College of Nursing in ☆☆コミュのGlobal Campus

以下はシカゴトリビューンという新聞の記事です。

実は先学期、教育の授業で話を聞いたのですが、私のいるUniversity of Illinoisは今オンラインキャンパスを作る動きがあります。授業は全てオンライン、普通のon campusの授業より、１セメスターの期間が短く（7，8週間）で、1カ月おきに新しいセメスターを繰り返す、かなりflexibleなシステムです。働きながら、子育てしながら学位を取りたい、キャンパスが遠くて通えない、という人に適したプログラムです。

もちろん、人とのコミュニケーションがない、看護の場合、実践はどうする、などさまざまな質問や反対意見もあります。（まずはRN to BSNのBSNの学位をとりたい人用に始まるみたいですが、いずれ他のプログラムも始まるみたいです）それらを考えた上で、2008年にはスタートするみたいです。

まずはアメリカ国内で始めるようなのですが、近い将来、日本にいながらアメリカ留学ができる、なんてこともあるかもしれないですね。ビザの問題、家族や住む場所で制限がある人にとっては上手くいけば、大きな可能性が広がりますよね。（大学側はすでに莫大な予算を投じているので、どうしても成功させたいと思いますが・・・。）

興味のあるかたはぜひお読みください。

U. of I. cuts back its online proposal
Faculty resists plan for separate business

By Jodi S. Cohen
Tribune higher education reporter
Published January 18, 2007

Faced with overwhelming faculty resistance, University of Illinois President B. Joseph White has scaled back key details of a massive online university, including scrapping plans to make it a separate, for-profit business.

White altered his vision for Global Campus, a project that he has banked his reputation on, after realizing that faculty members and trustees did not want to relinquish academic or financial control.

The new plan, to be presented to the U. of I. board of trustees on Thursday, proposes that the online campus be organized as an academic unit rather than a separate Limited Liability Corporation (LLC). Courses would be designed and controlled by faculty members at the university's three campuses, and online bachelor's and master's degree programs would be offered through existing academic departments.

The Global Campus also will not seek independent accreditation--at least for now--meaning that original plans for a non-traditional, flexible system that could quickly create and eliminate programs based on student demand have been upended.

"It's going to be a little more difficult, a little more challenging," White said in an interview Wednesday. "It will be harder than the LLC form, but it is workable."

University officials had hoped that making Global Campus a for-profit enterprise, independent from university constraints, would make it easier to compete against other education for-profits such as the University of Phoenix. They also had said that keeping the online campus separate from the university system could keep expenses lower by outsourcing some functions such as payroll.

The online campus is intended to reach mostly adult learners who want a college education but are unable to make it to one of the school's three campuses, in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield, because of location or family and job commitments.

University trustees, who had een expected to vote on the plan Thursday, now will likely take it up in March. Faculty groups at all three campuses voted against the original plan, and White said he hopes to get faculty support before taking it to the board for a vote.

Faculty leaders said they are more comfortable with the new approach but caution that there are still details that need clarification--including questions about who will approve academic programs--before they will endorse it.

"We have come a long way from the original proposal," said Vernon Burton, a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign history professor who said he couldn't endorse Global Campus as a separate entity.



Faculty's concerns

"This has been one of the concerns, that we not just create a shadow university with hired workers," said Burton, chairman of the faculty Senate Executive Committee.

Terry Bodenhorn, chairman of the University Senates Conference, the faculty leadership group for the three campuses, said he was pleased that administrators listened to faculty concerns and scrapped the LLC structure.

"The concept ... struck us more as training than education," said Bodenhorn, director of the honors program at the Springfield campus. "By more clearly linking academic quality to academic control, we have done a lot to assure the quality and therefore the reputation of the venture."

White said he still plans to enroll the first online students by January 2008. Eight degree and two certificate programs will be offered in the beginning, most likely in business, nursing and education. By 2012, Global Campus is projected to enroll more than 9,000 students in 31 programs.

Some details have not changed. Admissions requirements will be easier. Course lengths will be shorter, generally six to eight weeks. And part-time faculty members will teach the majority of courses. Tuition has not been set, but administrators have said it should be "highly affordable."

White has predicted that online enrollment eventually would exceed the 70,000 students at the three campuses combined. Administrators are seeking about $20 million, mostly from private donors and foundations, to get the project off the ground.

Though it will operate as a non-profit, White said he expects Global Campus to turn a profit within five years, money that could then be invested in the traditional campuses. Global campus could see an annual surplus of more than $25 million in five years, White said.



$1.1 million already spent

The U. of I. has spent more than $1.1 million on the project so far, most of which paid for salaries and office space for 20 staff members, all of whom came from other university departments.

About $270,000 went to consulting fees for legal work, marketing studies and Web site design and development. The university purchased Web addresses uiglobalcampus.org and uiglobalcampus.com. As a defensive measure, it also purchased uiglobalsucks.org and uiglobalsucks.com.

"Of all the expenditures I've approved over the years," White said about the $1.1 million, "there are none that I feel better about than these."

jscohen@tribune.com

Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune