Release Date: August 3, 1999 This content is archived.
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- George Lopos likes to borrow that advertising line made famous by General Motors -- "We're not your father's Oldsmobile" -- when outlining the changes that are under way at Millard Fillmore College (MFC).
"We're not going to be your father's MFC; we are not going to be the old night school," says Lopos, who for nearly four years has headed the unit that traditionally has operated the evening and summer sessions of the University at Buffalo, offering courses, certificate programs and degree programs for working adults and other nontraditional students.
While MFC will continue to serve the "nontraditional" student, Lopos stresses, it will do so
by shifting its attention to distance learning and specialized continuing-education programs.
"The old night-school model is not viable any more," he says.
The typical evening-division student -- working full-time with family and other responsibilities -- finds it "excruciating to find enough time to get to campus and take one course," says James A. Anderson, director of instructional technology for MFC. By providing courses via distance learning, MFC is able to offer students the flexibility and access they need, he says, whether it's at 6 in the morning or 9 at night.
"The question is not distance; it's access," Lopos stresses.
The college has made slow, but significant, progress since it kicked off its distance-learning initiative two years ago with two telecourses and one Internet-based course:
o It will offer seven telecourses in the fall in a variety of subjects. The courses, which air on educational-access channels via Adelphia Cable and Lockport Community Television, allow students to learn by watching television in the comfort of their own home, rather than attending on-campus lectures. UB faculty members provide additional study material and instructional support.
o It has expanded its Internet-based course offerings -- also called the asynchronous learning network -- to 21 for the fall. Students can access the course material from any place at any time, as long as they have access to the Internet. In fact, students can earn certificates online in
such subject areas as paralegal studies, computing and network management, and public relations and advertising.
o It has partnered with the UB School of Nursing to offer courses via interactive video -- the synchronous network -- to students in Jamestown interested in pursuing bachelor's degrees in nursing from UB. MFC also plans to partner with the UB School of Social Work to offer courses this fall to students in Corning, Jamestown and the Rochester area.
Moreover, MFC is involved in Project Connect and Buffalo CityNet, two video-based, fiber-optic networks that link participating sites, including virtually every school district in Western New York, as well as video classrooms in Baldy Hall on the North (Amherst) Campus, Abbott Hall on the South (Main Street) Campus and the Educational Opportunity Center on Washington Street in downtown Buffalo.
o About 470 students received instruction via distance learning during the spring 1999 semester, a substantial increase over the 55 students enrolled in the first distance-learning courses two years ago.
"We're the point of contact, the point of presence for the university in terms of distance learning," Lopos says, noting that UB's distance-learning efforts had been limited until former Provost Thomas Headrick assigned responsibility for the distance-learning initiative for the university to MFC several years ago.
Although UB this fall will implement Access99, an initiative requiring all entering freshmen to have access to a computer and have a working knowledge of basic software packages, the Internet and email, those efforts are directed specifically at on-campus students, Lopos says. MFC will use the Internet and other distance-learning technologies to target the "off-campus" student, he says.
"We're looking at continuing education, and the adult, nontraditional student, primarily," he says.
MFC has been "refigured and re-engineered" for the distance-learning environment, Lopos points out. The number of staff members on the college's "distance-learning team" has expanded from one to four within the past two years, including a full-time student advisor and a full-time instructional designer who works with faculty members and the academic units to "translate" traditional instructional methods into one of the three distance-learning modalities -- telecourses, asynchronous learning (Internet-based) and synchronous learning (interactive video).
In addition, MFC's background in serving the nontraditional student provides a good foundation for its efforts to provide to the distance-learning student such vital supports as registration, textbooks and grades, as well as technical assistance, Anderson says.
"We're set up to do that," Lopos says, "and can troubleshoot (for the student) as necessary."
MFC's involvement in synchronous learning differs somewhat from the distance-learning focus of most colleges and universities, which centers solely on Internet-based learning, Lopos says.
But with MFC's connection to CityNet and Project Connect, "we have the opportunity really to extend classroom-style instruction throughout Western New York," Lopos says, adding that "different people learn in different ways" and the synchronous learning network gives MFC another avenue to providing distance learning.
He cautions, however, that this increasing emphasis on distance learning will not mean the end of the university as we know it.
"For the traditional undergraduate, the undergraduate campus experience is critical," he says. "But there are other people whose life circumstances simply preclude that. And we (MFC) have a responsibility to them."
Adds Anderson: "We're just expanding opportunities."