Don't leave home with it

The techno-hermit's guide to higher education

by Mike Miliard

"Beam me up, Scotty."

Pretty soon, you'll be teleporting to class.

Well, not really. But close. As the booming economy gives more and more people the money they need to pursue their dreams, they're heading back to school to get the GED or MBA or PhD they've always wanted. Even when they have a little extra cash to spend, however, many are discovering that there is still a major obstacle to continuing education: time. After a hard week's work, it feels as if those three hours spent in a college classroom would be put to much better use playing with the kids or walking the dog or just holing up at home. Happily, technology has stepped in. It's now possible to take courses on everything from finance to Fitzgerald, all without leaving your computer.

These days, all those forms of technology they make cool, expensive-looking TV commercials about -- the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms, satellite uplinks -- are conspiring to make it easier and more productive for you to do your learning from a distance. According to the International Data Corporation's study "Online Distance Learning and Higher Education, 1998-2000," 710,000 students were enrolled in Web-based distance-learning classes in 1996. By 2002, there are predicted to be 2.2 million enrollees.

People in Boston are paying attention to these numbers. The locally based International Center for Distance Learning, for example, has become one of the leading players in this fast-growing industry. Both Harvard and Northeastern have made moves to establish Web-based courses as important parts of their curricula. Even local public television has gotten in on the act.

Distance learning is nothing new. Correspondence schools became popular way back in the 19th century (they didn't even have broadband then!). You'd get your course packet in the mail. You'd do the reading and fill out your answers. You'd drop them in the post and wait weeks for your grade, never setting eyes on your instructor. Clearly, there was room for improvement.

Fast forward 90 years. In the early '80s, several local schools began broadcasting telecourses in collaboration with Boston public TV station WGBH. Participants would watch pre-recorded classroom lectures at one of two or three times during the week, do additional readings, take quizzes, and mail them to the instructor. These telecourses were better than the correspondence schools of old, but the time lapse in communication between teacher and student still made them less than ideal.

Now 'GBH has done the telecourse one better. Last fall the station introduced what it's calling the teleWEBcourse. Of the 16 area schools that offer telecourses, Bridgewater State, Fitchburg State, and Northern Essex Community College are the first to offer this Web-based version. Thomas Mickey, a professor of communication studies at Bridgewater State, recalls the most recent teleWEBcourse he taught. "It had two components. WGBH's educational channel [44] showed 12 programs dealing with the introduction to business communication. The last series was by a professor in LA. Students could view it on Wednesday or Saturday. Then there was a Web site devoted to the course where the student was asked questions, took the exams, and got the assignments, which were then e-mailed to me."

Sounds great, but keeping your distance isn't always the best way to learn, Mickey found. "[The class] did meet a couple times," he says. "People still needed some human contact. When you're working with a group, the way that you measure your own performance is by complaining to others about how much work it is and how far along you are. It motivates you. . . . Unless you're highly disciplined, you'll have a hard time with the course."

Indeed, Mickey says that over the course of the semester he lost a couple of students who just didn't have the motivation to keep up with the work. Most students, however, found the courses an extremely convenient, and even exciting, way to learn. "I loved it," says Bridgewater State student Amy Birdsall Harrington, one of Mickey's students. "I had just had a baby, and I was able to complete the class from home. The only disadvantage I saw was that you didn't get the student/teacher interaction. There wasn't a lot of feedback." Still, Birdsall Harrington thinks the teleWEBcourse might have been even more fulfilling than a course taught in a classroom. "I think I learned more because you're looking at different styles of learning," she says. "You write compositions and watch video and comment on an [online] discussion board and view other people's comments." She does caution, however, that teleWEBcourses are not for the neophyte. "You have to be an experienced student," she says. "I wouldn't recommend it for people coming back to school after many years, or for freshmen."

Jim Gregory, a professor of history at the University of Washington, sees the value of some types of distance learning, but urges caution lest colleges and students get too swept up in the novelty and technological razzle-dazzle of it all. "I think it needs to be handled with care," he says. "Some of what's being done is quite inventive and of value, particularly for students who for whatever reason can't participate in the classroom. What I'm very worried about is policymakers falling over themselves to invest in unproven distance learning that they hope will increase access and save money. The likelihood is that it will do neither of those things."

Gregory also cites the same concerns voiced by Mickey and Birdsall Harrington: there's no social interaction, there's no direct feedback from a professor, and the discipline provided by physically being in a classroom is missing. "It's no shortcut to anything," he says. "It's probably tougher on students . . . and it's tougher on teachers. I don't understand why people don't realize that it's much more efficient to hold a discussion orally than to hold one digitally. Those chat rooms are fine for six or seven people, but once you get past 20 it's a very awkward form of communication." Nevertheless, Gregory believes that, in some form or another, long-distance learning is probably going to remain a permanent part of the educational system.

So do a lot of other people. Case in point: Boston-based International Center for Distance Learning. Just a little more than a year old, the firm has jetted to the forefront of the fast-growing distance-learning industry.

ICDL functions as a sort of distance-learning clearinghouse, extending the opportunity to participate in online courses to anyone in the world. From the ICDL Web site (www.collegelearning.com), an interested scholar can check out the distance-learning courses offered by hundreds of US colleges (ICDL recently added another 250 schools to its client base). Find an interesting offering? Register right through the ICDL Web site. Of course, the college has to decide whether to accept you -- you'll be notified as to its decision via e-mail within 30 days. Then send ICDL a check for the course tuition (marked up slightly by the firm to cover administration costs) and you're all set. For $802.50, for instance, you could register for "Global Environmental Change" at Thomas Edison State College in Trenton, New Jersey. What do you need in order to participate? According to the course synopsis available on the ICDL Web site: "Netscape 4.0 or Internet Explorer 4.0 browser and ability to send and receive Internet mail." Yup, that's it.

Says Jill Christensen, the editor of ICDL's brand-new Distance Learning Magazine, this sort of course offers impressive benefits. "It makes education available to anybody in the world. Our Web site has been visited by people from Pakistan, Croatia, Russia. It gives international students the chance to get an American education," she says. The benefits are reaped closer to home as well: "It's great for people who work full time and don't have the time to go to school during the day or even take night classes. You can work from home, don't have to drive. People with physical disabilities can do it from their own computers. . . . Also, a lot of businesses are getting into distance learning. Instead of spending thousands of dollars to send people to Milwaukee for an HR seminar, they can send their employees to their computers for an hour." And Christensen is quick to point out that you don't even really need a reason to take advantage of ICDL's course offerings. "People are interested in doing something for their own interest. It doesn't have to be for college credit or a degree."

Christensen sums up the beauty of it. Just as the Web at large has fundamentally altered modern communication, breaking down previously held divisions, so has Internet-based distance learning provided opportunities for everyone with a computer, no matter their circumstances, work schedule, or educational experience. And, by the looks of things, the trend is only going to continue.

The technology used to access knowledge will be changing radically too, it seems. Bruce Schwegler, who's vice-president of network development at ICDL and is working tirelessly to establish satellite content for many of the firm's clients, sees a boundless technological horizon: "I'd like to incorporate virtual reality into the ICDL. Pretty soon, you'll wear a pair of modish sunglasses, and you'll be sitting in the classroom. Turn around and you'll be looking at other students. It will put you into the experience." Or, more succinctly, he says, "Bits and bytes instead of bricks and mortar."

Of course, virtual education will never supplant the verdant quads and hallowed halls of academia. But it makes a pretty good supplement to them. "This is probably the future of education," says Birdsall Harrington.

Would she ever take an online class again?

"Definitely."

Mike Miliard can be reached at mmiliard[a]phx.com.