table of Contents

1. Philosophy and Purposes of Distance Education
2. Five Propositions for Discussion
3. I. Purposes for Offering Distance Education in Nebraska
4. Proposition One
5. There is No Place Like Nebraska
6. Nebraska Demographics
7. "Winners and Losers" in Distance Education
8. Ethical Responsibilities
9. Making Money as a Purpose
10. Fiscal support for distance education
11. Importing and Exporting Distance Education Program
12. Summary: Purposes for Distance Education in Nebraska
13. Comments from Nebraskans
14. Comments from the Audience
15. II. Philosophy/Models Appropriate to Nebraska
16. Proposition Two
17. Toadstool
18. Knowledge Society - Building a Marketplace
19. Change Drivers
20. Poison Toadstools? Monster Under the Bed? Permanent Whitewater? Marketing Hype? Or Important Challenges?
21. "Strategy cannot be planned because planning is about analysis and strategy is about synthesis."
22. Orchestrating Congruence
23. Mainstreaming distance education is part and parcel of fulfilling the Land-Grant University mission. Citizens expect affordable, high quality education to be available from their public universities on an as needed basis.
24. "The Land-Grant University system is being built on behalf of the people, who have invested in these public universities their hopes, their support, and their confidence."
25. Four Cultures of the Academy
26. Profiles of The Least Connected (from 1997 Census)
27. The Digital Divide (US households with a computer by income and region)
28. The Digital Divide (households with a computer by race and region)
29. The Digital Divide (households with a computer by income and race)
30. The Digital Divide (households with computers by race)
31. Orchestrating Congruence
32. Collaboration - Purposive Relationship
33. How well do our structures, processes and technologies serve our mission in distance education?
34. "The Web would be entirely different if it had been based on a more dynamic metaphor than the publishing metaphor. How would the WWW be different if we talked about designing things to support conversations rather than designing to support posting?"
35. Distance Education is not an individual activity - it is not putting lecture notes on the Web - it is not lecturing to passive audiences. New structures, better learning software and attention to cost, scale and productivity are required.
36. "The model to replace Industrial Age education isn’t clear yet. But the idea that a person stands in front of a room stuffing information into students like grain into a duck is changing to the idea that teaching is about being a wise companion and advisor. Information technology can be done right to make that possible - it is a device where mentors can have influence and interaction with large numbers of learners."
37. "Creating with other people is a sheer joy. The power of consciously and intentionally creating new patterns of relationships and interaction that defy barriers of history, separations of geography, language and culture is tremendous. To realize these possibilities it requires people to take the lead."
38. Faculty involved in distance education must develop:
39. Consciously, the hierarchy and self-oriented model must diminish
40. "Success today requires world class competency, interconnectedness and integration of the organization’s culture, competencies and processes with those of other enterprises."
41. Winners and Losers- The Harvard Business School Model
42. ADEC Net Network
43. Developing A Knowledge Marketplace
44. Case Examples
45. First Mover Advantage - Who else will be in the game?
46. Special Challenges
47. Orchestrating Congruence
48. Comments on Philosophy/Models from Nebraska Interviews
49. Comments from the Audience
50. III. On-Campus and Off-Campus Learning
51. Proposition Three
52. We Continue to Create More Options
53. Customers don't care where program comes from if the provider is known and accredited.
54. Campuses are overbuilt
    Buildings need re-design
55. Learner maturity and self-directedness important
    Completion of distance education programs an issue
56. Comments on On- and Off-Campus Learning from Nebraska Interviews
57. Comments from the Audience
58. IV. Credit and Non-Credit Offerings
59. Proposition Four
60. Lines Blur Credit and Non Credit
61. Testing - Evaluation - Assessment
62. "Seat Time"
63. Credit System Will Evolve
64. What do Employers Really Want?
65. Nebraska Issues
66. Recommendation:
67. Recommendation:
68. Comments on Credit and Non-credit Programs from Nebraska Interviews
69. V. Vision, Collaboration & Implementation
70. Proposition Five:
71. We need real Nebraska values:
72. "This also includes developing a sophisticated understanding among the many actors of what is really going on in this changing environment, encouraging more sharing and more sunshine on all policies, procedures and money flows; creation of interoperability of technologies and systems without dampening creativity and entrepreneurship; and building on strengths and eliminating some of the well recognized weaknesses in the current fragmented approaches."
73. "Nebraska needs to have a one year open process like the Lincoln/Lancaster County Goals and Policies study done years ago to discuss these issues very clearly with the citizens of the state. As the state's land-grant institution the University of Nebraska should cooperate with the next governor to get this process in place. In addition, a well thought through evaluation and research process should be developed as an element of this initiative. The NN21 task force responsible for these white papers should take the lead to assure that this happens."
74. Comments from the Audience
75. Philosophy and Purposes of Distance Education

View the Issues Paper, presented September 28, 1998, at the NN21 Conference.