While Columbia's Ross believes that students can benefit from an a la carte approach to education-oriented distance learning, and he's glad that various universities are providing alternative forms of schooling, he also believes that this is not the ideal way to get a degree. A lot of studying is done alone, he notes, interacting with texts; "you lose the give-and-take" that is important to some courses, such as one about ethics.

Nonetheless, distance learning can be a real scheduling convenience for people who can't get to campus at all, or who may be taking other courses and want to limit the number of times they have to go to campus.

With distance learning, an instructor can bring a broader range of presentations to the "classroom," especially when employing videoconferencing technologies. For example, at API's Media Center Founder's Conference last October (see The Cole Papers, December 1997), participants in Reston gathered in front of a large television screen for a real-time conversation with musician and web entrepreneur Todd Rundgren, whose schedule put him in San Francisco.

Ross cautioned, however, that much of the distance learning available is not really different from a bad university setting: "200 students, large lecture halls and graduate-level teaching assistants."

API's instructional design specialist, Mary English, said that trying to emulate traditional models of teaching -- with students in rows, facing the teacher, while they take copious notes for an upcoming test so they can prove they learned something -- fails to rev up the power of distance learning.

Course designers don't take advantage of the materials or the medium, added Ross, when they simply put a camera or microphone in front of an adjunct lecturer for a couple of hours a week, then follow up with a lot of e-mail. Despite notable exceptions to this model -- such as the universities of Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Oregon and Wisconsin -- Ross said that "at its best today, distance learning is as good as a lousy college course for educational/theoretical needs."

But for training, distance learning is often better because it works best when participants can connect what they're learning to their job. It's also particularly useful for what Ross calls "just-in-time" training, for updating rarely used skills. According to Ross, the advantage for news organizations is that people are on the job while they're learning, and can apply what they're learning within hours of learning it.

Lots of chatting
Ross finds the current combinations of chat rooms, videoconferencing and e-mail exciting and well-suited for distance learning/training because it allows interaction between participants and discussion leaders, as well as among participants.

While they are classroom friendly, almost bullet-proof and inexpensive, current distance learning technologies do require a lot of on-line chatting, Ross said. He predicts videophones may easily replace chat rooms as the mode of communication between participants within two years.

That could have mixed effects, said English, who seeks to build a sense of community and participation among teachers and participants in the courses she designs. She noted that the invisibility of cyberspace offers safe shelter for participation for folks who are usually shy and silent in face-to-face situations; videophones would change that.

Also, she pointed out, text-based communication, whether used for distance learning or memos, remains a mediated form of communication, and so presents a different set of barriers to clear understanding.

"With text-chat and e-mail, there's a lack of inhibition. People loosen up," she said. However, she thinks that video has extremely good potential for on-line demos.

Chat room-type educational communities also offer another advantage that traditional classrooms don't, said English. While in traditional classrooms a few people dominate discussions while others hold back, many students in chats find themselves expressing their thoughts in a more elaborate and detailed way.

While newspapers have been steadily ramping up their levels of bandwidth during the last two years in order to make it easier to "see" the outside world, chatting can still be a hassle for students and participants who do their on-line seminar work both at the office and at home, whichever is more convenient.

Being on-line at home is a lot easier if participants (or the employer) bite the bullet and put in a second telephone line. Ross believes this obstacle to distance learning will resolve itself in the next couple of years, as increasing amounts of bandwidth become available and multiple pathways into the home are established.

As opposed to residential seminars or regular class meetings, distance learning may require more discipline from participants who are subject to more frequent and constant distractions. "It can be tough to get people on the same track when they're not as focused," said Ross.

The main reason that happens is that supervisors fail to allow time off -- despite prior commitments to do so -- for actually doing the required number of hours a week of course work.

David Hume, former associate director for extended learning at API and now a consultant with the organization, called participation the key to success in these distance learning endeavors. "When a participant skips one or two days, the number of messages to read, digest and respond to can become overwhelming. People turn into lurkers."

Some of these problems are likely to diminish as the distance learning concept becomes more a familiar part of our culture -- for corporations, organizations, teachers and learners.

"Many people are wowed by the technology and put distance learning initiatives in place without appropriate motivation," said English. "Then they fail. It's important for organizations to examine the audience they're trying to reach, think about the instructional goals, and then have a qualified instructional designer select the appropriate platform for delivery and carefully design the content.

