The time is not far off that all college courses will have "some Web aspects" to them.
So says Jerry Fullmer, director of information technology for the Utah System of Higher Education.
Soothsayer?
Nope. In fact, that time is already here for most Utah schools.
Fullmer made the statement to Salt Lake Community College officials in a recent request for an extended leave of absence. But his time away from his job at that school has been no vacation, as he's spent it working with USHE.
Fullmer and others have been working with Utah's public institutions on using software to enhance a course's Web-based components. Schools like SLCC and Weber State University, which has about 800 courses that use some aspect of Internet technology, have already embraced the future.
The "key" at WSU, Fullmer said, is that the faculty have been accepting of technology to enhance a student's learning experience. If he were teaching now, Fullmer said he'd feel "guilty" if he didn't at least have his course syllabus posted on the Web.
"To me, that's the bare minimum," he said. The extreme would be a class taken 100 percent over the computer. "I think the hybrid is the future."
The hybrid course combines high tech with high touch, meaning there's still face-to-face interaction between professors and students.
"It's the present and the future of learning," said Ryan Hobbs, interim director of distance education for SLCC.
More than 200 courses at SLCC have sections that are completely delivered online while another 200 plus are at least Web-enhanced. Hobbs identified another 45 classes that are labeled "blended" or hybrid, where a student might spend two hours in class and one hour in a "virtual" classroom.
Dave Richardson, SLCC vice president of academic services, taught a chemistry course online last fall. Many of his students were working adults who found taking a class via a computer was convenient.
One drawback, Richardson added, was that it took longer to explain difficult concepts through a format where students type in questions and then watch their computer monitors for the answers.
"It's just an additional format of learning," Richardson said of using the Internet.
A danger of relying too much on the Web is that a segment of the population who can't afford to have the latest technology in their homes will be shut out of the cyber-based classroom.
SLCC tries to solve that problem by providing computer labs, which is where SLCC sophomore Nathan Dickinson can be found taking Communications 1010.
"You can do it at your own convenience," he said of the class. Except for meetings on group projects and seeing the professor a few times, the rest of the class is all taken on computers at the school or in his home. Dickinson said online courses are a good alternative if the traditional classrooms are full.
Moving to Web-based instruction is also an added expense for schools, which will always have a need for the traditional classroom setting inside brick-and-mortar buildings, according to Fullmer. But there's a flip side.
"I think there are ways where technology can support higher education in the kind of growth challenges it has," said Michael Petersen, executive director of the Utah Education Network.
Increased enrollment has been met with little or no state funding in recent years, which adds to the backlog of building needs on campuses. Petersen said that the Web can help a crowded college accommodate more students if they don't have to use a classroom for instruction.
UEN is a state-funded entity charged with helping all public schools and all of higher education get connected to the Internet and to each other via interactive video conferences. Lawmakers like what UEN is doing.
Over the past two years the Utah Legislature has funded UEN with $800,000 just to increase network capacity for all of public education and at the state's 10 public colleges and universities. That money was met with matching federal grants and negotiated lower costs from telecommunications providers, which translates into about $3 million to help improve Internet capabilities at schools.
The 2004 Legislature gave UEN another $600,000 to beef up video conferencing capabilities through high-speed Internet connections and to develop more Web resources, such as an online library now serving students.
"I would say Utah is one of the leading states in terms of network capabilities and connectivity," Petersen said.
By the end of next summer, 60 percent of all state-funded secondary schools will have high-speed ethernet connections while all of public higher education is already dialed into this latest Internet technology.
E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com