![[Graphic: Directions]](/tech_home/windows/graphics/DirectionsT.gif)
Back in 1912, long before everyone had a telephone or anyone had even heard of television, the University of Washington offered its first "distance learning" course by U.S. mail. Now UW Distance Learning, the program's official title since 1993, serves more than two thousand students annually.
UW Distance Learning--together with the three other UW Educational Outreach programs (Evening Degree, Extension, and Summer Quarter)--complements the traditional academic calendar by providing a variety of opportunities for learning.
The agenda of concerns from the first National University Extension Association convention in 1915 sounds strikingly familiar:
These issues are still the subject of faculty deliberations at the UW and across the country.
Discussions and planning for future distance learning initiatives at our university are ongoing. In schools, colleges, and departments throughout the UW, various committees of faculty and administrators meet to discuss these issues. The newly formed Distance Learning Round Table, the Faculty Council on Educational Outreach, and the Ad Hoc Committee on Educational Technology and Distance Education are all involved.
From doing numerous surveys, we have found that students prefer to learn through a variety of technological tools. Print, video, Internet, and even a number of classroom sessions may be combined to deliver a single course. Faculty and administrators agree that this "eclectic" approach to designing distance learning curriculum most effectively serves the discipline, the course content, the faculty, and the varied learning styles of students.
As with on-campus courses, distance learning classes seek to convey information, to direct students toward realization of learning objectives outlined in a syllabus, and to stimulate a high level of discourse. It also is imperative that distance learning courses engage faculty and students in intensive communication if they are to be successful.
![[Graphic:
From your keyboard to anywhere in the world.]](/tech_home/windows/issue20/graphics/globec.gif)
The student/teacher relationship is at the core of every learning experience. Successful distance learning design not only fosters communication between student and teacher, but among students as well. Technology can enhance this communication, facilitating dialog through email, voice mail, Web pages, and videoconferencing.
A number of other UW schools and colleges have expressed an interest in expanding their programs and their ability to serve the public through distance learning. In January 1996, surveys were sent to the public to determine the need and viability of many proposed programs.
As a result of the surveys, the UW's 1997-99 legislative budget request included proposals to develop distance learning curriculum for several schools and programs. Funding was received to initiate a Master in Social Work and a Master in Health Administration. Planning for these state-funded programs is conducted in close cooperation with the deans, chairs, and faculty. The programs are taught as part of the faculty's regular course load, and students are matriculated in the UW.
Another collaborative effort allows workers in the Port Angeles area to expand their skills while staying on the job by enrolling in distance learning graduate-level courses in the School of Social Work. They use computers and classrooms at Peninsula College to connect to UW instructors to get the training they need from a convenient location.
As we plan for the future, we must choose our path carefully and learn from others, trying to avoid their mistakes. A commitment to working from our academic strengths--with a sensitivity to learning styles and options as well as to the demands placed on students learning "outside" the traditional classroom--provides the framework for our progress. Experimentation, sharing, maximizing resources, and internal and external partnerships will be the keys to success in distance learning at the UW.