University of Texas System Set to Launch Online Master's Degree Program Using the UOL VCampus
McLEAN, Va., June 22 /PRNewswire/ -- UOL Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: UOLP), announced today that the University of Texas System will initiate two online master's degree programs beginning with the Fall 1999 term that will be offered over the VCampus(TM) Web-based distance learning system. The U.T. System uses a privately branded VCampus, called the UT TeleCampus, that links together the System's 15 campuses around the state and has allowed a teaching collaboration that was not possible prior to the launch of the system.
The degrees, an MBA in General Management, and an M.Ed in Educational Technology, are available online at telecampus.utsystem.edu , in response to student needs within Texas and beyond," said UT TeleCampus Director Darcy Hardy. "The portability of the MBA program is essential to the working professional and others who want to advance their career and their education simultaneously. Too many busy professionals simply cannot put their lives and jobs on hold to go attend a time- and location-specific course. With the size of Texas, the commute to the nearest campus is prohibitive for many. For people with parenting responsibilities, geographic isolation, physical disabilities or special needs, or work that requires travel, this could very well present the only viable way to advance their education along with their career," she said.
"Universities nationwide are addressing the need to provide education coupled with the new technologies," said Hardy. "Few have the advantage of pooling the resources and talent that a 15-institution System can offer. We are introducing some very innovative programs that will change the face of education for the better." The services and links within the TeleCampus have generated statewide interest as indicated by the fact that 10,000 potential users have registered on the site over the past year.
The MBA in General Management is a unique degree, Hardy said, because it resulted from a collaboration of faculty on eight different campuses who were able to work closely together to assemble the virtual components within the UT TeleCampus. "The students' experience will be remarkably similar to communication in today's workplace where a person may be partnering with someone in Japan and have to use technology and excellent communication skills to convey the business message globally without 3D conference room meetings," she said.
The M.Ed. in Educational Technology gives teachers, administrators and technology coordinators the skills they need to integrate technology into the classroom and other learning environments. One professor in the program is creating an entire virtual school district that students will use for a living lab. Students will work together "virtually" on group projects from various locales, which is not something they could do in on-site learning.
The design and development of such programs can create logistical challenges on an enormous scale. Hardy explained that UOL was selected as the virtual campus architect for a variety of reasons including integrity, quality of technical support, customer service and flexibility. "To be fully responsive to the distance learner," Hardy said, "the University of Texas System required a detailed customization of the UT TeleCampus."
"We are excited by this opportunity to work with a world class institution on a System-wide basis," said Michael W. Anderson, Chief Operating Officer of UOL. "We built our credibility by concentrating on three essential requirements that were specific to the objectives of the TeleCampus," he added. "The first question is can we build courses? Because all instructors want to build courses. Our Courseware Construction Set is specifically designed for instructors who are not web proficient. Second, can we then manage students through those courses? In other words, can we track them, communicate with them -- via online conferences, etc. And the third is: can the system handle all the registration, securely accepting social security numbers, processing credit cards -- all those things. What they found was we had the only system that could do all three of those and could be outsourced and therefore become operational really fast."
After months of strategic planning, the U.T. System came to UOL who was then able to get the initial virtual campus shell up and running within 30 days. The TeleCampus team used the time savings to build up the service aspects of the platform, Anderson said. The TeleCampus can be navigated in much the same way as a traditional campus and includes a digital library, admissions and financial aid information, instructional resources and web-based tutorials, training, course chat rooms and bookstores and is open to the public. The TeleCampus is operated by the University of Texas Office of Information Technology.
UOL's experience and the central hosting of the VCampus platform were key advantages for the U.T. System, Anderson said. "Our experience in creating a virtual campus environment for dozens of universities and corporations means we know exactly how to coordinate the details. Our real advantage is that we do it all in one place, we handle all the functions and we look at it as a system approach -- not just building a learning tool out there. We have been doing it for three years so we know what to do and what to avoid."
In addition, he said, the VCampus runs on an open architecture. The code used to run courses is not proprietary. Whatever will run on an HTML page will run in this system, which leaves VCampus users a wide range of options. "They can build individual programs, courses, objects, simulations, movies -- whatever -- on their own and run them within the operating platform. They don't have to buy a tool from us that would allow them to create a movie that would only run in this one system. They can use any of the tools they are familiar with from any vendor out there -- as long as it adheres to web standards."
The TeleCampus links together all of the services that each of the 15 different physical campuses would normally provide in their individual locations. These include The University of Texas at Arlington, Austin, Brownsville, Dallas, El Paso, San Antonio, Tyler, Pan American and Permian Basin campuses. It also includes the Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, the Medical Branch at Galveston, the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the Health Science Centers at Houston, San Antonio and Tyler. |
