Web Helps Colleges Turn To Home Schooling Washington Online System Offers First Electronic Course Next Week

Robust laughter tells sociology teacher Cecile Lycan she’s got the students’ attention. Bobbing heads tells her she’s lost them.

But when Lycan joins the state’s first online community college classroom, she wonders how she will recognize digital snoring, or electronic applause.

“I have a lot of enthusiasm for my subject and use a lot of humor,” said Lycan, from Spokane Community College. “It’ll be a challenge to translate it through the computer. Maybe I can add a laugh track.”

Teaching students across the Internet is nothing new. But teaching them at a level required for an accredited two-year college degree is a first for Washington’s 32 community and technical colleges.

Beginning next week, Washington Online will launch its first electronic college course for students seeking a two-year associate of arts degree.

The system takes the community colleges one step beyond off-campus learning by making interactive courses - and a complete two-year degree - accessible to anyone with a computer and a modem.

Washington Online is based at Spokane Falls Community College, where employees created the system.

“This isn’t for students who need the discipline of the classroom,” said project manager John Thompson, who works with partner Connie Broughton and others. “We’re empowering the community college system to use the best ways possible to teach students.”

Thompson predicts enrollment of up to 2,500 Washington Online students during the first year, which begins this fall. By the year 2003, he expects to enroll 10,000 students, a number larger than any single community college in the state.

Thompson and Broughton have had less than a year to turn on Washington Online. A Web site will be available later this month so students can begin to enroll for fall quarter.

Next week, an Edmonds Community College instructor will begin teaching a pilot course on Western civilization. By fall, nine courses will be available, including English composition, astronomy, psychology, Earth science and music appreciation. Each class can enroll up to a total of 30 students from any community college in the state.

Taxpayers are shelling out $530,000 to launch Washington Online, a fraction of what schools in other states are spending for online degree programs.

Thompson persuaded the colleges to pool their money to develop a single system that would solicit instructors from many different campuses. The plan was to relieve each college from having to invent its own system in the face of growing competition for students who use computers at home to take classes across the Internet.

“It’s more economical to use technology-based instruction than to build more classrooms,” Thompson said.

A Washington Online graduate will earn an A.A. degree through the community college where they were first admitted. The liberal arts degree permits students to transfer as a junior to most four-year colleges and universities in Washington.

Admission to the program, tuition, books and other fees will be identical to those for traditional community college students. And the quarter starts and ends at the same time as it does for on-campus students.

One difference, however, is that students can fit their online school work around their own schedules. Another is that they will have to work harder to pass a Washington Online course.

A computer program will track student participation by measuring their online time “conversing” with teachers and students, producing assignments and taking tests, Thompson said. Class participation and weekly assignments will carry more weight than final exams, reducing the incentive for students to cheat on tests.

“This is not an electronic correspondence course,” Thompson said. “Students can’t sit quietly in the background doing nothing.”

Some laboratory work may be done electronically; others will require students to visit a campus or other supervised facility. Because of these limitations, Washington Online will stick to a basic, core curriculum that independent students can complete with limited expense.

“It’s pretty simple to operate” Washington Online, Broughton said. “If you can send e-mail, you can do this.”

STUDENTS Organizers predict enrollment of up to 2,500 Washington Online students during the first year, which begins this fall.