8
Thursday, August 23, 1973
University Daily Kansan
Nice Guys May Finish.
But Correspondence Courses Usually Stay Incomplete
Bv KATHY HODAK
Nationwide, the bane of correspondence course administrators is procrastination. Most correspondence students procrastinate so long, in fact, that they never finish.
The correspondence-course completion rate at the University of Kansas is no exe- mentional benchmark, and high when compared to the national average of 32 per cent completion, according to Wallace Clark, assistant director of KU's Extramural Independent Study
The center is a department of KU's Division of Continuing Education. Its main function is to develop and implement courses in health care. A credit-aid. A credit-option is also available.
THE CENTER HAS BEEN serving Kansas since 1966 when the Board of Regents made KU the sole agency charged with coordinating independent study materials for the statewide extension academic organization.
Courses from other state schools have been integrated into Center offerings. Professors who want to develop a course and who are from another school sometimes approach the center at KU, Clark said. But the majority of independent study courses have been developed and staffed by KU faculty.
Black Protest Chinese Civilization The Epic Tradition
The Apple of Knowledge
Clark attributes the high completion rate at the Center to Student Services. Directed by Vivian McCoy, Student Services provides professional guidance to students in a supportive environment. It is one of the nation's few counseling centers for correspondence students.
Other factors contributing to a high completion rate, Clark said, include attractive course materials and content, good relations and instructor accountability.
SALLY BRUCE, editor of instructional materials, said instructors of correspondence courses were encouraged to write comments on student assignments.
"We find that most instructors are commenting," she said. "When they don't, this is probably one of the biggest deterrents to motivation that I can think of."
"If we discover that an instructor is not taking the time to inform the student about what he's done or hasn't done, then we ask him to change his methods or cease to instruct the course. I'm sure this has an effect on the completion rate."
Bruce said most non-completers were students who never really got started.
“WHY THEY NEVER get started is one of the things people around here are very interested in,” Bruce said, “but it is one of the hardest things to analyze. He is in charge of the first lesson? Can he his books?” Because we don't learn from him, never know.”
At the end of May, there were 3,144 course registrations, according to the May report. Clark said past statistics have shown that up per cent of those enrolled were KU students.
Most schools of the University allow a student to apply a maximum of 30 hours of independent study through correspondence toward his degree. No more than 10 of the last 60 hours or 50 of the last 30 hours of his work may be included.
VEDA GIBSON, assistant dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said a student must have a grade point average at least a C to get the dean's approval to apply credit from an independent study course toward his degree.
Students may enroll in a course at any time during the year. They then have 12 months to complete it. One extension of six months ($$1 fee is paid prior to the expiration date.
Kansas residents pay $12 for each
"Why (extension students) never get started is one of the things people around here are very interested in, but it is one of the hardest things to analyze. Is he intimidated by the first lesson? Can't he get his books? Because we don't hear from him, we never know."
semester hour of college credit; non-residents pay $1.4 if a student wishes to drop out of college and are not at his registration and if he has not completed more than five assignments, the course fee less $5 for registration and $3 for each correct assignment will be refunded.
STUDENTS MAY choose from 126 college courses in 24 departments. 12 courses are now in the process of production or revision. A monthly report showed that 413 students had enrolled in 484 courses during their school years and 569 students credit. The other 81 students enrolled for high school credit, non-credit, naturalization or reinstitution.
Departments whose May registrations numbered more than 30 students include English (61), physical education (38), mathematics (35), education (34) and psychology (32).
Over several years the independent study program at KU has been evolving from the traditional correspondence study format to include use of multimedia instruction, especially on the high school level, Clark said.
THE IMPETUS in audio-visual instructional materials began in 1969 with the modular course called The Anatomy of a Western. Clark said that the secondary language program had since been changed over to cassettes.
"In the old days, the kid who sent to us for a course would take a syllabus and it would say answer this and that by such and such. By instituting the cassette, be and the instructor can talk back and forth," Clark said.
**THREE TYPES of programs are available to the high school student through the Center. Students may c~e~ose from a variety of colleges equivalent to those offered in accredited Kansas high schools. Or they may select a modular curriculum in the humanities and social sciences. In addition, there are selected college courses open to high school students.**
26 modules are now available for use by an entire class, by small groups within the classroom, by individuals or by teachers for resource material.
For tour consecutive years, beginning in 1969, the Center has produced courses which were recognized as the "Outstanding In-
troduction Course" by the National University Extension Association.
AWARD-WINNING courses include a modular curriculum in high school English, a college course in government, and been incorporated into the curriculum at Independence Community College, a college history course on World War II and the Holocaust, a environmental Survival and Citizen Action.
The center also provides special services for disabled civilians, armed forces personnel and teachers who are in need of securing or renewing teaching certificates.
Some courses may be taken either by correspondence or on campus under a course code.
his classroom. The program is known as the
in-Residence Independent Study program.
"We develop very good materials in many cases. For a while many people weren't aware we existed and that we could sell these materials to professors who wanted to use them to supplement their courses. The Resident-Based School is simply a case where we took our own initiative to encourage instructors to take advantage of our resources."
ONE SECTION of Math 10c was designated for independent study last semester. Students read the text, solved problems and used a syllabus for direction. Individual appointments and weekly optional discussion groups were scheduled.
The psychology, history and physics departments also have made use of Center for Clinical Psychology.
Courses are constantly being reviewed to determine whether they are meeting their objectives. Students and instructors are the two major sources of evaluation.
"They'll report a minor problem with the phraseology in a question or they'll notify us when something is changed, such as the edition of a text," she said.
Bruce said the Center had bad tremen-
dance in eliciting responses from届
members.
"There are cases where we feel that the materials are inferior, but the instructor is so good that he makes the course. On the other hand," Bruce said, "there are cases where the materials are really of very high quality but the instructor is not doing a good job. As a result student ratings tend to fall down."
EACH STUDENT who completes a course is asked to fill out a written evaluation of the course and the instructor. If the instructor evaluates the student's performance, the evaluation usually reflects this, the Bruce said.
A business student said that he spent too much time waiting to hear from the internship team.
A sampling of the evaluations showed that most students were satisfied with their courses. All but two said that they would take the course again through correspondence if they had to make that decision over.
STUDENTS SAID that they liked being able to work at their own pace. Many found that the comments of the instructors were quite stimulating.
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before moving to the next. A few students complained that the text was outdated and the font was not clear.
MOST STUDENTS said that an in-portrayed course was much harder than an out-portrayed one.
Clark said that the main thing at the cover was not a quickie at all. 'There were no big shots.'
students may not submit more than five assignments a week, Clark said. Students are urged to submit their first lesson and no more until they hear from the instructor.
BECAUSE MOST correspondence courses are composed of 24 lessons, it would be impossible under ordinary circumstances to complete the course in less than five weeks.
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