Distributed Learning: The Wheels are Turning

What an exciting time to be at the University of North Texas! I was brought on board in late September to fill the newly-created position of Distance Education Coordinator and I've barely had a chance to catch my breath from all the activity in distributed learning. I came from the University of Alabama System where I handled the daily administrative tasks of the Intercampus Interactive Telecommunication System (IITS), a state-wide teleconferencing network (www.iits.ua.edu/iits/). After 6 years of operation, the IITS had 25 sites and delivered 50 courses a year to participating institutions. By comparison, in its inaugural semester, UNT has nine courses scheduled via videoconference; by January, UNT will have five on-campus and three off-campus videoconferencing classrooms. It's amazing the speed at which the UNT distributed learning initiative has been mobilized.

Distributed Learning

For those unfamiliar with the term, distributed learning is defined by Turner (1):

Distributed learning occurs as a portion of the standard contact hours of a course and is an organized teaching/learning event that occurs outside of the physical presence of the teacher. Distributed learning is technology based and can be either synchronous (occurs at a specific time) or asynchronous (occurs at various times). The foundation of distributed learning is the matching of instructional strategies, delivery systems and materials to learner characteristics and course content.

There is no predetermined formula for what technologies, if any, to apply to a course. That decision remains with the faculty member. The goal at UNT is to provide the faculty with options for teaching and incentives for using technology.

Distributed Learning Team

The UNT Distance Education Task Force laid the groundwork over the last several years and now the torch has been passed on to the Distributed Learning Team, a new team formed to accomplish three main goals:

1. to design, implement and improve the technical infrastructure for distributive learning
2. to consult with faculty and provide the appropriate resources and training, and
3. to administer the technology effectively. The membership consists of experts from across the campus who are contributing their time and talent to tackle the challenges of distributed learning. The team is led by Dr. Phil Turner, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs for Distance Education, and consists of three subgroups: Technology Infrastructure, Faculty Support and Administration.

Technology Infrastructure

Most of the technical infrastructure for distributive learning is either already in place or being installed as this goes to print. CR Chevli, Computer Systems Manager, and Mark Withers, Media Services Technical Supervisor, form the core of the Technology Infrastructure Committee. CR has designed the video network and Mark has designed the videoconferencing classrooms. Both have worked closely with vendors to make sure that the project comes in on time and under budget. A related article in this issue of Benchmarks, "UNT Expands Options Via Videoconferencing" further describes the current development of UNT's video network. Although videoconferencing is receiving a lot of attention, Web-based computing is also continuing to grow at UNT and Mark Wilcox, Web Administrator, serves on the committee as an expert in this area.

Faculty Support

The Faculty Support Committee serves as a single contact point for faculty interested in using or expanding their use of distributed learning techniques. Faculty are provided with a consultant or "case worker" who will regularly meet with the faculty member, evaluate their course needs, and coordinate the necessary support including instructional design, library reserves, videoconferencing tips, copyright information, web-based training, etc. Representatives from the library (Sue Byron, Sue Parks, Sharon Almquist, Mark Dolive), Academic Computing (Dr. Maurice Leatherbury, Jenny Jopling, Joey Hoffmann, Sharon Marek, Mark Wilcox), the College of Education (Dr. Jim Poirot) and Academic Affairs (Dr. Phil Turner, Patrick Pluscht) meet on a regular basis to discuss faculty support issues and to work collaboratively on individual faculty cases. Training on topics such as PowerPoint, web-authoring and multimedia design is available now through short courses offered by Academic Computing, but the team will introduce a distributed learning curriculum in the spring which Jenny Jopling describes in the related article, "Distribute and Learn It!"

Administration

The Administration Committee is perhaps the most amorphous branch of the Distributed Learning Team because it draws on the creative talents of UNT's top administrators in the Registrar's Office, Admissions, Marketing, Financial Aid, Budgeting, Legal Counsel, Libraries, Computing and Academic Affairs. These are the people tasked with the hard questions like how do you get approval for distance learning courses? how do we admit and register off-campus students and how do they purchase books or get computer access? As we meet individually with these representatives, the answers we often get are in the vein of "we've never encountered this issue before" followed by "but we'll find a way to make it happen." That's the spirit that makes UNT an exciting place to be right now and I'm glad to be a part of it.

Keeping in Touch

If you are a faculty member considering using distributive learning or you would simply like some more information, please contact me at 565-4936 or check out the Distributed Learning Homepage (www.unt.edu/dlearn/) maintained by Jenny Jopling.

1. Turner, P.M. "Library and information studies education in the age of connectivity." Texas Library Journal, 1996, 72(4), pp. 172-174.

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