The It's Not Necesarily a Completely Virtual Future Virtual Companion

Compiled by Tom Creed.

This month's Virtual Companion, designed to accompany the article, A 'Whoa' For Technology: An Interview with Ed Neal, in The National Teaching and Learning Forum, Vol. 8 No. 1, provides links to several resources for those interested in virtual universities, the role that technology is currently playing in higher education, and the role it might play in the future. We provide links here to several sites that have some perspective on this complex issue.

Ed Neal is Director of Faculty Development in the Center for Teaching and Learning at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. You can contact Ed via e-mail at Ed Neal (ed_neal@unc.edu).

Ed Neal's article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Links to a few of the better-known virtual universities.

• The Open University in Great Britain is the mother of all virtual universities. It recently (November 13, 1998) announced a partnership with Western Governor's University to form the Governor's Open University System in the U. S.
• Walden University is a hybrid, in that coursework is on-line, but all degree programs (Masters and Ph.D.) have a residency requirement. It's located in Minnesota, so it can't be all bad.
• Athabasca University in Alberta, Canada offers a wide range of both undergraduate and graduate degrees.
• California Virtual University offers a wide variety of virtual courses and programs. It doesn't offer courses or degrees, but acts as a government-created intermediary for virtual higher education between consumers and providers.

  CVU and WGU occupy a similar ecological niche. As WGU says about itself, "WGU doesn't offer instruction itself. Rather, we broker instruction provided by our affiliate colleges, universities and corporations."

• Real Power, edited by Peter Havholm and published by The College of Wooster, critiques virtual universities.
• The Distance Education Clearinghouse managed by University of Wisconsin Extension is a rich resource in distance education, containing links to newsletters, distance education sites, information on technology, and more.
• World Wide Web Virtual Library: Distance Education is another rich resouce on a range of topics within distance education.
• Virtual University Gazette is a e-zine, published monthly by The Adult Education & Distance Learner's Resource Center. Their main website has links to dozens of virtual universities and articles about virtual education.
• The "No Significant Difference Phenomenon" summarizes the results of hundreds of studies finding little difference in the amount of student learning comparing "regular" classroom education and various distance modalities.
• The World Lecture Hall maintained by the University of Texas acts as a clearninghouse for thousands of courses that have a web-based component. It's worth a visit to find what is out there in your area.

One should view any prognostication about the future with caution. The recent Governor's race in Minnesota (where I live) is a good example. The situation was simple and well-defined (three choices), "scientific" polls were taken, and the "future" was days away. Yet, pundits missed it by a mile. The parable of the six blind men and the elephant is relevant here--each person has a limited view of the future, and it is often distorted by their stake in the future.

• Smart Toilets And Dumb Terminals: The Future Of Technology. It doesn't have a whole lot to do with higher education, but I liked the title so much, I put it in here. It's actually a pretty good article.
• The NEA's Technology resource page has several articles and links to resources on technology and higher education.
• The Technology Source is an on-line publication for faculty in higher education, intended to "...assist educators as they face the challenge of integrating information technology tools in teaching and in managing educational organizations." One section, Visions, looks at recent trends.
• Edupage is a twice-weekly e-zine summarizing recent trend in technology and higher education. To subscribe, send a blank message to edupage-subscribe@educause.unc.edu.
• The TLT Group's moderated listserv, edited by Steve Gilbert, deals with a wide range of topics relevant to higher education and technology. The TLT Group, which started life as an initiative of AAHE, is now a separate corporate entity affiliated with AAHE. Subscribe to the AAHESGIT Listserver by sending an E-mail message to LISTPROC@LIST.CREN.NET (with subject line left blank): SUBSCRIBE AAHESGIT yourfirstname yourlastname.

  Stephen Ehrmann of the TLT Group has three articles about technology, learning, and the future of higher education:

  • IMPLEMENTING THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES: Technology as Lever
  • THE FLASHLIGHT PROJECT: SPOTTING AN ELEPHANT IN THE DARK
  • Asking the Right Question: What Does Research Tell Us About Technology and Higher Learning?

Ed has posted an opening message, Assessing Virtual Learning, and invites NTLF readers to engage him and each other in dialogue on his article. Click on the Assessing Virtual Learning, link, and you'll be taken to Ed's post. You can reply to it by clicking on Reply to this Topic.