Changes in Latitude: Distance Learning at the University of Illinois

William (Toby) Gibson and Melissa Koenig

When I was your age, I only went to school once a week. Of course I had to drive one hundred and sixty-two miles through a blizzard to go to school and all I had was a Swiss Army knife and some beef jerky in case I got stranded. That's the story we can tell our respective grandchildren in thirty-odd years. Such are the perils of being a Fridays Only student.

What is a Fridays Only student? Fridays Only students are graduate students who, for one reason or another, have decided to get their MS in Library and Information Science through the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) at the University of Illinois. Unlike other GSLIS students, Fridays Only students enjoy the thrill of taking a road trip every week. Some of these students spend more time on the road than they do in class.

Part-time and distance students are becoming more common on college campuses. ALISE Statistical Report 1993 reported a 3.15 percent increase in part-time enrollment in ALA accredited Master's degree programs between 1991 and 1992.¹ Fifty percent of schools showed an increase in part-time enrollment during that time period. It has been difficult to keep accurate statistics of the number of University of Illinois Students who consider themselves Friday Only students because it is a self-appointed title, not one given by the administration. Recently an attempt has been made to determine the extent of this population.

A rough estimate shows that 15 of the 83 part-time students enrolled in the Fall of 1992 were Fridays Only students. These statistics may not be representational.²

In order to better understand part-time and distance students it is best to provide definitions. Daniel Barren defines these populations as follows:

"A part-time student is one enrolled in a degree program and either officially classified, as a part-time student by the institution or taking fewer than nine semester or equivalent hours of course work. A distance student is one taking courses delivered away from the home campus or living approximately one hour or more away from the home campus but commuting to the campus for courses."³

Many of the students currently enrolled in the University of Illinois Library Program fall under both of these definitions.

There are both strengths and weaknesses in such a program as seen from the perspectives of the students, faculty, and administration.

A History of the Fridays Only Program

The University of Illinois Library School has a long history of providing educational outreach to the state of Illinois. In the early 80s the school had a traveling extension program. In the late 1980s the funds that had supported this program dried up, but the school felt that there was sufficient need to investigate an alternative program.

In 1988 the school considered a Chicago program. This location was proposed because of increased enrollment in GSLIS from that area. As a special tuition program, the tuition would have been comparable to a private institution as opposed to being supported with state funds.

Many obstacles had to be overcome in order to implement this program. They ranged from hiring a faculty and finding teaching space to getting approval from the Illinois Board of Higher Education. The University of Illinois at Chicago was a logical place to teach the courses, but, there was not space at the time the program was proposed. Room was eventually found at Loyola University. While finding a place to teach the courses was a minor issue, justifying a need for the program to the Illinois Board of Higher Education was a major issue.

The Illinois Board determined that sufficient need was not demonstrated for this type of program and denied the request. As a result,

5

Dean Leigh Estabrook and Assistant Dean for Admissions, Curt McKay⁴, found themselves scrambling to develop a program to meet the needs of the affected students. These distance learners came from all over Illinois as well as from neighboring states.

In 1990 the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at UIUC began a program which would enable a part-time student to go to school one day a week for approximately five semesters to earn an MS for Library and Information Science. Friday was chosen because the core courses for the program met on Fridays. From these humble beginnings the Fridays Only Program was born.

Most questions regarding distance learning and the Fridays Only Program may be answered by drawing a composite picture of a typical Friday for the Fridays Only student.

If you want to be a Fridays Only student be prepared for a very long day—Fridays start around 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. First you need to run off to a nearby library to finish the homework you have been trying to do all week.

Next it is time to pack your bag and get your clothes set up for Friday. Did I mention that you have to do the dishes, wash the kids, and tuck them in? And your spouse needs the car, so you have to rely on the train to get you to your car pool. Or perhaps you can drop your spouse off at work. Your spouse won't mind hanging around McDonalds for a few hours before work each Friday for two, maybe three years.

