Recently, Dr. Saba, Editor-in-Chief of Distance-Educator.com visited the University of Connecticut, where he observed tremendous growth and development in instructional design, information technology applications, and distance education. Dr. Saba worked at the University of Connecticut's Center for Instructional Media and Technology in the early 1980's. He conducted this interview with Dr. Keith Barker, Director of the Institute for Teaching and Learning, and Mr. Richard Gorham, Director of the University Center for Instructional Media and Technology.

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Dr. Keith Barker Director, Center for Teaching and Learning	Mr. Richard L. Gorham Direcotr, University Center for Media & Technology

Dr. Saba:
We are discussing the development of a robust technology infrastructure and instructional design efforts at the University of Connecticut with Richard (Dick) Gorham, Director of the University Center for Instructional Media and Technology (UCIMT) and Keith Barker, an Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education & Instruction and the Director of Institute for Teaching and Learning (ITL).

Keith, Dick: Please tell our readers how each of you became interested in technology-based education and instructional design?

Mr. Gorham:
My interest developed as a result of my graduate studies at Utah State University’s Instructional Technology Department in the mid-70’s. While I worked for the Media Center as a student at the University of Southern Maine where I received my undergraduate degree in history and political science, I was more drawn to the pedagogy of teaching as I progressed in my graduate studies. In a nutshell, I wanted to better understand how students learn, how best to deliver meaningful instructional experiences to them and how the proper use of technology might influence a success instructional design process. For me, it has never been about the technology, but about the effectiveness of utilizing technology to enhance the teaching and learning process. My career at UCIMT and UConn have afforded me a wonderful laboratory in which to both test and apply the theories and appropriates that first struck me as important at Utah State.

Dr. Barker:
As an engineer and educator I have always felt very comfortable with technology for teaching and learning. I grew up teaching with technology in the late 60’s and instructing others about its appropriate use. We think that technology is changing rapidly now but in many ways it was doing so then through multiple formats of recording sound and pictures on tape, film, and disc. But it wasn’t deliverable through one medium from a single source. The computer’s flexibility and accommodation of text, pictures, graphics, audio, and video have made technology-based education very rich on opportunities and a minefield for those who do not know how to use it well.

At an educational workshop in 1972 I learned that everything I had been doing up to that point was pedagogically correct – but I didn’t know the fundamentals on which I had based my work nor did I know what the elements were called. Today, I have a strong understanding of pedagogy and can not only use the principles but are able to pass them on to others.

Dr. Saba:
In recent years you have built up the technology infrastructure of the university, and have added a serious instructional design component to it. Would you comment on these efforts?

Mr. Gorham:
The services of the UCIMT have evolved over time, generally reflecting a service model not dissimilar to our peer institutions at other land-grant public universities. This year, we celebrate our 65th year of providing instructional support services, in some fashion, to the UConn community. While my predecessor’s in this position and I have always been engaged in supporting the teaching, research and service activities of a Research I university, with campuses scattered across the State, in the past ten years the Center and its staff have been largely committed to positively affecting the quality of our undergraduate offerings. As a Research I university, UConn of course gives primacy to the development of scholarship, to furthering the academic enterprise through theoretical and applied research. Its faculty enjoy an international reputation as first-rate scholars and researchers. However, we are also charged with educating the sons and daughters of Connecticut. Our enrollment demographics reflect a student body that is 70% CT students, 30% out-of-state and/or international students.

Nine years ago, through a monumental effort of administrators, faculty, students, parents, the governor and legislators, the university was authorized to spend 1 billion dollars over ten years to rebuild a campus infrastructure that had been seriously deteriorating for some 20 years. Simultaneous to what became known as UCONN 2000 funding, we embarked on a strategic plan to redefine and restate the mission and goals of the institution, providing a framework to spend this significant windfall. Last year, as both the building projects funded by UCONN 2000 and the significant changes to the quality of our academic programs, including the high quality of the students attracted to our campuses became evident, the legislature authorized an additional 1.3 billion dollars, dubbed 21st Century UCONN, to be used to continue the goal, set in 1995, of making UConn the top public research institution in the country. While the bricks and mortar have been important to our recent success, as have been the wonderful successes of our women and men’s basketball teams, of equal weight is the notion, grand as it has seemed to all of us involved in this remarkable renaissance, that we in fact can be in a league with the Michigan’s and UC Berkley’s of the world if we simply strive, each and every day and year, to do so.

