What Smaller Colleges Are Doing

In order to counter the fact that students might be pulled from them by the luster of distance programs of major universities, private schools and community colleges have begun to make changes that they hope will attract local students and keep the ones they already have.

Some have expanded the number of locations in which they offer traditional, face-to-face courses. Other schools have looked into the practice of using classrooms in the middle of the night, between the hours of 11:00pm and 6:00am.  Some schools offer summer masters programs.  Students would attend classes in the summer, and hold discussions via e-mail the rest of the year.

Many private institutions, however, have joined with community colleges and private libraries to form a distance education consortium that secures grant money, provides technical support, and trains professors on member campuses.  This network would allow community colleges to compete with major universities in providing distance education programs they never would have been able to afford otherwise.
 
 

Community College Distance Learning Network

The best bet for small schools to compete with larger, more prestigious institutions may be the joining of several small, private universities into one, mutually inclusive distance learning program. The first of  these  networks calls itself the Community College Distance Learning Network.   Included in the CCDLN are courses that will be delivered via the Internet, video-based courses, and courses that use both kinds of media.  The members will try to make sure that all credits are transferable, making it like one large university. By combining their efforts, these small colleges, such as Dallas Community College (Texas), Kirkwood Community college (Iowa), Rio Salado College (Arizona) and Sinclair Community College (Ohio) will be able pool their collective money to put forth an economically viable distance learning program that could draw students to them from all over the country.

(Blumenstyk, G., 1998), (CCDLN Website)

 This project was produced for Psy 380, Social Psychology of Cyberspace, Spring 2000,  at Miami University.  All graphics in these pages are used with permission or under fair use guidelines, are in the public domain,  or were created by the authors.  Last revised:  This document has been accessed   times since 1 May 2000.  Comments & Questions to R. Sherman