Distance Learning and CUNY : A Broad Overview  

(August, 2001) 

George Otte (Baruch,GC) , Philip A.  Pecorino (QCC), Anthony G. Picciano (Hunter)

Overview 

Peter Drucker, economist and futurist, caused a major stir in academic circles when, in an interview for Forbes magazine,  he stated that universities thirty years from now would be “relics...[and] won’t survive” (Lenzer & Johnson, 1997, p. 127).   Two years earlier, Eli Noam (1995), Professor and Director of Columbia University’s Institute for Tele-Information, presented a paper entitled “Electronics and the Dim Future of the University.”  In it, he forecasted the demise of the universities as we know them, or minimally their relegation to a “diminished role.”  Despite their beginnings 2500 years ago in Assyria, Greece, and Egypt, he sees their role diminishing in the not too distant future because of the emergence of communications and information technologies.  He predicts that the major activities of scholarly life namely to create knowledge, to preserve it, and to pass it on to others, will no longer require campus-like buildings and facilities including academic departments, research laboratories, and dormitories.   Instead, he sees distance learning (DL) and electronic communities using high-speed communications and computing technologies as evolving and replacing these centuries-old features.      

     Educators throughout the world have increasingly been considering distance learning as part of their academic programs.  They cite various reasons for offering distance learning courses including increasing students' access, increasing enrollments and the institution's access to new audiences, and improving the quality of course offerings.   For rural and isolated communities, distance learning can be the vehicle that conquers geography and “space” between teachers and students.  In populous metropolitan areas, distance learning is seen as a mechanism for fitting education into the busy lives of older students who struggle to find the “time” to balance careers, family responsibilities, and schooling.  

    Although distance learning through the mail, radio, and television, has a long history, newer technologies such as digital communications and networking have emerged which make it much easier for educators to provide some form of distance learning for their students.  The implications of the newer digital communications  technologies especially the Internet for education are far reaching and are being explored in journals, books, and newspapers every day.  Neil Rudenstine (1997), former president of Harvard University, while asserting that direct human contact is absolutely essential to serious education, observed that the Internet and other electronic networks allow communications to take place at all hours and across distances and permit a significant extension of the scope, continuity, and even the quality of certain forms of instructional interaction.  Indeed, these technologies are having an enormous influence on traditional education while redefining our concept of distance learning.  This last comment is especially important because of the increasing numbers of teachers at all levels using distance learning techniques (World Wide Web, email, discussion boards) to enhance face-to-face courses.  

There are now a wider variety of instructional modalities than ever before.  The traditional face-to-face experiences in brick and mortar institutions will not soon leave us. In most institutions instructors have developed all manners of assisting the learning process though incorporating educational technologies.  The use of the Internet to provide learning materials is fast transforming many colleges into “brick and click” institutions.  Computer and internet aided instruction might be viewed as another progression from the blackboard to the whiteboard to the smart board and from hand written materials to printed to mimeographed and then to photocopied materials and now website materials. Physical classrooms are being transformed and “smartened”.  A good description of the electronic “smart” classrooms is available in Kent Norman's book "Teaching in the Switched On Classroom," at http://lap.umd.edu/SOC/

Distance Learning has already proven to be extremely successful at the graduate level with programs in professional areas that require continuing education and certifications, including law, medicine, real estate, accounting, etc… In this area the learners are mature, self-motivated, disciplined and experienced and the classroom face-to-face meetings are not only not as valuable as they would be for undergraduates but might be very distracting and most inconvenient to schedule on a regular basis. Some estimates have 30% of all graduate level instruction already being taken in one or another of the distance learning modalities. 

For faculty engaged in the preparation and management of online courses there is a widely reported “spill over” effect.  It is reported that it is difficult for such individuals to continue to teach in the face-to-face mode as that did previously.  The asynchronous online course experience is quite likely to impact faculty engaged in it by having them reexamine their pedagogic assumptions, their learning objectives and assessment devices.  They are likely to reformulate their goals and revise their approach to the classroom experience and transform it.  The most common movement is toward approaches that focus on the learner.  Time spent on basic transmittal of information is likely to decrease and time spent on interaction with and support of learners is likely to increase.    

Distance Learning Defined 

Distance education, distance teaching, distance learning, open learning, distributed learning, asynchronous learning, telelearning, and flexible learning are some of the terms used to describe an educational process in which the teacher and students are physically separated.   