An overlong answer thus far, but I’ll conclude by describing where UCIMT has fit into the big picture described above. Essentially, we sold our administration on reinventing the teaching and learning processes of the institution, working in concert with the Institute for Teaching & Learning, our faculty and other support services. First, we decided to put state-of the-art teaching facilities in place that supported the stated goals of the strategic plan: an enhanced undergraduate experience for all of our students.

We renovated or built 84 high-tech classrooms, 75 thus far at the main campus in Storrs, affording faculty and students access to the WWW, video and data projection, light control…a full range of instructional support devices. All new classrooms built with 21st Century UConn funding will be similarly designed and built. We upgraded our distance learning facilities in order to better service our 5 regional campuses and to extend our reach across the nation and the globe. In short, we rebuilt an aging infrastructure into what I think, perhaps immodestly, is one of the finer instructional environments in the country.

Dr. Barker:
The Institute for Teaching and Learning (ITL) was created in 1996 with a full-time Director and substantial financial support. Currently the Institute comprises the UCIMT, Teaching Assistant Programs (TAP), the Instructional Resource Center (IRC), and the Instructional Design and Faculty Development (IDFD) group. Our slogans over the last few years have been “Seamless Instructional Support� and “Pedagogy before Technology�. The former message emphasizes the cooperation and collaboration between all the units to provide instructional and technological support to all members of the University community including our regional campus locations. Compartmentalization would be counter productive and a positive leadership attitude to encourage all members of the ITL to work together has been of paramount importance.

The newest group of ITL is the IDFD, growing from a single member in 2001 to six in 2004. The accomplishments in bringing a fresh and gradually pervasive attitude to curriculum design and a desire for personal faculty development have been significant. Instructional Design now has a much broader understanding at the University and the requests for help and support range from a single visit that confirms a faculty member’s approach to his or her course to proposals to redesign a full course sequence. The unit has completed an on-line Masters course in Accounting, five recently finished General Education on-line courses, and multiple elements for blended courses. Funding has come from the central budget as well as outside sources and we have no shortage of clents. Dr. Saba:
What are some of the projects that you consider as noteworthy, if not stellar?

Mr. Gorham:
Well, spending some 20 million dollars to put the technologies, infrastructure and facilities in place that we thought would afford faculty and students the best environment in which to teach and learn has been fun, no doubt. To be sure, we need to invest more in our IT infrastructure, but that will perhaps always be the case.

More importantly for me, and certainly more satisfying, has been the collaboration between the faculty and staffs within ITL and UCIMT to really improve basic instruction and find innovative solutions to identified problems. I’m proud of our work in developing the online Masters in Accounting degree, but more proud of the instructional design and technology support team members who worked directly with the School of Business and Accounting faculty to make this dream a reality. Their work was stellar! The introduction of WEB-enabled courses, of “blended� courseware that take advantage of varied learning styles, the gleam in the eye of instructors when they finally say “I enjoy teaching this way, I enjoy using technologies that are effective,� all of that is satisfying after some 29+ years at this institution. More so, I truly believe, in the not to distant future, that all the technologies we currently deploy and employ will simply become transparent, expected rather than celebrated, and we’ll continue to concentrate on good pedagogy. That is still my ideal; that technology becomes but one more tool in the box of solutions for providing learners with learning experiences that are truly life changing.

Dr. Barker:
As Dick observes, the joy in working in a support area is the pleasure of seeing others being successful, of turning a corner in their understanding, and coming back for more. We have provided many with a strong pedagogical understanding of how to develop instructional material and it is with great delight that we hear of them applying sound principles in subsequent coursework.

In the delivery area of new ‘hi-tech’ or ‘smart’ classrooms we have seen significant changes in faculty attitudes. The teaching environment is changing and simple didactic delivery is either not acceptable to current students or is seen by the instructors as less than appropriate with the available technology. So faculty are experimenting – and enjoying it. Those with no or basic technological backgrounds are learning things that they never would have imagined. New faculty are starting their careers with great instructional expectations for themselves, knowing the challenges of balancing research time with teaching, and older colleagues are taking up the classroom challenge in a truly admirable way. Our lunchtime seminars are almost always oversubscribed and those pertaining to technology use are often offered twice a semester. Our instructors have bought into the technological possibilities. Our job is to help them use the technology properly and at the right times.