Perhaps that is the hardest part of being a Fridays Only student. Not only are you disrupting your life, but you are also disrupting the lives around you. This effect is more profound because as a Fridays Only student you have not completely removed yourself from one "life" to immerse yourself in another. Many Fridays Only students express guilt and frustration with regard to their families. This is especially true of students with young children at home. Going to school and working when you have children can be trying in the best of circumstances but, when added to a long commute the levels of frustration and anxiety double.

Mentally go over your timetable. Class starts at nine, allow thirty minutes to find a parking space, 2 1/2 hours to drive to Urbana, an hour to drive to the car pool, and an hour to get dressed and eat. Set the alarm clock for much too early and go to bed.

When the alarm clock goes off, you will want to hit the snooze but that is not an option on Friday. Groggily walk down the hall to the shower. Get dressed and make a quick check of all of your school supplies. When commuting almost two hundred miles you try not to forget anything. Of course on Friday something will go wrong—perhaps the train is late, or your spouse is late. Is it just me or does it really rain or snow every Friday from August to May?

By the time you reach your car pool or drop off your spouse you're about ten minutes off your schedule. You're doing about 65 mph in a 55 zone, impatiently waiting until you get out of Cook County and can set the cruise control for between 70 and 75 mph. You pass into Will County and a morning rookie zips past you doing about 80 mph. He does not know about the speed trap and the State trooper pulls out from under the viaduct. You set your cruise control to around 70 mph.

Oddly enough, the car pool seem to talk about anything except class. Occasionally the conversation strays in that direction but just as quickly drifts away. The conversation often revolves around work. In some ways the hectic insanity of Friday is a release valve from all the other pressures of the week.

Every week there is some strange occurrence on the road. Multiple car pile up, rain and snow storms, even a house laying on its side in a ditch by the road. The events become so commonplace that you just turn the radio up in an attempt to stay awake, and start dreaming of going to Jimmy Buffett's mythical Saint Somewhere⁵ rather than Urbana.

As you arrive, you have just enough time to check your mailbox and grab a cup of coffee before you go to class. You have six hours of classes before you, you have been up for five hours, you have driven two hundred miles in the rain and you barely slept the night before.

The U.S. Army use to have a saying, "In the Army, we do more before nine o'clock, than most people do all day." It is safe to say that on Friday, the Fridays Only student has done more before 9:00 a.m. than other students. Unfortunately, you just barely have enough time to take a deep breath and get settled for class.

The next six hours will require three or four addtional injections of caffeine, and about two to four aspirins. For the Fridays Only student the outside readings can become overwhelming when trying to juggle a full-time career and family obligations as well as school. Often a Fridays Only student finds that personal experience yields a wealth of information and experience can be used to refute or support a particular academic study.

6

The professors know this, but seem to encourage it. A majority of the students have worked in or are currently employed in libraries and bring a diverse collective experience to the program. Fridays Only students from the past included students already working in large and small public and academic libraries. There were also students working in a variety of special libraries varying from prison libraries to law libraries, and from aquarium libraries to school media centers. Such a diversity gives all the students insights into areas of librarianship that no text book or journal article could ever bring to a classroom.

By 4:00 p.m. you are completely drained. All the students are going to happy hour at the White Horse Tavern. All the students except you and your fellow Fridays Only students. For you it is a walk back to the car and a 2 1/2 hour ride home. As you step out of 501 Daniel, you notice that about four inches of snow have fallen. You still have a 2 1/2 hour drive home. You think to yourself "What possessed me to do this?"

It is not just happy hours that you miss, but also lectures, late night studying and other events which occur in the GSLIS community. The argument can be made by faculty and administration that the Fridays Only Program is detrimental to the sense of community on the campus. Fridays Only students miss out on events that happen on campus, and the GSLIS population misses out on the contributions of the Fridays Only students in terms of experiences and ideas. Some measures have been made to try and bring the Fridays Only students into the GSLIS community, such as Breakfast with the Dean and lectures that occur at noon instead of in the evening.

