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Virtual universityFrom Wi kipedia, the free encyclopedia

A virtual university provides higher education programs through electronic media, typically the Internet.Some are bricks-and-mortar institutions that provide online learning as part of their extended universitycourses while others solely offer online courses. They are regarded as a form of distance education. Thegoal of virtual universities is to provide access to the part of the population who would not be able toattend a physical campus, for reasons such as distance where students live too far from a physicalcampus to attend regular classes; and the need for flexibility some students need the flexibility to studyat home w henever it is convenient for them to do so.

Some of t hese org anizations exist only as loosely tied combines of universities, institutes or departmentsthat togeth er provide a number of courses over the Internet, television or other media, that are separate anddistinct fro m prog rams offered by the single institution outside of the combine. Others are individualorganizations with a legal framework, yet are named "virtual" because they appear only on the Internet,without a physical location aside from their administration units. Still other virtual universities can beorganized through specific or multiple physical locations, with or without actual campuses to receiveprogram delivery through technological media that is broadcast from another location where professorsgive televised lectures.

Program delivery in a virtual university is administered through information communication technologysuch as web pages, e-mail and other networked sources.

As virtual universities are relatively new and vary widely, questions re main abou t accreditation and thequality of assessment.

The Virtual University experience can be accurately summed up in the following excerpt: " A post-secondary educational environment, delivered electronically through a communications medium, whichmimics a real-world post-secondary environment in every aspect, resulting in an educational experienceequivalent to one normally received by attending the same university in the physical world. "[1]

Contents

1 History2 Coursework3 Teaching modes4 Quality5 See also6 References

History

The defining characteristic of all forms and generations of distance education is the separation of student

and teacher in time and space. Distance education can be seen as the precursor to online learning. Beforethe advent of virtual universities, many higher education institutions offered some distance educationthrough print-based correspondence courses. These courses were often referred to as a course in abox. [2] These have been developed so that students can obtain almost immediate feedback fromprofessors and online tutors through e-mails or online discussions.
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When the term virtual was first coined in the computational sense, it applied to things that weresimulated by the computer, like virtual memory. Over time, the adjective has been applied to things thatphysically exist and are created or carried on by means of computers. [citation needed ]

The Open University in the United Kingdom was the worlds first successful distance teachinguniversity. [citation needed ] It was founded in the 1960s on the belief that communications technology couldbring high quality degree-level learning to people who had not had the opportunity to attend campus

universities.[3]

The idea for a wireless university was first discussed at the BBC (British BroadcastingCorporation) by the educationalist and historian J.C. Stobbart. From these early beginnings more ideascame forth until finally the Labour Party under the leadership of Harold Wilson formed an advisorycommittee to establish an Open University.

With the goal of bringing higher education to all those who wanted to access it, the committee came upwith various scenarios before settling on the name Open University . The first idea floated in the UK was tohave a teleuniversity which would combine broadcast lectures with correspondence texts and visits toconventional universities. In the teleuniversity scenario courses are taught on the radio and television andin fact many universities adopted the use of this technology for their distance education courses. The name

teleuniversity morphed into the "University of Air which still had the same goal of reaching the lowerincome groups who did not have access to higher education. The name University of Air did not stickand by the time the first students were admitted in January 1971 the name had become what it is todayOpen University. OU proved that it was possible to teach university-level courses to students at adistance.

By 1980, total student numbers at OU had reached 70,000 and some 6,000 people were graduating eachyear. The 1980s saw increased expansion continue as more courses and subject areas were introduced; asthe importance of career development grew, so the university began to offer professional training coursesalongside its academic programmes. By the mid-nineties the OU was using the internet. As of 2008, more

than 180,000 students were interacting with OU online from home.

The idea of a virtual university as an institution that used computers and telecommunications instead of buildings and transport to bring students and teachers together for university courses was first published inworks like "De-Schooling Society" by Ivan Illich that introduced the concept of the use of computernetworks as switchboards for learning, in 1970. In 1971 George Kasey, a media(activist)ethicist, delivereda series of lectures on "the Philosophy of Communications De-Design" under the sponsorship of PhilJacklin PhD, professor at University of California San Jose, a member of "The (San Francisco)Bay AreaCommittee for Open Media and Public Access." The lectures contained the theoretical outlines for use of telecommunications and media for de-schooling and de-design of mainstream education and an alternativeVirtual Free University system. By 1972 George Kasey established "Media Free Times - periodicalMultimedia Random Sampling of Anarchic Communications Art" a prototype for remote learning with theuse of "multi-media periodicals," that are now commonly referred to as "web pages". In 1995 by JohnTiffin and Lalita Rajasingham in their book "In Search Of the Virtual Class: Education in an InformationSociety" (London and New York, Routledge). It was based on a joint research project at VictoriaUniversity of Wellington that ran from 1986-1996. Called the virtual class laboratory it used dedicatedtelecommunication systems to make it possible for students to attend class virtually or physically and wasat first supported by a number of telecommunication organisations. Its purpose was to seek the criticalfactors in using ICT for university level education. In 1992 the virtual class lab moved onto the Internet.

