Monday, April 24, 2000

The Lowly Telephone Is Central to Some Distance-Education Courses By JEFFREY R. YOUNG When some colleges and universities put courses "online," they mean the telephone line, not the Internet. Several colleges are using the telephone -- a low-tech device, compared with glitzy multimedia PC's -- to deliver all or part of their distance-education courses. Although the idea isn't new, some college officials say more institutions should consider using the telephone as a delivery method, particularly in language and speech courses where the spoken word is key. The telephone, these officials say, shouldn't be forgotten just because newer gadgets have come along. "Voice is an often overlooked technology, but it is a tremendously valuable tool," says Pamela K. Quinn, assistant chancellor at the Dallas County Community College District's R. Jan LeCroy Center for Educational Telecommunications, in Dallas. "And you don't have to worry about access. Everyone has access to a telephone." Colleges have found many ways to use telephones for instruction -- most often by coupling standard phones with computerized voice-mail systems or high-tech teleconferencing equipment. Examples include holding review sessions through teleconferences and testing students' pronunciation using voice mail. Some instructors even deliver live one-on-one instruction using regular phone calls. At Rio Salado College, in Tempe, Ariz., students in Vernon C. Smith's Spanish 101 course are required to call a voice-mail "kiosk" at least once a week to hear a brief recorded lesson. Most weeks, students are also prompted by the system to answer questions, in Spanish, about that week's lesson. The system records the students' answers and sends them to the instructor's voice-mail box. The course's voice-mail kiosk gave a recent caller such options as listening to the latest lesson, taking the midterm or final exams, leaving a message for the instructor, or attending a teleconference. The week's lesson began with the greeting: "Hola. Welcome to Spanish distance learning at Rio Salado College." "It's 24 hours a day, and there's no telephone tag," says Mr. Smith, a professor and also chairman of the foreign-languages department. "And I can send [the assignment] back to them with their own voice. That's a very powerful learning tool." Mr. Smith says the phone system also eases the process of delivering pronunciation assignments. "I don't have to repeat these same questions to every single student," he notes. The system does have an Internet component. Students who miss a class teleconference can listen to a recording of it over the World Wide Web, although they can also call the voice-mail system to hear the same recording. The college uses its voice-mail system for French, German, and communications courses as well. Several other colleges make similar use of voice mail in foreign-language courses, including Northern Virginia Community College, which is known as NOVA. Monica Sasscer, a professor of Spanish and the director of the extended-learning institute at NOVA, says there are drawbacks to using the telephone for distance learning. "Peoples' telephones have different quality of sound," she notes. Occasionally, students say they can't hear the assignments clearly. And advanced phone systems aren't cheap. Ms. Quinn, Dallas County Community College's assistant chancellor for telecommunications, says the college's "voice bridge," which allows up to 52 people to join a conference call at the same time, costs well over $100,000. Dallas continues to experiment with other ways to make use of the equipment, including leasing time on the system to local businesses. The college has also started using the telephone system for its televised courses, which are broadcast on local cable channels. "All the students at home can just pick up the phone, so they've got a live connection with the instructor -- watching live on television and talking to the instructor," says Ms. Quinn. Ohio State University offers a few courses entirely by telephone in a program called TeleLang. It has been in place for more than 10 years, and includes courses in Russian, Czech, Hungarian, and Ukrainian. A typical TeleLang course consists of 200 minutes of one-on-one time with a language instructor. Each lesson usually lasts about half an hour, though students and instructors can agree to alter the lengths of each lesson, says Gregory Wilson, a manager for the university's Foreign Languages Publications and Services. Most of the students live outside of the university's local calling area, so the university set up an 800 number for the courses. Professors recommend textbooks and require students to complete assignments between phone lessons. Mr. Wilson says enrollment in the TeleLang program has declined in recent years, however -- perhaps because so many other distance-education options are now available. Even so, some professors say the telephone should be kept in mind as an option for enhancing distance education. "The telephone is still an important tool," says Ms. Sasscer, of NOVA. "And it is certainly the most pervasive tool." Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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