University of Arkansas Faculty Provide More Online Classes for Fall 2010

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas faculty will offer more than 125 online classes in the fall 2010 semester.

Faculty from all of the colleges and schools across campus teamed with instructional designers from the university’s Information Technology Services and the School of Continuing Education and Academic Outreach, also called Global Campus, to provide Web-based versions of classes that were once available only in classrooms.

The university recently implemented a campuswide learning management system, Blackboard 9.1, to provide students with a uniform learning experience and promote cost-effective collaboration among different university units to expand online education. This move comes as the university predicts a record enrollment of more than 20,700 students.

“The Global Campus has enhanced its partnering with campus colleges and schools, as well as University Information Technology Services, to be able to better meet the needs of students on-campus, across Arkansas, and around the world,” Provost Sharon Gaber said.

Instructional designers for University Information Technology Services worked with faculty from the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences to develop online versions of eight core courses to be offered in the fall semester. The faculty and designers plan to add four more core courses to their online inventory each spring and fall semester.

The expansion of online core courses comes in addition to other online courses and distance education offerings already available at Fulbright College; the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences; the College of Education and Health Professions; the Sam M. Walton College of Business; the College of Engineering; the Fay Jones School of Architecture; and the School of Law.

Colleges and schools will offer 119 online sections – most of which are connected with online degree programs for off-campus students – through the Global Campus in fall 2010. There are almost 200 courses in the Global Campus online inventory, but not all are offered every semester.

Nine of 16 new sections for distance education students were added in fall 2010 through a development grants initiative launched by Global Campus in fall 2009. A total of 19 faculty members from Bumpers College, the College of Education and Health Professions, Fulbright College, and the Fay Jones School of Architecture responded with 35 course proposals that are slated for development in stages through 2012.

Colleges, schools and support units, in collaboration with the Global Campus, offer 19 distance education degree programs, more than 95 independent study courses using paper and Web-based correspondence, and face-to-face courses at the Global Campus facility in Rogers. The College of Engineering also offers a Master of Science in Operations Management via classes off campus, on campus and online.

The Global Campus began developing online courses in 2000 as a part of its ongoing commitment to provide distance education offerings to students challenged by geographical distances or personal obligations.

“We are excited by the tremendous response of faculty members to the call to expand online course offerings,” said Pauline Rankin, interim dean of the Global Campus. “These faculty members have embraced the future and are committed to extending quality educational programs to students across the state and around the globe. They have conquered limitations set by geography and time to see the academic possibilities emerging through advancements in distance education technology.”

Michael Collie, a University of Arkansas faculty member with almost 30 years of experience in social work dove into online education in spring 2010 by working with Kwesi Tandoh, a Global Campus instructional designer, to develop his first two online courses. They developed two more this summer.

“My experience with the Global Campus was just wonderful,” Collie said. “They have treated me like family over there. The technology is amazing as far as creating class dynamics.”

Collie said online education is the best way to help people who cannot leave their jobs, homes and family responsibilities to seek higher education through traditional campus settings.

“The more we can get entire curricula online, the better off we are going to be,” Collie said. “Online programs help people – especially in rural areas – from across the state and beyond earn degrees needed for employment promotion and pay increases. If they are going to make a living wage they have to get that master’s degree, or that bachelor’s degree. This is a way for people to move upwards instead of getting stuck.”

Collie said he was surprised that technology would provide the tools needed to interact with online students in ways that equaled on-campus classroom experiences. With help from the media services department of the Global Campus, Collie created videos of role-playing scenarios to help students view and diagnose mental health symptoms.

“I got a quote from a young man in China who said it was the best class he ever had,” Collie said.

From July 2009 to June 2010, academic colleges and schools worked with the Global Campus to offer 354 distance education classes with a total class enrollment of 6,612, which was a 33.5 percent increase in class enrollment from the previous fiscal year. Online enrollments represent 80.5 percent of total distance education class enrollments.

The Sloan Consortium, a national professional leadership organization dedicated to integrating online education into the mainstream of higher education, published a report – “Learning on Demand: Online Education in the United States, 2009” – stating that online enrollments reported by higher education institutions in fall 2008 had grown 17 percent when compared to the previous year, while the overall higher education student population had grown 1.2 percent during the same period. More than one in four college and university students now takes at least one online course, the report said.

To learn more about current distance learning offerings, visit http://globalcampus.uark.edu/ or call 800-638-1217.