DOCUSENT RESUWE ED 124 160 003 550 AUTHOR Carlisle, Robert. D. B. TITLE- College Credit Through TV: Old Idea,'Ney Dimensions. INSTITUTION Nebraska Univ., Lincoln. Great Plains National Ingtructional Television Library. PUB DATE 74' NOTE 216p. 3DRS PRICE HF-$0.83 HC-S11.37 Plus. Postage. DESCRIPTORS Case Studies; College Credits; *Educational 'Television; *txternal D4gree Programs; Putures (of Society) ;*Higher Education; Independent Study; Public Television; *State of the Art Rilviews; University Extension ABSTPAC1' As the product of a mail survey, a literature search, and site visitations, this monograph examines the past, present, and future of college courses employing television as a means of, instruction. The text provides historical background, a summary of criticisms, descriptions of specific course structures (both. ground - breaking programs and current attempts at innovation), and recommendations for future ,improvements. The appendixes include interviews with educational broadcasting officials and, a public 'television ricense poll. (MI) n . A il *****************f*************************************************ig*** Documents acquired by ERIC include many informal unpublished * * materials not available from other sources: ERIC makes everyeffoit * * to obtain thebest copy available. Nevertheless, items of marginal * * reproducibility are often encountered and this affects the quality * * of the microfiche and hardcopy reproduCtions ERIC makes. available * * via the ERIC pocument Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS is not * * responsible for the quarity of the original document. Reproductions * * supplied by EDPS are the best that can be made from the original. * ************************** * * * * * * *44 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * ** *p * * * * * * * * * ** * O / . COLLEGE CREDIT THROUGH TV: OLD IDEA, NEW DIMENSIONS \- C\J LLJ a monograph by RpBERT D. B. CARLISLE U S. DEPARTMENT Of HEALTH. EDUCATION & WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO. DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN-. ATAG IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRE- 4 SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY Copyright GREAT PLAINS NATIONAL INSTRUCTIONAL TELEVISION :LIBRARY 1974 Box 80669 Lincoln, Nebraska 68501 -rr 'PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS COPY- RIGHTED MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY L, lutcv TO ERIC AND ORGANIZATIONS PERATING UNDER AGRENENTS WITH THE NATIONAL IN- . STITUTE of EDUCATIONFURTHER REPRO- DUCTION OUTSIDE THE ERIC SYSTEM RE- WIRES PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT H OWNER - 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface Introduction vi CHAPTER ONE: At This Point in Time 1 CHAPTER TWO: Judges and Judgments .... 21 CHAPTER THREE: The Trail-Blazers 37 Pie "PACE" program 39 Metropolitan Educational Television Association (META). 42 "English -- Factand Fantr .. , . 45 "Continental Classroom" . 46 . i "Sunrise Semester" . 153 State University of New York's . "University of the Air" ' 57 Chicago's TV College 63' ,-, CHAPTER FOUR: The New Breed , 73 British Open University 76 "Psychology Today: An Introductory ,, -Course" . ..... .. .... : ... A . :.... 0 - Southern California's KOCE-TV .14pd Project "Outreach" 86 "Man and Environment " A . 91 University of Nebraska's "5rU-N" Project . 96, .Maryland College of the Air . 105 "The Ascentof Man: A PersonalView by J. Bronowski" 113. CHAPTER FIVE: Steps Into the Future 123 Recommendations for Action,. 147 Appendices:, -I,.-- Interview Sri Dr. Samuel B. Gould 167 It -- Interviews ith Officials of Maryla College of the Air . 174 III - Public Television,ticensee Poll 194 a PREFACE This,report or the broadcast of college -level credit Courses/Over . ,... TV was. undertaken initially as anindependentstudy project for the 4 6 r Department ok peechlAnd Theater inthe Sahool of Fine and Performing O tate College, Upper MontClar, N.J. rn It, I have drawn on a variety of sourceg. months.' ruary through June, 1974, inquiries wept 'out to indWidaa :These were ,men and women familiar either with non-. post-secondary-level stu6, or with ithe.open-circuit 'televisin.f of college credit courses; Forty -tight of them replied, meryy. sending supportive materials. Most answered by mail. Others respo ded differently:1 five sent° audio asseties, and several were intery ewedkby telephone... These included\Dr.Sidney G. Tickton, Execu ive Vice-Presidprit, Academy for.Educat onarDevelopment, and for erly ExeCutive,Director Of the national stud conducted by the C. mission onInstructibnal Technology; and Mr. Franklin G. Bouwsma, Vic-- President f Instructional Resources ,Miami7Dade Community Co flee, iami, Florida, and now, Chairperson of the Post-Secondary FOrMalYtdu at ion Task Force. set pp. in May, 1974, by the Corporation for Public B oadcasting's'Advitory Council ofjklational Organizations. In addition, Dr. Sam elB. Gould, President of the Institute for 11 Educational Development, was interviewed May 23, 1974, at IED headquarters in New York City. It s othed imperative to draw on his pe spective as the former Chairman ofthe Commission onNon-Traditional-Studya d Chancellor EmeiclOs of the State niversity of New York. This March st one iv year after 'that.Commissionfinished its work, .