This does not look like what is usually referred to as 'Distance Education'.
Most of us would like the luxury of working with a cohort of 5-7 students,
with individually designed projects.
It does not appear that distance technology (internet, ITV, whatever) is a
significant part of these programs. I suspect that they would be equally
successful if done as a traditional independent study project. In fact, I
see little in your description that is different from a good old Oxbridge
tutorial.
At 2:58 PM -0400 9/15/99, Rick Adams wrote:
> David wrote:
>
>> Actually there are some empirical studies available comparing
>> components of distance and traditional education. One is "Benefits and
>> costs of integrating online web teaching into the principles of
>> economics class" by Nan Maxwell, Anthony Lima, and Kami Huntzinger at
>> California State University, Hayward. They can be reached at
>> 510-885-3191 (voice) or 510-885-2602 (fax). The abstract is below.
>
>
> The problem is this, and other similar studies, focus on a basically
>traditional class taught in an online environment (the same thing
>mentioned by, I believe, Jim with respect to a psychology class).
>
> But this is _not_ the approach used by institutions focused on distance
>education!
>
> Example: The approach to undergraduate education in the distance
>learning
>program at Vermont College makes no attempt to set up "course" or to
>assign texts, web assignments, etc. (the essence of most online courses at
>traditional institutions). Instead, the program puts small groups (no more
>than 7 learners max--and usually about 5) together with a faculty member
>during a ten day on-campus residency. The objective of the residency is
>for the learner to design a "study" that will meet the requirements of
>his/her program (with respect to subject areas, etc.) and that will occupy
>six months of intensive, full time, study. Minimums (which are invariably
>exceeded in the learning agreement--a contract that must be approved by
>the learner, the faculty member, and the institution) include:
>
> 1. Reading, responding to, and providing an annotated bibliography of a
>minimum of 20 approved books (commonly advanced works in the learner's
>area of concentration, etc.).
>...etc...
.....
> Again, this is anecdotal evidence, but it _does_ tend to indicate that
>many of the assumptions about distance learning programs are being made
>based on the limited forms of dl in use on traditional campuses, not on
>the approaches in use by institutions that focus exclusively or primarily
>on this approach.
* PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
* Psychology Department 507-389-6217 *
* "The University formerly known as Mankato State" *
* http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html *
