Posted on: Monday, April 23, 2001

Internet college courses gaining popularity

Associated Press

WALTHAM, Mass. — Brandeis University sophomore Peter Novak is fairly knowledgeable about the Internet. He runs a Web site on collecting phone cards and even sells them online in his spare time.

But he recognized how little he knew when he saw the course listings for the university's new minor in Internet studies.

"I didn't even think anthropology would have too much to do with it," Novak said. "Then I thought about it and said to myself, 'Yeah, the whole thing is about our lives.' "

Now, the economics major is seriously considering the Internet minor, one of a small number of such programs appearing on college campuses in the past few months.

Cornell University recently started one, as did the Centenary College of Louisiana. Others await approval.

In Hawai'i, public universities have not gone so far as to create separate majors or minors, but teachers and administrators are preparing academic programs built around the technical, business, social and artistic issues involved with the Internet.

At University of Hawai'i campuses at both Manoa and Hilo, initiatives are in the works to offer new curriculum to students studying in a variety of academic fields.

Administrators say programs that merge lessons from different study fields not only capture the popularity of the Internet but give students a greater depth of skills and understanding. As testimony to the broad interest in the Internet — and its accessibility — both campuses are aiming to market their programs off-campus as well through computer- and video-based distance education programs.

Judith Gersting, chairwoman of the UH-Hilo computer science department said a proposed undergraduate certificate program there in computer technology and electronic business will offer an "alternate path" for Internet study that will cover a broad base of issues including law and ethics.

At UH-Manoa, a campus information technology alliance aims to develop curriculum that spans academic disciplines to prepare students with Internet expertise, said Tom Brislin, chairman of the School of Communications.

Through the alliance, undergraduates in one major can enroll in courses in other fields of study, gaining chances to merge lessons in areas such as information technology, electrical engineering, telecommunications, business, management and digital art.

Anticipating interest, the university added six faculty positions this spring to expand course offerings through the alliance, said Stephen Itoga, chairman of the department of information and computer sciences. He sees more room for growth.

"I would think that just about every discipline on campus should eventually be interested in becoming part of the alliance," he said. "Right now, it's still somewhat novel."

At the University of Minnesota, Laura Gurak, a professor of rhetoric, proposed a minor in Internet, Science and Society because of student demand. "We're doing stuff at the graduate level," she said, "and the undergrads kept saying, 'We'd like to learn some of this stuff, too.' "

At Brandeis, a new course on "The Internet and Society" covers the basics on Web design, security and e-commerce. But it also includes an English professor's tales of interactive narratives and an artist's impressions on Internet art.

The faculty approved the minor in December, too late to add the course to the spring catalog. That didn't keep 133 students from signing up as word spread, turning it into the seventh largest class on the hilly campus outside Boston.

Tim Hickey, a computer science professor and program coordinator, said issues like Napster are addressed from various standpoints: the underlying technology, copyright laws, free speech and ethics.

"The students all know e-mail and browsers, and many use eBay," Hickey said. "They have a strong interest, but they don't have an academic foundation to think critically — and they want it."

An anthropology course, "Virtual Communities," meets three times a week — once offline, once online and once as a hybrid. In the hybrid class, students sit in the same computer lab but address one another only through a chat room. The idea is to compare virtual and face-to-face dynamics.

"You can't study it just from a technical end," said Bridget Ahearn, 21, a sociology senior who will graduate too early to fulfill the minor's requirements.

Centenary College's new minor in information technology studies covers CD-ROMs and offline computer interfaces in addition to the Internet. The program, set to begin this fall, will include courses in computer science, English, psychology, economics, sociology and geography.

English professor Bryan Alexander said the program addresses "someone who knows wonderfully how to build Web sites but hasn't thought about the audience."

James Watt, chairman of language, literature and communication at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, said cultural theory students learn how to critique but not how to build, while engineers learn how to build but not how to critique.

A concentration in Web design and analysis could help bridge the gap, Watt said. The first group of students will arrive in the fall.