University Alliance Online in the News

Going the distance Nashua Telegraph April 25, 2001
By BRAD LEIGHTON, Telegraph Staff leightonb@telegraph-nh.com	Walking down the stairs and into her home office is the extent of the commute to Colorado's Regis University for Merrimack resident Deborah Caliguari. Staff photo by Dean Shalhoup

Deborah Caliguari of Merrimack works all over New England, but takes classes at Regis University in Colorado.

Chris Dobe of Derry commutes to Andover, Mass., each day, but takes courses at St. Leo's University in Florida.

Caliguari and Dobe aren't racking up the frequent flyer miles. Instead they are riding the information superhighway - taking courses through the Internet.

For adults interested in taking college courses, but with schedules that won't let them swing night or weekend classes, the Internet is opening up options never before available.

"The best thing is that you can do the work anytime," Dobe said. "You can do it during lunch, at home or on the weekend."

Dobe, a computer networking engineer, is married with three young children. "There is no way I'd be able to find time to go to classes," he said.

The classes are distributed on compact discs, video cassettes or through the Internet. Students e-mail questions to the professor or take part in class "chat rooms" on the Web. "Our focus is the adult learner," said Sandy Levine, the vice president of marketing for Tampa, Fla.-based Bisk Education Inc., which provides the recruiting, marketing and technology for the distance learning programs at Regis and St. Leo's.

"We are helping the adult students who could not otherwise complete their college education. We aren't taking anything away from traditional colleges and universities. In fact, the colleges we work with are long-standing traditional institutions with fine reputations," Levine said.

Both universities are more than 100 years old, Levine said.

While there are no lab courses on-line, most of the programs offered are business-related, Levine said. The professors are all faculty at either St. Leo's or Regis and there is "heavy communication between the professor and students and heavy communication between students," he added.

Caliguari said she spends 30 to 35 hours a week working toward her master's degree in business administration. Dobe spends "about 40 hours" a week working toward his bachelor's degree in computer information systems.

Like traditional students, they have deadlines, tests, textbooks and term papers.

But, unlike traditional students, they don't have regular class times. Dobe, who works for Putnam Investments in Andover, said a regular semester would be impossible with his schedule. "I'm on call every six weeks for two weeks at a time. When I'm on call my hours change, so it would be very difficult to attend regular classes."

Caliguari travels all over New England as a sales representative for Durham Furniture and also travels frequently to her home state of Tennessee to visit family.

"It would be really hard to be in a class and you know how it is with college - you miss one class and you fall far behind," she said.

The online courses mirror those actually taught at the Regis and St. Leo's campuses and the professors teaching the online courses also teach regular courses at the universities. The diploma is the same as those that campus students receive.

But the flexibility of the Bisk-sponsored "University Alliance" program has resulted in booming enrollments for both schools. Since Bisk started in 1996, enrollments have increased rapidly. There are now some 28,000 students taking courses through the program. They range from as far away as Zambia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Kenya and Singapore.

"We cover all 50 states and some 29 different countries," Levine said. There are also several students in the military who are stationed all over the world.

"There are six and eight-week courses offered throughout the year. During our most recent registration period, ending in January, 1,000 students enrolled in courses," Levine said. "By using state-of-the-art technology developed by Bisk, the University Alliance delivers streaming audio and video lectures online."

"Students can attend class anytime, anywhere 24 hours a day-seven days a week. No classroom attendance is required. No other online college offers this leading edge technology. Some offer either streaming video or audio, but none offer both," he added.

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