Dr. Saba:
How do you see the role of Uconn, regionally, and nationally? Is distance education going to the project the university beyond its current sphere of influence?

Mr. Gorham:
Our approach to distance education has, thus far, been a nuanced one, targeted at the needs of our students and faculty. We have been engaged in some form of DL for some 30 years. Fred, you produced telecourses, live, for simultaneous delivery to our 5 regional campuses, when you were on staff at UCIMT in the 80’s. Our efforts today are influenced by the demographics of our State and the realization, even with 2.3 billion dollars in capital and enhanced scholarly funding, that we perhaps can’t ever build facilities to meet the increasing demands for access to our campuses and programs. As but one example, we house 75% of our students on campus, the highest residency rate in the country for like institutions. But this fall, we were still short of space. Likewise, we desperately need, and will build, more classrooms, but that is a zero-sum game at some point.

I don’t think we have, or ever will, engage in DL activities simply for the sake of saying that we can. Rather, I think we’ll continue to look at opportunities that make sense in the context of realizing the institutions core mission. Further innovation, applying a blended approach to in-class and on-line experiences, may well continue to define our approach.

I do think that UConn has the potential to have a national and international reach, but that reach should be determined by a better understanding of whom we want to serve and why.

Dr. Barker:
I think that we will continue to expand our quality on-line activities but over a wider range of disciplines. Currently we span from Fine Arts through Liberal Arts to Business but there are huge opportunities in the areas of Agriculture and Engineering. I foresee a greater expansion in the undergraduate programs but more exploration into the graduate niche markets. We will not compete just for the sake of having a product in a certain area but will support the needs as they arise - as in the expected case of expansion into high school coop programs - and promote the expertise of the faculty outside the University.

In this vein, we plan to increase our television studio capabilities, link then into appropriate classrooms and theatres and feed a new uplink to provide a UConn presence for discipline-specific forums and University-wide outreach.

Dr. Saba:
What are some of your future plans for technology development, instructional design and distance




education?

Mr. Gorham:
I’ll defer to Keith, as I will retire from UConn in late June, grateful to have had a career that has been, at once, delightful and ever challenging. I trust that we will continue to invest in our instructional design program and in engaging faculty in the art and science of teaching. I remain both intrigued and excited by the technologies we use today and those that we will deploy tomorrow. That said, I was similarly intrigued some 35 years ago by the emergence of video disc systems and other technologies that now take up space in museums! This profession, one that I love, has always been about people; students, faculty and administrators who share the common goal of striving for excellence in all that we are charged to do. That, I trust, will never change.

Dr. Barker:
Technology in all aspects of University life is becoming more pervasive. We expect to be delivering communication and instructional components through a wireless environment throughout much of the campus and I expect more technologies to converge and to be more transparent and easier to use by all. Faculty will need to become more proficient and conversant with newer technologies, willing to build them into sound pedagogies, and be more flexible and versatile in delivery methodologies. There will have to be accepting of the larger role of partners such as teaching assistants and adjunct professors and a willingness to break away from the constraints of 50-minute classes and 14-week semesters. Blended approaches will become commonplace and, again, the classroom straightjacket has to be broken.

With the increasing use and provision of technology there is an inherent need for respect for that which is provided. No support system comes without cost and if it is perceived to be free then it is often treated with disregard. Student expectations, with an increasingly technological background, are going to expect more access and involvement with technology. This, again, comes with a cost to the University in infrastructure, staff, technician, and faculty time.

Our slogan “Pedagogy before Technology� comes back to mind. We are educators foremost and providers of the technology secondly. If the technology fails at times, and it will, all instructors need to have a strong pedagogy on which to base a recovery – overnight or on the spot.

Dr. Saba:
Thank you for sharing your insights with our readers.

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Dr. Keith Barker is the Associate Vice Provost, and Director of Institute for Teaching & Learning at the University of Connecticut. He recieved his B.Eng. and Ph.D in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from Sheffield University, England. He joined the faculty at the University of Connecticut in 1984.

Dr. Barker began his innovating teaching by constructing a self-paced set of modules for student learning, and using computer- aided assesment to provide immediate feedback to his computer science students. He has also been involved in course and curricula reform both at University of Connecticut and at the national level. As reflected in his numerous awards, Dr. Barker is viewed as an outstanding teacher, a teaching mentor, and a teaching innovator whose ideas have been implemented at a national level.

