The University College of the Fraser Valley is developing 45 online courses thanks to a major grant from Industry Canada. The $700,000 grant is helping to pay for faculty time to develop the courses, as well as expert assistance, required technology, and promotional materials.

In what President Skip Bassford describes as "quite a coup" for the university college, UCFV was one of only three Canadian institutions out of 165 applicants to receive the grant when it was awarded last year.

Through what it's calling the CanLearn project, UCFV is creating a number of online program packages, including a five-course Literacy Tutor certificate, and a group of 40 courses that students will be able to use toward a general studies bachelor's degree. The online courses being developed are mostly adaptations of courses already offered in a classroom setting at UCFV.

The courses are being developed in stages over two years. The majority are now complete, and the rest will be ready by this summer.

In online courses, students log on to their computer at home or work at times convenient to them in order to gain access to readings, participate in online discussions, seminars or other group work, and hand in or present assignments. The courses are moderated by an instructor, who also works via computer. In some cases, the class may meet face to face once or twice a semester.

UCFV president Bassford, who is overseeing the CanLearn project, says that online learning offers several advantages.

"Online learning increases access for students who either live in remote areas, or who, because of their work or personal situation, find it difficult to take their courses on campus in the traditional way," he says. "Offering online courses also provides an access point for international students who may want to come to UCFV or have already spent time here, and who wish to complete some of their studies from a distance."

Bassford notes that international students will be charged "the normal international fees, which are higher than domestic fees, and which help to generate more spaces for Canadian students."

Some students prefer the online style of learning and choose to take some of their courses that way while taking other courses on campus.

"A number of our students, particularly the younger ones, are experts at working with the Internet and electronic media and really benefit from the methodology used in online learning," Bassford says. "It isn't our intention that online learning should replace classroom learning. We recognize that different people have different learning styles and for those that choose it, online learning is an additional option."

In addition to the funding time away from teaching for faculty developing the online courses, the Canlearn project is paying for the expertise of external consultants, who are helping faculty members to learn about online teaching formats and methods, and to integrate graphics, interactive components, and audio/visual aspects into their courses. The software being used to offer the courses is WebCT.

"We're combining the academic and teaching expertise of our faculty with both internal and external expertise in online course development," says Bassford. "I'm extremely impressed with the really innovative and marvelous courses that are emerging from this initiative."

Faculty involved in developing the courses were grateful for the time and the expert help that the CanLearn funding provided.

"When I started with online learning I developed the courses 'off the side of my desk', which was challenging to say the least," says David Harper of the Kinesiology and Physical Education department. "The CanLearn project has been a real blessing, affording me the time and resources I needed to develop first rate online courses. Dale McIntosh (one of the CanLearn consultants) was an enormous asset. I learned so much about web-based learning from him. I found the entire team to be wonderful to work with."

The 40 courses that will be available online and eligible to be applied toward a general studies degree are from a number of disciplines, including agriculture, business, kinesiology, communications, mathematics, adult education, anthropology, biology, business administration, child and youth care, communications, computing, criminology, social services/social work, English, art history, geography, library and information technology, mathematics, media studies, Russian, philosophy, social services/social work, and sociology.

While it will be technically possible to complete an entire general degree online, students will more typically choose from the menu of online courses to augment studies in a specialized UCFV program or

to help cap off a general degree by combining online courses with classroom courses taken at UCFV or other institutions.

Bassford and CanLearn consultant Peter Such recently returned from a major international conference on online learning in Berlin, where they presented a paper on the CanLearn project.

"The work we are doing at UCFV was very well received. There is international interest in our development of online courses based on the superb teaching we're already offering in our classrooms. I was able to see that our courses are very much on the cutting edge."

UCFV already offers several online courses each year through its UCFV Online division, and has done so since 1994. The CanLearn project will see a major expansion of online offerings. The next stage of the project is to secure funding to offer some of the courses.

"Now that we're well along in the course development stage, we'll be talking with the provincial government about getting additional funding to offer the courses to B.C. students," says Bassford. "Working together with the government, we have the chance to be a world leader in this type of education."

Bassford says that once the CanLearn project courses are launched, UCFV hopes to develop more online courses in partnership with other B.C. post-secondary instititutions.

To view samples of courses in development and find out more about the project, log on to the CanLearn website at www.canlearneducation.com