering courses and entire degree programs, as we’re well aware of, through the Internet.  It seems to be focused largely at first toward niche audiences - that is, special groups of people that can be identified that otherwise have not previously had ready access to the Internet.  This is characterized by extensive competition and an uncertain future for higher education.  The entry into higher ed by for-profit universities, for really the first time on this scale certainly, in higher ed.  There are questions about the quality of education and about interaction with students.  And many of these issues we’ve already confronted in this class.  So I think we have an interesting perspective on some of the topics we’ll be discussing today.

Slide 3:
Well, this revolution taking place in higher education perhaps traces it’s roots all the way back to Socrates, Plato -- you know the Socratic method, Socrates, in fact even, [was] critical of books.  The Socratic method is a way of teaching using questioning and Socrates saw that scribes, of course long, long before the printing press, scribes writing out books and making them available to students, might detract from the creative and critical thinking of students; that is, if we put the thinking in books, what will we ask the students to do?  And so even those thousands of years ago, there was a very question, a serious question, about the use of media in facilitating the delivery of information and the acquisition of learning.  Well, five hundred years ago the printing press became available and a huge revolution took place - and it’s hard to imagine society now without print; that is, without books, magazines, printed material, memos, all kinds of a variety of printed material.  Certainly it’s hard to imagine the university without textbooks… a university without libraries, in the sense of those printed available books.  Well, over time and certainly earlier in this century, television and radio, and compressed video became available and television was used early in the 19…, well, in the mid part of this century to deliver courses.  You know Sunrise Semesters, some of you might remember, perhaps not, but in any event, it’s, it was the delivery, initially by WNET, of online classes that were aired over public television stations - back then called educational television stations - at 6:00 a.m.  And radio stations for a long time have offered courses either on their main band or on the side-band sub carrier.  And compressed video -- perhaps some of you have participated in classes that were kind of a closed-circuit videoconference for students at a distance to take a class.  Then along comes the Internet in the 1990’s and yet another medium for delivering material.  But this, this medium seems different.  It has components of each of the above.  It has video, there’s potential for video.  Radio, or audio just like we’re experiencing at this very moment.  But it’s a two-way medium.  Television and radio were not.  Television and radio were largely one way, with the delayed response from the student.  Compressed video did allow two-way among certain groups of students, but certainly, one couldn’t cover a country, or reach international audiences using compressed video.

Slide 4:
Niche audiences.  Higher education to date has not reached, fully reached, professionals.  You know, K-12 education is out there and reaches almost everybody, but higher education, in fact, has not reached those professionals who are employed, who work a full day, perhaps have a family, etc., and are not available to move in residence onto a campus to take courses.  And travelers, those persons who are always on the move, flying to the orient and flying to Europe and elsewhere.  Always on the move, to Africa and Asia, those professionals just weren’t available on a regular time schedule to take a class on Wednesdays and Fridays, or Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays, etc.  And then the rural users, those persons who had to tend to the farm and who had these kind of cyclical responsibilities that cut into each semester and kept these persons from pursuing higher education.  Family heads, those who had responsibilities for children and those obligations, either because of the expense of childcare, or time demands, or other special requirements, were not as available.  And relatively few international campuses have been built.  There are some, but relatively few.  So for a college or university to reach a truly international audience, it was relatively rare.  And I think we can look at these audiences in two contexts.  One is place-bound -- that is, individuals who for one reason or another could not easily leave their community, and there was not access to higher education in their physical community -- and those that were time bound -- those who had time restrictions that did not allow them to access material or to access courses elsewhere.

Slide 5:
Well, competition is certainly a key word when we talk about higher education online.  And the scenario is this -- what if Harvard moved, all of a sudden, in overnight, or one semester moved to your state and, in fact, right to your town.  Well, right now, of course, MIT, Stanford, U of I, the University of Michigan, and on, and on, and on.  And hundreds and hundreds of universities have in fact done that, just that.  They are at your town, they are available online -- a local call to an Internet service provider and there you are taking a class from Harvard, or from Stanford, or many of those hundreds of universities that are available online.  A notable new entry into the field, still relatively small, is Jones International University.  Important because (1) it’s entirely online, does not offer any classes at a physical location, and (2) it is a for-profit university.  And it also (3) has full North Central Association accreditation -- a fully accredited university, entirely online.  Much of the impact of this competition has not taken place at the baccalaureate level -rather it tends to be at the master’s level, at the M.A., M.S. level, less so at the doctoral level, although applied doctorates are offered over the Internet, more so than the Ph.D.

