Distance learning architecture degree program

The thought of graduate school may conjure up images of picturesque, ivy-covered buildings and classrooms with teachers' lecterns facing rows of student desks. Yet hundreds of students have taken Indiana University (IU) graduate courses for the past 13 years without ever seeing the beautiful Bloomington campus or stepping foot in a traditional classroom. These students have taken their coursework via interactive television at remote sites located throughout the State of Indiana, as well as at sites in Upper Marlboro (MD) and Cincinnati (OH).

The Department of Recreation and Park Administration at Indiana University Bloomington initiated its current graduate-level Distance Learning program in 1984, using the Indiana Higher Education Telecommunications System (IHETS) to reach sites across the state. This was not, however, the first time the Department's faculty employed the IHETS system for teaching. In 1982 and 1983, Professors Don Martin and John Ross pioneered televised teaching over IHETS as they co-taught a park planning course with faculty from the Department of Landscape Architecture at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. The course was taken jointly by students of both IU's Department of Recreation and Park Administration and Ball State's Department of Landscape Architecture. It was telecast between the two campuses using a split-screen technique that permitted students at both locations to see and hear one another.

The IHETS system was originally developed in the late 1970s to enable state universities to offer interactive televised courses to locations throughout Indiana. Today IHETS has grown so that it can transmit telecourses to more than 250 sites over a two-way audio, one-way video system. Conversion of the IHETS network from fiber optic cable to satellite transmission, in 1994, has allowed courses to be transmitted to sites virtually anywhere in the continental United States and parts of Alaska and Puerto Rico.

Residential students at IU Bloomington participate in the televised courses by attending class in a studio/classroom located in the Radio-Television Building. This specially designed classroom seats 24 students around tables equipped with microphones. Three cameras mounted in the classroom permit students at the remote sites to see the on-campus students and instructor, while a sound system allows them to hear from students at the remote sites.

The first distance learning class to be offered by IU's Department of Recreation and Park Administration to remote sites was a course in therapeutic recreation (TR) televised over IHETS to Indianapolis and Evansville (IN) in the fall of 1984. The program quickly expanded. The next semester a third site was added in Richmond, Indiana. Over the program's 13 years of operation, IU recreation telecourses have been received in 11 Hoosier communities, ranging from South Bend, in the far northern part of the state, to the southern cities of Madison and Evansville, both on the Ohio River.

Two years ago, with the advent of satellite transmission, satellite dishes were installed in Upper Marlboro (MD) and Cincinnati (OH) in order to allow students in the Washington, DC area and the Cincinnati/Dayton area to have access to the IU program. Practitioners in these regions had requested that IU offer coursework in therapeutic recreation for them because no graduate programs existed in their communities.

The vast majority of courses instructed have been in therapeutic recreation. To date, hundreds of students have taken TR courses and more than 40 students have completed their entire masters degrees in therapeutic recreation through the televised distance learning program. It has generally taken the part-time students in TR three to four years to complete their masters degrees. Faculty members Drs. David Austin, Ed Hamilton and Bryan McCormick have been regular instructors for the TR telecourses. Other faculty have supported the TR program by teaching telecourses in their areas of specialization. For example, Dr. Dan McLean offered a management seminar, Dr. Lois Silverman taught a philosophy of leisure class and Dr. Ruth Russell taught a statistics course.

The Department's telecourse offerings recently have been expanded to include a seminar in park and recreation resource management. Two years ago, Professor James Ridenour taught a park management seminar over IHETS to students at Purdue University and Ball State University. Plans call for a number of remote sites to be added next semester so that students in communities throughout Indiana can participate in the seminar as well.

IU's Department of Recreation and Park Administration envisions further expansion of distance learning. This past fall the Department offered its first televised workshop. Focusing on research for the practitioner, the workshop brought together participants from both the Washington, DC area and the Cincinnati/Dayton area. Two more televised workshops have been planned for 1997 and the Department anticipates providing six televised workshops annually. Plans also call for the addition of a third out-of-state site for the masters program in therapeutic recreation. Finally, the Department is currently engaged in discussions with a community college regarding the possibility of developing a joint degree in which upper division courses would be taught by IU faculty using interactive television and other means of distance learning, such as on-line courses using computer technology.

IU administrators have voiced enthusiastic support for the distance learning program. "We believe distance learning is the wave of the future as more and more adults seek off-campus educational experiences," said Dean Tony Mobley, of the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, in which the Department of Recreation and Park Administration is located. Joel Meier, chairman of the Department of Recreation and Park Administration, also has high praise for the distance learning program. "We are proud of past accomplishments in the area of distance learning, but we anticipate that what we have done thus far has been only the tip of the technological iceberg," Meier said.

Faculty at IU perceive a trend emerging as they conduct their distance learning program. They see that ultimately there will be a melding together of distance and on-campus learning. The focus is beginning to move toward how technology can enhance learning, whether at a distance or on campus. While students will continue to learn at a distance, distinctions between distance learning and on-campus learning will disappear as both distance learning students studying at remote sites and residential students in their dorm rooms will be able to benefit from courses taught over television or online. One thing seems certain, educational technology will continue to play a large role in the future of higher education in the 1990s and beyond.

Last November, California residents approved Proposition 218, a sweeping regulation that gives them the power to direct or withdraw monetary resources for government functions. The use of direct voter control over-rather than reliance on-elected officials implies that voters are dissatisfied with current spending choices and are willing to become more involved in the fiscal decisions that their municipalities face.

In the February issue of Western City magazine, author Kay Jimno, a consultant in long-term financial planning, systems analysis and organizational development, explains how Proposition 218 will change the way government and citizens work together. The new era of citizens as consumers and financial decision makers presents an opportunity to local government, and to parks and recreation services.

The first step in the decision making process involves education. Municipalities must share information with taxpayers in a straight forward format that will allow them to make choices based on their priorities. As a compliment to Ms. Jimno's article, Western City included an example of this type of communication in a clear (and somewhat familiar) format.

RELATED ARTICLE: KEEPING CITIZENS INFORMED

To give residents a better perspective on how their property taxes are spent. the City of San Mateo created a "Citizen Benefit Statement." Mailed last October, to coincide with county property tax bills, the statements gave some 17,500 city residents their first detailed glimpse at their share of the cost of key city services. Pleased with the many calls and comments received from enthusiastic residents as well as inquiries from cities around the country, the city plans to mail the statements again this year.

Dear Property Owner: