Electronic Education
On-line university hopes to make a wide array of learning opportunities available to students

 

By William Trombley
Senior Editor

BOULDER, COLORADO
MUCH OF THE PLANNING for the Western Governors University--an ambitious attempt to provide affordable postsecondary education to a broad range of students in the western states--is taking place in a three-story building near the University of Colorado campus.

On one floor, the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications is assembling an "electronic catalog" of courses that would be available through the Western Governors University.

Using a computer, a student anywhere in the west could call up this "virtual catalog" on his screen to find out what courses or programs are being offered by which institutions in the 13 states that have agreed to join the consortium so far.

The Western Cooperative also is working on plans for local centers in each of the states, where academic counseling, financial aid information, technological assistance and other student support services will be available.

Each participating state will have one or more centers, said Sally Johnstone, director of the Western Cooperative, which is part of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. Most centers probably will be in community colleges, though some might be in libraries, public schools and other easily accessible locations.

Two floors down from the Western Cooperative, The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) is figuring out how to determine what students have learned in the courses that will be offered by computer, television, CD-ROM and other non-traditional means.

"We will measure skills, not courses or seat time," Dennis Jones, president of NCHEMS, said emphatically. "This will be the biggest shift from traditional higher education." But much of the work of designing methods to test skills and measure academic knowledge remains to be done.

Two governors--Democrat Roy Romer of Colorado and Republican Mike Leavitt of Utah--have been the driving forces behind the idea of an interstate, on-line university. After a year of preliminary studies, the Western Governors Association approved the project at a meeting in Omaha last June.

The plan is to begin operations next year. "We feel we have to have something up and running by summer or fall of 1997 in order to keep the governors' interest up," said E. Jeffrey Livingston, special assistant to Utah Governor Mike Leavitt and co-director of the project. (The other co-director is Robert Albrecht, an associate vice president of the University of Colorado.)

The governors hope that enough students will sign up for Western Governors University to relieve some of the enrollment pressure facing most western states, without the need to build expensive new campuses.

"There are proposals to build five or six new campuses in our state," said Bruce Hamlett, executive director of the New Mexico Commission on Higher Education. "Instead of doing that, I see us plugging into the WGU."

So far 13 states have signed on, but the most populous western states, California and Texas, have not.

California Governor Pete Wilson believes the state can put together its own "virtual university," packaging electronic courses and programs from the University of California, the California State University, the state's 106 community colleges and major private institutions like Stanford and USC, then selling the packages both in the United States and abroad. Few people with experience in the field believe this is feasible but the Wilson Administration seems determined to try.

Nor does Texas seems to be taking warmly to the idea.

In a recent issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, Kenneth H. Ashworth, Commissioner of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, sharply criticized the "virtual university" for its emphasis on job-related programs that are designed either by students or by potential employers.

Students generally "don't know what they don't know," Ashworth wrote, while employers often seek graduates with specific short-term job skills instead of those who work well in groups, know how to manage others and can think through complex problems.

Although some early publicity suggested that Western Governors University would offer a wide range of bachelor's degrees and perhaps even doctorates, the short-term goals of Sally Johnstone, Dennis Jones and other planners are much more modest. They hope to offer a single two-year Associate of Arts degree, plus some job-related certificate programs, when the university comes on line next summer.

WGU's major role, at least in the beginning, will be as a broker, gathering information about all the electronically-delivered courses and programs that are already available in the participating states, then making this information available to potential students through an electronic catalog, which Jones called the "key asset" of the new institution.

"I know of at least 60 courses that are out there right now," Johnstone said. "I have absolutely no concern about having a wide array of learning opportunities available to students."

As Johnstone travels the west, she carries a lap-top computer, on which she demonstrates to often-startled education officials how a student would use the catalog. The software, developed by IBM, tells the student what skills are needed for a certificate in Applied Quantitative Reasoning.

The program lists the skills that are required, tells the prospective student which colleges, universities or other institutions in the member states offer this kind of training and what the courses cost. The student decides what courses he wants to take, enters the hours he is available to take them and the program produces what Johnstone called a "menu of options."

"I was really impressed when I saw that," said Robert Threlkeld, director of the Academic Innovation Center at California State University, Fresno. "I'd be really surprised if this (WGU) doesn't happen."

Jones believes that job-related certification will be an important part of WGU's work in the early years. He said Microsoft, Intel, Motorola and other high-tech companies have shown interest in using WGU to upgrade worker's skills and to certify that new employees are qualified to do their jobs.

"This would probably enhance the amount of external training that is available to our employees," said Ray Waddoups, a vice president at Motorola, which requires each of its 140,000 employees to take at least 40 hours of additional training every year.

Competency testing--the notion that students should be judged on the basis of what they have learned, not the number of courses they have taken--lies at the heart of WGU. "This was one of the marching orders from the governors from Day One," Jones told a recent meeting of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.

While assessment measures already exist for many job skills, and for some areas of academic knowledge as well, much work remains to be done. "Some of the assessment tools are there but some fundamental holes need to be filled," said Peter Ewell, senior associate at the National Center for Higher Education Systems Managements.

That is one reason why Western Governors University plans to concentrate on two-year degrees and job-related skill certificates in its early years, working its way slowly toward baccalaureate degrees.

This approach should soften some opposition from the academic community, which generally regards competency testing with great suspicion, and questions the quality of computerized or televised courses. Many faculty members and administrators also see WGU, and similar enterprises, as threats to their jobs.

But Johnstone said she has noticed some "softening of opposition" on her recent campus visits. "As the Old Guard has started to understand what this is, there has been a change of attitude," she said. "Many now see us supplementing traditional higher education, not as competition."

Dennis Jones observed, "There is no way for this to exist if it doesn't have legitimacy in the eyes of academics." He said faculty members in participating states would be asked to evaluate both the quality of WGU courses and its assessment procedures.

At some point, the Western Governors University must be accredited, if work done at WGU is to be transferable to other institutions and if students are to be eligible for federally-backed financial aid. This is likely to be tricky, since accrediting agencies usually deal with single campuses in one state, not with programs delivered electronically across state lines.

The on-line university also faces a welter of laws and regulations governing higher education in each of the 13 states. For example, the WGU concept will not work if students must pay the high out-of-state tuition rates charged by most western states. The governors can waive some of these requirements but new legislation will be needed in other cases.

Money is another problem. Jones estimated that it will cost about $10 million to prepare the electronic catalog, establish the local centers and do the other work necessary before WGU can offer its first degrees and skill certificates. Each of the 13 governors has pledged $100,000 for the planning effort but only three checks have been received so far.

Although WGU is expected to be highly-decentralized, a small central staff will be needed to deal with the organizational complexities of a 13-state operation. "Where is the money coming from to pay for that?" asked Robert Albrecht, the project's co-director. "At this point, I don't know."

Jones noted that higher education budgets are tight in most states and that many public colleges and universities see the western governors' proposal as competition for scarce dollars.

He said some companies have shown interest in providing software at no cost and WGU also hopes to receive foundation support. Student tuition fees will provide a significant source of income once the university opens for business. Wherever the money comes from, the university must be self-supporting if it is to survive, all of the planners agree.

With many problems to be solved in a short period of time, the chances that the Western Governors University will come into being by next summer or fall appear to be no better than 50-50.

But this project, unlike many other attempts to provide non-traditional postsecondary education, has strong political support. Romer, Leavitt and the other western governors see this as a way to increase access without building new campuses and hiring large numbers of new faculty members.

"There has been nothing before of this magnitude, with this kind of political clout," Jeff Livingston said recently. "I think it will happen."