Home Schooled
A New Breed of Students Earn Their Master’s Degrees Online
By LORITA O’LEARY

Katie White, a 40-year old high school teacher and mother of three, didn’t have a clue how she would be able to go back to school so she could update her therapist credentials. She lived far from the nearest university and didn’t have a car. Then, a coworker told her about a master’s degree program in speech pathology at CSUN.

“I don’t know how I could have done it if (this program) hadn’t been available. I might have just fallen back on my nursing. It would have been too hard on my family to go to the university,” she said.

Instead of settling for second best, White found herself in a one-of-a-kind program with 27 other California students seeking a long distance education in speech pathology, the study of human communication, its development, and its disorders.

Many students, like White, have trouble attending classes on campus because of problems with work schedules, long commutes, or family commitments. Recognizing the changing needs of students and the growing interest in utilizing the Internet in higher education, CSUN decided to offer a wider variety of courses in upper division general education, said director of undergraduate studies Robert Danes.

The online speech pathology course was another way CSUN attempted to address this public policy issue and meet the needs of society, said Steve Sinclair, chair of the department of communication disorders and sciences. There are 240 accredited speech pathology schools in the country, 14 of them in California, and CSUN offers the only online master’s degree curriculum, he said.

There is also a shortage of seats in graduate school, which doesn’t satisfy the demand of the employer or the students who want to attend college, Sinclair said.

Licensed speech pathologists are in high demand at schools, hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, and in the private sector. The public school system alone employs approximately 95 percent of all graduates, Sinclair said.

There is also a community of disabled people who need speech pathology. People with developmental disorders in articulation, language delays, autism, or hearing impairment. Or acquired problems caused by strokes, accidents, or dementia, said Randy Akers, professor of communication disorders and sciences.

Speech pathologists evaluate and treat these speech, language and cognitive deficits, as well as swallowing disorders in children and adults, Akers said. Sinclair believes the teachers and students in CSUN’s online programs are pioneers in a new era of learning that will create an online community of scholars.

“This ‘virtual’ department isn’t built with brick and mortar. The students don’t buy their textbooks at a bookstore. It presents a new way of teaching,” Sinclair said.

The online speech pathology program started in May 1999 as a joint project between two colleges—the College of Health and Human Development and the College of Extended Learning, said Karen Green, extended degree coordinator and clinical supervisor of communication disorders and sciences.

“The Internet has drawn us together as a global society. I think colleges will be doing more things in conjunction with each other in the future, it’s not going to be so isolated,” she said.

The communication disorders and sciences professors develop the content for the online program and then Extended Learning converts the lessons into CD or videotape which are then sent to the students, said Green.

“I would consider these very nontraditional students. The main age is 36, primarily women, all working, with families,” she said.

Other teaching aids include discussion boards, chat rooms, and group e-mail where Green said she could talk to the students all at once, which she does frequently. Mike Stevenson, executive director of the College of Extended Learning, got involved helping to develop material for the program and to set up relationships with student services.

“There are unique needs for admissions because the students never show up at campus,” he said.

A web team, that is mostly students, input the course materials on the web and then serves as technical support for the students.

“It’s a major commitment. Once the university takes on the program they have to see it through to completion…putting extra resources into the program so it’s repeatable,” Stevenson said.

Now with the second set of online graduate students enrolled, White has her first school year behind her and admits it has been a mostly positive experience. Aside from a few computer glitches there is the advantage of working at your own time schedule. Also, the CD Power Point lectures allow students to listen repeatedly.

The biggest drawback is procrastination.

“It’s easy to shove schoolwork on the back burner. You have to be independent. It’s a lot of self-teaching. Instructors provide the tools but you have to do it yourself,” White said.

Sinclair agrees that online students must develop a high level of self-motivation.

“You can’t imagine how much I admire these students. They must have the tenacity to go home after work and switch on the computer,” Sinclair said.

Ed Hall, one of the program’s professors, admitted there was trepidation at first.

“The students were estranged from the faculty, but then they formed the hyper news page and formed groups and soon we felt we knew these students better than we did the ones in the classroom,” he said.

Hall has applied the new knowledge and teaching techniques he’s gained from his online classes to his campus classes and has found it a stimulating and growing experience.

“There is a tremendous need for this in the community. It is the wave of the future…like a tidal wave that’s coming,” Hall said.