DLL Working Papers

Last updated: Wednesday 11/25/2009 5:30 PM

Distance learning is hard: it's hard for faculty to implement; its current formats are not suitable for all students; and it's hard for administrators to fund. Nevertheless, HBCUs have achieved much to be proud of in their implementation of distance learning programs.

However this report finds that progress has been achieved in spite of the fact that most HBCUs tend to ask their faculties build too many components themselves. This strategy has not proven to be cost-effective. Less than one third of all HBCUs are currently offering any courses that are 100 percent online; and none of these HBCUs offer more than 5 percent of their courses online. Therefore the report encourages HBCUs to require their faculty to build fewer components and encourages the HBCUs to acquire more components from vendors and/or from other colleges and universities.

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This report finds that for-profit post-secondary institutions of higher learning are now providing African-Americans with highly accessible alternative paths to higher education. The much publicized MBA degree that superstar basketball player Shaquille O'Neal received from the University of Phoenix in 2005 is just the glittering tip of a very broad iceberg. Some of these for-profit institutions expressed strong interest in establishing partnerships with HBCUs for distance learning.

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This report is the DLL's second attempt to analyze the distance learning initiatives launched by HBCUs. The first was produced in two parts: Distance Learning -- Build or Buy (Distance Learning Report Number 1, December 2005) and Strategic Partnerships (Distance Learning Report Number 2, April 2006)

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This presentation proposed that public HBCUs (and majority colleges) offer distance learning courses and programs for non-traditional students as part of their commitment to providing maximum access to their teaching services.

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This note looks at the Digital Divide in terms of the disparity between the number of patents obtained by HBCUs and the number obtained by some of the nation's most prestigious majority colleges and universities. While no one will be surprised to learn that the very best majority schools have earned more patents than HBCUs, the size of the difference turns out to be far more than might be expected.

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Google measures the importance of a Web page by its "PageRank", a unique index developed by its founders (Larry Page and Sergey Brin) while they were Ph.D. candidates at Stanford University. This note presents the PageRanks for the Home Pages of each of the 104 officially designated Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and compares them to the PageRanks of the Home Pages of selected groups of majority institutions of higher learning. To obtain a broader perspective, the PageRanks of three other information-intensive sectors are also examined.

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This note is an updated and expanded version of the PageRanks note that the DLL posted in March 2006. It finds that HBCUs earned modest increases in PageRanks between March and October 2006. The overall average for all HBCUs increased from 5.8 to 6.6. Although no HBCU received a PageRank equal 9 or 10 during either observation, the number receiving PageRank = 8 increased from three in March to five in October (FAMU, Hampton, Howard, Jackson, and Xavier.)

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This exploratory study identified "Core" Websites within the HBCU network that facilitate the access of outsiders to information generated within the HBCU community; and moving in the reverse direction, the Core Websites facilitate the access of the faculty, staff, and students within the HBCU community to information generated outside.

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This note is an updated and expanded version of the previous PageRanks Note posted in Oct 2006. It finds that Google downgraded the PageRanks of most HBCUs ... but also downgraded the PageRanks of prominent majority colleges & universities, information technology organizations, and media firms. Only Federal agencies and other policy/political organizations remained unchanged.

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