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HUCE Has Online Solutions for
Your Training Needs!!!

Note: The courses in these programs are not offered for credit towards a degree.
Last Updated: Thursday 02/05/2009 8:53 AM
 


Red checkHUCE's Current Programs

Paralegal | Management | Small Business/Entrepreneurship | Information Technology

Red checkHow do online courses work?

Online courses have been around long enough so that "everybody" has heard about them, but the number of people who have actually taken online courses is still a small percentage of the total population. Accordingly, we offer the following very brief comparisons of traditional face-to-face courses with online courses for the benefit of the large majority who have not "been there, done that" -- yet! ... :-)

Online courses have the same basic components as face-to-face courses, the difference being that with online courses these components are managed via the Internet:

Components
Face-to-face
Online
Presentations Lectures in classrooms with printed handouts Powerpoint-type slides on Web pages (sometimes with the instructor's recorded audio comments) plus additional notes
Textbooks Printed textbooks Printed textbooks and/or online versions of textbooks ... plus video clips (e.g. YouTube)
Consultations Meetings with instructors in their offices Communications with instructors via email, chat rooms, threaded discussion forums, IM, etc.
Homework, quizzes and exams Quizzes and exams in class; homework submitted in class Quizzes, exams, and homework submitted via email and/or interactive forms on Web pages.

As you can see, the only things you need to enroll in most online courses are a PC or a Mac equipped with speakers, access to the Internet, a Web browser, and an email account.

Red checkShould you consider taking online courses?

Yes, if you can work in relative isolation for extended periods of time. As Aristotle correctly observed almost twenty-five hundred years ago, man is a social animal. Most people feel a need for frequent interactions with other people, and preferably face-to-face. Distance learning offers the convenience of learning in one's own home or in other comfortable study environments, and usually for a substantially lower tuition than comparable face-to-face courses. But this convenience and lower tuition carry a social cost: loss of face-to-face contact with the instructor and with other students.

So the question becomes: Is the amount of time required to take an online course within your personal isolation limits? Only you can answer this question, and the best way for you to discover your limits is by taking an online course in a subject in which you are really interested.

Red checkHow HUCE's online programs work
   

In the Spring 2008 semester, HUCE launched an innovative, non-credit, distance learning initiative for non-traditional students based on outsourcing arrangements with multiple partners.
   
Roles
  • HUCE’s partners develop and teach the online courses.

  • HUCE selects courses from its partners’ catalogs; combines them into certificate programs; markets the programs; advises, enrolls, and registers students; accepts grades from its partners; awards CEU certificates to students; evaluates the programs; issues transcripts; and maintains student records.
   

Distance Learning
Supermarket

HUCE accommodates the different learning styles and financial resources of different student by selecting similar courses from multiple partners, just as supermarkets satisfy the different tastes and budgets of their customers by providing alternative brands for the same foods.

  • Some courses are instructor-led -- they have specified starting & ending dates, and may have online meetings during which instructors make presentations and answers students' questions. Others are self-paced -- they can be started at any time and students work at their own speeds, but can pose questions and receive answers from instructors within 24 hours).

  • Some large courses provide comprehensive coverage of a topic, whereas similar coverage is provided by a series of shorter (and less expensive) courses from other partners.

  • Some courses make extensive of use Web 2.0 social networking technologies that enable students to form study groups; other courses rely on traditional Web 1.0 communications.

In other words, HUCE offers online certificate programs in a wide range of subjects, in a variety of formats, and at the lowest costs. Students can take our courses from Macs or PCs connected to the Internet in their offices, in their homes, or from wherever is most convenient and at whatever time best fits their schedule.
   
Employees and
Employers as Clients

  • Today's global economic crisis threatens many careers. Unemployment rates in the U.S. may soar as high as 10 to 15 percent. Nevertheless, the lucky 85 to 90 percent will still be employed ... But perhaps luck has nothing to do with it. Perhaps fortune favors prepared minds. A person's house and car might be their largest investments, but in today's economy their most important investments will certainly be the tuition and fees they pay for the courses that will provide them with the skills they need to pay today's bills and hold tomorrow's jobs.

    For the foreseeable future HUCE’s online programs will either be job-related or related to personal finance. In other words, some of our programs will help students earn more money and greater job security by enhancing their job-related skills; other programs will help students spend less money by enhancing their capacity to manage their personal finances more effectively.

  • HUCE's programs can also be customized to meet the specific training needs of employers in the public and private sectors. Distance learning cuts training costs to the bone. There are no expenses for food, travel, or overnight lodging, nor does distance learning disrupt ongoing operations by pulling key staffers out of the office for extended periods. Indeed, our short courses can provided needed training for employees on a just-in-time basis.

    But if our current skills programs do not satisfy a client's training objectives, we can modify these programs by deleting courses and/or by adding courses from the catalogs of our current partners; or we can form additional partnerships with other vendors who have developed courses that are more appropriate to our client's specific requirements.
   
Discounts
HUCE offers 10 percent discounts to members of the faculty and staff of all HBCUs for all of its online courses.

Note: Eventually, these discounts will be extended to the faculty and staff of Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs), to U.S. military personnel, and to employees of government agencies at the Federal, state, and local levels.
   
Current Status
  • By the beginning of the Fall 2008 semester, HUCE had acquired 4 partners who offered over 100 courses in four broad areas: management, information technology, entrepreneurship, and paralegal studies.

  • The Fall 2008 semester was the primary testing period for HUCE's new outsourcing strategy. The success of these tests encouraged HUCE to promote its distance learning programs throughout the entire HBCU community in the Spring 2009 semester, beginning with this formal announcement of the 10 percent discount strategy.

  • By the end of the Spring 2009 semester, HUCE anticipates having 8 partners who will be offering over 250 courses in at least seven broad areas.
   
Down the Road
  • In the coming years HUCE intends to keep on expanding its partnerships with the ultimate goal of converting its online catalog into a portal that provides one-stop shopping for certified distance learning programs that cover a wide range of subjects, i.e., a distance learning supermarket.

  • Although HUCE's current partners are all for-profit corporations, in the future HUCE will also acquire non-profit partners (e.g. HBCUs and PBIs) and individual partners (e.g., faculty members and other subject matter experts).

  • By 2010 HUCE will place all of its courses into a Web 2.0 social networking environment using tools from Google and other providers. These enhancements (similar to MySpace and Facebook) will enable online students to form study groups and to have richer interactions with their instructors.

  • Partnerships with accredited colleges and universities will enable HUCE to offer certificate programs based on credit courses.
   

Red checkFor more information, please contact:

Roy L. Beasley, Ph.D.
Manager, Information Technology and Distance Learning
Howard University Continuing Education (HUCE)
HUCE_Courses@dll.org
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Note: Please see Project Archimedes II for a full description of HUCE's online strategy.