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Mr. Richard L. Gorham served as the Director of the University Center for Instructional Media and Technology since 1986. During his tenure the Center developed as the academic support agency for the University of Connectinut. The mission of the Center is to afford the faculty, staff and students access to information technologies that will support and enhance their ability to teach, learn, conduct research and provide service to the citizens of Connecticut.

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David J. Gray, CEO, Umass Online

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In May, 2004 David Gray, who has served the University of Massachusetts as Vice President for Information Services and Chief Information Officer, became the CEO of Umass Online. Dr. Saba, Editor-in-Chief of Distance-Educaotr.com interviewed Mr. Gray shortly after his appointment.

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Dr. Saba:
In recent years, you have been involved in introducing information technology to higher education institutions during a crucial period of incredible growth and development. How did you become interested and involved in the field?

Mr. Gray:
I became CIO of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education in 1995, following twelve years of service there as a senior financial administrator. I had been a long-time advocate of using information technology to improve the flow of information and decision-making. The chancellor of the State System asked me to serve on a task force in 1994 to provide him with recommendations for administrative improvements for the university system. One of our key recommendations—and one that I supported—was to create a University system chief information officer position. Several months later, and much to my great surprise, the chancellor asked me to step into this role.

The mid-1990s were a heady time in the development of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Early in my tenure as CIO, I saw that the transformative power of the Web would create fundamental advancement in communications as well as a medium for collaboration and delivery of educational programming. I proposed two major initiatives to the chancellor of our university system and the fourteen institutional presidents: the formation of a virtual library system (which later became known as the Keystone Library Network) and the establishment of a Center for Distance Education (CDE), the purpose of which would be to explore and promote the development of distance education within the State System using the web and other technologies such as interactive video. The chancellor and presidents agreed and funded both.

At the CDE, funds were invested in faculty training programs, curriculum development, and web resources for students and faculty. In 1998, we negotiated with Blackboard what was probably one of the first consortial licenses for a web-based course management system in the United States. We mounted Blackboard on a server at Shippensburg University and made it accessible to any faculty member within the fourteen-campus system who had an interest in developing web-enhanced courses or courses for full delivery over the web. It was tremendously gratifying to witness the rapid growth of this medium and the extent to which it was embraced by faculty and students.

In the fall of 2000, I accepted an offer to come to the University of Massachusetts to become the University’s first corporate CIO. I was attracted by the University’s mission, diversity and its profile as a first-rate research institution. I quickly became involved in efforts to improve the information infrastructure—the University had made major strides in the late 1990s in developing a wide area network known as MITI and had embarked on a system-wide ERP initiative to deploy PeopleSoft. Shortly after my arrival, the University launched an exciting e-learning initiative called UMassOnline. I was a member of the search committee that recruited Jack Wilson to become its founding CEO. I also served as co-chair of the UMassOnline Platform Committee, which was charged with selecting a learning management system. As the head of the University’s central IT department, it was then my responsibility to successfully deploy and maintain the selected learning management systems that were so critical to the development of academic programs and which have enabled UMassOnline to achieve its growth objectives.

Dr. Saba:
In May of this year, you were appointed as the CEO of UMassOnline. What is the role of a CEO in an academic institution?

Mr. Gray:
As is the case for most, if not all, organizations, the role of a CEO is to provide vision, leadership, and a sense of organizational direction. In an academic setting, vision and leadership are not always accepted when they are applied in a top-down, hierarchical manner. One’s vision must spring from and be shaped by the community’s shared sense of institutional mission and purpose. Vision needs to be informed by the institution’s culture and its traditions, but to be truly effective cannot stop there. Visionary leadership should provide members of an academic community a sense of direction and possibility; it should use the institution’s past and present strengths as a springboard to reach for an even stronger and more vibrant future.

As the CEO of an online learning enterprise—and one which is comprised of five separately accredited institutions that are part of a university system—my role is to encourage multi-campus collaboration. At UMass, this sometimes means encouraging our campuses to yield some of their individual identity and autonomy in order to achieve larger goals than they could attain operating individually. There must be sufficient trust and “buy-in” that people in the organization move beyond simple acceptance and into a model of full participation. Effective leadership, in that sense, is partly about building a sense of shared ownership. Of course, it goes almost without saying that part of the role of a CEO in an academic institution is to provide stable direction and management. If a CEO is presiding over an organization that is financially unstable or otherwise poorly administered and unable to execute, s/he will have a difficult time driving a vision or asserting leadership.

