Over the past five years, N.C. State has been working to build and improve its online environment

Enrollment of on-campus students in distance education courses has soared and the amount of teachers using online programs such as WebCT Vista has substantially increased as well. With the University’s recent placement in the top 25 of the most connected campuses across the nation by The Princeton Review, NCSU is now poised to move further with its online presence.

According to Tom Miller, the vice provost for distance education and learning technologies, the amount of on-campus students taking distance education courses has increased from about 800 in 2000-01 to 2650 in 2004-05.

Miller indicated that more students are taking distance education courses because there are now more sections being offered, the word about distance education is spreading throughout the campus and, most importantly, students are becoming aware of the advantages of online courses.

“Distance education is used by students for progress towards their degree so they can graduate on time. If they are traveling or going home for the summer, they can still get the credit hours they need,” Miller said. “It offers scheduling flexibility.”

Another point Miller made was the wide range of learning styles that online courses are able to reach.

“With online courses, we are able to address a variety of learning styles, more so than a lecture class,” Miller said.

Students make it clear that distance education courses are a necessity in order for them to graduate on time.

“I take online courses because of my work schedule — I have to work full-time,” Nickie Yue, a senior in textile technology, said. “It allows me to have flexibility and I am also able to multitask.”

Yue explained that she completes most of her online course material on the weekends and mornings.

“I can do laundry and other things while watching the lectures,” Yue said.

Ryan Thigpen, a senior in textile management, said he took golf through distance education to save him the trouble of going over material he already knew.

“I took it online because I already know how to play golf, and dressing out for PE is a pain in the butt,” he said.

According to Thigpen, the course wasn’t very intensive because “if you are familiar with the game of golf, everything is review.”

He did warn that students have to be careful in choosing online courses.

“You could easily fail if you don’t know what you are doing,” Thigpen said. “If you have never played golf then you would be much better off taking the on-campus course.”

David Covington, an associate English professor, commented on the success of the Department of English’s online professional writing courses, pointing out that “student grades in these courses are consistent with student grades in classroom sections.”

“As the teachers have grown more adept at online teaching, they have learned how to make assignments that challenge students to do their best,” Covington said.

He also stated that teachers are starting to realize that online courses can be beneficial.

“The teachers in the program have learned that they can teach successfully online, that their students can learn successfully online and that teachers can take advantage of the time-shifting possibilities that appeal to students,” Covington said.

While many students are jumping at the chance to take online courses, there is still the big mystery of how the distance education courses’ pricing system works.

Miller explained that the pricing model for distance education courses is linear while pricing for on-campus courses is based on a “step” model.

For instance, as far as on-campus courses are concerned, a student taking between one and five hours would pay $500 in tuition. From nine to 11 hours, that student would pay $1500 in tuition.

Distance education courses cost about $100 per credit hour, so a three-hour online course costs about $300. Based on this model, it’s actually cheaper for students to take all online courses if they are registered for 17 hours or less

When paying for on-campus courses, once a student reaches 12 hours, they pay a fixed tuition, no matter how many more hours they take.

Essentially, if a student is full-time and decides to take an additional distance education course, the student will have to pay for the extra hours on the distance education model, independent of their on-campus hours.

Miller refers to this “extra” tuition as the “tuition penalty” for students taking both online and on-campus courses.

Stating that this system is a “problem,” Miller encourages students to speak up and help get the current pricing model changed so there isn’t a penalty for taking online courses.

Online courses wouldn’t be possible without the aid of online Web sites set up by teachers to help interact and communicate with students.

The fact that NCSU is already in the top 25 of the most connected campuses in the nation isn’t stopping the University from making substantial improvements.

Miller explained that WebCT Vista, the online location where teachers post assignments, course material and everything else a student might need for a course, is being utilized now more than ever.

“We had about 400 sections use Vista in the fall and this semester we have 721 sections utilizing the Web site,” Miller said.

The 721 sections add up to about 13,110 students using Vista this semester.

“Dr. Godfrey, the dean of the College of Textiles, is pushing for the entire textile faculty to use Vista for their classes,” Miller added.

David Shew, a plant pathology professor, along with his TA, Courtney Gallup, a doctoral student, has been working to incorporate online material into their Principles of Plant Pathology [PP315] class.

According to a survey conducted by Distance Education and Learning Technology Applications, students in the class reacted positively to his use of online videos and found them very helpful.

“The video allowed me to see the step-by-step processes of an experiment and the commentary in the background helped me understand what was going on and why the processes were necessary,” a student in the survey said.

According to the WebCT Vista Faculty Survey from last semester, 81 percent of participating professors agreed with the following statement: “WebCT Vista can be used to increase or enhance faculty-to-student interaction.”

Seventy percent of the participating professors agreed WebCT Vista could be used to “stimulate student thinking.”

Students had much of the same positive reaction to using the Vista system.

According to the Fall 2005 WebCT Vista Student Survey, the majority of students agreed “using WebCT Vista positively supported my learning.”

Despite the current position of the online community at the University, Miller said he hopes to continue to see the technology grow.

“I foresee the day when we don’t talk about distance education courses, but just education — where we talk about whatever works for the student or class,” Miller said. “I want to have a blended model where we use technology in a seamless way.”