Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 15, 1996)
Stohs Continued from Page 1 settle in a bit before noticing the more meaningful differences. In Ireland, people don’t sacri fice theirsocial lives for their work, the Stohs said, and the pace of life is more leisurely. “Work is there,” Joanne said. “It will get done. Don’t break your neck over it.” Life at the university is differ ent. Students are left more to their own resources, Mark said, and they tend to specialize earlier. “They don’t take as broad of courses,” he said. “This makes them better prepared for master’s de grees, but maybe not better pre pared for life.” Joanne said the value students and faculty put on relations and networking was greater than in Wisconsin, where it was “more on production and less on people.” Professors have lower teaching loads and less pressure to publish. The system also relies on tradi tion. Students’ grades aren’t com puterized and involve a bit of fac ulty “horse trading.” Exams, given once a year, arc usually all essay. This worked fine in the Middle Ages when classes were relatively small, the Stohs said, but it’s a prob lem now that universities are “mass educating.” “When you have essay exams for between 375 and 400 students, how can you do justice?” Joanne said. Mark tried to introduce multiple choice exams last spring, he said, and the students got angry. “It was changing tradition,” he said. “They’ve been doing things this way for more than 100 years. It’s just a matter of getting used to them.” There is also less emphasis on rules, Mark said, which dates back - "They don’t take as broad of cou rses. This makes them better 1 prepared for master’s degrees, but maybe not better prepared for life” MARK SUMS UNL graduate living in Dublin to when the Irish were ruled by English law. “It’sthe Irish reaction tothepast when the British made a lot of rules,” he said. “They’ve learned to get around the rules without breaking them.” Outside of academics, Irish stu dents have interests similar to their Nebraskan counterparts. “Sports arc very big with the whole population,” Mark said. “When there’s a big soccer match, they almost shut down the school.” Just when the Stohs have ad justed to Ireland, they will soon be served with another dose of Ameri can culture. The Stohs will continue their nomadic nature in August, when Mark starts a job at California State University in Fullerton. They have the option of returning to UCD, though. “You leam something from the European approach,” Joanne said. “You’re not just a machine turning out products.” But the familiar patter of the drizzling Irish rain promisesa pleas ant change in Fullerton. “Weather-wise,” Mark said, “California will be nice.” Programofferedworidwide Students attend classes without leaving home By Todd Anderson Start Reporter ' ’ • . v, . Cindy Haas never has to worry about making it to her administrative finance course on time. Site turns in homework on com puter and works on group assignments using a special program called Lotus Notes Distributed Education. Her classmates are at computers across the nation and the world — some as far away as Guam. Haas, who is workingtoward a doc torate of education administration, is enrolled in the University of Nebraska Lincoln Teachers College distributive education program, which offers courses taught by professors in Lin coln and one professor in Australia. The program, in its third semester, offers credit for graduate-level courses to students who would have difficul ties attending class. Paul Carlson, associate vice chan cellor for business and finance at UN L, completed a virtual university course last semester. “There was no way I could have been going to class with the schedule I had,” he said. Haas said the greatest benefit of the program was its freedom. “It was wonderful,” she said. “You can work when you have time.” Space constraints also arc allevi ated, since students can work from their home computers. Alan Seagrcn, the instructor of the finance course, said with distributive education, the responsibility for learn ing is shifted onto the learner. The instructor’s role is to facilitate the learning process, he said. Each student is required to give input and to respond to other students’ input. Students al so can send notes to other students in the virtual cafeteria. “It’s a good opportunity to get to know other students better,” Carlson said. Haas said students also learned about each other from posted personal biographies and personal examples used in topic discussions. Each student is required to keep a journal to record progress in the course and in the program, Seagrcn said. After completing each academic year with the program, students arc required to attend a summer session on campus. East summer, several students from Guam attended their first session after the first semester of the program. During the summer sessions, stu dents attend doctoral seminars and study different research tools, Seagren said. Students enroltecf in the program pay regular tuition prices to receive credit through the Division of Con tinuing Studies, Seagren said. Students in the virtual university program must pay for the software disks in addition to a special distance education fee, he said. But special costs are offset because on-campus student fees are waived, he said. Additions to the software program, such as an e-mail function and an advising opportunity, arc being ex plored, Seagren said. As for now, both Haas and Carlson