Recommendations from the University Committee on Distance Learning

It is the committee’s conclusion that distance learning techniques represent a large and important challenge to the position of any university among its peer institutions and in society generally. No discipline represented at CWRU will be untouched by the features we associate with distance learning, and some will become intensely dependent on them to retain and strengthen their positions of leadership.

The committee has extended the definition of the traditional phrase “distance learning” to define approaches that may take the following forms:

• Campus-based instruction provided to remote learners (this is the classical format for “distance learning”).
• Remote resources provided to both on-campus as well as remote learners, enhancing the experience of both traditional and nontraditional student groups.
• Hybrid learning formats, linking electronic and traditional approaches, a particularly promising option in many fields. The committee feels strongly that students participating remotely in offerings should have opportunities to come to the CWRU campus — or in other ways to interact directly with faculty and other students — during their learning experiences.

Characteristics of the approach to distance learning recommended by the committee that appear to offer considerable value to the University include the following:

• Overcoming traditional barriers of time and place, perhaps the most obvious benefit of introducing distance learning approaches.
• Potential for a considerable increase in interactivity (faculty-learner and learner-learner).
• Flexibility to be more or less user-driven (i.e., learner-driven), depending on the level of instruction being offered.
• Focus on special learning opportunities rather than on simulating traditional educational formats.
• Reliance to some extent on information technology.