Distance education is the term that has been used most widely for several decades.  As an all-inclusive term, distance education has served well to define the physical separation of teaching and learning.  However, in recent years, the term distance learning has become popular particularly in the United States to define this separation.  While used interchangeably with distance education, distance learning puts an emphasis on the “learner.”  Indeed, the concept of student-centered learning has become popular for all forms of education, distance or otherwise but is especially appropriate when students need to take on greater responsibility for their learning as is frequently the case when doing so from a distance.  

    Within this definition, distance learning can take on many different forms including internet-based instruction, point-to-point interactive video, televised courses, packaged courseware using CD-ROM, DVD (digital versatile disc) and video cassettes.  In recent years, Internet-based instruction using World Wide Web pages, email, discussion boards and course management software packages has become the distance learning delivery mode of choice adopted by faculty in colleges and universities throughout the country.

Three distinct distance learning modalities are: 

1. Hybrid Courses: some course work is presented online, taking the place of some of the real time class meetings.
2. Asynchronous Online Virtual Courses: the entire course is presented online
3. Web‑Enhanced Courses: some course materials are put online, but all classes continue to occur in the classroom at the assigned time.

The Spread of Distance Learning 

     In the last extensive survey of distance learning in higher education completed by the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, it was reported that in the two-year period between 1995-96 and 1997-98, the number of postsecondary institutions offering Web-based distance learning courses had tripled, far exceeding the growth of any other distance application (U.S. Department of Education, 1999, p. vi.)   It was also reported that among public 4-year institutions, the percentage offering distance learning courses grew from 62 percent in fall 1995 to 79 percent in 1997-98, and in public 2-year institutions, from 58 to 72 percent. In 1997-98, an additional 12 percent of public 4-year and 19 percent of public 2-year institutions planned to offer them in the next 3 years (NCES 2000-013). Consequently, all but nine percent of both public 2- and 4-year institutions either offered or planned to offer distance-learning courses in the next three years. Private 4-year institutions were much less likely than public institutions to offer such courses, and in 1997-98, 53 percent neither offered them nor had plans to do so in the next three years.   Total enrollment in distance learning courses across all postsecondary degree-granting institutions approximately doubled from 754,000 in 1995 to 1.6 million 1997-98 (NCES 2000-013).  These figures do not include enrollments in distance learning programs provided by for-profit organizations, corporate-affiliated colleges, and other non-traditional educational institutions. 

The eight regional commissions responsible for accrediting US colleges and universities have issued final recommendations on the accreditation of distance education programs.  The recommendations include "Best practices for Electronically Offered Degree and Certificate programs" and will be used by the regional commissions as guidelines for accreditation of such programs. The reports are located at:     http://www.wiche.edu/telecom/article1.htm 

CUNY 

Prior to1996, CUNY had made several modest initiatives in distance learning in the 1970s and 1980s    CUNY-TV had collaborated with educational television producers (i.e. Sunrise Semester).  Several colleges had also developed specific programs for homebound students.  In general, these activities were relatively small and in most cases, were considered more as experiments than as mainstream course offerings.  

In the mid 1990s, several faculty started to experiment with online courses using the Internet and World Wide Web.  In 1997, the CUNY Office of Instructional Technology also developed and began to deploy a university wide media distribution system that would use point-to-point interactive video technology for distance learning applications.  These activities while also modest did attract a certain amount of attention.  The PSC for instance declared a moratorium on all distance-learning activities in CUNY in June 1997.   In 1998, a joint PSC/CUNY Management Committee successfully negotiated an agreement that lifted the moratorium and established parameters for a two-year period of experimentation.   A number of provisions designed to protect faculty rights (i.e. intellectual property) and to insure appropriate review and evaluation of distance learning activities were included in this agreement.  This agreement was extended in 2000 and unless extended again, expires on December 31, 2001.  

In 1997-98, faculty at Hunter College (Education Administration - School of Education) and Queens College (Library Science) received grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to develop fully online courses.  In the following year, faculty at the Baruch School of Public Affairs likewise received funding from the Sloan Foundation for similar course development. These efforts would constitute the genesis for the CUNY Online grant application.  