"Technology is not an end in itself, it's a means to an end -- high-quality education."

The API approach
As educators begin to take advantage of the ways that technology can open doors to new modes of teaching and learning, English said, they will develop courses that are more learner-centered, relevant and motivating.

For example, distance learning seminars at API's Extended Learning Center are geared entirely to journalists who are unlikely to attend residential seminars -- often because of time or money. English believes that much of the success of these types of seminars lies in teachers who are flexible and can adapt to becoming facilitators instead of lecturers, and in students who are highly motivated because the content is directly related to their jobs.

Courses are "built" by newspaper people with expertise in the given area. English structures the course content into manageable weekly chunks suited to the content, students, technology and the software, and designs the look and structure of the course -- right down to the icons participants see on their desktops.

Courses for dailies are broken into five weeks, with an additional week for a community-building orientation that also serves to acquaint participants with the technology. Courses for weeklies include orientation, then run just three weeks.

Cost per student is $595 for dailies and $350 for weeklies. The fee includes all software and course materials as well as a 24-hour technical support hot line.

Each 10 to 15 participants have one discussion leader -- usually another, more experienced working journalist. The discussion leader and his or her participants usually are matched based on the size of their newspaper's circulation, to provide a better learning environment.

Ross said that this kind of matching is much easier to achieve in on-line rather than on-site learning environments.

English also works with discussion leaders to help them learn the specifics of facilitating an extended learning course using the First Class software on which the courses are built. The discussion leaders, who follow the course structure, are in charge of posting lessons, messages and exercises, and also making sure that participants log on regularly and stay current with their work.

While residential seminars at API usually total 40 hours, on-line seminars require at least 50 hours, plus download time, technical setup and orientation. Participants, or their newspapers' technical gurus, can download the self-installing software, instructions and manuals.

Facilitators have to learn to create a personal touch, she said -- to pull participants in and make them feel an obligation to stay. That can be accomplished through a variety of means, from peer study groups with a study group leader from their ranks, to posting biographies and photos on-line, to live chats.

During the current session for dailies, API is offering seven courses: Introduction to CAR, Creative Copy Editing I and II, Reporter's Workshop I, Circulation Supervisory Skills, Advertising Sales, and Building a Newspaper Marketing Plan.

API also offers customized extended learning courses. For example, Knight Ridder has selected 45 people from its newspapers around the country to participate in an upcoming seminar. A four-week pilot for newspapers in Latin America is in the works as well.

So far, API's Extended Learning Center has completed three rounds of seminars -- one pilot, and two real world -- serving about 375 students. These seminars have targeted daily newspapers, presenting courses to reporters and copy editors, as well as personnel in circulation, advertising and marketing.

Future considerations for extended learning offerings include subject-specific seminars and a move to web-based delivery -- which would simplify the technological aspects of extended learning, in part by eliminating the need to download software before taking the course.

Orientation for the next round of daily newspaper seminars begins May 11. The seminars end June 19. For a preview of the seminars and a listing of current and anticipated offerings, surf to http://www.apixl.org/.

As opposed to the more formal learning models that universities and organizations use, the Web also offers informal distance learning, which English said can include such things as professional development, on-line museums, personal development and telementoring.

One site that falls into this category may prove useful to newspapers who want to expose their staffs to a broader range of technologies. For a $4.95 per month subscription fee, ZD Net University (http://www.zdu.com/) allows you to take as many courses as you want. Group and corporate enrollments also are offered.

ZDU offers numerous subjects, including instruction on web site design, Common Gateway Interface (CGI) for non-programmers, Adobe Photoshop, Internet Advertising, Java, C, SQL, Microsoft's Visual Basic, FrontPage and Access. And this doesn't pretend to be a comprehensive list.

ZDU offers students memberships in virtual clubs such as HTML and Chess; a virtual campus bookstore, operated in collaboration with Barnes and Noble; student lounges; a student union, and Saturday night discussion groups.

There is also a resource library which offers free CGI scripts, a job search engine, how-to guides, weekly e-mail alerts and newsletters. An on-line help desk provides answer if you forget your password, want to delete a nasty cookie, or need a user manual.

-- L.C.C.

American Press Institute,
(703) 620-3611;
National Newspaper Association, (703) 907-7900.

From THE COLE PAPERS, April 1998, Copyright © 1998, All Rights Reserved.