UC regents endorse test of online instruction
The University of California Board of Regents reacted enthusiastically Wednesday to developing a fully online undergraduate degree program at the top-tier research institution they oversee, and endorsed a pilot program to test it.
"We have the opportunity to show everyone else how to do it," said Regent Sherry Lansing. "This should be one of our highest priorities. We cannot wait."
Despite earlier warnings from professors and instructors that taking UC online would destroy the university's good name and quality, several regents said they were convinced of just the opposite: that UC has the brainpower - and the motives - to develop the nation's first highly selective, Web-based degree program for undergraduates.
They largely agreed with the plan's leader, UC Berkeley Law School Dean Christopher Edley, that an online degree program could save UC money while expanding access to far-flung, tuition-paying students "from Kentucky to Kuala Lumpur."
"We are in a position to lead," said Regents Chairman Russell Gould, who created the UC Commission on the Future, which developed the online concept as one of many ways UC might thrive in an era of shrinking financial support from the state.
Edley sits on Gould's commission and expects to raise $6 million in private donations so faculty can begin designing dozens of rigorous online classes this fall. First up would be
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/15/BAC61EEDI4.DTL&type=education#ixzz0tkjxI7OQ
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