eLearning: The Impact of the Internet on Higher Education

1
e-Learning The Impact of the Internet on Higher
Education
Prof. Burks Oakley II Associate Vice President
for Academic Affairs Director of U of I
Online University of Illinois 12 March 2001
2
Moores Law
1987 Cray-1 Cost 8,000,000 60,000 watts of
power
1997 Nintendo 64 Cost 149
5 watts of power 3.5 x as many
additions/sec.
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Effect of Exponential Doubling
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Exponential Growth
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Three Revolutions in Higher Education

• Land-Grant College Act of 1862 (Morrill Act)
• Community colleges Illinois Junior College
  Act of 1965
• The Internet the personal computer (PC) World
  Wide Web Mosaic browser 1993

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Enabling Technologies

• Ubiquitous personal computers with Internet
  access
• World Wide Web browsers (Mosaic, Netscape,
  Internet Explorer)
• Asynchronous synchronous conferencing
• Streaming media (audio, video)
• Course management systems (Blackboard)

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What can the Internet provide?

• Access to learning opportunities
• Interactive course materials
• Simulations, multimedia, visualization
• Homework and quizzes
• Access to people
• Subject matter experts (faculty, TAs)
• Other students (peer-peer group interactions)

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The Internet provides new access to learning

• Any time, any place
• Site independent learning (distance education)
  through courses that are delivered largely or
  entirely online
• University resources now accessed online by
  place-bound and time-restricted individuals

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What are we doing?

• In 1997, the Vice President for Academic Affairs
  implemented the University of Illinois Online
  initiative

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What is U of I Online?

• Outward looking
• A Web site and online catalogue that provide
  access to online versions of some of our
  on-campus academic programs
• Inward looking
• A service unit that assists the campuses with
  their online programs

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U of I Online Programs

• Primary focus on continuing education and
  masters degree programs
• Well-defined market
• Self-motivated, focused, sophisticated learners
• Address the needs of underserved citizens of the
  State of Illinois (and beyond)
• Deliver programs in high demand

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U of I Online Degree Programs

• B.A. in Liberal Studies
• M.S. in Engineering (Electrical, Mechanical,
  Computer Science), M.I.S., Library and
  Information Science
• Master of Engineering (M.Eng.)
• M.Ed. in Education (3 fields)
• Master of Health Professions Education
• Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.)

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U of I Online Certificate Programs

• Financial Engineering
• French Translation
• Graduate Medical Education
• Continuing Medical Education
• Career/Employment Specialist
• School Nurse Nurse Practitioner
• Health Informatics
• Public Health

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UIUC Library and Information Science

• Online version of on-campus MS degree
• Began with 31 students in Fall 1996
• From as far away as Alaska and Vermont
• Average age was 41 years old
• Currently 134 students enrolled (one-third
  in-state, two-thirds out-of-state)
• 122 students have completed MS degree

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UIUC Library and Information Science

• Scott Kiefer, from Fairbanks, Alaska, was able to
  have a new career as a librarian by earning his
  master's degree from UIUC online, without having
  to move from his beloved state

Photo from the PBS documentary netLearning,
September 1998
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UIUC Library and Information Science

• Students have enrolled from Illinois and 41 other
  states, Virgin Islands, DC, Canada, France,
  Colombia, Japan, and Thailand
• More than one-third of the students in the entire
  MS degree program are enrolled in the online
  version, which is accredited by the ALA

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Virtual UI-Springfield

• Spring 1999 14 online courses, 205 course
  enrollments
• Spring 2000 30 online courses, 567 course
  enrollments
• Spring 2001 44 online courses, 58 sections,
  800 course enrollments, gt10 of all credits
  generated via online courses
• 160 FTE faculty at UIS

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Growth of U of I Online

• 1997-98 68 online courses, 1300 course
  enrollments
• 1998-99 155 online courses, 2800 course
  enrollments
• 1999-2000 300 online courses, gt6000 course
  enrollments
• Our internal target for 2001-02 is 10,000 course
  enrollments

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Recent Research Studies

• On-Line Education Learning Effectiveness and
  Faculty Satisfaction, John Bourne, editor, The
  Center for Asynchronous Learning Networks, 2000.
• Online Education, Volume II Learning
  Effectiveness, Faculty Satisfaction, and Cost
  Effectiveness, John Bourne, editor, The Center
  for Asynchronous Learning Networks, 2001.
• Educause NLII 2001 conference

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Faculty Satisfaction

• Its all about interaction.
• The Sloan research studies emphasize that
  interaction is the key to faculty satisfaction
  both the amount of interaction that faculty have
  with their online students and the quality of
  interaction are important
• To paraphrase Gov. Clinton in 1992 - Its the
  interaction, stupid.

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Research Study

• University of Central Florida
• Joel Hartman, Vice Provost, Information
  Technologies Resources
• Barbara Truman-Davis, Director of Course
  Development Web Services
• Presented at Educause NLII Conference, New
  Orleans, LA, January 2001

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Time to develop an online course as compared with
a comparable face-to-face section
More work
56
29
10
Equal to or less than
2
2
N 48 faculty
23
Time in administration activities for an online
course as compared with a comparable face-to-face
section
38
More work
44
19
Equal to or less than
N 48 faculty
24
Time in course delivery activities for an online
course as compared with a comparable face-to-face
section
13
More work
26
15
Equal to or less than
28
19
N 47 faculty
25
Amount of interaction in an online class compared
with a comparable face-to-face section
48
More
17
19
Equal to or less than
6
10
N 48 faculty
26
Quality of interaction in an online class
compared with a comparable face-to-face section
More
40
21
15
Equal to or less than
19
6
N 48 faculty
27
Faculty satisfaction in an online class compared
with a comparable face-to-face section
44
Positive
35
15
Neutral or negative
4
N 48 faculty
28
Faculty willingness to teach an online course in
the future
63
Positive
20
14
Neutral or negative
2
2
N 59 faculty
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Relationships of faculty satisfaction with class
interaction and workload
Variable Tau-b Amount of interaction 0.66 Quality
of interaction 0.73 Time to develop -0.21 Time
to administer -0.08 Time to deliver -0.06
p lt 0.05
N 48 faculty
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e-Learning The Impact of the Internet on Higher
Education
Prof. Burks Oakley II University of Illinois Web
http//www.online.uillinois.edu/oakley/ E-mail
oakley_at_uic.edu