\Gould way named the A first. Chairman of the, new Council for the Progress of NOntraditional - Study. The most pertinent parts of my discussion with'Dr. Gould-can be found in Appendix\I. Others were interviewed,.as wells-- among them individuals inyolved- It in two of the precedents for today's college cour5b broadcasting: NBC's "Continental Classroom," and CBS's "Sunrise Semester"/. The former died in 1963, a budget victim.. The latter was just bareXy scraping through in the spring. pf 1974, On "June 13, 1974, a visit to the Maryland.Oenter for Public, Broadcasting added dimension to a view of a p blic TV open - learning venture. In 1971, this statewide agency fo med the Maryland College of the Air. Dr. FrederickBreitenfeld,Jr-I./the-Center'sbtecutive Director, . and Richard W. Smith, Director, Developptent Tfojects, were asked for their , . : insights on the uses of open-oircuit/TV to tribute credit,courses/0 as . -. well as for a list of the problems they metljn starting this edwcational prog'rem. A Condensation of the interviewgwith thell has been included 35 Appendix 14, 4 Recognizing that blic'TV has grown to nationarproportions, considered itimportant to survey the licensees to see whether they are , petsently broadcasting credit courses. A four-question postcafd poll Pwas,erit to 149 broadcasters on Ppril 9 and 10, 1974. Over the next month, 1 4 returned the completed. form. The summary of this brief survey c mprises Appendix III. So e 60 other sources have been probed, along the way. However, this p ject was not just a traditional academic exercise. Instead, it was V .- . something if a sentimental, journey. As- a newcomer io -public TV, back jn. ll' . , . m , ' 1962/ I was called on to produce "adult telecourses," some of them bearing college credit, at"what was then WNDT in New York City'-(now redesignated WNET/1.3)., That period of frenetic activity, and later dayss.ln the State 'University at NeW York's new Educational Communications office, may give this report-a flavor that Is other than academic: Revembering all the irrce-Ssant work involved makes It hard to be coldly clinical. about this,, area of activity. _Those experiences were followed, in turn, by a second generation- effort over the.past nine months, during which Stattop Rice and I. co- directed studies forWNET/j3 and the MassathuseXts State College System, . The, big question before both, agencies: how to use broadcast TV to! expand college-.level learningpportunities for adults who will not,ot\'-cannot, get to a campus for classes. ' When I first.began to produce college- credit courses for TV 12 years ago, .there was only threadbare evidence that society wascrying for this service. ,In the past five years, hbweve, a shift has begun., With each. passing month, the commitment to u.sing TV and other media for non'era'ditional. college-level education is increasing. The many clues from-which this report is pieced together suggest that, at long lat, the day'df "College , TV" may be at hand. -,Septem6e'r 25, 1974 _Robert D.B. Carlisle Montclair, New Jersey vi INTRODUCTION 4 TV: America's Miracle Whip medium. Over 25 years it has oozed into almost emerypore of,American life. SpellbOt.ind, people have laughed,, squirmed, gaped, even cried at its spectacles. ut rarely have their minds been given i chance to go to college throUgh TV., There have been choice A exceptions, of course, but how Many remember them?And anyway,:who wants to,get up daily at 6:30in the morning to take a course? The fact is there hiai been an almost malignant neglect of this program - category. Why? For one thing, TV managements like consistet'winners that draw big. crowds. College TV can't promise"that. But there's anoth0 reason, burled in the chronicles of American higher education since,World W r / this facet of the neglect, amounting to a subtle but consciousrepufiiation, hardly represents one of the college educator's prou r accom lish ents. Time, though, is dimming memory of past ectibns and t the same - -time isplowinq up a new need. The pur se of this paper is to triangulate for thatneed and the sprouts of 'response, as well as to bow to the brave efforts of yesteryear on which new ventures must build. At the start, tonsider a bit of history. This.is that the technology .of'TV has been available for education's use for more than 40years vestigial at first, but here, nonethelas.s---ibe_Univer'sity of. Iowa tried out visual broadcastihg in 1931.E Two years later, Iowa's Professor Edwin B. Kurtz, bent on trying "a new means of furthering education," conducted a synchronized broadcast over WSUI'and W9XK. At 7:15, January.25, 1933, two artists performed a scene from a play. Twenty-six years afterward, Kurti recalled: vii "The vampire had had its first blo d; the nonster would work, and well, too, for education."' , I Kurtz's hyperbole fits. For too many educators, TV hasbeen'the dark at the had of the stairs, the intruder-in their4st,a Caliban to b caged, or banished.