Steve Kerby
OMDE 601
May 5, 2003
UMUC: A Best Practices Distance Education Institution 

University of Maryland University College (UMUC) is a best practices distance education (DE) institution.

History and mission
In 1949, UMUC began offering educational services to US military overseas. In subsequent years, UMUC expanded its DE services first to include correspondence-type course delivery, then television broadcast, then finally to include online education. It was the development of WebTycho (UMUC's Online Learning Platform) in the mid-to-late nineties that prompted UMUC’s explosive growth.  According to the UMUC Web site (2003a), the college had over 87,000 online enrollments in 2002. 

UMUC states (2003b) that their mission is "to provide access to public higher education for Maryland's adult learners by adapting its offerings to the special requirements of this student population" (¶ 1).

Distance teaching/training program
UMUC has a number of departments and programs that support faculty development. Primary among these is the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). CTL's essential function is to offer a five week intensive training course for all faculty members on how to teach at a distance with WebTycho. This course is required for all new faculty members. CTL also supports Faculty Development Workshops, Faculty Training and Certification, as well as a Peer Mentoring Program.

Development and delivery of the course content
Moore and Kearsley (1996) argue that it “is not possible to improve quality, provide for more students, and lower costs without reorganizing education according to a systems model” (p.7).   For course development, UMUC’s undergraduate programs practices a systems approach similar to what Moore and Kearsley suggest.  The course development team typically includes a content expert, instructional designer, programmer, graphic artist, and peer reviewer. The team is managed by a course manager who functions primarily as a project manager.

Peters (2000) makes the case for a “post-Fordist” approach to course development, where courses are developed in a more decentralized system with smaller ad-hoc working groups (p.114-115).  The graduate school at UMUC follows such a system, where typically a faculty team develops the course structure and outline. Then the course is taught and developed more fully by a course manager. The course is then archived and delivered to other faculty members (often full time or part time adjuncts) who can then teach the course, update and revise the course, but spend the majority of their time on interacting with students.  This approach keeps the course content in the control of the faculty members instead of project managers.  

Interaction 
Perhaps the most consistent theme of DE best practice found in the literature is interaction (Bates, 1995; Peters, 2000, 2002; Moore & Kearsley, 1996). Holmberg (2001) even proposes a theory of DE based on empathy and the necessity for conversational interaction among students and faculty (p. 40-46).

UMUC encourages a high degree of interaction among students. Most courses are taught “conversationally,” incorporating the asynchronous discussion board feature with content delivery.  Further, group collaboration is strongly encouraged.  The graduate school actually requires it. A course syllabus cannot get approved by Graduate Council unless it contains a collaborative group project.

UMUC further encourages student-to student and student-to-faculty interaction by keeping class sizes relatively small. The ratio of student to faculty less than 30-1. 

Special services for learners
UMUC may be the world leader in providing special services for online students. In addition to the expected services of online admissions and registration, financial aid, and online ordering of textbooks, UMUC has instituted an initiative called the Student Success Center.  According to their Web site (UMUC 2003c), the center is essentially a program organized around a customer service center that provides individual advising and counseling to each individual student. If the students do not contact their advisors, the advisors contact them.

Certainly one of the most important “services” for a DE student is access to a quality library. UMUC not only offers the services of a world class digital library, the college also requires that each online student to take a non-credit online course in Library use and management of digital information. 

Conclusion
If a best practice DE institution 
•	has the adult learner's needs primary in its mission 
•	offers training and support to its faculty specifically targeted to the distance learner
•	practices systematic course development with a sound theoretical basis 
•	emphasizes faculty-to-student interaction, as well as student-to-student interaction
•	supports its learners with resources, counseling, and advising,  

then University of Maryland University College is without question a best practice distance education institution.

REFERENCES
Bates, A. W. (Tony). (1995). Technology, open learning and distance education. New York: Routledge. 
Holmberg, B. (2001). Distance education in essence - An overview of theory and practice in the early twentyfirst century. Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Universität Oldenburg.
Moore, M. G., & Kearsley, G. (1996). Distance education: A systems view. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Peters, O. (2000). Learning and teaching in distance education. London: Kogan Page Limited.
Peters, O. (2002). Distance education in transition - New trends and challenges. Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Universität Oldenburg.
University of Maryland University College.  (2003a). About University of Maryland University College.  Retrieved on May 4, 2003 from:   http://www.umuc.edu/gen/about.html

University of Maryland University College.  (2003b). UMUC Policies.  Retrieved on May 4, 2003 from: http://www.umuc.edu/policy/fisc36500.shtml

University of Maryland University College.  (2003c). Student Success Center.  Retrieved on May 4, 2003 from: http://www.umuc.edu/students/ssc/ssc_home.html