Dr. Saba:
UMassOnline has been on a growth path, both in terms of revenue and enrollments. To what do you attribute this remarkable growth?

Mr. Gray:
Yes, our growth trends have been remarkable. For the academic year just concluded, our online course enrollments grew by 32% and our revenue from these courses by 39%. While there is no single or simple explanation, I attribute it largely to two factors: great teamwork and bringing the right products to the marketplace. With respect to teamwork, this cuts across two dimensions. The first dimension is our ability to work well with our campus counterparts. This has entailed building both formal and informal communications with campus staff and faculty. My predecessor (and current university president), Jack Wilson, convened the campus directors of continuing education on a regular basis. UMassOnline offered to reimburse each campus 20% of their continuing education director’s salary in recognition of their contributions to the entire online learning enterprise. In addition, UMassOnline pays additional compensation to many of our faculty who teach online courses. We have engaged campus faculty and administrators very deliberately and very intensively in important decisions both concerning online learning technology and policy issues. All of this has helped to forge a sense of an extended team around which there are some shared values and goals and an increasing sense of trust. The second dimension of teamwork is more inwardly focused. UMassOnline has a very small, but tremendously dedicated, core of five individuals who work very effectively with one another and their campus counterparts. I think that there is broad recognition across the University that this team brings a great deal of “value-add” to the table. They have competencies and areas of focus such as the marketing of e-learning programs, academic and faculty dimensions of e-learning, and supporting the related technology infrastructure that no single UMass campus could afford to duplicate.

The second growth factor involves being attuned to and aligned with the marketplace. Our campuses have made local investment decisions and UMassOnline has made central investment decisions in developing high quality online programs that address the demands and needs of online learners. We will not invest scarce resources in any program. There first has to be a well-defined market that matches with an area of academic strength on one or more of our campuses. We then need to work with our campus colleagues in continuing education and the academic departments to see if we can obtain the appropriate commitments of time, effort, and resources. In most cases, we have succeeded. There are, however, a few remaining areas where I believe there is market demand for our programs and we have not yet been able to match that with the commitment to develop and support online content. Obviously, we need to keep working on those and also keep our eyes on the market for shifts in demand.

Dr. Saba:
In April, you announced the Online Certificate Program in Homeland Security. Are there other programs under development at this time that would offer new online learning opportunities to college-age students and working adults?

Mr. Gray:
Yes, we are always working in tandem with the UMass campuses to deliver new programs online.

Since April, we have introduced several new programs that we are very excited about. We have a new M.Ed. program in Reading and Language that is delivered by the Graduate School of Education at UMass Lowell providing aspiring educational leaders a mix of online courses and field experiences to help them achieve licensure as Reading Specialists. We have a new RN-to BS degree completion program for registered nurses delivered by UMass Boston. We also have two new certificate programs. The Certificate of Online Journalism is an innovative five-course program that examines the new field of online journalism. The Certificate in Instructional Technology for Educators is a 15-credit certificate from the UMass Boston Graduate College of Education to prepare teachers to meet the National Technology Standards of the International Society of Technology and the Performance Indicators for Teachers.

We are also very excited about online programs that we are developing cooperatively with the University of Massachusetts Medical School. We will soon have programs online that offer innovative ways for medical professionals to earn CMEs, as well as some multi-discipline programs that leverage research and expertise from several institutions in Massachusetts to address some growing health problems.

Dr. Saba:
How do you see the future of distance education, and what role UMassOnline will play in such a future scenario?

Mr. Gray:
It is readily apparent that the tools of distance education (such as web-based learning management systems and synchronous communications applications) are being applied to a great extent and very beneficial effect with our so-called traditional population of on-campus students. UMassOnline has made its e-learning tools available to all faculty whether they are teaching a course at a distance or simply using these tools to web enhance an on-campus course. Many of our UMassOnline students are pursuing hybrid degree or certificate programs; by “hybrid,” I mean their program involves a mix of face-to-face and online courses. Over the next five years, it would not surprise me at all to see the term “distance education” fade or morph into “distributed education” or perhaps simply “education.” As the technologies that support distance education mature and become more widely embraced—which is happening as we speak—the focus on the tools and the geographic distance at which they are utilized is likely to decrease. Our fascination with the web as an exciting new medium for learning and collaboration will most likely give way to seeing it as a common utility that people make use of routinely. Education and learning will happen, of course, and it will be a rare course indeed that does not take advantage of the tools of technology and high speed networks to aid and abet the learning process. I suspect that a steadily increasing share of the continuous learning requirements of mid-career professionals will take place at a distance, but the novelty of this will have subsided and acceptance of it will be broad. UMassOnline wants to be a part of helping to normalize and mainstream distance learning. We will measure our success by the extent to which we broaden access to a UMass education and help to grow the total market share of the University.

