Online Students Become Master's in Their Domain - students earn degrees on Internet - Brief Article

Black Issues in Higher Education, June 22, 2000 by Greg Kline

URBANA, Ill. -- David Stone made some good friends in the classes he took during two years in the master s of education degree program at the University of Illinois.

He was looking forward to seeing them at a post-graduation party -- some of them for the very first time.

No, the University Laboratory High School biology teacher didn't skip a lot of classes. It's just that he and his classmates -- all 26 of whom are graduating -- met, learned and worked together almost entirely via the Internet.

Stone's is the first class to graduate from the university's College of Education's online master's program, and educators aren't the only ones studying online.

Some other graduates receiving their diplomas this spring came from India to get them, after earning master's degrees in computer science from the University of Illinois via the Internet. The university's Graduate School of Library and Information Science has had an Internet degree program since 1996, one of the first of its kind.

The people in the inaugural education master's class all were elementary and secondary teachers or school district technology coordinators.

"They span the range from kindergarten to high school," says Dr. James Levin, an educational psychology professor and director of the online program. "There's quite a variety."

They teach music, science and math. They work with youths who have physical and mental disabilities.

Most of them are in-state students. Several were from Springfield, one group was from Pekin and others came from elsewhere around the state. One moved to Louisiana and still finished her degree. Three participants, Kevin Erlinger, Jan Hari and Pam Van Walleghen live and work minutes from the university.

So why did they end up earning their degrees over the Internet?

In short, because they're busy.

Erlinger doesn't just teach. He's heavily involved in extracurricular activities, and he's a new father.

"I think the appealing thing ... is being able to do it on your own schedule," he says. "I did most of my work at night, a lot of weekend stuff. I even worked over my lunch hour."

Van Walleghen voiced a similar sentiment. "I don't know that I would have done this it! I had to go on campus," she says.

In eight courses over two years, the students posted assignments and group projects on the Web, communicating and collaborating with each other via e-mail, electronic bulletin board and instant messages.

They got a taste of most current Internet technologies, including mini-lectures by streaming audio and video.

Some met in person at the beginning of the program and a few visited the campus a couple of times. But the bulk of the experience took place on computer screens.

Stone says he didn't miss the regular classroom. He says online class discussions were richer than comments made in traditional classes.

"I learned an incredible amount from my classmates," he says. "The big plus, I think, is the support of classmates you really get to know well. It was really pretty family-like, I'd say, by the time we got halfway through the first course."