Crossing Another Chasm

The author of this paper addresses his recent experiences as he "crosses the chasm" from the traditional live classroom environment into the production and delivery of distance learning courses in the electronically-delivered class setting. Beginning with first reactions (and cautious resistance) to the emergence of "cyberschools" and college courses delivered via video tape and internet, he investigates his five-year path to acknowledgement, acceptance and appreciation for the distance learning environment as a viable delivery medium for business management courses and the realization that both student and teacher face adjustments in this journey. At a later point in the process of self-development, the author is offered the opportunity to create and deliver two graduate management courses using video tapes, internet, specially-designed course materials and written examinations to be taught not only by himself, but by a number of other qualified teachers via an interactive internet link to hundreds of students worldwide. This paper is based on these experiences. The transition from traditional classroom teacher to on-screen professor proves to be much more than gaining an appreciation for the value of distance learning in the modem academic environment. Despite ample experience in the business world and in teaching courses in the modem high-tech classroom, creating distance learning versions of "standard" management courses presents previously unimagined challenges in both course design and delivery. Reflecting on his immersion into the distance learning environment, the author suggests that each professor must indeed "cross a chasm" in both method and willingness to do the same things in different ways. Each teacher must first discover the real "chasm" that separates hem from the new distance learning environment, and then replace the illusion of whats/he considers to be the "modem electronic classroom" with an enlightened view of what that "modem electronic classroom" really is. The paper concludes that students entering the electronically-delivered class setting also cross a chasm of uncertainty, and that their success in doing so also depends on the organization and relationships that facilitate it and prepare teachers to use it. Ninth Annual College of Career Education Faculty Symposium on Teaching Effectiveness November 2001 Page 76 Crossing Another Chasm Entering the Electronically-Delivered Class Setting Involves Change for Both Student And Teacher Melvin J Anderson, Ph.D.