said it was a great way to obtain credit for graduate-level courses. “It’s the wave of the future,” Haas said. “So many people are wanting to continue their education but have limi tations because of their families or careers.” East Campus to add parking meters By Melanie Brandert Senior Editor When students return to campus after spring break, they may find new parking meters on East Campus. Parking Manager Tad McDowell said Landscape Services started in stalling meter poles Tuesday. The warm weather allowed the department to begin work early, he said. Don Hinds, operations manager for Landscape Services, said employees finished installing20 poles Tuesday in the Area 20 lot south of the Animal Science building and in the Area 6/10 lot behind the Ruth Staples Lab. Employees will put in the rest of the poles Wednesday, and Parking Ser vices will attach the meter heads next week, he said. Twenty meters will be installed at the far north end of the Area 6 lot, and 10 will be placed in the northwest corner of the Area 20 lot. The Parking Advisory Committee approved the addition of 30 meters on East Campus in November. ASUN senators recommended the new meters to the committee in October, citing student concern about inadequate park ing on East Campus. McDowell, who proposed the loca tions, said the meters would be ready to use in about two weeks, weather permitting. After the meters are installed, 10 Area 20 parking spaces will be con verted from residence hall stalls ahd placed just south of the meters. Even though 15 spaces originally were des ignated in the proposal, McDowell said he would like to start out with 10 first. “After adding 20 meter stalls, 15 would be pushing it,” McDowell said. “If we could add some more later, we would be more than happy to do it.” McDowell said he was concerned about increased traffic with the few number of commuter stalls, however. “If you have 10 stalls and 50 people trying to park, it creates more of a problem than a solution,” he said. Power Mac' 7200/90 8/500MB, CD, 15" monitor Makes it easy to bring the vast new world of the Internet to your desk. And with the Apple" Internet Connection Kit and a modem, you’ll be surfing on the Net faster ttthan you can say “information superhighway" PowerBook* 5300c m/100 8/500MB, PowerPC'technology' Gives you flexibility that other note books still try to imitate. Flexibility that gives you multimedia like you’ve never experienced before, easy access to the Net and cross-platform | compatibility. And flexibility to do H all that, wherever you are. 1 LaserWriter 4/600 PS With its RISC processor you can easily print up to 4 pages per minute. And with its amazing graphic capabilities, it allows you and your work to make a better impression. I know what you’re Hr thinking. What does a fish know, Y right? Well, I may not know much, but I do keep my ears open. Like just the other day. I overheard a couple of students talking. Found out that Apple is offering incredibly low campus prices on Macintosh' computers. Found out that a Mac' is a really easy way to get up and running the Internet. I even found out that more students are using a Mac to share ideas on the Internet than any For more information visit us on the Internet at http://hed. info.apple, com/ H Buy a Mac' before you pack. The Information Services Computer Shop* 501 Building - 501N. 10th Street, University of Nebraska, 472-5787, Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m, Thesday until 6 p.m. Students, faculty and staff status must meet Information Services Computer Shop educational purchase qualifications. University ID required to order and purchase. http://compshop.unl.edu/pub/compshop.htm So payment of principal or interest trill be required for 90 days on the deferred Apple Computer Loan offer. Interest accruing during Ibis 90-day period trill be added to the principal and will bear interest which uill be included in the repayment schedule. The monthly payment quoted above is an estimate based on a total loan amount of $1,646.81 which includes a sample purchase price of $1,548for the Power Macintosh 7200/90 system sboun above. The total loan amount also includes a 6.0% loan origination fee. Interest is variable based on the Commercial Paper Rate plus a spread of635%. Tor example, the month of January 1996bad an interest rate of 12.19% uilb an annual percentage rate (APR) of 1)97% Monthly payment for the total loan amount described above would be $2830. Monthly payment and APR shown assumes no deferment ofprincipal and does not include state or local sales tax. Monthly payments may vary depending on actual computer system prices, total loan amounts, state and local sales taxes, and a change in the monthly variable interest rate. Prequalification expedites the loan process, but does not guarantee final loan approval. Subsequent acceptable verification documents must be received before your loan is approved. Offers shown above expire May 15,1996. See your campus storefor details about the Apple Computer Loan. ©1996Apple Computer, Inc. AH rights resened. Apple, the Apple logo, LaserWriter, Macintosh, Performa, PouerBook and StyleWriter are registered trade marks ofApple Computer, htc Mac and Power Mac are trademarks ofApple Computer. Inc PowerPC is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation, used under license therefrom. All Macintosh computers are designed to be accessible to individuals uilb disability, lb learn more (VS only), call 800 600-7808 or TTY800-755-0601.___•__,_ 2