Dr. Saba:
Thank you for participating in this interview. I am sure our readers will find your remarks informative and valuable.

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President Jack Wilson appointed David J. Gray Interim UMassOnline CEO in September, 2003 and permanent UMassOnline CEO in May, 2004. Gray has served the University as Vice President for Information Services and Chief Information Officer since September 2000.

In Gray's dual role as UMassOnline CEO and University CIO, he is instrumental in fostering a seamless integration of UMassOnline into the University’s infrastructure.

As CEO, he provides strategic leadership to the University's online education division, working closely with the five UMass campuses and managing the UMassOnline team.<>Prior to joining the University of Massachusetts, Gray served as the Vice Chancellor for Information Technology for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education for five years. In this capacity, Mr. Gray provided leadership to the formation of the Keystone Library Network, a virtual library service linking the fourteen State System campuses and the State Library of Pennsylvania. Gray also led the establishment of the System’s Center for Distance Education and served as principal architect of the System’s Instructional Technology Plan, adopted by the Board of Governors in April 1999. In addition, Gray represented the State System on the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Technology Investment Authority, a group empowered to strategically invest state funds in economic development and university research initiatives. Previously, Gray served the Pennsylvania System as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Financial Management and in other administrative leadership posts since 1983.

Gray earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a Master of Public Administration degree from the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, PA. He has been active in EDUCAUSE and NACUBO, and a variety of professional and community service organizations. Gray resides in Westborough, Massachusetts with his wife, Margaret, and two children.

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Amit Schitai is the Director of Instructional Technology & Distance Learning in Long Beach City College (LBCC) and an award winning instructional designer. Dr. Saba, Editor-in-chief of Distance-Educator.com interviewed Mr. Schitai about his role in supporting instructors and learners who teach and learn at a distance.
Distance-Educator.com: What is the role of your office in supporting distance learning at LBCC?

Mr. Schitai:My areas include the Instructional Technology Development Center (ITDC, http://itdc.lbcc.edu), the Distance Learning (DL) program http://de.lbcc.edu) and the Faculty Resource Center (http://lrtt.lbcc.edu/frc). These areas work closely with both faculty who teach e-courses and with students who attend these classes. On the faculty side, these areas work closely with instructors of all e-course offerings to provide instructional technology solutions for educational challenges and needs encountered in on-campus and distance learning courses. These solutions may include content processors (practices, self-assessments and interactive tutorials), collaboration and communication activities, as well as informational and administrative material needed for the classes. The ITDC conducts workshops and provides one-on-one training sessions to teach faculty how to use the technology and integrate it to their curriculum. ITDC teams also work with faculty to ensure that they are comfortable working with the technology independently. For example, faculty who teach any type of e-course offered at LBCC, learn to use a Web authoring system to work with our e-zteach; e-learning environment, and basic server communication. This way, faculty are responsible for updating all their static pages, and uploading them to the server anytime and from anywhere. Any interactive activity required for dynamic pages is scripted by the faculty, and forwarded to the ITDC team who design, produce, and make it ready for integration.

On the student side, all communication is coordinated by the Distance Learning program, which includes phone, email and asynchronous communication on the program Web site, Projected and existing students may call the program or email their DL related questions. Student also access the DL Website to confirm their registration, and the main gateway to all e-courses at LBCC: The e-Courses Directory. Students may also use the DL Web site to read the program's FAQ, communicate with the DL program Specialist, access friendly and practical resources and tools, experience an online course before they enroll in a real one, read other students' comments and access the DL helpline site. Finally, the Distance Learning program also works closely with other areas at the college to ensure friendly access to distance learning services via the DL Web site. These areas include the Library department to provide access to the online catalog and electronic databases, the counseling department for online counseling and orientation, the Learning and Academic Resources for online supplemental instruction and on-campus support, the online bookstore, and our own HelpLine (phone and Internet) operation. In the near future we hope to implement online registration (currently the student may download an application and mail it in) and online tutoring.

