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Cardinal Stritch University Ventures into Computer-Mediated Distance Learning

by Sloan-C

Cardinal Stritch University is an upper Midwest US Catholic liberal arts school currently serving learners in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Headquartered in Milwaukee, the University is made up of four Colleges including Arts and Sciences, Nursing, Education, and Business and Management [1]. The College of Business and Management (CBM) further extends the reach of the University in Wisconsin and Minnesota with three Regional Offices located in Milwaukee and Madison, and Edina, Minnesota (See Figure 1).

Figure 1. Regional Offices of The College Of Business and Management

The College of Business and Management offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in Management, Business Administration and Health Administration as well as a myriad of certificate programs in business and management. The programs of the University are accredited through the North Central Accreditation agency (NCA). All of these programs are delivered to working adults in evening programs on an accelerated basis.

I. BACKGROUND

Beginning in Milwaukee in 1982, in partnership with the Institute for Professional Development, a division of the Phoenix, Arizona-based Apollo Corporation, The University (then Cardinal Stritch College) offered its first programs in this new accelerated format. A typical undergraduate three credit course takes place over a period of five workshops with the classes taking place one night a week (always on the same night year round) meeting for four hours with 10-20 hours of study expected outside of class. Graduate courses generally meet for six four-hour workshops. The cohort (study group) model of learning is fundamental to the programs and each cohort generally meets once a week outside of the workshops during the course.

This concept of adult education has been extremely successful over the years beginning with 400 learners in 1982 to a projected enrollment of 2500 in 2000 [2]. This success has allowed CSU to be recognized as the second largest private university in Wisconsin behind the Milwaukee-based Marquette University.

Recognizing the growth of the Stritch Program, several other higher education institutions throughout the upper Midwest have followed its example with varying degrees of success. Spurred by this competition, the College of Business and Management has continued though the years to examine the methods of delivery of its programs. Realizing that, although the face-to-face cohort model has been surprisingly successful, it has not yet provided the access to higher education to groups of learners that can be achieved through the use of modern computer technology.

II. DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODEL

In 1996, the Leadership Team of the College of Business and Management informally began to study concepts of distance learning that could expand and enhance the delivery of its programs. This was done through attendance at conferences throughout the United States, and assigning staff members to research methods that would improve access to the College’s programs.

In late 1996, a team of instructors, both adjunct and full-time, from all three Regions was appointed to investigate and develop a computer-mediated model of instruction that would fit with the cohort model of instruction. The College Curriculum Director chaired this team.

Figure 2. Synchronous /Asynchronous Communication

In June 1997, the team developed a comprehensive model (see Figure 2) that readily met these needs.

The Team agreed that the cohort model of accelerated adult learning that was being used by the College could readily be adapted to this format. Instructors and learners throughout the area served by the College have access to local Internet Service Providers (ISP's) that would allow the Internet to be used as the primary vehicle for communication between the student and the instructors and would eliminate geographical location as a factor in delivering the curriculum. The University offers free Internet accounts to its students in the Milwaukee area, but not in the outlying areas. Using local ISP's allows the adult learner to use local telephone service to access the College server through the Internet.

A. Hardware and Software
Several years ago when the College of Business and Management introduced its "computer-enhanced" programs in Business Administration at the undergraduate and graduate levels, uniform specifications for supporting hardware and software were defined. Today, those specifications include the IBM hardware format for all student laptop computers with Microsoft Office97® Suite installed.

B. World Wide Web or In House?
The technology of the World Wide Web and the availability of conferencing software continues to change rapidly. Therefore, the next question facing the team was how to manage the classes online. After several conferences with the Information Management staff at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Information Technology (DoIT), they chose the FirstClass® conferencing software from the Ontario, Canada firm, SoftArc, Inc.

This decision allowed to College to develop the program with a minimal cost on its own server and control security to a greater degree than the World Wide Web. It also provided the staff with the ability to implement the program without a great deal of training in web-based concepts. The faculty can then concentrate on creating the class materials using the familiar MS Office97® products. It also makes it possible for the widely disbursed adult learners to use local Internet service providers (local phone calls) to participate in the classes.

III. IMPLEMENTATION

Continuing in their quest, the team, following approval of the model by the Leadership Team created a project management plan that required a phased introduction of the distance learning program in the College of Business and Management [3]. This Project Plan essentially has seven major activities:

1. Creating a technological infrastructure in the College for the Distance Learning Program
2. Training the Support Staff
3. Developing Program Evaluation Criteria
4. Develop the Pilot Program
5. Evaluation the Pilot Program
6. Implement the Distance Learning Program
7. Launch the Distance Learning Program

Like most schools of this size, it was necessary to plan, budget for, and purchase a computer to act as the server for the Distance Learning program. This was completed in November 1997 and staff training was completed in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin- Madison and SoftArc.

Following the creation of the infrastructure, the team of instructors and the Leadership Team completed an abbreviated pilot course to test the capabilities of the system and to allow the participants to become familiar with this new form of course delivery. Currently an extensive evaluation of that pilot is taking place with several training programs and course outlines being developed.

Negotiations with selected cohort student groups in all three Regions that currently enrolled are being conducted to begin formal course presentation through the distance learning model shown in Figure 2. Originally, these groups were enrolled in the program with the intent that they would receive instruction in the normal workshop, face to face. Therefore, it will be necessary, in the opinion of the Leadership Team that a consensus of the participants in the cohort is necessary to proceed. We expect this activity to continue throughout the February-June 1998 period.

At the same time the Distance Learning team of instructors has developed a set of Program Evaluation criteria that will be used following the cohort pilot groups completion of the initial courses. This information will provide the basis for formal recommendations to the Leadership Team of the College to proceed with a formal launch of the Distance Learning Program in August 1998, the beginning of the new budget year.

IV. SUMMARY

The ability of the College of Business and Management to expand learner access to its program is an exciting reality. Until now, the emphasis of program delivery has been to working adult learners in private and public organizations, including some individuals. The Distance Learning Program now being tested will add a whole new realm of learner access to higher education through virtual cohort groups. It will now be possible to serve, for example, widely scattered learners, the physically handicapped, single parents and other learners, who for one reason or another cannot routinely attend regularly scheduled workshops now provided.

For further information or questions, please contact:

William E. Frantz at
E-mail: bfrantz@inxpress.net
or home page: http://www.inxpress.net/~bfrantz/

V. REFERENCES

1. Cardinal Stritch Universtiy, 1997, Stritch Magazine, Fall.
2. Strategic Plan of the College of Business and Management, Draft No. 5, Internal Policy document, 1998.
3. Distance Learning Project Management Plan, October 1997. An internal management plan outlining the activities and tasks of the Plan development.