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By Gov. Cecil H. Underwood
(Editor’s note: West Virginia Gov. Cecil H. Underwood is
chairman of the Southern Regional Education Board, an interstate
compact for education that celebrated its 50th
anniversary this year. He also served as chairman of the SREB
when he was governor 40 years ago.)
I have witnessed many innovative approaches to improve higher
education over the last 50 years.
The Southern Regional Electronic Campus is the nation’s
largest multistate electronic marketplace, and it is the most
promising initiative I have seen to enable you — no matter
where you live or work — to take courses from accredited
colleges and universities.
When you "travel" via your computer to the
Electronic Campus at http://www.srec.sreb.org, you will find
nearly 1,250 courses and 60 degree programs offered by more than
175 colleges and universities for the spring semester of 1999.
Think about it. A person with a computer in the most rural
area can go to the Electronic Campus and find a course at a
university miles or hundreds of miles away.
You can take that course at a convenient time without leaving
your home or office. You could be 18 or 80 and never have to
drive a mile or spend time looking for a parking place on a
college campus. But you have the opportunity to learn a skill or
concept, earn college credits for needed certification, or earn
a degree. Previously these opportunities may not have existed
because of the distance to a college or your work schedule.
Everyone who takes these courses has the reassurance that
every course offered has met the standards spelled out in the
"Principles of Good Practice," established by the
Southern Regional Education Board. This attention to a set of
quality standards sets the Electronic Campus apart from
other distance-learning programs.
Who benefits from the Electronic Campus?
Students. They can take courses when and where
they want. The Electronic Campus enables students to work
around obligations such as full-time jobs that make
traditional class schedules difficult or impossible.
Improving skills and earning degrees, which once seemed
like far-fetched dreams, now can be realities.
Colleges and universities. Their pool of
potential students is now much larger, and they don’t
have to build a single new classroom for these students.
States will be able to streamline interstate sharing and
overcome traditional barriers that have made it difficult
for colleges and universities to offer programs and
courses across state lines.
Employers. They can come to the Electronic
Campus and find courses needed by their employees, and
employers can work with the offering colleges and
universities to guarantee that needed courses are taught.
States. Through cooperative development, the
Electronic Campus can enable states to share in creating
needed programs and courses. The "electronic
wheel" will not have to be reinvented each time.
Quality education programs and courses available in any
of the 16 SREB states can be just as accessible to the
students in all SREB states.
The Electronic Campus changes almost daily. New courses are
added. Colleges and universities continue to join the Electronic
Campus, and the number of degree programs increases. Independent
colleges and universities in SREB states will join the
Electronic Campus in the coming year.
The Electronic Campus already helps working men and women.
A young woman employed by one of the South’s major
universities recently contacted the Southern Regional Education
Board about the Electronic Campus. She had read about it
in her local newspaper.
The young woman wants to finish work on her undergraduate
degree. She lacks only 12 hours and also hopes to earn a
master’s degree. But the only time the courses she needs are
available at the university she attends part time is when she is
working.
Now she has access to courses from across the South and can
work out an arrangement to get the courses she needs to
graduate. She needed help, and she got it at the Electronic
Campus. We plan to multiply this help thousands of times over in
the years ahead.
For release on December 14, 1998
For more information, contact Bracey Campbell at (404) 875-9211,
Ext 244. |