The Faculty and the Fridays Only Student

It is fair to say that not every faculty member wants to teach on Friday, although there are several who seem to enjoy it. Students have a lot of praise for the majority of the professors and, for the most part, consider the quality of instruction first rate. Most students gripe more about content than quality. This has been the biggest problem that faculty and administration have faced. Quite often this is a problem without an answer.⁶

The GSLIS program at UIUC has a major focus toward academic libraries. Many of the assignments for classes are designed to be answered with the resources found at the library at UIUC. In some instances the sources for class are found only at UIUC! This presents two problems for many Fridays Only students. Not all Fridays Only students want to take classes in academic librarianship and it can be quite difficult to complete assignments if the resources are not near your home.

The Administration and faculty have been making strides to correct these problems. Let's focus on some measures done by faculty and administration to make resources available to students.

Shortly after the Fridays Only Program was introduced two shortcomings were recognized by faculty and students alike. The hours of the LIS Library and the Learning Resources Laboratory made it impossible for students to use these facilities after class. The Graduate school had to work out a change of the LIS hours with the University Library in order to get hours lengthened on Friday for the Fridays Only student. This was accomplished about two years ago. The Learning Resources Laboratory is staffed by graduate students and is under the control of GSLIS. The major obstacle in extending its hours was finding volunteers to work late on Friday. While Fridays Only students do not have priority in the LRL, they can sign up for time to use the lab well in advance. Also class instructors often ask non-Friday Only students to avoid the lab on Fridays to allow those students who cannot be there the rest of the week a chance to get in. This unofficial policy has worked quite well, for the most part.

Another successful factor is the use of student computer accounts. All students are encouraged/required to get an Alexia computer account. Many of the professors will post their syllabus and other class related assignments on a class bulletin board in Alexia. The accounts allow students to remain electronically connected at any time with professors through e-mail. Many of the professors also encourage the submission of papers electronically. While these methods are available to all students they really prove their worth among distance learners. For all of these reasons, it is helpful for Fridays Only students to have their own personal computer.

The professors teaching Friday Only classes seem well aware of the unique problems facing distance learners and do many things that they would not do for a normal class. For instance a professor once called an entire class of approximately 100 students to inform them of a change in a due date for a final. Professors also know that students are commuting long distances and arrange for any absences well ahead of time. The utilization of course packets for readings has also benefited the Fridays Only student. These packets contain the course readings that the school can obtain copyright clearance for and eliminates the time consuming task of photocopying articles. This allows Fridays Only students the time to utilize other resources.

7

One challenge faced by the Administrator is the types of courses the students are asking for. Because of the wide interests and backgrounds of students, the school is faced with requests for all types of library courses, some of which they have no faculty on hand to teach. One of the biggest problems is that not every course can be taught on Friday. There are limited numbers of rooms available, and there are also a limited number of instructors to teach them in a limited number of hours of the day.

The school believes in ensuring that all students have an opportunity to get a well-rounded education in librarianship. Curt McKay explained that in order to achieve this goal a three year cycle was set up. While the variety of classes that are included in the program provide a general overview of issues in library science the course rotation makes it difficult for students to specialize in any given area. In order to choose the courses that would be part of this cycle a list of courses taken by the majority of the students in the regular GSLIS program was developed. These courses include: the core courses, library administration, cataloging, reference, library automation, and online searching. Other courses were mixed with these courses to develop the three year cycle. Each Friday Only student has the option to take two courses in any given semester.⁷

Many students have found this schedule restrictive and have yearned for more specialized instruction in specific areas of library science. Several of the students began the program as Fridays Only students and then switched to become a Monday or Thursday Only person. There are no restrictions with regard to which day the students choose to commute. The only element that changes is that Friday Only students are given priority in Friday classes, but if they choose to come on another day they take the same chance as other students with regard to their schedules. Because it is difficult to arrange classes and schedules, the classes the Fridays Only student asks for may not be available until after graduation. Such was the case when several Friday students were interested in taking Storytelling.

