By Jen Davison, Ubyssey News Writer (article published in the Ubyssey September 16, 2008)
The Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology’s (CTLT) waiting room may be empty, but it is with good reason. CTLT is an innovative UBC department whose vision, “Bridging the Distance,” promises students that education is possible regardless of where you are or what your schedule is.
Michael Wong, a recent UBC graduate in sociology and commerce, believes that distance education (DE) is an indispensable part of the experience that UBC offers. Wong, now employed as Marketing and Communication’s Assistant for CTLT, said, “As we move more and more into the digital age, a lot of students are becoming more comfortable with online communication. A digital classroom is no longer foreign.”
In 2007, over 6000 students were registered in DE courses. Of these students, 88 per cent were enrolled simultaneously in on-campus courses. According to Leonora Crema, Head of Borrower Services and a UBC librarian with over 20 years of experience assisting e-learners, “The main advantage [to DE courses] is clearly life convenience, including more flexibility in regard to family and economic concerns.”
Distance education courses are predominantly delivered online, steadily eclipsing the few remaining correspondence-style courses. Classes involve online interaction with professors and classmates through posted lecture notes, discussion groups, chat rooms, wikis, weblogs and e-portfolios. Wong himself took an English course through DE and commented, “I was more engaged in the classroom interaction than in many of my other on-campus classes because every week I was talking to someone within the class about what we had written.”
Students can currently choose from over 130 DE courses representing 30 different subject areas. They are full-credit courses taught by UBC faculty that any student can use toward earning their degree. Each term, CTLT adds new classes to their course offerings. This term premiered Family Studies 316 (Human Sexuality) and Psychology 307 (Cultural Psychology). Biology 200 (Cell Biology I: Structural Basis), a basic course for science majors, has garnered much student interest since its introduction this past January. New courses to anticipate for this coming January include Sociology 100 (Introduction to Sociology), Earth and Ocean Sciences 116 (Dinosaurs’ Earth), and Philosophy 220A (Symbolic Logic I).
There are some things to consider before signing up for a DE course. Wong offers a warning to those students who view distance education as an expedient avenue to an effortless high mark. “They’re no walk in the park, especially if you’re not strong in discipline and self-motivation.” Another potential drawback is lack of social interaction within the UBC community. Although your professor and peers will become familiar with your virtual presence, Crema has found that some DE students still feel isolated. She qualifies this by noting, “So much has changed in distance education over the last ten years, and there is more social software to connect with an online community through than ever before.” Distance education technology centres around the WebCT Vista website. Vista serves not only DE courses, but many on-campus courses as well. The Vista website (www.vista.ubc.ca) offers numerous resources to orient new online students to their classroom venue and online routines.
In the future, you can look for some new and exciting additions to DE’s course offerings, as CTLT continues in its quest to support UBC’s commitment to a rich diversity of learning methods. “It isn’t for everyone,” Wong notes, “but we’re trying to make it accessible to anyone.” For a degree-seeking generation more experienced with the chat room than the aforementioned waiting room, this accessibility is no longer a bridge in the distance.