Penn State World Campus Team Wins National Award
University Park, PA-The Penn State World Campus staff,
led by Dr. Gary E. Miller, associate vice president for Distance Education
and executive director of the World Campus, has been awarded the 2002
Bill Murphy Barrier Buster Award from the American Distance Education
Consortium (ADEC).
The consortium, headquartered at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln,
is an association of state and land-grant colleges and universities
that offer distance education programs and services to the public through
the Web and satellite technology.
Miller, on behalf of the World Campus team, received the Barrier Buster
Award on April 14 during the American Distance Education Consortium's
meeting in Columbus, Ohio. The Barrier Buster Award was created as a
tribute to William Murphy, a national leader in the use of distance
education technologies in Cooperative Extension who died in 2001.
The World Campus was nominated for the award for its success in eliminating
the barriers of time and place for thousands of adult
part-time students throughout the United States and the world and for
working effectively to bring online distance learning into the mainstream
of Penn State's academic community. The team also was cited for its
leadership in raising awareness and understanding within the national
higher education community of effective approaches for online delivery
in distance education.
"The World Campus is a national model of integration and
institutionalization within the university setting," noted ADEC
Executive Director Janet Poley. "It serves as a prototype for the
still developing field of online distance education nationally,"
she added.
"Gary Miller and the World Campus team have been extraordinary
in their efforts to expand the vision of anytime, anywhere learning
both at Penn State and within the national higher education community,"
Dr. James H. Ryan, vice president for Outreach and Cooperative Extension
at Penn State, said. "In creating the World Campus as a fully integrated
campus within the University's mission and academic culture, the World
Campus team has focused on addressing the needs of faculty and students,
and the team has pioneeredinnovations to support both groups in a virtual,
interactive learning environment."
The creation of the World Campus has stimulated a variety of new policies
within Penn State, including creation of a vehicle for
academic units to share technology-based courses, establishment of standards
for achieving the graduate education residency requirement in a distance
education environment and creation of revenue-sharing models with participating
academic units.
In addition, World Campus team members are sharing their experiences
and expertise in creating Penn State's virtual campus with others in
the higher education community through national meetings, consulting
and technical assistance. In fall 2002, the World Campus will host an
invitational workshop for faculty at more than 15 universities to discuss
standards of practice for online teaching. The program is one of several
World Campus initiatives supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
The World Campus, launched in January 1998, has experienced increases
in credit and noncredit enrollment. For 2000-01, enrollment was approximately
5,100. Enrollment for the 2001-02 academic year is expected to exceed
7,000. During the World Campus's first three years, 156 faculty members
from 12 Penn State colleges have developed 186 new online courses representing
27 programs for World Campus delivery. New master's and baccalaureate
degree programs are planned for next year.
Following are some highlights of the Penn State World Campus:
* Penn State has received $4.75 million over four years from the Alfred
P. Sloan Foundation to fund development of the World Campus.
* 82 percent of World Campus students are 24 years of age and older.
Students come from all 50 states and 49 countries worldwide; more than
60 percent of students are from outside Pennsylvania.
* Eight Penn State colleges offered 22 degree and certificate programs
through the World Campus during the 2000-01 academic year, an increase
of 22 percent over the previous year. Currently, there are 27 programs
offered through 12 colleges.
* Students give their World Campus experience high marks. Last year,
90 percent of students surveyed said they were satisfied or very satisfied
with the amount of knowledge gained in their World Campus course; 87
percent said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the analytical
and problem-solving skills they developed; and 88 percent said they
were more effective at work as a result of having taken a World Campus
course.
For information about the Penn State World Campus, visit the Web site
at www.worldcampus.psu.edu