College courses reach out online

By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer

Psychology instructor Langley Frissell spent a semester in 1996 scared to death of his classroom.

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"I was in shock the entire first semester," Frissell said. "I was terrified."

That was for his first online psychology course at Kapi'olani Community College. Now, Frissell teaches online courses regularly through KCC and is a consultant helping the University of Hawai'i-West O'ahu delve deeper into the new frontier of higher education: distance learning.

Forgoing the brick-and-mortar approach to building schools, Hawai'i's colleges and university campuses are going online to attract new students — and keep their current students from cyber-hopping to another campus with their tuition dollars.

While receiving bachelor's and master's degrees entirely online isn't a reality yet in Hawai'i, students can choose in many cases whether to go to school by driving to a campus or by switching on their computers.

Hawai'i colleges also face increasing competition from out-of-state schools. As more universities across the country turn to online learning, there's the possibility that Hawai'i residents can go elsewhere — without leaving the state — to earn a degree.

Thomas Russell, director emeritus of instructional telecommunications at North Carolina State University, estimates that nearly all American universities have at least considered offering online education and about 80 to 90 percent are attempting to do so.

"They're smart if they start doing it," Russell said. "It's becoming global. A state like Hawai'i is in a wonderful location for international students."

School systems that offer degree programs, and not simply random classes, are at an advantage in the national and international market, he said.

"Students don't really want to learn anything for the sake of learning," Russell said. "They want credits and certificates and degrees."

The National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union, issued a manual this past spring insisting that online instruction is almost always more expensive than traditional, in-person instruction. As Hawai'i campuses discover that online courses require just as much attention and money as traditional classrooms, they are balancing the need for high-quality, rigorous education with the national pressure to enter the distance education race.

HPU started in 1999

Hawai'i Pacific University started online learning in 1999, giving students a choice of four classes. This fall, more than 20 classes can be taken online. While no bachelor's or master's degrees are offered online yet, HPU has proposed an entirely online associate degree in management.

"We were trying to be cautious," said Joe Schmiedl, director of online programs at HPU. "We haven't really committed to it full blown. It has to be academically sound. It also needed to be a good thing economically."

Although online students don't need expensive classroom space, HPU has discovered that they require more administrative services than other students do, Schmiedl said. Dwight Reimer, director of academic affairs for the University of Phoenix, said the Hawai'i campuses will begin to roll out courses in the fall that are part-classroom, part-online. Those classes, however, will cost more because of higher expenses to administer them, he said.

"The primary motivation is convenience for the students. All of our students are working adults," Rei-

mer said. "We think it is going to be particularly valuable for the Hawaiian Islands. There are places where we just don't have faculty. Travel is expensive between the islands."

Although online courses aren't highly profitable yet, Rose Tseng, chancellor of the University of Hawai'i-Hilo and the distance education adviser for the UH system, said the issue is one of providing access to education across the state and establishing UH as a source for online learning.

"We have a responsibility to all the areas," she said. "It's not a big moneymaker. There's an opportunity and if you don't do it, someone else will and you will lose your market. It's not that easy to make money because the technology is so expensive."

Still, Tseng said she believes UH is the only university in the country that can truly penetrate the Pacific for international education.

Persuading the profs

Another challenge Hawai'i colleges face is persuading their professors to teach in a virtual classroom. HPU offers several courses that are "Web-enhanced," meaning some discussion groups may take place online or professors will post lecture notes on the Web.

"We're using that as the bicycle with training wheels," Schmiedl said. "The next step is to say, would you like to try a class where you never actually see the students? It's a jump for many people."

Victor Kobayashi, dean of the Outreach College at UH-Manoa, said it was difficult to find professors a few years ago who were willing to teach an online course.

"Many faculty don't understand it and don't want to," Kobayashi said. "We had to turn to faculty who want to do this."

Frissell, an online teaching veteran, sees no difference between his online and traditional courses.

"I replicate a classroom," he said. "I give the same lectures. It's all in streaming media. It's virtually the same that you would get in a traditional classroom — the same images and lecture."

Most of his class is asynchronous, allowing students to sign into the virtual classroom whenever they choose. Some listen to the lectures and post messages on the bulletin board in the middle of the afternoon, while night owls may take the course at 3 a.m.

Sister Angela Zukowski, known around Chaminade University of Honolulu as the "cyber nun," teaches an online master's degree course in pastoral leadership through the University of Dayton and has been a technology consultant for the Vatican and Asian bishops. She said students have little trouble adapting to an online classroom, even if professors do.

"People know what to do, and the technology will not stand in the way of teaching," Zukowski said. "The classes I have now — the student all have e-mail, they've all gone to a discussion board. They are more comfortable with the technology because the quality is so much higher now."

Special appeal at West O'ahu

At UH-West O'ahu, a campus that caters to the nontraditional student by scheduling most of its courses in the evenings, courses offered online are the first to fill up.

Susan Pelowski, an assistant professor at West O'ahu, is teaching two online courses this summer on abnormal psychology. Most of her students are on the Neighbor Islands or are new parents who listen to lectures and respond to discussion group questions whenever they have a chance. But the group comes together for an online chat at the same time each week to have a class discussion.

"I think that component was really important in having a sense of interpersonal contact," Pelowski said. "If you don't have a component where people are online at the same time and talking to each other or writing to each other, it can be very isolating. It's more spontaneous. It's more off the cuff. It's the sort of thing you would do in a class discussion."

Jaishree Odin, interim assistant dean at UH-Manoa's Outreach College, teaches online courses and offers an orientation class for professors teaching their first distance education class. She said distance education courses are just as rigorous as traditional classes. Students must participate in discussion groups, write essays and papers and do group projects.

"If they can't write about, it's so clear that they haven't read it," Odin said. "There is a black-and-white accountability in this. You can't fake through a class like this. They are writing every week. They are discussing every week. They do essays, teamwork and group projects. They really have to produce here."

Edith Runner, a Kapi'olani Community College online student hoping to eventually complete an arts degree, said she has had a mixed experience with her distance education courses.

"Online is the only way for me to go back to school since I have my own business to take care of and absolutely no time to go there in person," Runner said.

She said that her experience during the classes has been good, but that she and other students did not receive feedback on their final work or have papers returned to them when the class finished.

"The teachers are great during the semester; it's at the end that they seem to ignore us," she said.

Jolean Uilani Yamada, a full-time Department of Human Services employee who also has her family to care for, said online courses are her only chance to pursue a college education.

"Distance education is not for everyone, but for students like myself, who are unable to physically attend classes, this is a wonderful alternative," she said.

Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.