Colorado State's MBA Distance-Education Program To Launch New Technology That Links Students, Professors In Cyberspace
Thursday, January 2, 1997
FORT COLLINS--Students who enroll in Colorado State's M.B.A.
distance-education program next fall will take exams, download
class materials and hold real-time chats with classmates and
professors in virtual classrooms.
This new component of the State University Resources in
Graduate Education, or SURGE, is centered around a software
program titled e.mbanet. Developed by a Canadian company, the
software links 10 universities worldwide that administer
distance-education master's degree programs.
With e.mbanet, Colorado State's distance-education students
can download all class materials, including slides used by the
professor in lectures, the syllabus and other reference
materials. Exams are taken--and turned in--online, while homework
is sent to the professor electronically rather than by mail or
fax.
Using the software, students can chat in real-time with
other classmates about upcoming projects and have online access
to professors, who will hold regularly scheduled, virtual office
hours. Students also can post their resumes in their respective
virtual classrooms and obtain profiles on classmates.
The improvements allow distance-education students more
direct contact with faculty at Colorado State and with classmates
scattered across the globe, said Jamie Switzer, director of
distance education and media for Colorado State's College of
Business.
"With this system in place, students and professors can
network with anyone else enrolled in the distance-education
M.B.A. program at Colorado State or at other universities using
the software," Switzer said. "This real-time environment gives
students a direct link to their classmates and faculty and adds a
personal touch to their learning experience."
Students reside in all 50 states and 11 countries, making
contact with professors by telephone or fax costly and difficult,
Switzer said.
The software also will save distance-education
administrators time and money that otherwise would have been
spent sending materials to students by mail. With e.mbanet, only
videotapes of class lectures will continue to arrive by mail.
The decision to use e.mbanet in Colorado State's program
came after a pilot project involving SURGE students during the
fall 1996 semester, Switzer said. Overall, participants said they
enjoyed the one-on-one interaction as an addition to videotapes
of classroom lectures.
"I never had an easy way to communicate with faculty on
campus or classmates before e.mbanet," said Ron Caruana, director
of GTE Information Technology in Tampa, Fla. and SURGE student.
"This is a real leap forward in learning from a distance."
Colorado State faculty who teach distance-education classes
say e.mbanet also makes delivery of educational materials and
information easier.
"There is a learning curve for both faculty and students,"
said Charles Butler, an information-technology professor who uses
e.mbanet to communicate with 100 distance education students. "It
presents to faculty the potential for large volumes of e-mail
communication from students."
Because e.mbanet is an online software program, SURGE
students who enroll for fall semester 1997 will be required to
have Internet access--a new mandate for the program. In the past,
students only needed access to a computer at work or at home,
Switzer said.
Colorado State's SURGE is the only M.B.A. distance learning
program nationwide that is conducted fully off-campus and is
accredited by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of
Business. About 550 students enrolled in SURGE this fall
semester, a 22 percent increase from the same semester in 1995.
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