Virtual Universities: An Overview

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Virtual UniversitiesAn Overview

• Prof. Burks Oakley II
• Assoc. Vice President for Academic Affairs
• Director, University of Illinois Online
• University of Illinois
• September 16-18, 1999

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Moores Law
1987 Cray-1 Cost 8,000,000 60,000 watts of
power
1997 Nintendo 64 Cost 149
5 watts of power 3.5 x as many
additions/sec.
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Exponential Growth
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The Third Revolution in Higher Education

• Land-Grant College Act of 1862 (Morrill Act)
• Community colleges Illinois Junior College
  Act of 1965
• The Internet the personal computer (PC) World
  Wide Web Mosaic browser 1993

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The Internet provides new access to learning

• Any time, any place
• Site independent learning (distance education)
  through courses that are delivered largely or
  entirely online
• Access to higher education opportunities by
  place-bound and time-restricted individuals

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Can the Internet replace the campus
experience?

• Access to learning opportunities
• Interactive course materials
• Simulations, multimedia, visualization
• Homework and quizzes
• Access to people
• Subject matter experts (faculty, TAs)
• Other students (peer-peer group interactions)

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What are campuses doing?

• University of Illinois Online
• Penn State World Campus
• SUNY - SUNY Learning Network
• UCF Distributed Learning
• University of California at Berkeley - Extension
  Online

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Virtual Universities

• Regional initiatives in U.S.A.
• Western Governors University
• Southern Regional Electronic Campus
• Kentucky Commonwealth Virtual U.
• Illinois Virtual Campus
• Proprietary (for-profit) initiatives
• University of Phoenix
• Jones International University

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Virtual Universities

• International initiatives
• Open University (United Kingdom)
• Open University of the United States (OU-US)
• Governors Open University System
• World Trade Center University

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UIUC Library and Information Science

• LEEP3 scheduling option (MS degree)
• Began with 31 students in Fall 1996
• From as far away as Alaska and Vermont
• Average age was 41 years old
• Fall 1999 enrollments 55 in-state and 59
  out-of-state students
• 51 students completed MS by Aug. 99

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UIUC Library and Information Science

• Students have enrolled from Illinois and 36 other
  states, Virgin Islands, DC
• Canada, France, Colombia, Japan, and Thailand
• Faculty has grown by 3.5 FTE
• Budget has increased by 350,000

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Enabling Technologies

• Ubiquitous PCs with Internet access
• World Wide Web browsers (Mosaic, Netscape,
  Internet Explorer)
• Asynchronous and synchronous conferencing
  (WebBoard, AOL I.M.)
• Streaming media (RealPlayer)
• Real-time homework grading (Mallard)
• Course Management Systems (WebCT, Blackboard
  CourseInfo)