Boston College: Balancing Technology and Tradition

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Boston College: Balancing Technology and Tradition

9/30/2003

By Rita R. Owens

Preserving the Boston College ‘brand’
With the pervasiveness of online courses around the world, it’s clear that eLearning has become the norm in higher ed. While many top-tier schools worry that eLearning could erode their brands, which are steeped in centuries of classical academic tradition, eLearning has really gained traction at Boston College. We don’t, however, view eLearning as “the next big thing” or a marketing tool for admissions. We weigh eLearning only in the context of its power to improve education. Education per se is the only thing that matters.

Some schools, on the other hand, mandate eLearning as required online components for every course. We prefer to let eLearning develop organically, driven by the faculty. This approach has worked well; 20 percent of all Boston College courses now have a content management site. eBook publishers are flooding academia with digitized online content for a wide range of courses. Boston College has a very robust digital library, and students thrive on that digitized content.

We cultivate our organic eLearning growth through a “checks and balances” committee structure that serves us very well. Our University Council on Teaching comprises 10 respected faculty members who set strategy on how eLearning will play out on campus.

We’ve wired all of the college’s classrooms with state-of-the-art infrastructure. Faculty members are supplied with powerful PCs and laptops. Our student base is technologically savvy and often comes to us with eLearning experience gained in high school. They’re comfortable being online. In fact, they virtually grew up online.

Rita R. Owens is the associate academic VP for technology, also promoting e-Learning and technical support through the Academic Technology Services at Boston College.

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Rita R. Owens, "Boston College: Balancing Technology and Tradition ," Campus Technology, 9/30/2003, http://www.campustechnology.com/article.aspx?aid=39522

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