In Distance Learning, Is There a Role?

  	
  	
  	
  


	Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship  	Spring 1997  


	DOI:10.5062/F49021SC


    

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In Distance Learning, Is There a Role?
      Nestor Osorio
  Associate Professor
  Northern Illinois University    
      Jack Martin, publisher of Scientific Computing and Automation, reported in the August 1996 issue some of the results of a survey done by this magazine to determine the use of computing and automated systems in the workplace of scientists and engineers. (Martin 1996) The report indicates a continued increase in the use of computers, software and peripherals. Most of the respondents expect their use to continue to increase in a significant way with a full integration of activities in the work place, such as collecting, analyzing, modeling, visualization, documentation and transmission of data. Mr. Martin indicates that the use of high technology in the workplace for scientists and engineers is in "the midst of the most revolutionary time this industry has ever seen." Results of selected parts of this survey are in the September issue web site of SC&A at {http://www.scamag.com/}.    Changes in technology are also having other significant effects. Dr.  Ernest T. Smerdon, chair of the National Academy of Engineers Committee on  Career-Long Education for Engineers and chair of ASEE's Engineering Deans  Council in a column entitled "Last Word," discussed the critical  importance of lifelong learning for scientists and engineers. (Smerdon 1996) Dr. Smerdon pointed out the half-life  technical knowledge of a mechanical engineer is 7.5 years; five for  electrical and 2.5 for software engineers. Changes in job  responsibilities, and the need to switch to new fields because the  previous one vanished, are some of the other factors forcing what the  author calls "a whirlwind of change" within the scientific and engineering  community of this country. One way corporate America is responding to this  challenge is by the creation of their own continuing education programs.  Corporate owned graduate programs established in major companies such as  the Boeing Company and Motorola are turning their technical staff into  perpetual students with the expectations that their investments will pay  back in the forms of higher productivity and quality. For those who do not  work at companies like Boeing or Motorola, institutions of higher  education are working with industry to train a work force in need of  continuing actualization. Dr. Smerdon reiterates the importance of this  issue by indicating that the country's economic future depends on its  intellectual capital. Not only the technical work force and their  employers should be concerned but our society as a whole, the author  insists. (An index to ASEE PRISM is found at  {http://www.asee.org/pubs2/html/article_index.htm})

    Significant changes are not only happening in the work place of scientists and engineers. In  higher education, changes are occurring at a fast pace. Universities now have multiple  campuses and a number of satellite classroom centers. This is a change in the way higher  education was provided even ten years ago. There are many examples in the literature of  extended campus instruction, and the support given by libraries to their students and  faculty members. One new dimension added to this trend is the creation of virtual classrooms  and virtual campuses.

    Changes are not only affecting professional or graduate sci-tech education, but the  undergraduate programs as well.

    In a recent report produced by the National Science Foundation: "Shaping the Future, New  Expectations for Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics and Technology" the  importance of new multimedia technology, networking and communications is considered  extensibly. (National Science Foundation 1996) How to achieve curricular  and pedagogical improvements for undergraduate education of SME&T programs is the  central objective of this document which includes a review of the state of undergraduate  education for these fields . Among the improvements occurring in the last ten years  indicated by faculty, this one is mentioned: "developing curricula that embody some of ....,  and that take full advantage of modern technology, particularly personal computers,  multimedia materials, digital libraries, hypertext links, and access to vast networked  resources, including databases and activities on other campuses." 

    And, one of the recommendations listed in the executive summary of this report says:  "SME&T faculty: Believe and affirm that every student can learn, and model good  practices that increase learning; start with student's experiences, but have high  expectations within a supportive climate; and build inquiry, a sense of wonder and the  excitement of discovery, plus communication and team work, critical thinking, and life-long  learning skills into learning experiences."

    Distance learning is emerging as a real possibility for undergraduate education. In the NSF  report the teaching faculty interviewed made testimony of it, as Dr. Doyle Davis, Jr., Dean  of the School of Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute put it: "As the tools of the  information, communication, and computing technology become integrated into the educational  process, the traditional classroom reliance on the lecture format becomes increasingly  anachronistic. The essence of the new technology is the empowerment of the user. Inevitably,  in use of computer-based technologies, learning becomes both active and under control of the  learner. Similarly, when students are actively engaged in the learning process using  multimedia and information technology tools, almost inevitably they work together in groups  or teams sharing insights and experiences and, in the process, learn teamwork,  communication and organizational skills as well as subject matter."

    When talking about distance learning we must recognize the fact that changes are occurring  now, universities are embracing the advantages of distance education; incentives are many,  shrinking support for education makes universities look for alternative ways to be cost  effective; there is a demand for distance learning from the private sector as well as  students who prefer to have continuing education near their homes, and the possibility that  a new generation of students - the Nintendo-Sega generation - will adapt to new methods of  learning.

    Vanderbilt University, for example, began offering a course online last  year: Engineering Science 130 is a freshman course for students majoring  in engineering - J. R. Bourne et al. described the course, and details can  also be found at  [{http://ciee.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/es130/home130.html}].  (Bourne 1996) ES 130 involved students in lectures  and laboratory modules, one of the lectures is on the use of the Internet.  This lab activity included access to library information. The course  emphasizes the tools needed by students such as Visual Basic,  Spreadsheets, Vector, MatLab, and modeling and quality assessment  techniques. Furthermore, entire online academic programs are flouri shing  both at the graduate and undergraduate levels in the school of sciences  and engineering. Just to mention a few are the programs offered at  Stanford University, the University of Maine, and Lehigh University. Most  sci-tech schools throughout the coun try are experimenting with or  teaching online courses.

    Purposely, I began this article making reference to a survey about  scientists and engineers in their work place, even though I realize most  of us work in higher education, and that the university is usually not the  property of private-for-profit corporations. However scientists and  engineers working in the "real world" are ultimately a very important  sector of our own clientele. Most of them are educated in the traditional  way - I mean physically going to college - and by doing so they learn from  scientists, engineers and librarian-teachers skills essential to handling  information. Some of them, after working in industry, become the new  faculty members in our schools of science and engineering. Reading between  the lines in the recommendation of the NSF report mentioned above, we must  recognize the impact that library faculty can contribute to this  reform.

    The possibilities are wide open, science and engineering librarians  working with university administrators must explore the different ways in  which advanced computer instructional technology can blend with the skills  for collecting, organizing, retrieving and evaluating quality information  that will enrich the education and retraining of students of the sciences  and engineering. The technology is available, the institutional climate is  positive, it is up to us to begin answering the question: In implementing  Distance Learning, what will be the role of the science-tech  librarians?

    

References
    Bourne, J.R. A model for on-Line  learning networks in engineering education. Journal of Engineering  Education July 1996: 253-262.    Martin, Jack. Look in the mirror and  what do you see? The Learning Edge in Computing, Scientific  Computing & Automation August 1996: 60.

    National Science Foundation, Shaping the Future, New  Expectations for Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics,  Engineering, and Technology. [{http://www.nsf.gov/pubsys/ods/getpub.cfm?nsf96139}]  1996. 

    Smerdon, Ernest T. It takes a  lifetime. ASEE PRISM December 1996: 56

    

 
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