"The DegreeLink concept intended, from the beginning, to broadly impact ISU's core values for access and success, innovation and excellence both off-campus and on-campus... The DegreeLink strategy focused on developing resources to support teaching with technology, both at a distance and on-campus. Many of the costs incurred in supporting distance education have had the dual benefit of supporting ISU's on-campus mission as well. ISU has received recognition for its efforts in teaching with technology and these resources have been developed almost exclusively through the DegreeLink Partnership, distance education, and the associated economic and education trends leading to public support... The DegreeLink Partnership was an institutional strategy that responded to external forces over which the institution had little control. However, in doing so, the clear purpose focused on seeking a competitive advantage that would fit, reinforce, and strengthen ISU's core mission."

External validation of the DegreeLink strategy continues to mount. In his January 2000 State of the State Address, Governor Frank O'Bannon, under the topic "Better Colleges and Universities," cited DegreeLink as one of the State's accomplishments during the 1997-99 biennium. DegreeLink and the Community College Initiative were the only two higher education initiatives mentioned. ISU has received notice from Indiana Commission for Higher Education staff that it will be included in a second study of best practices in distance education by the Institute for Higher Education Policy in Washington, D.C. The DegreeLink Partnership, for the second time, is one of the featured programs in The College Board's 2000 edition of "Working Together: Model Two-Year and Four-Year College Partnerships."

Though this format does not lend itself well to tables, I think the numbers will paint a picture for you as you read them:

• In Fall '97, ISU offered four certificate and two masters degree programs via distance education. This Fall, we offer 11 DegreeLink programs, seven certificate programs, and six graduate degree programs.

• Distance education is becoming a greater market share of overall semester-based enrollment, and represents success in new student markets. This contribution has allowed ISU to maintain and expand its overall enrollment levels.

• Year-to-date DegreeLink enrollments for FY2001 already exceed the entire FY2000 totals.

• This Fall, 207 courses are available via distance education modalities. 91 are web-based courses, 54 are televised courses, 55 are correspondence courses, and seven are videotape courses.

• Web-based course enrollments have grown from 20 in Fall '98, to 295 in Fall '99, to 830 in Fall '00. Televised course enrollments have doubled in the past three years.

• On-campus students appear to be using mediated sections to overcome logistical barriers, find a fit with their learning style, and further their progress to a degree, based on Spring 2000 survey results.

• On-campus students are taking advantage of the flexibility of distance education courses to progress more rapidly toward degree completion. Last Spring, undergraduate students taking courses both on-campus and via distance education carried an average course load of 4.9 courses, as opposed to 4.6 courses for students in on-campus courses only.

• In looking at course rigor, of those students who had a basis for comparison, 88% considered their distance education course to be "as difficult" or "more difficult" than an on-campus course.

• More than 170 faculty members have participated in the Course Transformation Academy to date.

• Over the past three years, ISU has received 14 Indiana Partnership for Statewide Education Course Development grants, or 22% of the state total, more than any other single Indiana campus.

For more information, contact:

The Center for Teaching and Learning
web.indstate.edu/ctl.winterfest2001/call.html
ctlelsla@ruby.indstate.edu
(812) 237-3053

FCRC Help Aids:

The FCRC, located in the Student Computing Complex, is open from 8:00am - 6:00pm, Monday through Friday. For information on any FCRC service, contact Julie Lee at 237-2603.

Plans are underway for the third edition of "Sketches of Innovators in Education," a collection of articles in which faculty discuss their experiences teaching and developing courses with technology. All ISU faculty members are invited to submit a short article (1-10 pages) for inclusion in the 2001 edition. For more information, including suggestions for first-time and "yearly" contributors, contact Julie Tipton at 237-8689 or exttipto@ruby.indstate.edu

College Fairs are going online. Virtual College Fairs are being integrated into the National Association of College Admission Counseling college fair program. Currently ten online fairs, scheduled in the upcoming months, will enable high school students to chat with potential colleges from their homes or school computer labs rather than congregating at school gymnasiums. Nearly 200 colleges and universities are participating; each will provide "electronic booths" that enable students to engage in real-time chats with college officials, including an admissions officer. Once admitted, many students will be attending career fairs like the one held at Eastern Illinois University which brought together 400 students and nearly 100 employers to share job information online. Participating organizations included: Aerotek, Abbot Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, Prudential, Pricewaterhouse, Ritz Carlton, Yellowstone National Park, and various school districts.
Source: The New York Times (3 Oct 2000); Syllabus (Oct 2000)

DOT.EDU is a news and discussion web site devoted to online education, virtual universities, and related issues such as intellectual property and digital publishing.
URL: http://www2.cddc.vt.edu/vu

History and Politics Out Loud (HPOL) is a searchable multimedia database that offers audio recordings of selected speeches of 19 political and historic legends, including Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, William J Clinton, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Lyndon B Johnson, Richard Nixon, and John F. Kennedy. Although the current selections are limited, the audio is excellent.
URL: www.hpol.org

Tomorrow's Professor is a "...free listserv that offers postings twice weekly, usually on Monday and Thursday mornings, Pacific Standard Time. The listserv seeks to foster a diverse, world-wide teaching and learning ecology among its nearly 10,000 subscribers at over 500 institutions and organizations in 79 countries around the world. To date, topics have included: Tomorrow's Academy; Tomorrow's Graduate Students and Postdocs; Tomorrow's Academic Careers; Tomorrow's Teaching and Learning; and Tomorrow's Research. This listserv is produced by Standard University Learning Laboratory, the American Association for Higher Education, and The National Teaching and Learning Forum. URL: http://sll.stanford.edu/projects/tomprof/newtomprof/index.shtml

Just for fun, visit The Word Detective on the Web. This online version of The Word Detective, a popular newspaper column, answers readers' questions about the origins of words and language.
Here's an example:
Hoosier:
"Hoosier" first appeared in the early 19th century, when Indiana was considered "the frontier." Throughout what was then "the West," any man who could outrun, out-drink and outfight any opponent was known as a "husher," from his ability to silence his foes. "Husher," in fact, was a common synonym for "bully" throughout the Western Territories. The bargemen of Indiana who plied their trade up and down the Mississippi were known as an especially combative breed, often turning their visits to ports such as New Orleans into impromptu mass boxing matches. It is said that the reputation of these bare-fisted ambassadors of pugilism earned the nickname "husher" for their home territory of Indiana. By the mid-19th century, the word had mutated to "hoosier," and, in a curious turnabout, had come to be a popular synonym for "hick" or "rube." Since the turn of the century, "hoosier" has lost both of its former connotations and been a neutral, if somewhat mysterious, term for anyone from Indiana.
URL: http://www.word-detective.com/