In 1999, program officers from the Sloan Foundation indicated that rather than funding individual CUNY colleges for distance learning course development, they would consider a larger university wide grant application. In March of 1999 the moratorium on with distance learning comes to an end and, almost immediately, CUNY (as a University) applies for a pilot grant for online instruction.  In spring 1999, CUNY received a planning grant ($300,000.) to establish CUNY Online.  The essence of this grant was to develop a university resource that would provide hardware, software and most importantly, faculty training support for the development of online courses.   The pilot grant, awarded by the Sloan Foundation, proposes to focus on graduate and professional programs, and so involves only 8 campuses initially, but interest is great and so other campuses join, particularly in the faculty/course development that is the crux of the grant. In the pilot year (1999-2000), more than 80 courses at a dozen campuses are developed, including hybrid (a third to three-quarters online) as well as asynchronous (mostly or wholly online) courses.  In Fall 2000 the Sloan Foundation, pleased with the pilot year results, awards $2 million for 2000-2003. In the academic year just past, all CUNY campuses have participants in CUNY Online: 57 asynchronous and 56 hybrid courses are developed.  Presently, hundreds of faculty have received training via CUNY Online and thousands of students have enrolled in their online courses.  

Interest in technology-enhanced instruction both within and beyond CUNY Online moved Vice Chancellor Mirrer to create a University-wide Task Force for Educational Technology, with representatives from every CUNY campus. Its charge: to make recommendations regarding faculty development, policy, and resource management as regards educational technology. The Task Force spent the better part of the 2000-2001 academic year developing its report. After the end of the spring term, the report is submitted to VC Mirrer, who accepts the report and asks the Task Force members to continue to serve in an advisory capacity. (The report is to be disseminated widely.) George Otte has been named as Director of Instructional Technology for CUNY.  

CUNY Online in the coming year will feature significant changes and additions. These include:

1.     An online dimension to the Writing Across the Curriculum Initiative: the development of online writing-intensive courses that make use of computer-mediated communication and online resources like CUNY's own WriteSite.

2.     The US History Initiative, a discipline-based teaching and learning project focused on the development and pooling of web-based resources and the modeling of their use in online instruction.

3.     Workforce development initiatives to address critical shortages in the nursing and teaching professions.

4.     A University-wide forum for the discussion of the future of CUNY Online and online instruction generally, comprising faculty liaisons representing every college in CUNY.

5.     A working group from the Council of Registrars meeting regularly to work out means of facilitating online registration and cross-campus enrollment in online courses.  

Issues 

With the growth of distance learning, issues related to instructional quality and student readiness, student access to technology (digital divide), faculty development, and institutional policies such as intellectual property have arisen. For a general overview of the range of issues there is  Issues in Distance Learning, by Lorraine Sherry located at (http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~lsherry/pubs/issues.html) .  For our purposes here a quick listing will need to suffice. 

Access Issues:

While a disproportionate percentage of minority and poorer segments of the general population do not have access to computer and Internet technologies in their homes, the "digital divide" especially among college students has narrowed considerably in recent years.  At CUNY, much of the recent data collected indicates that the vast majority of incoming freshmen (as high as ninety percent at several of the senior colleges) have access to the Internet in their homes.  Can evidence of access be substantiated as being true CUNY wide?  Can CUNY provide for those who do not have access at home or at work?    

Pedagogic Issues:

There is an extensive literature and body of research supporting the quality of distance learning.  One important observation is that good teaching and learning does and can occur at a distance.  Faculty and student evaluations of distance learning at many institutions including CUNY support this observation. Typically, teachers who are successful in face-to-face classrooms, when trained in distance learning techniques are successful teachers at a distance as well.  Students who are academically ready, who possess good communications skills, and who can take responsibility for their learning likewise can learn well via distance learning.  Hanson et al (1997) provides an extensive review of the research literature on this topic and is highly recommended as a starting point for further information.   

Assessment of the effectiveness of these modalities is underway. There is a growing amount of research on best practices and on what factors and design features appear to be related to retention and academic achievement. A fairly comprehensive set of materials is to be found at the Asynchronous Learning Network site: http://webclass.cqu.edu.au/./Resources/Evaluation/ 

It is not unexpected that assessment of the new modalities, while already considerable, still leaves more to be desired.  Of particular interest and value will be the research that would indicate for what communities particular modalities are most appropriate or effective. Educators will find of greatest import research concerning not just the learner’s technical preparedness for such modalities but the learning styles of learners as they relate to each of the different modalities. 

