Discussion: View Thread

I've been watching the thread on distance learning for the past few days
and it was a good time to ask a question. Does anyone know how distance
learning is viewed by traditional institutions. Specifically, degrees
earned by distance learning and how schools view faculty with degrees
earned non-traditionally. Given that it is relatively new, I can see how
some schools might be biased.

I have a traditional Ph.D. in Leadership & Education and am considering
taking a course or two via the web. Many of these courses lead to a
degree, either MBA, MS or Ph.D., however I wondered if this helps
credibility or hurts it. Any thoughts?
______________________________________________________
Mark R. Testa, Ph.D.
Department Chairman for Academic Studies
Associate Professor

Johnson & Wales University
1701 NE 127th St.
North Miami, FL 33181
(305) 892-7552
______________________________________________________

"You can alter the conditions of your life,
by altering your attitudes of mind"

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> From: Mark Testa <mtesta@NETROX.NET>

> I've been watching the thread on distance learning for the past few days
> and it was a good time to ask a question. Does anyone know how distance
> learning is viewed by traditional institutions. Specifically, degrees
> earned by distance learning and how schools view faculty with degrees
> earned non-traditionally. Given that it is relatively new, I can see how
> some schools might be biased.
>

I can speak to this topic from a personal perspective! While my BA and MBA
are from NCA accredited institutions, I earned my Ph.D. from California
Coast University (rather hard to maintain an international consulting
practice doing it the traditional way). In my experience traditional
institutions are likely to maintain their ties to tradition (if only to
maintain the academic monopoly) -- and until significant changes are made
in accreditation criteria will not view non-traditionally educated faculty
with great enthusiasm. Unfortunate -- as all of the-non traditional
programs I have experienced have provided a much more extensive and
complete educational experience for me -- but true. Perhaps a case of
closed systems perpetuate closed minds?

John

John D Tongren
Tongren & Associates
jtongren@coactiveconnection.com
http://www.coactiveconnection.com
616-780-4440
Advocate CoActive Control & Audit

The AACSB will have their hands full with this issue of evaluating distance
learning courses. I have given presentations on this topic at their last two
meetings and will present again in Montreal next week at the EMBA conference.
Accreditation
applications are higher than ever and the criteria are more complex-
investment by biz schools in distance ed will have to evaluate the impact on
accreditation- how it fits the schools' mission.

The Open University in the UK used to be regarded as 'non traditional but
now that it is older, morre than 25 years, it is fully accpeted and known
to be good. It seems to be the usual problem of knowing who the provider
is.

As it is likely to be a very common way in the future everyone is waiting
for people to take risks!

That may seem flippant but this type of change is like any othjer -
appeals to those who like to be innovative or those with place and time
constraints. They are not a large proportion of the population; the
debate is ongoing in the UK - see The Higher - available on the web,
because of our changing patterns of access to higher education. According
to a Minister (Tessa Blackstone - ex master of Birbeck College U of
London) the increase in those wanting HE is largely from the mature
sector of the population. Distance learning is likely toappeal to his
group.

Anne

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Anne Leeming tel +44 0171 477 8623 fax +44 (0)171 477 8628
Director MBA(IT&Management), Department of Management Systems and Information
City University Business School, Barbican Centre, London EC4Y 8HB, UK
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The question was raised:
> Does anyone know how distance
>learning is viewed by traditional institutions. Specifically, degrees
>earned by distance learning and how schools view faculty with degrees
>earned non-traditionally. Given that it is relatively new, I can see how
>some schools might be biased.

My impression is this. The more traditional institution, the slower they
have been to embrace the offerings of new technology. This includes
distance learning, electronic journals, and many other thing.

What I believe we've seen recently is more interest among the "traditionals"
in offering their own courses through distance learning. Basically, they
(we!) were taking a beating in the marketplace, because so many other
schools were using it to make courses more easily available--there are only
so many students out there and convenience is a large factor in choosing a
program.

Now the dilemma is -- how can a school profess to be offering the same
quality program through their own distance learning courses and, at the same
time, question credentials of an individual on the basis of having earned
them through distance learning?

This issue is starting to hurt a little, but not yet enough to get people to
sit down and seriously decide how to make a clear distinction for quality
judgments. I'm afraid for now, "traditionals" still are only comfortable
with faculty who have done it the old familiar way. That will probably have
to change, but I think it's going to be a slow change process.

Gayle



Gayle Porter
Rutgers University
School of Business
Camden, NJ 08102
609-225-6216
gporter@camden.rutgers.edu

Mark Testa <mtesta@NETROX.NET>asked about the credibility of
degrees/courses taken via distance learning. Last March there
was an article on the first such graduates of Duke's MBA program.
It seemed to suggest that some firms like IBM might consider
that a degree gotten over the web might suggest that the individual
was MORE comfortable with the new information technological
than one who sat in traditional classroom and thus provide more
of an edge to an individual who had such a degree.
Cybercollegially,
Charlie Wankel
netmaster mg-ed-dv