Slide 6:
For profit universities…  Again this is a relatively new phenomenon that has been certainly accelerated, if not entirely initiated, by the advent of the Internet.  The University of Phoenix is one of the largest private universities in the world, private universities.  It’s a for-profit university.  They’re in the business to make money.  And it’s online initiative is really the bulk of its offering.  There are online courses available all over the world and certainly its taken advantage of by many, many corporations and many, many professionals.  What’s happening with these for-profit universities is that they’re bringing business practices to higher education and, let me tell you, from personal experience, that really is a kind of revolution.  They’re bringing concepts of efficiency, of productivity; they’re putting the emphasis on the product, not on the place.  The emphasis is on what’s delivered to the student.  And in many cases, they hire adjunct faculty from traditional universities.  Sometimes this is considered raiding; that is, they take the very universities they are competing with and hire their faculty on a per-course basis and have those faculty members, while they might reside at a prestigious traditional university, pay them several thousand dollars to deliver a course online without actually leaving their home campus, but delivering it online for the for-profit university.

Slide 7:
Well, questions have been raised about the quality of education and certainly the future of higher education.  There’s a seminal study in this area by Zemsky and Massey.  It’s one that takes a look at the scenario of what online education is going to… how it’s going to impact higher ed.  Actually, the study published in 1995, came up with the concept that products will become valued over producers.  You see, for so much of this century, it’s the producers, it’s the name of the institution, a degree from the University of Illinois, a degree from Harvard, or from Stanford, or Yale, or whatever, was valued very highly.  But now it seems that there’s a shift.  A shift to the product - that is, to get an M.B.A. is valued highly.  To get a degree, whether or not it be from a prestigious university, to get that degree is really what is gaining more value.  Zemsky and Massey conjectured that liberal arts colleges would be less affected than the large research institutions.  In their theory, the liberal arts colleges will always be in demand for the 18-year old high school graduates - you know, with the idea that those students want an on-campus experience.  They want to live on campus.  They want to interact with other students their age.  They’re looking forward to the social life, to the intellectual life, to those kinds of rich environments that are created around a college campus.  But the large research institutions, where we have graduate schools, where many of the students are in graduate study, may in fact have a shake-out because the tuition generated by those graduate students may go away, or go away in part, due to the competition from online universities.  And the efficiency that’s provided by these either for-profit universities, and certainly the for-profit online universities, will appeal to legislatures who will see that this is an opportunity perhaps to reduce costs, although it certainly hasn’t been shown that it’s less expensive to deliver online, but in any event, there seems to be that lure nevertheless.  And taxpayers will see it if there’s a potential to reduce higher education costs and certainly tuition payers.  If it were less expensive to pay tuition at an online university, that would have some appeal.  Or even if it were not less expensive, but one did not have it to pay for the commute, for the parking, for childcare while one is traveling to take a class, those kinds of economies would certainly have some appeal to a segment of those students who might potentially take classes.

Slide 8: Well, what price is paid by delivering online?  Does one lose the campus environment?  To what extent?  And is interaction lost?  You know, as we look at the WebBoard we’ve seen some interaction.  It’s really up to you to compare that to the interaction which you’ve experienced inside classrooms, but the student-to-student interaction, the student-to-faculty, faculty-to-student interaction.  What other losses are there by delivering courses on line?  And it is inevitable that we have losses?  Or are there ways to address those potential losses through this technology of the Internet?

Slide 9:
Well, in conclusion, there’s a huge revolution taking place.  Some universities in fact may suffer significant losses due to that competition.  Some may in fact shut down.  Many new universities have sprung up online, including those for-profit universities.  It’s up to you to decide whether there is quality, whether there is quality in online education, what you see as the potential for online education, and the desirability of taking a degree in this kind of asynchronous format, the flexibility that we deal with every week in this class of not all having to come on Tuesday nights to take a class, or Thursday, or Wednesday, or whatever, but rather choosing your own time, day or night, to listen to this lecture, and to participate in the WebBoard, and to visit the many web sites.  So, I look forward to our discussion on the WebBoard, make sure you check in there.  By the way, I did put up some information.  Some links regarding the Melissa virus, I’ll leave those up this week so that you can see CERT.  Remember it’s one of our glossary terms - I think the “Computer Emergency Response Team”.  CERT and their listing, rather their citation, on the Melissa virus and you may find that of interest.  Well, in any event, have a good week and we’ll catch you on the Internet.