For whom are such distance learning modalities intended? Could they be served just as well or better by other modalities? What is the need for such? What is the value of providing such? By whom are they most valued? 

Are there any groups for whom this mode is the best available? Are there any educational goals for which this modality is the most effective? Is there any subject matter for which this modality is superior to all others? 

Whatever value there may be in this modality could it not be realized in other ways that would involve the face-to-face encounters? 

Labor Issues:

a. Intellectual Property: 

While the present letter of understanding between the PSC and CUNY (see URL: http://www.psc-cuny.org/distance.htm) provides intellectual property protection for faculty developing distance learning materials, this agreement expires on December 31, 2001.  The University is presently in the process of developing a new intellectual property policy that in draft form is not as protective of faculty rights. The Draft of Revised Intellectual Property Policy for CUNY is posted on the CUNY web site at www.cuny.edu/abtcuny/policies.

Included amongst these issues are the qustons:Who owns the materials? The courses? Who controls the materials? The courses?

b. Faculty workload: What are the limits for DL class size, number of DL sections? Are there to be voluntary or mandated DL assignments? Can new hires be required to teach online courses?

c. Academic Freedom: Can faculty use prerogatives to refuse using DL modalities?  Can an institution refuse the faculty request for a DL modality and deny access to space on a computer server for a DL course as it can deny classroom space? 

Political and Social Issues:

Can CUNY afford not to expand its DL programs and not respond to society’s need and demand for such: the need for access due to physical, familial, and occupational situations and the demand as evidenced in current market trends and the migration of FTE’s into DL programs across NY and the USA. 

Institutional Issues:

After 2001 CUNY will need to decide whether it will use its own resources for DL initiatives and programs.  Can it afford not to at that point?  CUNY has in its Online program provided centralized support for courses (development and delivery) and for faculty (training, technical support and incentives). Will CUNY continue to provide central support for all, some or none of the DL programs after 2002?  If CUNY central does continue its support will it move from the development of courses to programs and if so will such programs be located within single CUNY units or within CUNY as a whole as with the CUNY BA program?  Will CUNY move to create a system where learners can proceed to register and take DL courses in any combination of CUNY units and receive a degree from one of them or from some central office?  As CUNY moves forward with online courses, where will the marketing and advertising of the CUNY DL courses and programs reside?  What of the administration, registration, advisement, financial aid and counseling procedures needed for CUNY Online Degree granting programs? 

Philosophical Issues:

Considering the mission of CUNY:  does the provision of DL assist CUNY to better fulfill its mission particularly for certain communities?  Does it expand access and permit the more effective delivery of services not only to more learners but also to a more diverse community of learners? Would CUNY, in part, fail in its mission and in its social role if it does not offer DL?

Considering studies that indicate that DL does both contribute to the enrichment of the teaching process making it learner centered and supportive of learners and learning communities and contribute to mastery of content, skills and technically assisted intellectual discourse and problem solving: would CUNY fail in its pedagogic responsibilities not to make a full commitment to DL modalities?

DL provides for the further advance of knowledge and the promotion of intellectual skills development.  Would CUNY deserve to survive if does not develop DL when DL proves it can better provide for some learners? 

Should not an institution as large and prestigious and socially responsive as CUNY be fully engaged in the social revolution underway through the pervasive influx of information and communication technologies?  Should not CUNY deliberately engage in its own redefinition and recreation rather than merely being reactive and risk being marginalized? 

Conclusion 

Information technologies and the Internet have already entered into many social institutions to an astonishing degree producing significant impacts and developing dependencies upon them.  The educational institution with a natural affinity for such technologies as means for information transmission will continue its transformation perhaps unto the realization of Peter Drucker’s prediction. 

Even in a postmodernist age with a healthy distrust of certainty the continuation of distance learning modalities is a process most reasonably assured.  As long as individuals and institutions value access to opportunities and convenience and efficiency and economy, there will be learning taking place by means of some global communications superstructure.

Key questions for the present include: whether the distance education modalities will be developed to produce more efficacious vehicles to prepare learners with the knowledge and skills needed to deal with and prosper in our rapidly changing technological societies and another question is whether CUNY will be able to continue much longer without the use of such vehicles or, perhaps, even with them! 

Final Remarks:

For one of scores of sites that contain hordes of references and resources on Distance Learning the reader is directed to: http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/disedresource.htm