NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 22 number 2 - Winter 2002

By Rob Rucker, Distance Learning Services

As developments in technology, particularly the Internet, have expanded the range of opportunities for distance education, the demand for education in North Carolina has also increased--in many cases, faster than physical facilities at most universities can be expanded to accommodate the additional students. Aware of these developments, the North Carolina General Assembly has provided funding since fiscal year 1997-1998 to the UNC system for "degree-related courses provided away from the campus sites of the constituent institutions."

In response, NC State devised plans for the integration of distance learning into the mainstream instructional strategy of the university. In 1999 the NCSU Libraries formed the Distance Learning Services Department to address library service issues for distance learners. The Office of the Provost established DELTA (Distance Education and Learning Technology Applications) in 2000 and named Tom Miller as its vice provost in early 2001. According to Miller, DELTA's mission is "to build a tradition of excellence in technology-mediated teaching and learning for the NC State academic community, whether at a distance or on campus."

Enrollment in distance education credit and degree programs neared 6,000 this year and is expected to continue growing at double-digit rates. Course delivery methods include both asynchronous, distributed formats (e.g., videotapes or the Web) and satellite campuses where students meet together with an instructor who may teach in person or via interactive video. DELTA includes the Distance Education Unit, directed by Michael Yoakam, and the Learning Technology Service, with Henry Schaffer serving as interim director through December 2001, and Sharon Pitt serving as its new director starting in January 2002. DELTA appointed Kay Zimmerman as associate vice provost for Strategic Grants and Partnerships, and Scott Cason as marketing director.

The NCSU Libraries has long grappled with the challenges of providing services to off-campus users. Its Distance Learning Services focuses on distance education library users and works in partnership with other library departments as well as with DELTA to achieve "equivalent" services. The Distance Learning Services relies on a combination of traditional and high-tech tools to extend the library's collections and services beyond the Raleigh area.

Print collections are made available through rapid shipping of books and Web delivery of articles--at no charge to distance education students. Delivery of material has increased six-fold in the last year, and it is expected to continue growing. The Libraries also purchases and leases vast electronic collections of journals, books, and research tools and offers electronic reserves. Recognizing that for many distance users the Web site is the library and that the presentation of its collections and services is key to successful distance teaching and learning, the Distance Learning Services has created an online point-of-need tutorial, an electronic-journal finder, and other Web-based tools to ensure that distant users find the resources they need when they need them.

Equally important is the commitment to person-to-person support. Distance Learning Services librarians travel throughout the state to visit students and provide library instruction in remote classrooms. They also work with the library's Research and Information Services Department to offer round-the-clock reference support via toll-free telephone, electronic mail, and online chat sessions. Last year, Josh Boyer, the reference librarian for Distance Learning Services, and others selected the LSSI Virtual Reference Desk software for the library, which allows co-browsing on the Web: a librarian can push Web pages to patrons, share files, and then release the patrons when they are ready to take over Web searches. The volume of questions received via the virtual reference desk has already been significant. From January through June 2001, there were 556 sessions, and the service has surpassed the "Ask a Librarian Live" electronic-mail service in popularity.

As an increasing number of courses include an online component, the library is able to offer faculty subject-specific Web pages to include in their courseware. These provide students with immediate links to crucial material in their disciplines and reduce information clutter. The library works with the Learning Technology Service--which supports the faculty's use of technology in instruction--to present these options to faculty and improve the means of including information resources in the teaching process.

Issues of copyright, pedagogy, technology, and training converge in the Learning and Research Center for the Digital Age, which is located on the second floor, East Wing, of the D. H. Hill Library (http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/administration/LRCDA/LRCDA.html). In the early 1990s, the NCSU Libraries created a plan and vision for the Learning and Research Center for the Digital Age, designed to bring together key campus units with expertise in educating faculty, students, and staff in all aspects of new information technologies. The center includes the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, the Information Technologies Teaching Center, the Scholarly Communication Center, the Digital Library Initiatives Department, a Digital Media Laboratory, a Usability Research Lab, and Delta's Learning Technology Service (http://lts.ncsu.edu/).

As distance education has removed barriers of time and place, DELTA and the Libraries are working together to provide cohesive, responsive support to NC State's distance education students and faculty. For more information, visit the Distance Learning Services Web site at http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/distance. For more information about distance education at NC State, see http://distance.ncsu.edu/.

Photo caption: [Left to right, seated] Members of the NC State DELTA Team are Tom Miller (Vice Provost, DELTA), Kay Zimmerman (Associate Vice Provost, Strategic Grants and Partnerships), Henry Schaffer (Interim Director, Learning Technology Service), and Michael Yoakam (Director, Distance Education).

NCSU Libraries staff members who work with DELTA are [left to right, standing] Kim Duckett (NCSU Libraries Fellow), David Goldsmith (Distance Learning Services and Collection Management), Rob Rucker (Distance Learning Services), Josh Boyer (Distance Learning Services), Joanna Duy (NCSU Libraries Fellow), and Eric Pauley (Distance Learning Services).