New Pathways To A Degree
Two New Reports Released On The Annenberg/Cpb Projects'
What Is New Pathways To A Degree?
"The New Pathways to a Degree: Technology Opens the College" was an
initiative of the Annenberg/CPB Projects in 1991 that sought to
demonstrate the challenges of extending the reach of traditional higher
education by opening programs to new students and new academic
resources. The term, "distance learning" was purposefully avoided in the
program guidelines. Instead, the Annenberg/CPB Projects staff hoped that
this initiative would help colleges break away from the traditional
separation of on-campus and off-campus learning and instead focus on:
- reorganizing internal relationships and policies,
- offering comparable services to all students,
- assisting faculty in adapting technology into their
teaching, and
- offering one or more significant academic programs to
new learners.
Seven projects received $1.8 million over three years. The New Pathways
awardees represented public and private, two- and four-year institutions,
and state higher education systems: Rochester Institute of Technology
(New York), Northern Virginia Community College, University of Maine at
Augusta, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, College
of St. Catherine (Minnesota), Oregon State System of Higher Education,
and West Virginia Higher Education System. The Western Cooperative for
Educational Telecommunications, a program of the Western Interstate
Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), was selected by the
Annenberg/CPB Projects to evaluate and report on the outcomes of these
seven projects.
EVALUATION REPORTS OF NEW PATHWAYS NOW AVAILABLE
In July 1994, the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications
will publish its evaluation findings of the New Pathways to a Degree
initiative in two companion volumes: _New Pathways to a Degree:
Technology Opens the College_ and _Seven Technology Stories: New Pathways
to a Degree_.
_New Pathways to a Degree: Technology Opens the College_, edited by
Richard A. Markwood and Sally M. Johnstone, is the formal final
evaluation report to the Annenberg/CPB Projects. Each of the seven
projects is fully described in a separate chapter written by one of seven
evaluators: Barbara Beno, Patricia Kovel Jarboe, Richard Markwood, Ralph
Meuter, Art St. George, Ellen Wagner, and John Witherspoon.
The central themes that are examined in each chapter and for each project
are the internal organizational structures and the reactions of faculty,
students, and administrators to their institution's involvement in New
Pathways. The reader will learn how these seven institutions/systems
provided the critical support structures for faculty and students,
frequently facilitated by the use of technology. In addition, one
chapter reports on the findings of faculty and student surveys, conducted
by the Western Cooperative as part of its evaluation strategy. These
data draw a number of comparisons among traditional, on-campus
instruction and the technology-assisted New Pathways courses. Student
access to various technologies, quality and frequency of faculty/student
interactions, and faculty reactions to different technologies are among
the topics and graphs included in this data chapter.
The companion report, _Seven Technology Stories: New Pathways to a
Degree_, also edited by Richard A. Markwood and Sally M. Johnstone, is a
collection of "personal reflections" by the seven evaluators on what
they perceive to be the major lessons learned and major accomplishments
of each project. These essays provide a less structured and lighter
narrative description of the seven New Pathways to a Degree projects. A
summary chapter by Sally Johnstone refers to the survey and analysis
chapter that is included in the full report.
THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY ON INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE
In his foreword, Stephen C. Ehrmann, senior program officer for The
Annenberg/CPB Projects, refers to these seven institutions/systems as
pioneers of evolutionary change of American higher education. "As I read
the fascinating reports and survey data...I'm struck by the many meanings
of the phrase 'opening the college.' This report tells the story of
colleges opening themselves, not only to students and new academic
resources, but also to new ways of organizing their work and their
relations with the larger world, and new challenges, too."
The New Pathways projects, as documented in these two reports, provide
strong evidence of how committed individuals, with adequate support, and
aided by technology can indeed "open the college" on several fronts:
Opening a degree opportunity to students learning
off-campus ...New Pathways students were motivated by the desire
for a degree.
Opening the program to new academic resources ...for
example, Maine's use of their URSUS integrated library system.
Opening the process to new partners ...these projects
encouraged, even required, new working relationships between
academic units and other institutional units.
Opening up the conception of time in instruction ...these
reports document how much students and faculty appreciated the
quality and frequency of interaction offered by electronic
mail and computer conferencing.
Opening new channels of communication among students
...anecdotal and survey data highlight the importance of formal
and informal communications among New Pathways students.
Opening teaching to new participants ...the New Pathways
faculty liked working as an instructional team and many wished
they had the same opportunities and team support when teaching
students on-campus.
Opening the classroom to new observers ...faculty were
ambivalent about this potential loss of privacy though this was
not universal; others liked the idea of a wider audience.
In her Executive Summary of the evaluation report, Sally Johnstone,
director of the Western Cooperative, cites five factors that contributed
to the success of the New Pathways projects:
- support from the highest levels of the institution
- strong commitment to underserved students
- conscientious attention to administrative detail
- faculty involvement in an overall academic and technical team
- openness on the part of students and faculty to using new
technologies
FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE EVALUATION PROJECT
Contact:
Sally Johnstone, Western Cooperative for Educational
Telecommunications
Internet: Sally.Johnstone@Colorado.Edu
Stephen Ehrmann, The Annenberg/CPB Projects
Internet: Ehrmann@soul.cpb.org
MAJOR FINDINGS
An Executive Summary of the Western Cooperative's evaluation findings is
available on this gopher as "New Pathways Major Findings."
HOW TO OBTAIN PRINT COPIES OF THE EVALUATION REPORTS
Contact:
WICHE Publications Office
PO Drawer "P", Boulder, CO 80301-9752
voice: 303/541-0290, fax: 303/541-0291
Please specify the publication number when ordering, and add an
additional $3 handling fee to the full order.
_New Pathways to a Degree: Technology Opens the College_
(publication number 2A247, 180 pages)
$17 for members of the Western Cooperative for Educational
Telecommunications
$22 for non-members
_Seven Technology Stories: New Pathways to a Degree_
(publication number 2A246, 88 pages)
$13 for members of the Western Cooperative for Educational
Telecommunications
$18 for non-members
| Modification date: March 07, 2004 |
© Copyright 2004 by Brad Cox |
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