Brown & Duguid

As a member of the Rutgers staff working for Continuing Education and Outreach, one of the main units responsible for providing distance and outreach services, it has been interesting to see how such a traditional school has evolved over the past couple of years. As more online institutions like The University of Phoenix, continue to increase in popularity, traditional schools may need to re-valuate their current system in order to remain competitive in the market. However, by no means do I believe online education will completely replace that of the traditional class environment, but I do feel traditional schools should be open to the needs of those students unable to participate in the standard classroom setting.

Brown & Duguid discuss how Penn State addressed this issue with the launch of the "World Campus" in 1998. This institution currently offers 50 online degrees programs at associate, bachelor and master levels. Rutgers on the other hand, only provides a handful of online degree programs and is rolling out more individual online course offerings each year, but at a very slow rate to that of its competitors. It is a constant struggle to find departments and faculty willing to create and approve an online course let alone an entire degree program to be approved by the offering school. I feel fortunate that SCILS is one of the few that does provide such flexibility. :)

The Brown & Duguid reading also highlights the difference between "learning about" and "learning to be" which is very important to consider when evaluating the quality of the online environment and learning in general. Practice is key to the educational system as it helps shape and support learning. In seeing where education may be headed, I believe that a blend of both an online collaborative environment coupled with a practicum involving their classmates or peers in the field would be the preferable and prove to be most productive.