On-Line
First class of 35 students taking “FastTrack” to MLIS degree
(continued)

“Each and every year,” Tomer said, “we were receiving applications from well-qualified students for whom geography and family commitments were big issues. We operated under the presumption that there would be a significant demand for what we were doing, and that we would probably be providing a valuable service to a lot of people.”

FastTrack is very much in keeping with Pitt’s emphasis on flexible delivery to multiple audiences.

“Given the dispersal of potential audiences and the national perspective in which most programs now exist, we are anxious to have our programs try new ways of delivering their content,” noted Robert F. Pack, the University’s vice provost for academic planning and resources management. “We offer everything from traditional on-campus courses to programs that send faculty to where the students are. We have long had executive education programs, where students come to campus for relatively brief periods, and engage in a lot of study when they’re away from the University.

“What has made this very exciting is the Internet. You can provide so much more content that ever before, greater interaction between students and faculty, and, perhaps most importantly, greater interaction among students themselves.”

FastTrack, which offers curricula in school librarianship and academic/public librarianship, was itself “fast tracked”; following its approval, only about 10 weeks remained for recruiting. Yet FastTrack has drawn 35 students for its first class, mostly from Eastern and Mid-Atlantic states, but also from Florida and Nevada.

Two students hail from the exotic locales of Squirrel Hill and East Liberty—Pittsburgh city neighborhoods only a few miles from the Oakland campus—proving that convenience can be a matter of time as well as location.

Tuition for FastTrack is the same as that of the on-campus program. Students, however, are different in at least one respect—on average, they’re about seven or eight years older than their on-campus counterparts.

“We have many students with family and/or work obligations,” said Mary K. Biagini, associate dean of SIS. “They can’t move from where they are to come here to school, but they very much want the degree. The program really is designed for those people.”

Jessica Poland, left, and Anita Norton get acquainted during one of several social gatherings held for FastTrack students during their week-long visit to the University. To foster closer ties among the on-line learners, program administrators are admitting only one class a year.

The reputation of Pitt’s MLIS program, which is ranked third nationally by U.S. News & World Report,

also has served as a magnet for FastTrack. Said Sue Alman, SIS coordinator of professional development: “Our students are within commuting distance of other universities that provide this same degree, or they could take some of the other on-line master’s programs. But they want the University of Pittsburgh. It fits their needs as far as quality, and the concept of this program is different.”

A Community of Learners

Indeed, two fundamental precepts help differentiate FastTrack from other on-line MLIS programs. The first is the program’s on-campus requirement — 10 days in the middle of the first semester, one weekend for every semester thereafter for the duration of the two-year program. The on-campus component was structured to allow students face-to-face interaction with faculty and fellow students, without being so onerous as to discourage students with family and professional commitments.

“We decided to include that element for a variety of reasons,” Tomer said, “knowing from the outset that it would probably be a substantial brake on enrollment. Programs that don’t have these requirements can get students from all over the world. But we thought, for qualitative and educational reasons, it was really important.

“What we’ve discovered more recently is that some employers have been willing to subsidize participation in our program, but not in programs without the on-campus requirement, because they feel it’s such an important component.”

The first on-campus session, which was held from July 13 to 20, comprised of meetings, dinners, and social outings, including a trip to Fallingwater.

“What I like about this program,” LaValla said, “is that you spend structured time on campus on a regular basis to complement the on-line experience. You lose things without face-to-face contacts with other students and faculty. It’s a big plus.”

Kepecs selected FastTrack in part because the on-campus commitment is more moderate than in other programs she investigated.
“FastTrack is specifically designed for people with a work and family commitment,” Kepecs said. “When I looked at Syracuse University, I found they had a much more extensive on-campus commitment. That may have its value, but with my kids as young as they are, I couldn’t handle it.”

The second pillar of FastTrack is its use of the Internet to provide the communication and feedback that ordinarily would occur in the classroom. The school calls its 35 students a “cohort,” suggesting the closeness they hope the ’Net will nurture.

“The concept of the cohort is that they’re an on-line community of learners,” Alman said. “The cohort is the buddy system. They stay together.”

Program administrators believe so strongly in the cohort approach that they intend to admit only one class per year, the better to foster ties among a relatively small group of learners.

“We’re getting lots of inquiries from people who would prefer that we have rolling admissions,” Tomer noted. “We’re not going to do that, at least not in the foreseeable future. We’ve already seen lots of evidence that the cohort plan is a good one. It has practical implications as well—it will keep our attrition rate way down.”

Communication via the Internet is intense. In his Introduction to Information Technologies course, Assistant Professor David Robins requires students to contribute to discussions—and respond to those discussions—within a set period. All learning is “asynchronous”: Students set their own learning schedules against instructor-imposed deadlines.

In the core Understanding Information course, team-taught by Alman and Tomer, Internet use is even more extensive. After reading assignments, students must post responses, review the responses of their classmates, critique at least two of them, and restate their own positions based on the new input. Following that, two team leaders are selected to summarize the group’s work. Finally, each student is responsible for preparing a summary. And all this occurs each week.

“We wanted to get them all involved and used to an on-line environment,” Alman said.

The impact of such concentrated on-line tasks has been immediate.

“It’s interesting to read what other people say,” Kepecs reported. “I don’t think I would know their opinions as much as I do now.

You’re forced to respond. I’m certainly a lot more responsive than I would normally choose to be.”

The emphasis on participation also will provide instructors with a grading tool that may not be as useful in classroom situations.

“It takes the participation part of the grade to a different level,” Robins said. “In fact, it’s almost quantifiable. Before, you just kind of remembered who spoke. In this environment, participation becomes a big part of course evaluation, because we have something tangible that they contribute.”

A Work in Progress

As with any venture of such vision and complexity, FastTrack is a work in progress. In designing the program, administrators incorporated two technology requirements: that students use high-speed Internet connections rather than slower phone modems, and that their Internet service be provided by Stargate.net, the University’s vendor, so that students can access all resources in Pitt’s library system.

“It’s clear that the quality of the user’s experience will be enhanced by broadband (high-speed) service. I don’t think anybody would argue with that,” Robins said. “We’re starting to know that people who have broadband communications or constant Internet are making more hits.”

Indeed, Kepecs diligently subscribes to a broadband service—at a cost of $40 per month—while LaValla utilizes broadband connectivity in his office. Nevertheless, so many students were without immediate access to broadband service that the department decided to phase in its technology requirements.

As for building a community of learners, progress is palpable but incomplete, as might be expected in a program so new.

“Among the students, people are still getting acclimated to the technology,” LaValla said. “But the faculty have been very responsive.”

With minimal experience in the discipline, Kepecs would appreciate more interaction.

“I feel like I’m not being given enough feedback,” she said. “I don’t know if what I’m saying is correct, incorrect, off-the-wall, appropriate. I don’t know how to gauge my own comprehension.”

Nevertheless, Kepecs reports that she is enjoying her on-line experience. The department is so delighted with student response that it’s already considering enhancements.

“We have not done much with video and audio at this point, primarily because of cost,” Biagini said. “But these would be some logical areas to incorporate.”

Even more significantly, Tomer anticipates the 2003 introduction of two new degree tracks, archives and records management, and medical information, expansion expected to significantly broaden FastTrack’s community of learners.