Southern schools offer Internet classes

Web posted November 9, 1997

Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) - Students who want to take classes in everything from engineering to Latin without ever getting off the couch can learn what their options are when the Southern Regional Education Board launches an electronic campus in January.

The board's Internet site will list 100 classes offered by 50 Southern universities, available to students by computer or video for a fee.

Thousands of classes are already available on the Internet, but Lynn Cornett, senior vice president of the board, described the current offerings as ``electronic chaos.'' Prospective students often cannot find what they are looking for and do not know if the classes are high-quality, she said.

``There is an assurance of quality in these courses that you might not have when you just go out and find a myriad of courses on the Internet,'' Ms. Cornett said.

Students cannot yet earn a degree using the board's electronic campus, but they can find classes that are not available from the schools they attend or that do not fit into their schedules.

The board's web site will provide a list of available courses with links to Internet sites for the schools offering them. Schools will set their own fees and decide what they will accept as transfer credit.

The Southern Regional Education Board, based in Atlanta, was started almost 50 years ago to further education in 15 southeastern states.

Jim Wolfgang, assistant vice president for distance education at Georgia College and State University, said he expects older students who do not care as much about the social experience of college to use the electronic offerings most.

``They aren't as interested in joining the student government and going to a football game,'' Wolfgang said.

Georgia College and State University, which plans to offer classes through the SREB Internet site, already offers interactive video classes to Navy sailors on the USS Carl Vinson Aircraft Carrier, stationed outside Seattle.

Faculty members hold their office hours online, communicating with students via e-mail and chat groups, Wolfgang said.

``These people are 3,500 miles away but talking back and forth at no cost,'' he said.

Wolfgang dismisses the idea that electronic classes will not provide as much connection with professors.

``We have classes where we have faculty stand up in front of a classroom, and there's no interaction,'' he said.

Keith Robinson, a senior at Georgia College and State University, said while he would like the option of taking his classes at 2 a.m., he thinks Internet students will miss an important part of college.

``You wouldn't be able to see your friends. You wouldn't be able to make new friends. Because that's really what college is all about, is life experience,'' Robinson said.

The SREB Internet site will be one of the first to offer ``one-stop shopping'' for electronic classes, Cornett said, adding that it will help further her organization's goal of bringing the South in line with national education levels.

``We've made a lot of progress in the last 20 years, but we don't have the same education level,'' she said.

A group of western governors also is also launching an Internet site to give students access to electronic courses, called the Western Governors University. Fifteen universities across the West will participate in the program, which is expected to offer degrees starting in 1998.

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The web site address is www.srec.sreb.org.