Dept of Physics and Astronomy, Arizona State University,
Tempe, Arizona, and CPES, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
This file contains a list of web-based resources for use
in connection with my graduate courses, book, web-based articles and talks. If
you have items you would like me to add, please email me. However, I am
aiming to be exemplary rather than comprehensive, so please don't be
offended if I leave material out. Latest version of this document
28th October 2005.
The Western Governer's University has
been scaled back in recent years, but still offers online graduate courses for
in-service teachers, batchelors and associate degrees in
information technology and some other fields.
It offers a
one-page definition
of competency-based education and the accreditation process. In Arizona, the
"Governor's task force" in 1996 had discussed many of the issues involved in setting up this institution,
which was spearheaded by the governors of Utah and Colorado. The present version is, however, much reduced
in scope. This is perhaps not surprising, given the huge efforts made by established Universities to address
the needs of distance learning students. There simply aren't that many punters out there who aren't catered
for already!
The University of Phoenix
isn't offering courses on surface physics yet, but if it paid, they would. The question of
whether distance learning is a paying proposition is the subject of an
online report
published in (2000) from the University of British Columbia in Canada.
The issue of
Competency-based learning, perhaps using
interactive TV (ITV), is here to stay, but we don't know how big an issue it is in
the scheme of things. Will it take conventional Universities off-guard?, and is there a
real conflict here or not? Meanwhile, some people go to lots of
brown-bag lunches in an effort to find out. And then they can't understand when
regular, hardworking, sane, faculty members can't yet take them quite seriously...