Eliminate stuffy lecture halls, inconvenient course schedules, full class sections, and hour long parking space searches by jacking into the Interent for your next course.
World politics, elementary statistics, and even public speaking are available on the World Wide Web, a constellation of resources that can be accessed on the Internet. Students can choose non-traditional learning forums by joining an online college.
Courses on the Internet give students another option for obtaining degrees, while exposing students to a a wide spread form of communication. Online courses can be accessed from colleges all over the world from students' homes, offices or computer labs.
Although the equipment can be expensive, the courses are currently set up for students who already have it or have access to it. For most courses students need a computer with a hard drive, a modem, word-processing software and an Internet browser, which allows one to view documents on the WWW.
Not all colleges have course curriculum entirely online, but many like SF State have syllabi, readings, references, and class lists for some courses on the WWW.
SF State Professor Arthur Chandler puts syllabi for both his San Francisco and Cyberspace/Humanties course online. He said his Cyberspace syllabus is the first at the university to include links, which are underlined words in the document that, when clicked on, access another document.
Entire books can be attached to a document through links.
"I don't have to photocopy ever again," he said.
Numerous colleges across the country offer more than accompanying reading materials online--they hold courses entirely over the Internet.
Christopher Newport University in Virginia currently has 539 students enrolled in CNU Online, its Web site. Classes in English, philosophy, sociology, accounting, and a variety of other subjects run in seven to 15 week sessions.
Last year, CNU's first full degree to become available online was a bachelor's degree in government administration. More degree programs will be implemented by the end of 1996.
James Husband became the coordinator of CNU Online after receiving a degree partially through the program last December.
Formerly a police officer of seven years, Husband said he didn't have the option of curriculum online when he first returned to college.
"At that time I had to make a decision if I wanted to keep my job or go back to school. Online courses can eliminate that situation," he said.
Westminster Community College in Colorado is also conducting classes online, even classes that seem impossible to offer out of the traditional classroom setting, like public speaking.
Dennis Wignall teaches public speaking online from Westminster. His distance-learning students pay regular tuition and are required to obtain Internet accounts. Students receive lectures, assigned readings, and communicate with Wignall and classmates via e-mail.
Students can either come on campus five times per semester and perform speeches or videotape presentations in front of an adult audience of 10 to 12 people and mail them to Wignall.
"It works best for students who are commuters, business persons with full-time jobs, or single parents," he said.
In comparison to students who take his traditional class, he said his students online tend to perform better because they don't need a professor to keep them on track.
"Right now the online course's drop rate is slightly higher because some students don't understand what it means to be responsible for their own progress. In a way it's more challenging," he said.
Both CNU and Westminster expect students to have basic computer literacy and the capability to navigate the Internet. CNU has a lobby for students to practice online skills prior to taking the class. Westminster holds an orientation before its courses.
Lack of access to equipment is a concern for Wignall. He feels that as the technology spreads it will become more accessible and until it does students who don't own equipment will have to use college computer labs.
CNU is creating partnerships with other colleges in order to spread availability of equipment. Its partners, like Rappahannock College which is 70 miles away, have to dedicate one computer to CNU students who then login to courses by using an "800" number.
Educators using the Internet to instruct or communicate with students are debating whether or not college campuses could be replaced by virtual classrooms.
If the number of online courses grows and equipment becomes available to all students, Wignall believes it could eventually replace traditional universities. He said online education will redefine socialization and eliminate students' fears of asking questions or expressing themselves.
"I'd guarantee in the future there will be a downsizing of the traditional college campus," he said. "Traditional educators and administrators may see it as a threat to jobs."
SF State Associate Professor of English Elizabeth Sommers disagrees. Although she teaches Computers in the Teaching of Writing and Convergent Computer Research, both addressing the integration of technology and teaching, she said personal interaction is a necessity for successful teaching.
"Online courses certainly can be helpful to people in isolated areas of the country or people who are physically disabled," she said. "It's is better than no education at all."
Chandler is also ambiguous about the potential of education solely online.
"There's a lot of temptation, but I'm traditional in regard to making eye-to-eye contact with students," he said.
He said the skills students learn by using the technology of the Internet may be the valuable asset of online education.
"All students should be given Internet access and universities should provide training. If not, the students are at the same disadvantage as people 100 years ago who couldn't read. They'll lack a current communication skill," he said.
by Courtney Macavinta
Sources or courses mentioned in the story can be found on the World Wide Web or by e-mail at the following:
Here are some other sites for reference, research, fun or mischief:
Professor Chandler's picks:
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