4. The Electronic University Network, by Eric Alan,
Associate, Research & Development Division, EUN

All of us who read the GLOSAS newsletter share a belief that learning can reach beyond classrooms and campuses, but we are realizing that vision in ways that are dramatically different. All of us under the distance learning umbrella have been explorers of new educational terrain, some of us crossing it with envelopes and stamps, others with transistor radios, still others with satellites, or computers.

At The Electronic University Network, we have pursued our common cause according to a set of beliefs and commitments that differ sharply from those of many of our distance learning colleagues. Our President, Dr. Steve Eskow, summarizes those commitments and convictions in this way:

1. The technologies we choose for distance learning should be state of the mind, not state of the art. That satellite technology is newer than the book or the radio does not mean it is better for instruction. We justify our technologies on pedagogic, not technological criteria.

2. The technologies we choose should be inclusive, not exclusive. If few potential students have SVGA monitors or CD-ROM players, choose mono monitors and make the CD-ROM optional.

3. It is preferable to choose technologies that free students from the three barriers of geography, structure, and time. Conventional instruction requires you to come to a certain city, a certain building, and be there at a certain day and time to receive instruction. Some technologies free you from one of these barriers, some two, while a few, like correspondence study, free you from all three.

4. The technology we choose should ideally be "dialogic" not "monologic". Students should be able to talk to other students, and to the professor. They should not be merely passive observers of instruction.

5. Distance learning students should have access to a "virtual campus" as well to an "instructional delivery system". Like students on the "real" campus, distance students need libraries, lounges for socialization, lecture halls and counselling centers.

6. The computer, modem and international telephone system, in the form of computer conferencing, is a modest, affordable, appropriate educational technology that meets many of these criteria. The computer screen becomes the virtual campus, the shared space that can bring together students from around the nation and the world for dialog and community. When students are also sent books, or audio or video tapes, or teaching software, we create learning systems of great subtlety and power.

Clearly these positions, enunciated by Dr. Eskow, fly in the face of much that is being said elsewhere: about one picture being worth a thousand words, about modern students needing images to learn, about the rapid obsolescence of print and text. Dr. Eskow maintains that our civilization is becoming more dependent on those with print and text literacy, not less, and that colleges have a special responsibility to foster textual skills. All of these positions are based on practicality. We at EUN firmly believe that distance learning must think in practical terms; for, regardless of the beauty of a theory or the blinding brilliance of a new technology, neither result in effective education unless the content and its means of delivery are widely accessible and useful.

One way in which Electronic University Network assures practicality is by working hard to minimize the difficulties of the process for both colleges and the students. EUN's services to colleges and students are limited by two constraints:

1. The college and its faculty retain all of their prerogatives and responsibilities. The college is responsible for the quality of the faculty; the faculty is responsible for the quality of instruction.

2. There is no royal road to learning. Learning new skills and coping with new ideas that ask us to see and live in the world differently often involve the pain of change; and the new communication technologies, however convivial, are not designed to eliminate the difficulties inherent in learning.

What EUN can do is eliminate or minimize many of the difficulties inherent in bringing students in different parts of the country together with faculty so that they can think and talk together. Throughout the entire process, from conception of a distance learning project to the awarding of degrees, EUN remains closely involved. And indeed, we believe the responsibility for involvement includes making our educational offerings accessible to the largest number of people. This has led to some careful and perhaps counter-intuitive choices of services offered, and method of course delivery.

EUN has chosen to provide a complete turnkey set of services to colleges and universities that desire to reach and teach students through distance learning. This allows colleges and universities to avoid the long learning curve, large investment and high operating budget required to develop and operate an inhouse computer conferencing system. EUN designs and maintains the online "campus" for the college, freeing the college from the expense of having to provide their own technical and support personnel.

EUN also chooses to further enhance the practicality of distance learning for the college in several ways. First, EUN trains the faculty in the use of the technology; and, after experiencing the process with numerous colleges and universities, EUN has become quite sensitive to its hidden subtleties. EUN also trains the faculty in the adaptation of conventional courses for distance purposes. Having been President for twenty years of Rockland Community College (a college of the State University of New York), and President of EUN and Open Learning Systems, Inc. for the past ten years, Dr. Steve Eskow is uniquely able to bridge the worlds of traditional academia and distance learning. Through his participation in many additional projects, he's been a prominent leader in distance learning and international education for much of his long career.

EUN also handles printing and distributing instructional materials associated with online courses. EUN is able to provide this service to reach students anywhere in the United States and anywhere else in the world where the telephone connections make EUN access possible.

Additionally, EUN assists in recruiting students for the college using online information and other media. EUN maintains a toll-free telephone line to handle the inquiries of potential students and colleges. EUN is particularly visible in the corporate marketplace. As the advantage of distance learning courses for busy employees has become common knowledge, a long list of major corporations support EUN courses through their tuition assistance programs.

EUN offers to shoulder much of the responsibility for making distance education practical for colleges and universities, and it works to make distance learning equally practical for students. In keeping with the belief that distance learning is best based on widely accessible, easy-to-use technologies, EUN has chosen to have its colleges share a virtual campus centered on America Online (AOL). We have our campus on AOL because its software is both powerful and easy to learn; its size makes it useful to our colleges as they seek to reach and recruit new students; its environment is full of opportunities for students to engage in extracurricular discussion and debate, and its access to the riches of the Internet (ERIC, the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress and more) is helpful to faculty in search of educational enrichment.

We heartily encourage potential course providers and students to explore our offerings in detail. The best way is to visit our virtual campus on America Online. If you have AOL access, you can reach EUN's campus by using the keyword EUN. If you don't have AOL access, we'd be happy to send you free AOL software (including free online time) that will allow you to explore the campus in detail. Just follow these directions:

1. Send an email message to me at EUNAlan@aol.com.

2. Use as the subject line "Send [Windows/DOS/Macintosh] AOL Software." Be sure to specify the platform (Windows, DOS, or Mac) for which you need the software!!!

3. Use as the message body your name, your surface mail address, and your primary reason for interest in EUN. Feel free to add any other thoughts about yourself and your interests and to ask any other questions about EUN you'd like me or the EUN staff to answer.

4. If you need double density disks instead of high density, or if you need 5.25" disks instead of 3.5", put this information in the message body as well.

The software will be quickly sent to you.

EUN is rapidly expanding, and we see no reason to believe that this is other than the barest beginning. As all of you on the GLOSAS list are aware, distance learning is beginning to revolutionize the educational world, shifting the very paradigms of learning. While it's impossible to predict the directions these shifts will take, we know that you join us in believing that this is an exciting frontier. We hope that some of you will join forces with us to shape it.

Eric Alan, EUNAlan@aol.com

Return to GLOSAS News Contents for this issue.

URL: http://library.fortlewis.edu/~instruct/glosas/elecu51.htm

June, 1995

GLOSAS NEWS was orinally posted to the WWW at URL: http://library.fortlewis.edu/~instruct/glosas/cont.htm by Tina Evans Greenwood, Library Instruction Coordinator, Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado 81301, e-mail: greenwood_t@fortlewis.edu, and last updated May 7, 1999. By her permission the whole Website has been archived here at the University of Tennessee server directory of GLOSAS Chair Dr. Takeshi Utsumi from July 10, 2000 by Steve McCarty in Japan.