Office of Distance Learning grants $53,888 for CU faculty initiatives

The Cornell Office of Distance Learning (ODL) has awarded grants totaling $53,888 for faculty initiatives using distance learning technologies for the 1998-99 academic year. The awards were given for eight projects that blend a variety of distance learning course designs, techniques and technologies.

·A design leadership web site will support courses in the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis in the College of Human Ecology. Associate Professor Shelia Danko will create an interactive web site to be used by students, alumni and working professionals.

·The Wall Street Connection adds a video-teleconferencing component to courses in the Johnson Graduate School of Management to bring financial experts from Wall Street to Ithaca-based classrooms. Charles Lee, the H.J. Louis Professor of Management, and Assistant Professor Bhaskaran Swaminathan will incorporate guest speakers from organizations such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Bank and the New York Stock Exchange into their finance and accounting courses.

·The Sloan Program in Health Services Administration, Department of Policy Analysis and Management, in conjunction with the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions, will deliver a nine-month training program for Empire Medicare Services of Syracuse and graduate students in the Health Services Administration program. The curriculum, developed by Professor Carolyne Davis, director of executive education programs, will be delivered via video-teleconferencing between sites in Syracuse and Ithaca by faculty in the Sloan Program and by Medicare program speakers.

·Self-contained modules combining case studies, video, and web-based materials will bring an international experience from The Global Seminar on the Environment and Sustainable Food Systems to students in Ithaca and other institutions. Several faculty from the College of Agriculture and Life Studies will serve as project directors.

·A web-based course to teach dairy herd health dynamics to students in the College of Veterinary Management and other institutions, and to veterinarians in the field. Professor Yrjö T. Gröhn and Assistant Professor Lorin D. Warnick will lead the project for the Department of Clinical Sciences.

·The School of Industrial and Labor Relations will be the "hub" for a worldwide International Human Resource Management seminar with the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Management School and other universities in Central Europe and South America. A unique feature of the course pairs senior General Motors executives with graduate students in the participating universities. Video and web-based technologies will be used. George Milkovich, the M.P. Catherwood Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations, will coordinate the course from Ithaca.

·"Promoting Wildlife Conservation -- A Distance Learning Approach to Captive Care and Propagation of Exotic Avian Species" will create a unique web-based course opportunity for students at other institutions. Associate Professor John Parks and senior research associate Donna Muscarella will create a highly visual and interactive web-based version of the lecture-based course from the animal science department.

·A CD-ROM and web site will allow Introduction to Plant Biology to be offered as a distance learning course to other institutions from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Professor Karl Niklas and other CALS faculty will develop the course.

ODL supports the faculty by providing expertise in instructional design, technology selection and assistance, and web and graphical design. State-of-the-art interactive classrooms are available to all faculty who wish to teach at a distance or to bring distant resources into the Ithaca classroom.

For more information about the services available to the Cornell community from Office of Distance Learning, contact Joan Lewis at 255-2055 or visit the web page at: http://www.dl.cornell.edu.