Virtual Education

I recently completed an adult education course at my local university. Nothing unusual in that, except I never met my instructor or fellow students.

In fact, although I went to class nearly every day for 10 weeks, I never even left home. My class, one of the first of a growing concept in Canada, was held in a virtual classroom, entirely through my home computer.

For someone who has always been reluctant to embrace new technology, this was quite an achievement. I have always preferred to speak with people directly rather than participate in the game of drawn-out, fragmented message transfer that occurs with e-mail and voicemail.

It was, therefore, with some trepidation that I enrolled in "Writing For Fun And Profit," an online course at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario.

My first assignment was to introduce myself, give a bit of background and state my objectives for the course. Initially, I was stumped. In a real classroom, I could have strung a couple of banal sentences together . But for some reason, when faced with a blank computer screen, I felt obliged to produce an entertaining, grammatically correct composition of at least 500 words.

I began to search desperately for accomplishments, anecdotes, dramatic moments in my life to fill the screen. And what about the tone I should adopt? Should I portray myself as witty and charming, or cool and sophisticated, or just plain cheerful?

At this point, I stopped sweating as I began to realize the potential of electronic communication. I would be in more control of my expression of thought in this course than I would ever be in a real classroom. Not a word would reach my instructor or classmates without my final approval. This course would also stretch me as a writer as no other course could, since every exchange would be in the written word.

It took me some time to acquire the patience needed for electronic communication. Virtual conversation is characterized by considerable lag time between messages. Occasionally, a few minutes elapse before a response appears on your computer screen, since, even if two people arrange to visit the electronic "village" together, only one user can "talk" at a time. Most of the time, it’s the next day before a reply is received.

One of the wonders of a virtual course is its global nature. Students from all over Ontario, and one brave soul from an isolated farm in rural Texas, joined the course at Western. Previous courses have included participants from Australia and Japan.

Imagining that we were chatting over a coffee at break time, as we would have been in a "real" course, I sent screens full of conversation to my fellow students. Some of us corresponded regularly, and friendships were initiated just as they would have been face-to-face.

As the weeks unfolded, personalities emerged on the screen. There was a quiet librarian who was a longtime contributor to her village weekly newspaper. An actor who had a part-time, pet-sitting business to pay the rent tossed in anecdotes . A lawyer, a recent immigrant, and the farmer from Texas (nearest town 300 miles away) added to the mix.

Most of us were keen to learn and communicate as much as possible, but I was surprised to find that some students paid infrequent visits to the village. Perhaps intimidated by the technology or unable to find time in their harried schedules, they did not fully participate. However, a number of us connected regularly to critique each other’s work and, most rewarding of all, to congratulate one among us when she sold her first newspaper article during the course.

Only once throughout the entire course did I make human contact. For one of our assignments, we were asked to interview a classmate and write a profile suitable for publication. You could almost feel the excitement swirling around the screen. Two of the students actually went so far as to meet in person, and peppered their assignments with visual descriptions. I made do with a telephone conversation -- arranged electronically, of course.

When the phone rang as expected at 9:00 p.m., I jumped. Very hesitantly I picked up the receiver, as if I couldn’t believe there would be someone there. My classmate exclaimed triumphantly, "We’re real! I was beginning to think I was a software program."

The most valuable aspect of the course was the availability of my instructor. We were in contact on an almost daily basis, which would have been impossible in a traditional classroom setting. I could read the lecture notes and assignments at my convenience, submit assignments at the touch of a button, and ask questions every day of the week, knowing I’d have a complete, written answer by the next day. Using the electronic village for communication meant everyone could move forward at his or her own pace, and the instructor could tutor each student individually.

Online education looks set to replace traditional distance learning. In the past, students were required to study from printed material sent through the mail, supplemented by television broadcasts and telephone consultations with instructors. Now, distance education materials are available on computer disk, CD-ROM and the Internet. Electronic mail is used for communication between fellow students and instructors. Courses offered on the World Wide Web can take advantage of the technology to send graphics. For example, a psychology course offered at Laurentian University includes pictures of brain anatomy which students can explore by computer.

You don’t have to be on the ’Net to take advantage of virtual education. Although the Internet offers the greatest choice of courses and is expanding at the fastest rate, many post-secondary institutions offer courses through their campus computer networks, such as the University of Western Ontario course in which I participated. All you need is a home computer (DOS or Mac) with a hard disk, a modem and a phone line. The university or college generally will provide you with the necessary communications software and an instruction manual. You don’t need to be a computer whiz; basic knowledge of your own computer is enough.

You can choose from a wide range of courses -- anything from an adult education course lasting a few weeks to a Masters Degree in Business Administration. You can study at schools around the world, meet students from many cultural backgrounds and expand your horizons, all without leaving home.

Just power up your PC -- and your computer screen becomes the doorway to your virtual classroom.

(Louise Dearden is a freelance writer living in London, Ontario.)

RESOURCES:

Where to Start:

If you don’t have access to the Internet on your home computer, visit a public library or neighbourhood "Internet Cafe." Some websites list all types of distance learning courses, not just those available on the Internet.

Canadian Distance Education Directory:

http://is.dal./jmerry/dist.htm

From this homepage you can access all Canadian colleges and universities. Course descriptions are offered, grouped by subject and include both correspondence and online courses.

International Centre for Distance Learning:

http://www-icdl.open.ac.uk/icdl/index.htm

An online information service listing institutions worldwide that provide distance learning. Details of programs and courses are available.

World Lecture Hall:

http://www.utexas.edu/world/lecture/

Lists courses available through the Internet, grouped by subject.

Athabasca University:

http://www.athabascau.ca

Athabasca University specializes and is a world leader in distance education. Its prospectus states: "We believe that where there is a will to learn, there should be opportunities to learn." By providing a university education free of conventional barriers, Athabasca plans to become a "virtual electronic campus." Call toll-free: 1-800-788-9041.

York University, Atkinson College:

http://vraie.york.ican.net

Atkinson College offers part-time programs and individual courses. A new project, Virtual Reality Assisted Interactive Education (VRAIE), is now offering a varied selection of courses on the Internet. Call: (416) 736-5220.

University of Western Ontario:

http://www.ptce.uwo.ca (for part-time and continuing edcuation)

Western offers various online courses through its own campus computer network and on the Internet. Call: (519) 679-2111.