Distributed
Education:
PROGRAM
OVERVIEW
Distributed
Education
What is Distributed
Education?
Innovative teaching methodologies enable most participants to complete their program with minimal disruption to lifestyle, family responsibilities, and employment.
The program is provided through a distributed learning program utilizing primarily Lotus Notes computer groupware, the Internet, and limited telephone communications. The methodology enables courses to be taught in virtual classrooms which foster extensive and substantive interactions between and among group members. Teaching and learning is based on a "collaborative learning - reflective practice" approach conducted through interactive computer based correspondence. This process is not a standard distance education process in which teaching is transmitted from or to a central point. Distance has little meaning in the context of this program because the learning activities might take place in an adjacent room or in homes or workplaces at many widely dispersed sites throughout the state, nation, and the world. The instructor's role becomes that of facilitator. Distributed collaborative learning takes place through "virtual groups" whose members are widely distributed geographically.
