How much “online” is too much?  How much “distance education” is too much?

The question is more complex than simply asking how much credit can be allowed in the form of distance education courses toward a Union College degree.  For one thing, a distance education course being considered for degree credit might be not be a transfer course at all; the course might well be taught by a Union College instructor to UC students, or to non-UC students.  Moreover, we probably do not want to permit the possibility that a UC student, on campus, could take all or most of his or her courses online, without actually talking to (or even seeing) anyone else during the greater part of the college career.  No campus hermits allowed.  But these are distinct questions, which is why it is important to distinguish online from distance education courses.  So there are really two issues:  Should we restrict the number of online courses that can be counted toward a UC degree? and Should we restrict the number of distance education courses that can be counted toward a UC degree?

Both of these question are also distinct from another:  Should we adopt special requirements that either kind of course should meet, above and beyond those for an ordinary classroom-based course, for granting of degree credit?  And, if so, what would those additional requirements be?  And why would we even raise the question?

The first mistake we might make is to assume that, simply because a course is an online course, or a distance education course, therefore its intellectual and academic integrity must be suspect (along with that of the instructor and the parent institution for offering such a thing).  If we go down this road, then UC had better stay out of the online course, and distance education course, business--because the quality of such courses cannot be expected to meet the same standards that on-campus courses must meet just in virtue of the mode of course delivery.  Once we get over this prejudice, we can get down to the business of assessing the degree credit issue for both online and distance education courses.

When a transfer course is offered for academic credit at UC, from another institution, I assume that someone looks at such evidence as:  course syllabus, reading list, assignments, examinations, and accreditation status of the parent institution.  If the institution is well-known to us, we might circumvent some of this process in favour of relying simply on course title and description.  But either way, the burden is on the student to provide documentation that the course content and quality meet our requirements for degree credit.

And how many such courses should we allow toward a UC degree?  And should we ask this question separately of online courses, and distance education courses?  Or even of UC and non-UC online and distance education courses?  Gets complicated.  But if we think that the personal interaction among students and faculty, and among students, is an essential part of a liberal education as we understand it at Union College, then probably we should allow no more than a total of four courses of either kind toward a UC degree.  Anything more than that is too much screen time, and too little face time, for everyone involved.

T. McFadden
last modified 10/26/00