What They're Saying

'Hybrid' Teaching Seeks to End the Divide Between Traditional and Online Instruction

Walter Cummins, an English professor sporting a gray beard and a tweed jacket, began to tell a meandering anecdote during a Friday morning class at Fairleigh Dickinson University's campus here. Several students exhibited classic signs of tuning out. One stared out the window, while another picked at her fingernails distractedly.

Moments like this make some professors and education-technology experts wonder: Would it be more effective to replace some traditional class meetings -- or even whole courses -- with online sessions? After all, in a virtual classroom, students can log in when it is convenient for them, and they can review prerecorded lectures if they miss them the first time. And some students who rarely take part in classroom discussions are more likely to participate online, where they get time to think before they type and aren't put on the spot.

As Mr. Cummins puts it: "Why do we have to meet twice a week? Why can't there be another type of activity that substitutes for a class?"

At Fairleigh Dickinson, administrators say the online requirement is part of an effort to give students a "global education." The college has hired 15 "global virtual faculty" members living in other countries. The adjunct instructors are paid about $1,000 per semester to participate in online courses led by campus-based professors.

"If you can reach the world, you can bring the world to campus," says J. Michael Adams, the university's president.

Such questions are popular at Fairleigh Dickinson, which has taken the unusual step of requiring all of its students to take at least one course online each year, beginning with this year's freshman class. With the requirement, most students at the university -- even those who live just a short walk from classroom buildings -- will take about 10 percent of their courses online. Though officials here say they are proud of the institution's teaching, they also say that students should get used to taking online courses. And they hope the online-course requirement will help bring outside perspectives to their campus.

This year, all freshmen at Fairleigh Dickinson are required to take an online course called "The Global Challenge," which is a revised version of a core class the university has offered for years. Though most of the course is online, it also requires six or seven in-person meetings throughout the semester.

Student reaction to the online-learning requirement has been largely positive -- perhaps because they realize that many sections of the course would otherwise be offered at 8:30 a.m.

"I would rather sit at home and do my work than have to get up in the morning," says Mili Patel, a freshman who took the Global Challenge course last semester. "I work well on my own," she adds.

But some students have had difficulty adjusting to the virtual-classroom environment.

"In the beginning, I had a lot of trouble with online," says Dave Dragani, a freshman who also took "The Global Challenge" last semester. "I think it would be better if it was in the classroom."

Catherine Kelley, assistant provost for educational technology, defends the requirement. She says students will probably need to know how to take online courses once they leave the campus, because many continuing-education courses are already offered online.

"For some of the students, it's medicine," says Ms. Kelley. "They may not like it, but they need it -- like a basic composition course."

In fact, one of the main goals of the university's requirement is to use the campus environment to teach students how to succeed in virtual classrooms.

"It's like learning a foreign language," says Ms. Kelley. "The best way to learn it is to immerse yourself in it." And when on-campus students do struggle with online courses, they can go to a professor's face-to-face office hours for guidance.

High-Tech Minded

Back in the 20th century, the trick to achieving a college diploma was: read books, go to class. But Fairleigh Dickinson University is asking students to follow the opposite strategy. Beginning this fall, entering freshmen must take at least one course a year online, generally shunning books and the classroom.

"Each of our college graduates has to have a high level of facility with the Internet," said Michael B. Sperling, associate provost for interdisciplinary, distributed and global learning. "We're talking about being able to work in collaborative teams in a digital environment, to be able to converse in an online environment."

The program, which is thought to be a first, will be taught in part by professors at other universities around the world. [Called the global virtual faculty, some of these individuals are professors but many are practitioners in their fields.] Freshmen are expected to take a course called The Global Challenge, which deals with environmental, cultural, societal and political issues. As sophomores, those students will be offered an array of courses modeled on the traditional ones at the university, which has a student body of 9,000 and campuses in Teaneck-Hackensack and Florham Park-Madison, N.J. [FDU also has campuses in Wroxton, England, and Tel Aviv, Israel.]

All communication will take place through online bulletin boards, e-mail, chat rooms and Web conference areas. Books are optional.

"We're going to ease them into the experience," said Jason Scorza, a professor of political science who is helping develop the online courses. That is, the first six sessions for freshmen will be taken the old-fashioned way -- face-to-face.

As Distance Education Evolves, Choices Reflect the Cultures of Institutions

... at Fairleigh Dickinson University, online education is central to the institution's mission, says Michael Sperling, interim dean of its University College [now associate provost for interdisciplinary, distributed and global learning] and the distance-education coordinator.

Starting with this fall's freshman class, students will be required to take at least one online course a year. With the Internet and computers becoming more important in daily life, he [Sperling] says, it's crucial for students to be able to perform tasks like organizing a team project online and using the Internet for research.

"To be a well-rounded, proficient college graduate, it's a 'skill' you have to have -- and we say 'skill' in quotes because it's not just surfing the Net, it's being able to use the Internet effectively," Mr. Sperling says. "It's a very different motivation than what other people are doing."