Distance-Educator.com:Why did you decide to develop an online student support program?

Mr. Schitai: Distance learning students are faced with various challenges before and during their online experience. These challenges may include difficulties in following written text/media generated directions, procrastination, short concentration span, or insufficient Internet or technology skills. In order to succeed in their classes, distance learning students need to overcome these challenges by developing skills necessary for this mode of learning. The most significant skills that need to be acquired are (1) learning skills: tools and behaviors that keep the students motivated, disciplined, and in charge of their own learning, (2) basic Internet skills: working with computers and browsers to access the Internet. This includes the ability to identify resources both on campus and online that would help students handling academic and administrative issues throughout their distance learning experience, and (3) communication and collaboration skills: interacting with other students in the course, the course instructor, and other course resources.

I believe all students could be a "good fit" for distance learning if they take the time to acquire the necessary skills mentioned above. From my program's perspective, I wanted to ensure we provide students with the opportunity to develop the competencies they need and that no student is left behind due to not already possessing the necessary skills. While we, like many other programs, offer links on our Web site that allow students to assess earning based on their existing skills and the type of learners they are, we also offer a variety of tools for students to expand their repertoire of learning preferences and acquire the necessary skills that they will use to become successful in this type of learning. Students are encouraged to access and use these tools before they begin their distance learning experience and revisit them whenever necessary throughout the course. Finally, since most adults learn best from their own experiences, our Web site highlights success stories of students who completed distance learning courses at LBCC by providing student testimonials (movies) which projected students view to make the experience more personable and as a means to increase their motivation in acquiring skills they may lack.

Distance-Educator.com:How long did it take you to develop the program? Could you please comment on the complexity of developing such a program?

Mr. Schitai: The program is and always will be a "work in progress". The main force that drives the design and inclusion of activities, tools and resources in the program are the needs and demands as communicated by students and faculty. Distance learning students have ample opportunities to vocalize their needs whether through their instructors, or on the Distance Education Web site. Also, the HelpLine communication database provides information on the types of assistance distance learning students request on an on-going basis. The program is based on a system approach to learning and teaching with technology, and a team based methodology for the development and integration of instructional technology applications for both on-campus and off-campus classes. Instructional Technology professionals are joined by faculty to form development teams for specific purposes/products. Working with the rest of the team, faculty are responsible for content rationale, content development, interactive scripting, and pilot evaluation. The rest of the team produces the activity/product using instructional design principles by which the content is treated and the necessary standardized software solutions. This model, which was awarded a Technology Foucs Award from the California Community College Chancellor's Office (CCCCO), has proven most valuable and productive and we implement it (or variations of it) for all our development efforts. An additional aspect necessary for the development of such a program is the need to keep the program cost-effective and affordable for the college. For that purposes, there is a constant need to seek and be awarded special grants from governmental and private funding sources to support the program and ensure the feasibility of developing the sought after projects and applications. This way, the college budget is saved for daily operation and maintenance of activities that were initiated and developed through grant funds.

Distance-Educator.com:
How has the program been received among students, and faculty?

Mr. Schitai: Students access the various resources and tools available to them either through a recommendation from their instructors, or independently by browsing the Distance Learning Web site. While we are planning to survey both our faculty and student population in the near future to obtain specific information directly from the students, our main student feedback is currently received through evaluation conducted by instructors, anecdotal data initiated by the students in communicating with both their instructor and our staff, or through direct feedback requests emailed to all registered students. Some of our students comments are gathered and presented on the Web site at http://de.lbcc.edu (see Student Comments).

One advantage of developing projects through grants funds is that sufficient funds are allocated for evaluation in various stages of the project including after initial implementation. This way, program activities can be piloted, evaluated, and consequently modified or improved as necessary. For example, our last year grant project, "S.I.D.E. Road: Success in Distance Education" which was funded by the CCCCO Fund for Student Success, was initially tested by 260 students before it was disseminated to the entire distance learning and Web enhanced population through links available on the specific courses' Web sites.

