The number of students learning via University of Oregon Distance Education courses has increased five-fold since the program’s cyberspace inception five years ago.
Students registered for 647 spots in distance education classes this term, according to the registrar’s office. It is the highest enrollment of any term in the program’s history. And data recorded since 1996 shows that more online students are registering each year.
They are surfing through coursework for undergraduate physics, economics, astronomy, political science, geology, linguistics and arts and administration classes from the confines of their keyboard consoles. The lecture hall is replaced with a home page in the digital universe where students can access their assignments and readings online.
But some are hesitant to embrace distance education courses because they could mean lost professorships.
“We think that might be in the vision of some of the promoters of distance education because they believe it will cut costs and they won’t need as many faculty,” said Ruth Flower, public policy director for the American Association of University Professors.
However, University Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Jack Rice said the school has no plans to replace live bodies with 14-inch monitors and HTML.
“If you’re asking if the University will increase distance education at the expense of faculty who teach courses here, the answer is emphatically, ‘No,’” he said. “I don’t see how it could cut costs by reducing faculty on a campus like the UO where the bulk of the student body is on our campus.”
But Flower said some campuses are examining the possibility of designing Net-based courses that function independently. As technology advances and provides the means for that independence, a debate about intellectual property rights arises, she said.
The AAUP debated in the pages of the November-December issue of Academe, the bimonthly magazine of the nationwide organization, who has intellectual property rights to course materials published by professors — the professors or the universities that employ them to teach and conduct research.
“Our sense is that written material is owned by the author, and if the professor is the author, it’s the property of the professor,” Flower said.
But Rice said Oregon Administrative Rule Division 43 mandates that materials developed by a University faculty member in association with course work is the property of the State Board of Higher Education, not of the professor.
“That’s my understanding,” he said.
Mark F. Smith, AAUP government relations director, said different interpretations of copyright law have led to different intellectual property right policies created for universities. He said an institution’s interpretation of the “Work for Hire” doctrine, which determines ownership of material developed by an employee of a company, is critical. Smith said newspapers, for example, own the work produced by their reporters because they are paying those reporters to produce it.
“We show how the ‘Work for Hire’ doctrine doesn’t apply to academic work,” Smith said. “A number of institutions have recognized that the faculty member who creates the work owns it.”
As the debate presses on across the nation, enrollment in Web-taught courses at the University is swelling. Some attribute the trend to a more active student lifestyle.
“I don’t think students are as willing or able to come to a campus,” director for summer session Ronald Trebon said. “They want an education that can be delivered to them.”
Some students, like junior Heather Kaplinger, just want to avoid the masses of humanity found in most lower-division classrooms. She enrolled in Linguistics 150 and Economics 201 last year, the first distance education courses she’s taken at the University.
“It’s better than being crammed in a room with 200 people,” she said. “And I can take a test at 2 a.m.”
The class schedule enabled Kaplinger to hold her job and earn undergraduate credit, but she missed the interaction with her fellow students, she said.
Distance education has provided greater flexibility and access to classes for students who work, like Kaplinger, or for students who are raising children, Rice said. But some classes aren’t compatible with an online format.
“One example of a course that is not geared for learning from a distance ed course is more of an explanation-type process, rather than a discussion and debate-type process,” Rice said. A class such as Argumentative Writing relies heavily on in-class debate. “How could you do a course like that through distance ed?”
But Rice said he expects distance education courses to grow exponentially as Internet technology becomes more sophisticated. The advent of video conferencing, which presents class discussion via video cassette, provides only a glimpse into the possibilities. With interactive Net technology, more courses could be offered in an online curriculum, he said.
“The use of technology in distance education is going to grow,” Flower said. “It’s not growing just in the sense that it’s replacing current teaching methods, it’s reaching different audiences that are not on campus. That’s exciting. I’m thinking of taking an anthropology course myself.”