Interaction is Key to Distance Class
By Dan Kohl
Emmy Award-winning journalist Walt Kane has seen some bad distance degree programs. Kane's investigative reports for the television program News 12 New Jersey have shown that New Jerseyans were teaching honors English, giving health advice to senior citizens and working at nuclear power plants using fake degrees obtained via mail and online.
Kane was even able to purchase a Ph.D. in astrophysics for his dog. But Kane said he's also seen a good distance degree program: the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's.
Through the distance program of UNL's Office of Extended Education and Outreach and the J school, Kane is pursuing a master's degree in journalism and mass communications.
Distance learning programs include classes taken by students at a remote location with or without an instructor present, classes taught via video link and those available over the Internet or with compact discs involving little or no instructor presence.
From his office in Edison, N.J., Kane described how impressed he was with a recent course he took through UNL's distance learning program. The course was Cyberspace and Mass Media, taught last summer by George Tuck.
"That class was outstanding - one of the best educational experiences I've had," he said.
That's just the kind of feedback CoJMC Dean Will Norton said he wants to hear.
Norton said he wants his college leading the way in distance learning. He said land grant institutions such as UNL have an obligation to serve the whole state, and distance courses allow UNL to reach out to students wherever they are.
"It's our responsibility to improve the quality of journalism wherever it is," Norton said.
Norton has charged Larry Walklin with the task of expanding the program. The school increased its number of distance classrooms this fall.
It took new routers, miles of cable and dozens more cameras and monitors, Walklin said. Routers help to direct signals from one type of technology to another, allowing streaming Internet video, analog video recording and satellite and cable distribution all at once.
Walklin said the college wants to provide classes in the formats that meet and make use of the varied technological capabilities of the students. Courses are taught through interactive Web-streaming, using satellite and cable television, via mail, fax and the Internet and using a phone bridge. A phone bridge is a toll-free line multiple students can call to speak with the classroom and the professor.
Students can determine their own levels of interactivity. Students in Lincoln attend the classes in person. Others take a distance course completely on their own using recorded media.
But distance students may also choose to have a real-time virtual presence in the classroom. CU SeeMe software allows the professor and the student to see each other via a camera in the student's home or office.
CoJMC Associate Dean Linda Shipley teaches a graduate course in research methods and has had as many as six distance students participating in a class using CU SeeMe and cameras. She said it was interesting to get a glimpse into the homes and offices of her students throughout the country.
"You would see children come up and sit on their lap or someone come and hand them a note at work," she said.
Shipley said studies have shown that being involved in a classroom experience can be key for students who may otherwise lack the discipline to complete coursework on their own. At the college level, class attendance is one of the main factors that correlate to success, she said. The interactive experience can make all the difference.
Shipley said interactive distance courses are a benefit to more than just the distance students. The courses afford opportunities to the professors and the students on site as well.
"You're not so localized in your examples," she said. "If you're talking about current events, you get a much wider perspective."
Graduate student Rachael Seravalli of Lincoln once needed a wider perspective for a news story she was writing for the Daily Nebraskan. She needed to visit Colorado State University to research a story about universities and budget problems.
At the time Saravelli was enrolled in a course also offered through the distance program. She accepted an offer from a distance student to stay at the classmate's Colorado home while researching her article.
"Just the fact that you can make someone feel that connected speaks pretty highly of the technology," she said.
Students attending the courses have to adjust to technology as do the professors and distance students. Students attending must speak into microphones and appear on television so that distance students hear and see them.
"The first time it was incredibly awkward, and I didn't think I'd get through it, Seravalli said. "But by the end it felt like old hat. I pretend the microphone is a CB radio: 10-4, good buddy."
Being able to take courses and further their education is like living a dream for some, Walklin said. Many people come to the end of their undergraduate study and really want to continue, he said, but cannot for many good reasons.
"Some are on the move, but this program can move with them," he said.
Walklin said taking classes can help satisfy people's intellectual curiosity, allow them to gain an additional credential and allow them to work again with some of those professors they enjoyed working with before. He said expanding distance learning is a natural progression for his college.
"All journalism and mass communications is distance education," he said. "Newspapers are distance education, advertising agencies, radio and television, cable television, satellite. Everything that we do is distance education."
Walklin said the college has added a second control room and four more wired classrooms, including a second distance-wired television studio. The expansion in the number of distance classrooms will eventually result in additional course offerings via distance learning and even more course flexibility, he said.
Investigative journalist Kane, nominated for more than 40 awards for reporting since he obtained a B.S. cum laude in journalism from Manhattan College in 1984, said he is pleased to hear UNL's program is expanding and that more distance courses are to be offered.
He said he has been especially happy with the opportunities to interact with younger students like those he plans to teach after obtaining his master's degree.
"It's much more like the traditional classroom experience than I thought it would be," Kane said.