Faculty input is received on an going basis through individual dialogue, workshops and training session at the Faculty Resource Center, as well as during other college events in which distance learning issues are discussed (e.g. Flex Days). For example, LBCC faculty have become instrumental in the process of upgrading our original e-learning environment (e- zteach™;)). While the basic structure of this environment consists of three zones (information, learning and communication), faculty work with our team to customize each zone to fit the needs of their students as well as their own needs. As they try each addition for a semester or two, they report back on the usefulness of the features they tried and suggest new ways to improve it.

Distance-Educator.com:
Are you involved in a new development program? Could you comment on that please?

Mr. Schitai: Yes. Starting January 2003 I have been involved in the development of an exciting three year project funded in part by the DOE Fund for Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE). This project is an interactive e-training (CD & Website) aimed at training the entire full and part time LBCC faculty population (over 1000 member) to identify and handle disabled students issues in their on- and off-campus classes. The overall project objective is to provide appropriate solutions to disabled students via faculty implementation of reasonable accommodations and strategies in the face-to-face and distance-learning classroom, resulting in greater success for students with disability in accessing and participating in all aspects of the college's instructional environment. The project includes the development of an interactive multimedia CD and a Web site to as the core training material. Actual training sessions will be conducted in groups at the Faculty Resource Center, or individually on the project Web site. A sophisticated tracking system will be implemented and provide faculty with self-assessment opportunities and progress report. The interactive courseware includes seven case studies in a simulated environment in which faculty take the role of the Instructor and are asked to identify a disabled student who needs attention, then select the appropriate method to provide accommodation for that student. Additionally, instructors will assess fictional instructors who have some thoughts about similar situations and learn about legal implications associated with each of these thoughts. The project's work name is "Successful Disabled Students: The Faculty Perspective"; for more information please access the project Web site at http://itdc.lbcc.edu/sds

Amit Schitai is the Director of Instructional Technology & Distance Learning in Long Beach City College (LBCC) and an award winning instructional designer. He designed and developed over fifty educational interactive multimedia courseware for both college and university levels aimed at enhancing and supporting the curricula of a variety of academic disciplines. Mr. Schitai runs the Distance Learning program and the Instructional Technology Development Center/Faculty Resource Center at LBCC. He has an ABD and an M.A. from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, a B.A. and a Teacher Certificate from The Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Additionally, Mr. Schitai completed a certificate of Distance Learning from the State University of West Georgia, and the Special Institute for the Management of Distance Education at the California Virtual College (CVC), where he also serves on the Advisory Board (CVC Region 2). Mr. Schitai has published and presented his work in various publications and conferences including EDUCOM, TechEd, CVC Annual Conferences, The League for Innovations in The Community College, ADEC, the California Community Colleges annual conferences, and many others. For more information, access http://itdc.lbcc.edu/amit.html or email samits@lbcc.edu

Mr. Brian Mueller, Chief Executive Officer of the University of Phoenix Online was interviewed by Dr. Farhad Saba, Editor-In-Chief of Distance-Educator.com. It is a pleasure to present this interview in this issue of Daily News.

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Special Reports
Faculty and Distance Education: Development Tenure and Promotion
Interaction in Distance Education
Copyright in Distance Education
Student Support Services in Distance Education
The Distance Education Balance Sheet
The Future of Distance Learning 2007: Strategic Planning Conference

Research to Practice
Barriers to Implementing Large-Scale Online Staff Development Programs for Teachers
Competency-Based Performance
Preservice Teacher Perceptions of a Technology-Enriched Methods Course
Student Motivation for Learning at a Distance: Does Interaction Matter?

Distance-Educator.com conducted an interview with John Charles Callanan, educator and documentary media producer.

"I have always been interested in communications. I have been more interested in people and ideas than in things or technology for the sake of technology."

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Sign up and in addition get immediate access
to the following great resources:

Executive Digests
- Jan 2005
- Feb 2005
- Mar 2005
- April 2005
- May 2005
- Sept 2005

Special Reports
- Faculty and Distance Education: Development Tenure and Promotion
- Interaction in Distance Education
- Copyright in Distance Education
- Student Support Services in Distance Education
- The Distance Education Balance Sheet
- The Future of Distance Learning 2007: Strategic Planning Conference

Research to Practice
- Barriers to Implementing Large-Scale Online Staff Development Programs for Teachers
- Competency-Based Performance
- Preservice Teacher Perceptions of a Technology-Enriched Methods Course
- Student Motivation for Learning at a Distance: Does Interaction Matter?