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CAN'T GO TO COLLEGE? FSU CAN COME TO YOU
By Jamie Murphy
Visiting Research Associate
FSU Center for Academic Support and Distance Learning
Borrowed Time. His band's name suggests how tough it is for Mike Groh, an FSU senior majoring in computer science, to juggle schedules. In addition to his band and academic pursuits, Groh has a wife, 15-month-old son and full-time job. This busy man's course schedules, however, are the hardest to juggle.
Courses "are not offered with the working person in mind at all," he lamented. "Full-time students are the target for these, and it makes it difficult to get in the hours for my job as well as my classes. Add to that having a wife and child to support, and it suddenly limits your options"
Groh longs for an option that fits his life, and he knows what it would be - classes on the Internet, taught at his convenience.
"With distance learning, I could do school at night, during my lunch hour, before work, etc. [and] finish my degree faster by taking more than one class per semester," he said.
There are thousands like him, working students who want to give school more of their odd hours, late-night hours and stay-home hours. Thousands more could become students with help from their computers.
Starting next fall, Florida State will offer full-time distance learning to undergraduates in two fields, computer science and information studies (the broader, technologically-savvy version of what was once called library science).
Florida State has offered post-graduate degrees by distance learning for more than a year.
Now thanks to FSU's new partnership with Florida's community colleges and Great Britain's Open University, undergraduates will attend FSU from their home, work, local library, nearby community college and any other place with Internet access.
"Our goal is to provide access to education for the hundreds of thousands of citizens who are place-bound and cannot travel to a university to finish their college degree," said FSU Provost Larry Abele.
The undergraduate distance learning program - aptly named "2 + 2" - allows any students completing the first two years at a community college to stay in their community while finishing the last two years at FSU - via web-based upper-level courses. The community colleges will provide the physical support, and the faculty there will provide academic support for the students.
The program will use materials and methodologies of Open University, with almost 30 years experience and more than 150,000 current students.
And FSU has "exceptional resources in instructional design and long experience with computer-assisted learning," said FSU President Sandy D'Alemberte.
Mike Groh's boss, Glen Davidson of ATG Technologies in Tallahassee - one of America's 500 fastest-growing private companies - says he can't wait to harvest the 2 + 2 graduates.
Davidson has been hiring programmers for 20 years; hiring them today is tougher than ever.
"It used to be you'd run an advertisement and take your pick," he said. "Today, you run an ad and hope someone replies."