Many of the student needs are met through the use of independent study courses. While independent studies are not advertised to the general GSLIS population, they seem to have a certain appeal to the Fridays Only student. Professors Brett Sutton and Bryce Alien, when asked about the independent studies option, commented that more Fridays Only students seemed to participate in these programs. The reason is clear. The student wanted to avoid the long commute and often wanted to work on something not being offered—one of the requirements for an independent study. ⁸

Often, when doing independent studies, students tend to work on assignments more closely related to their work. This is also the case when doing term papers for class. The professors seem to enjoy such efforts because they receive research that has obvious real world connections.

Summer classes and telecommuting courses are two current options used at Urbana to make it easier for the distance learner to attain an MS. During the summer of 1994 the school offered a four week, full unit course, which met all day on Friday. This particular course was on grant writing, which is helpful in almost every field of librarianship. Surprisingly, not only were most of the students distance learners, but so was the instructor, who was from the University of South Carolina, Chapel Hill. McKay said he hopes to make the four week summer classes permanent fixture in the GSLIS program.

Telecommuting is also a part of the GSLIS program. This program involves the set-up of several remote sights located throughout Illinois. Students sign up for Saturday classes which have two-way audio and one-way video allowing the students to see and hear the professor. The professor can only hear the students. These courses have been used to teach library automation and library administration and there are plans to increase the number of courses available via telecommunication. Unfortunately, no more than one class per semester would be offered in this manner.

The GSLIS program is also working on daily specialties. The idea is to offer courses for various library fields on selected days allowing students the chance to come to Urbana once a week but be able to choose the library studies they wish. For example the core classes would be offered on Friday for those just starting the program. On Monday classes might be structured around a special libraries curriculum and Tuesday may have courses geared toward public library service, and so on. This would make the program more flexible and help in fulfilling the varied interests of the students.⁹

As mentioned earlier, many Fridays Only students are employed—quite often full-time. Many times this means that employers have juggled schedules in some way to allow the student to be off of work every Friday. Quite often, because of the nature of libraries, this has not been a major difficulty but the change may not be without a price. Libraries often have weekend hours and often libraries just schedule the student to work on Saturday or Sunday. Other times a student will work four ten hour days or sometimes the student just loses a day of work.¹⁰

8

Most problems occur in smaller libraries with a limited staff, where it is impossible to let a person go without being short staffed on that day. Librarians should, however, weigh the benefits against the short-term side effects.

Sharon Hogan of the University of Illinois at Chicago had been pondering the idea of sending support staff from UIC to library school since becoming University Librarian in 1990. Hogan stated that studies had shown that 95% of all new librarians tended to remain in the state where they lived. She also noted that many minorities were underrepresented in the professional ranks in libraries. These two facts combined with the large pool of long time support staff employees at UIC convinced Hogan that it was feasible to set up a program that would send employees to library school.¹¹

This was not an easy program to get off the ground. First, a suitable library school had to be found. While Rosary College was located in Chicago students would have to pay full tuition to go there, which would have made the program difficult to afford. Northern Illinois University was a possibility, but it would have taken a longer time for the students to complete the program, and the program was discontinued. Hogan turned to Urbana and was surprised to find that while she was trying to send her support staff to school, Urbana was trying to form the Fridays Only Program. This was the answer that Hogan had been searching for.

The next problem was getting approval for her program. The plan was simple. Hogan would pick qualified support staff to attend the Fridays Only Program. Qualified support staff were those people who had applied and had been accepted to library school at Urbana. Hogan then granted the students administrative leave to attend school and arranged for university transportation for the students. The only requirements: the students must complete the program as quickly as possible and work for approximately two years as a UIC professional librarian immediately after graduating.