For example, the University is developing an online course, called "The Global Challenge," that will be required for all students, he says. It will be an interdisciplinary course covering armed conflict and environmental growth from various world perspectives. The course will touch on issues drawn from the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences, he says.

Learning To Go the Distance

Along with learning how to do their laundry and work their meal card, freshmen at Fairleigh Dickinson University this fall will learn how to take credit courses online.

University President J. Michael Adams says that by requiring every undergraduate to participate in a distance-learning course each year, it shows FDU recognizes that the Internet is a fundamental learning tool.

"This is a new model based on the conviction that this new way of learning is important to an educated college graduate and enhances the value of an FDU degree," explains Dr. Michael Sperling, coordinator of the school's distance learning initiative [and associate provost for interdisciplinary, distributed and global learning].

All new freshmen will take the same online course this fall. "This core seminar focuses on several global issues, such as pollution and nuclear proliferation. We are adding enrichment material that the Web makes possible as well as resources from around the world," says Sperling. For example, students can link to the City of Hiroshima Web site to understand nuclear destruction.

Fairleigh Dickinson Requires Online Courses for All Students

Online Education will soon be part of the education of on-campus students at New Jersey's Fairleigh Dickinson University. Beginning in fall 2001, incoming freshmen will have to take one FDU online course for every 32 credits they earn. FDU is thought to be the first university with such a requirement.

[Michael Sperling, associate provost for interdisciplinary, distributed and global learning, was quoted as saying:] "Increasingly, people will be spending a lifetime of learning with the Internet. There are skills that we see as vital to our students: to learn effectively with the Internet, to know how to pace yourself appropriately, to engage in threaded discussions and collaborative workshops."

FDU has recently stressed global education as part of its identity. The school hopes online courses will also allow "adjunct faculty" from abroad to work alongside university-based instructors. "If there is a course in East African politics, we can bring in somebody from the Ministry of Education in Kenya," Sperling says. "We'll be forging contacts with distinguished people from around the world and engaging them in these courses, bringing the world into our university."

College Insists on Internet Familiarity

With distance education being touted as a way to bring high-level courses to far-flung audiences, one American university has begun ... requiring students on its campuses to take at least one online course per year from its own faculty.

The idea, said officials at Fairleigh Dickinson University, is to make students more familiar with the internet.

"We've asked ourselves what is the skill set global citizens will need," said J. Michael Adams [president]. "One of those things is facility with the Internet. In the future, if an individual feels he or she needs to learn a new skill, we believe the first place they will look is on the Internet."

Seventy percent of US universities now offer distance-learning programmes, but none for the students on their own campuses.

"A common view of distance learning for many universities is that it is a way to reach new markets and create a new income stream," Dr. Adams said. "We're not taking that view. The corollary is that if you can reach out to that world, you can bring the world back to the campus."

Academic, cultural and corporate leaders from all over the world are being recruited to become involved in the university's distance-learning courses, he said. "If I'm an anthropology student, if I take that course by distance learning, I may be online part of the week with an anthropologist on the ground in New Guinea, all of which adds a world view to the educational process."

A University Moves to Require Distance Courses

Fairleigh Dickinson University has taken the unusual step of requiring that all undergraduates complete at least one distance-learning course annually.

While thousands of students take online courses each year, Fairleigh Dickinson, which has two campuses in New Jersey, may be the first university to require that all resident undergraduates do so.

Fairleigh Dickinson's president, J. Michael Adams, said the requirement was part of an effort to help students become "global scholars" who are able to use the Internet for a variety of purposes.

"I refuse to get involved in a debate over whether distance learning is better or worse than classroom teaching," said Mr. Adams. "It is simply different. And it is one channel that our students must be skilled in."

The university already offers distance learning for students who don't live on campus, but it now plans to shift its attention to creating online courses for traditional undergraduates. "We have taken a significantly different view of distance learning than most other universities," said Mr. Adams. "Most see it as a vehicle to reach new student populations."

Campus Requires Online Courses

(Note: A similar version of this AP story appeared in print and Internet media throughout the country.)

It sounds like a college student's dream -- a university requiring students not to come to class. Starting next year, new students at Fairleigh Dickinson University will be required to take at least one course a year online. It's believed to be a first for a college or university.

"We believe it's a transforming learning tool," says J. Michael Adams, president of the 9,000-student university. "If we are preparing global citizens, we believe that our graduates must be facile with the Internet."

A spokesman for a non-profit group that represents 1,750 university technology officers says he knows of no other university that has required its resident undergraduates to take an online course, but "others will probably be doing this," says Bob Burdick, spokesman for Boulder, Colo.-based EDUCAUSE.

"The assumption is that students will increasingly demand this kind of service because it offers them a tremendous capability to structure their own time."

"Distance learning, when it's done right, can be as effective as classroom instruction," Adams says. "It is neither better nor worse. It is just different."