A number of other universities were involved in the late eighties in pioneering initiatives and experimentswere conducted between Victoria University in New Zealand, the University of Hawaii, Ohio StateUniversity and Waseda University to try and conduct classes and courses at an international level viatelecommunications. This led to the concept of a Global Virtual University. [4]
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Coursework

Providing access to higher education for all students, especially adult learners, is made easier by the factthat most virtual universities have no entry requirements for their undergraduate courses. [3] Entryrequirements are needed for the courses that are aimed at postgraduates or those who work in specific jobs.

Studying in a virtual university has essential differences from studying in a brick and mortar university.

There are no buildings and no campus to go to because students receive learning materials over theInternet. In most cases, only a personal computer and an Internet connection is needed. Course materialscan include printed material, books, audio and video cassettes, TV programmes, CD-ROM/software, andweb sites. Support is offered to learners from the professor or a tutor online through e-mails if they arehaving problems with the course.

Taking courses on-line means that students will be learning in their own time by reading course material,working on course activities, writing assignments and perhaps working with other students throughinteractive teleconferences. Online learning can be an isolating experience since the student spends themajority of their time working by themselves. Some learners do not mind this kind of solo learning, butothers find it a major stumbling block to successful completion of courses. Because of the potentialdifficulty of maintaining the schedule needed to be successful when learning online, some virtualuniversities apply the same type of time management as traditional schools. Many courses operate to atimetable, which the student receives with the course materials. These may include the planned activitiesfor each week of the course and due dates for the assignments. If the course has an exam, the students willbe informed where they have to go to write it.

An example of a university that maintains a tight schedule is the Virtual Global University (VGU) inGermany. VGU offers a graduate program International Master of Business Informatics (MBI) amaster program in information technology and management that takes an average of four semesters tocomplete (for full-time students). Each course has a lecture or a virtual class meeting every week.Afterwards, students get a homework assignment; for example, they have to solve an exercise, elaborateon some problem, discuss a case study, or take a test. Lecturers give them immediate feedback, and oneweek later, the same happens again.

Teaching modes

When online courses first began, the primary mode of delivery was through a two way audio-visualnetwork. Then as well as now, many of the virtual study programs were mainly based on text documents,

but multimedia technologies have become increasingly popular as well. These web-based delivery modesare used in order to expand access to programs and services that can be offered anytime and anywhere.The spectrum of teaching modes in virtual education includes courses based on hypertext, videos, audios,e-mails, and video conferencing. Teaching on the web through courseware such as WebCT andBlackboard are also used. See Virtual education.

Quality

Students taking virtual" courses are doing real work to get their degrees, and educators preparing and

teaching those courses spend real time in doing so. That is, students meet a comparable level of academiclearning outcomes and are evaluated through programs constructed according to standard university-levelcriteria. Though it should not be assumed, virtual universities may be accredited in the same way astraditional universities and operate according to a similar set of academic standards.
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However, questions remain about accreditation and the quality of assessment. Accreditation is required toassure students that the online institute has certified online instructors who have the expertise andeducational qualifications to design and carry out the curriculum. Assessment standards need to beparticularly closely monitored in virtual universities. For example, respondents in studies of opinions aboutonline degrees will rate an online degree from Stanford the same as an on-campus degree, because thename of the granting institution is recognized. [5]

See alsoAfrican Virtual UniversityAutonomous universityDistance educationOnline degreeVirtual learning environmentVirtual schoolBulgarian Virtual UniversityCanadian Virtual UniversityVirtual University Of Pakistan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_University_of_Pakistan)

Some open universities also teach online:

National UniversityThe Open University, UKOpen Universities AustraliaOpen University of CataloniaUniversidade Aberta, Portugal's Open UniversityUniversity of Phoenix

University of the PeopleSetanta College

References

1. ^ Lush, G.(2010), The Virtual University: Issues for administrators , p. 1, 20102. ^ "USF College of Education Home Page" (http://www.coedu.usf.edu). Coedu.usf.edu. Retrieved 2010-06-24.3. ^ a b "Distance Learning Courses and Adult Education - The Open University" (http://www.open.ac.uk).

Open.ac.uk. Retrieved 2010-06-24.4. ^ Tiffin and Rajasingham (2003) The Global Virtual University London and New York, Routledge

5. ^ "News" (http://www.onlineuc.net/oucarticle.html). Online UC. Retrieved 2010-06-24.Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Virtual_university&oldid=567912793"Categories: Types of university or college Distance education

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