presented by:
	Dr. Janet Poley, ADEC

• Distance Learning: A Role for Agricultural Economics Education
  "Distance Education for American Universities and the World"

• Introduction to a New World
  • The Death of Distance
  • Being Digital

• borders and Boundaries Disappearing
  • Local
  • Global

• Global Trends
  • Citizens locate anywhere
  • Countries bid down tax rates to attract earners and profitable companies
  • Strengthening of communities of culture-language
  • English as second global language
  • Three shift world
  • Blurring of Home and Workplace
  • More long-distance learning

• Distance Learning is Not New
  • Correspondence
  • Cooperative Extension
  • Mass Media Education

• Public Higher Education will survive by:
  • Meeting lifelong learning needs as mainstream aspect of mission
  • Incorporating new technologies in sophisticated ways into organization and delivery systems
  • Hiring, rewarding, and supporting creative faculty doing this
  • Develop quality niches
  • Consider international as contributors as well as recipients
  • Get a grip on costs of disorganized system of today

• The ADEC Consortium (http://www.adec.edu)
  • Vision - Mission - members - international
  • Digital Infrastructure
  • Knowledge Marketplace

• We have to be able to compete with
  • British Open University
  • University of South Africa

• Media Research - U.S.
  • Internet - 62 Million (30% over 16)
  • T.V. - 98% of U.S. homes
  • Cable - 67%
  • Telephone - 94%

• World Wide Web
  • 58% male
  • More new users female
  • 43% - college degrees (pop: 31%)
  • Average salary twice U.S. average

• Number of web pages
  • 320 million today
  • Most in U.S. followed by Australia and few European countries

• Two important trends
  • Explosion of potential to communicate instantly and massively
  • Ability to create communities of choice
           - Marshall Goldsmith 1998

• Three common communities
  • Communication
  • Trade
  • Common Culture

• Information Censorship

• Agricultural Economists - First movers?
  • Systems nature discipline
  • Local and global orientation
  • Dynamics of trade and culture
  • Understanding of business
  • Professional association and ethnic

• What is Distance Learning?
  • More about teaching and learning than about technology
  • Learners achieve defined outcomes within a specified time at an affordable cost

• Quality, affordable learning opportunities at time and place convenient for learner
  Access and Success

• Who are the Distance Learners?
  • Many are employed females over 25 with previous college experience
  • Blurring line - on and off campus

• The "Where" of learning is becoming less important than "What" and "How"

• "No institutions are better suited to make a difference in our technological future than research universities..."
         - Boyer Commission

• NCES
  • 14.3 million students enrolled in college - 750,000 in DE courses
  • 25% of institutions offering distance degrees
  • Nearly all large institutions involved

• Differences in Distance Ed students around the world
  • The U.S. market - Phoenix University - disadvantaged niche
  • Taking the cohort approach

• Challenges and Opportunities
  • Language
  • Culture
  • Support
  • Learning Methodology
  • Relevance
  • Quality
  • Cost Assurance

• Improving Learning Strategies and Pedagogy
  • Redesigning the learning environment - not bolt-on

• The Knowledge Marketplace and Electronic Commerce
  • Dede matrix - one size does not fit all situations, goals and pocketbooks
  • Knowing learner characteristics is important
  • Cooperation and strategic alliances are critical

• Credit Banking
  Standards
  Competency based testing

• Electronic Commerce
  • 73% of Internet users have used Web shopping

• Marketing and Selling Food and Ag Distance Education
  • Build Community of Interest
    1. Aggregate content and programs (depth and choice)
    2. Package offerings
    3. Be a first mover
    4. Identify market driven niches
    5. Develop efficient methods of production
    6. Work with those who are ready to move and have a passion for the possibilities

• Taxes
  Identify the competition
  Global communities of interest
  Private sector will pick low-hanging fruit
  Cooperation and reciprocity essential

• Conclusion
  • "Knowledge is the most powerful glue for human fellowship and sharing. The knowledge society can bring individuals toward a greater sense of common experience. Distance education may truly be a misnomer as it becomes the organized force for engaging communities of interest in a world where no one and no where is distant."