Many people were watching to see if Hogan would find jobs for the new librarians, and she did. UIC has enough turnover to make vacancies for the four students that graduate each year. These "Professional Library Associates" can then be augmented in the library and there is the possibility that they will eventually move into the tenure track and stay at UIC. The PLAs have recently been invited to join the resident librarians in the various seminars that will help them get a clear picture of the tenure program at UIC. Hogan has been very cautious in the handling of the newly graduated librarians in order to ensure their acceptance as professional librarians, not support staff.

Would this program work in other libraries? Hogan feels that the program would work in large libraries with sufficient turnover to provide annual vacancies. One library she mentioned was UCLA. Of course there are several large state funded libraries in Illinois that also may fit this profile.

One work of caution did come from Hogan regarding Fridays Only students. An unforeseen factor was an increase in sick and vacation time among the students. While no firm data was available, the reason for this can be suspected. The vacation time was used to finish up papers and other school related missions. Sick time may also have been due to the added stress and lack of sleep which inflicted the students.

The program has shown that there is a market in the Chicago area for a state funded library program. The Fridays Only program has resulted in an increase in students. Estabrook is returning to the Board of Higher Education to request a Chicago sight for UlUC's library program.

When asked if she was seeking a Chicago sight because of a failure in the Fridays Only Program Estabrook said, "No it is because the program has been too successful. We are getting too many students." By offering a sight in Chicago the 162 mile commute would be a thing of the past. As for students from other Illinois regions, it is doubtful that another off-campus sight would be established, but the Fridays Only Program would remain intact.¹²

The Fridays Only Program may not be for everyone, but it has been evolving since its introduction and many problems have been worked out. Several of the issues facing the Fridays Only student are shared by the entire GSLIS community, especially in the area of course selection. The GSLIS curriculum is geared toward academic librarianship. While the school does attempt to teach other fields of library science, it must be made clear to any prospective student that the school relies heavily on the rich resources of the University of Illinois library. With its eight million plus monograph collection, it would be negligent for the school not to have a focus on academic librarianship.

The classes are top quality and well taught. The course load can be difficult if two courses are taken per semester, and the commute can become very difficult. However, the Fridays Only student will have the opportunity to make contacts with students from all walks of life and meet employees from other libraries, thus building an unofficial network that

9

may help later when pursuing employment opportunities.

While the classes are designed primarily for academic libraries, you will get a well-rounded education which will include reference and cataloging—as well as several classes on library automation—courses which are designed for the future direction of librarians. The faculty also encourages independent projects, which can be tailored to a student's specific interests. After five semesters the student will have an MS in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois which, after all, is the reason the Fridays Only Program exists.

End Notes

1. Sineath, Timothy W., ed. Library and Information Sciences Statistical Report. 1993. (Raleigh, NC: Association for Library and Information Science Education 1993.) p. 87.

2. Information compiled partly from an interview with Carol DeVoss, Admissions Clerk, GSLIS, UIUC.

3. Barren, Daniel L. "Perceptions of faculty and administrative staff in ALA-accredited programs toward part-time and distance students in LIS education." Journal of Education for Library and Information Science. 34:3 (Summer 1993) p. 189.

4. From an interview Curt McKay conducted on September 20, 1994. The authors and McKay present.

5. Buffett, Jimmy, Keith Sykes, and Harry Dailey. "Boat Drinks," Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band. (MCA Records, 1979) Issued on the LP, Volcano.

6. From electronic interviews between the authors and Fridays Only students conducted between September 1, 1994 and October 1, 1994.

7. McKay interview.

8. From separate faculty interviews conducted September 20, 1994. Interview 1: Allen and the authors present. Interview 2: Sutton and the authors present.

9. From Administration interviews conducted on September 20, 1994. Interview 1: Kurt McKay and the authors. Interview 2. Dean Leigh Estabrook and the authors.

10. Student interviews.

11. From an interview conducted on October 22, 1994 between a University librarian. Sharon Hogan and the authors.

12. Estabrook interview.

*William (Toby) Gibson, Professional Library Associate, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Melissa Koenig, Technical Services Assistant, John G. Shedd Aquarium Library, Chicago.

10