virtual university--higher education 'on-line', The

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, Summer 1999 by DiPiro, Joseph T

A potential advantage of virtual universities to administrators and public officials directing higher education is that the growing demands on higher education may be met in a more cost effective manner. By one estimate, the creation of 25 courses could serve an estimated 80 percent of total undergraduate enrollment in core courses(9). These programs may reduce the expenditures for physical facilities and reduce or eliminate fulltime and tenured faculty. However, electronic courses may require much more time of instructors, require state-of-the-art computers as well as technical and administrative support. The cost to produce high quality instructional software could be $3 million per course with maintenance costs as high as $500,000 per year(9). Part of the costs are shifted to students who must maintain internet connections and up-to-date computer hardware.

Clearly, virtual universities will expand their offerings, will be accessible to a greater segment of the population compared with traditional universities, and will force the traditional institutions to transform through competition and changing expectations of students. It would be reasonable to expect that most traditional universities will develop a virtual component to there curriculum to address these influences. Am. J Pharm. Educ., 63,170-174(1999); received 10/26/98, accepted 3/5/99.

(1) Triggle, D.J., "The future ain't what it used to be, or the university as the Donner party," Am. J Pharm. Educ., 61, 207-213(1997).

(2) Gubernick, L. and Ebeling, A., "I got my degree through e-mail," Forbes, 84-92(16, June 1997).

(3) Howe, D., "University encroaches on MD turf: Phoenix to offer hightech courses," The Washington Post Sunday final edition (3,May 1998).

(4) Timberg, C., "Phoenix University given OK to open 3 campuses in MD: New wave of schools with no-frills approach targets working adults," The Baltimore Sun. Thursday, final edition (16 April 1998).

(5) Gaskill, J., "Stop the technology madness: Why not take classes to students'?" The Daily Telegraph, (2 June 1998).

(6) Hodges, L. "The Open University heads for another frontier: The OU is opening for business in America. Will it become the Microsoft of education, and will we still recognize it?" The Independent (London), (2 July 1998).

(7) Blumenstyk, G., "Few students enroll at Western Governors U," The Chronicle of Higher Education, (25 September 1998).

(8) Anon, "Major for-profit highjer education companies," ibid., 23 January 1998) p. A36.

(9) Noble, DF., "Digital diploma mills: The automation of higher education," First Monday, 3, (1)(5 Januaryl998). See http://first Monday.dk/issues3_l/noble/index.html.

(10) Anon, Proceedings from the Learning Partnership Roundtable, July 1997 "Transformation of higher education in the digital age," Coopers & Lybrand Consulting, Baltimore MD (11 May 1998)

Joseph T. DiPiro1

College of Pharmacy, The University of Georgia, Athens, Ga 300602-2351

*Corresponding address: UGA Department of Clinical and Administrative Sciences, CJ-1020, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta GA 30602-2350