By Dan Crouch
IV Leader Staff
Distance education at IVCC has grown since its inception, dramatically in recent years.
Over the last year, the number of courses offered and students enrolled just in online courses has gone from 59 students in 12 classes in the spring of 2001 to 129 students enrolled in 25 classes this spring.
In addition to online courses, the other types of distance classes at IVCC are telecourses and interactive television (ITV) courses, all of which are learning environments where the student and the instructor are separated by either space or time.
The purpose of distance education, according to Emily Vescogni, director learning technologies, is “to provide more opportunities to students who otherwise would not be able to earn their degrees because they can’t attend traditional classes.”
Distance education has actually been at IVCC since the college started offering telecourses in the 1980s.
The latest telecourse additions are Strategies for College and Introduction to Nutrition, which has been very popular with nursing students, Vescogni said.
Equipment for two new ITV rooms was purchased through grant money the college received in fiscal 2000. Vescogni said the closing of building C for renovations, projected to take place in the summer, will mean fewer ITV rooms until renovations are complete sometime in the spring of 2003.
“The growth in online offerings is to the credit of several dedicated faculty who are willing to invest the time to experiment with communications technologies,” Vescogni said.“Many of these faculty have had their projects funded through state money, which has helped IVCC to expand offerings to non-traditional students who balance work and family obligations with their studies.”