CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION
by
Forty-five of the 56 schools
with ALA-accredited programs in library and information studies submitted
data on their 2000-2001 continuing education (CE) activities, one
fewer than last year. The 11 that did not provide information, or
reported no activity for the year were:
Alabama, Albany, British Columbia, Indiana, Louisiana, Oklahoma,
Queens, Syracuse, Texas Woman’s, Wayne State, and Western Ontario.
Instructions for this section’s
questionnaire state that only those educational offerings designed
specifically for practicing information professionals should be included. Enrollments in courses that are part of degree
programs are reported in the section on students, in the table “Enrollment
(FTE) by Program and Gender” under “other graduate.”
Continuing Education Events
Continuing professional education
is offered by library and information studies programs in a wide array
of formats. The length of
offerings reported this year range from a lecture of less than an
hour to Web-based programs extending over many hours.
Participation may be recorded as simple enrollment counts,
or may be recognized though the awarding of Continuing Education Units
(CEU's) or academic credit. Below,
data on the non-credit events and credit bearing offerings are tabulated
and discussed separately.
Non-Credit Activity
Table
V-1 lists the number of continuing education events that were
presented during 2000-2001, the total number of contact hours of instruction,
and the total number of participants.
The number of events increased by 124, or 20 percent, and the
contact hours increased by 1,691 (25 percent). Participation, dropped
by 3,471 (13 percent), but it should be noted that last year there
was one school that had an unusually large registration due to producing
a video-teleconference.
The increases in the number
of events and contact hours are attributable primarily to Toronto,
which runs by far the most active non-credit continuing education
program of any of the schools.
More than half of the schools
that held non-credit continuing education events reported fewer than ten.
At the other end of the continuum, there were five schools
that reported over 30 events. The
pattern reflects that of previous years.
In descending order, the schools with the greatest number of
events were: Toronto, Wisconsin-Madison, Simmons, University
of South Carolina, and Drexel. The
next highest group includes UCLA, Pittsburgh, and Washington. The list of schools most active in providing
non-credit continuing education remains quite stable, although the
rankings change to some extent from year to year.
In terms of the number of attendees
of CE, Toronto and Madison are again the top two. The next highest are not the same as the schools
with the most numerous events, however.
North Carolina Central, Rutgers, and UCLA all drew over 1000
people to their events. Looking
at the number of contact hours delivered, Toronto is again at the
top with over 3,500 hours, which does not even include a heavily registered
self-study Internet course for which hours were not estimated.
Madison is still in the top rank, but Washington moved into
second place.
Table
V-2 summarizes non-credit continuing education by type of activity. As in previous years, workshops were the most frequent mode of delivery,
but the rate of increase was an unusually high 82 percent. The total for “Institutes, symposia, conferences,
forums” dropped by 23 percent. The
number of seminars rose slightly, while the other format numbers remained
about the same. The most notable change from
last year is the dramatic increase in the use of alternative delivery
methods. In 1999-2000, 67
were reported, while there were 152 in 2000-2001, a 127 percent increase. Almost all of this jump is attributable to
Internet based delivery, with Toronto alone responsible for nearly
half of it. Other schools
that are using online technology for non-credit CE include Buffalo,
Drexel, Missouri, North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Rhode Island, Simmons,
Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin-Madison.
The level of sophistication in the use of technology is suggested
by the University of Washington.
In describing the delivery methods used, Washington makes distinctions
between streaming video enhanced Internet delivery and the usual Web
course. The percentage of events for
which Continuing Education Units (CEU’s) or a locally recognized measure
of participation was offered was 33 percent, remaining about the same
as in the last few years. CEU’s
are a standard way of reporting non-credit continuing education, and
awarding them constitutes a kind of seal of quality.
Each unit represents ten contact hours of participation in
an organized continuing education activity under responsible sponsorship,
capable direction, and qualified instruction -- elements spelled out
in considerable detail by the International Association for Continuing
Education and Training
[1]
, and reiterated in the American Library Association’s
Guidelines for Quality in Continuing Education for Information, Library and Media Personnel
(ALA, 1988). In general,
the schools that offer the traditional CEU's are also the ones that
for the most part generate the most contact hours.
The major exception is Toronto.
Twenty-one of the 45 schools reporting this year offered some
kind of unit for at least one of their offerings, four more than in
the previous year. What may
be happening is an increase in the number of states that require a
measure of continuing education participation as a basis for re-licensure.
Tables
V-3 and V-4 present nine-year comparisons of non-credit continuing
education data. They are omitted
from this year's printed report but may be found on the web-published
version at http://ils.unc.edu/ALISE/2002/CE/Table
V-3.htm Table V-3 - Nine-Year Comparison of Number of Continuing
Education Events by Types of Events in Reporting ALA Schools 2000-2001
and http://ils.unc.edu/ALISE/2002/CE/Table V-4.htm
Table V-4 Nine Year Comparison of Continuing Education Enrollments
by Type of Event in Reporting ALA Schools 2000-2001.
Credit Courses
Table V-5
is intended to summarize credit courses that are specifically designed
as continuing education for practitioners. It may be more accurate, however, to say that the table reflects
participation by practitioners in credit-bearing courses, some of
which may be part of masters’ programs.
The number of courses remained about the same as last year,
but enrollment decreased by 11 percent.
The total credits offered were 270, somewhat less than last
year. These credits were not
very comparable, as the contact hours equivalent to one credit ranged
from 10 to 16 hours. The method
of reporting does not permit compilation of credit hours per school.
The nine schools that offered credit-bearing continuing education courses
were: Emporia, Iowa, Kent
State, Missouri, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, Rutgers,
Southern Connecticut, Washington,
and Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Kent
and Washington reported the greatest number of courses.
Kent's courses were primarily one-credit weekend courses, while
almost all of Washington's carried three credits
It should be noted, however, that one credit hour at Kent equals
15 contact hours, while Washington's equals 10 contact hours.
In comparison to the substantial jump in Internet use for non-credit delivery,
the total number of credit-bearing courses that were presented via
the Internet was actually lower than in 1999-2000. The drop is attributable almost entirely to the sharply reduced
number of credit-bearing Internet courses reported by Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Only the entrance of Missouri into the Internet
course delivery mode kept the total from dropping further.
The Continuing Education Environment
Table
V-6 shows that the audience attracted to the schools’ continuing
education events was largely local.
The pattern of distribution for the most part is similar to
that of previous years. Of the 45 schools reporting, 34 (75 percent) drew at least half
of their attendees from within the state or province. This is less than usual, reflecting the increase in national and
international registration in Internet courses. Twenty-two schools indicated that some of their registrants came
from beyond their region. Of
these, four had national attendance that fell into the upper quadrant: Buffalo, Clarion, University of North Carolina-Greensboro,
and Toronto. The schools that
drew some international registrants were the University of North Carolina
- Chapel Hill, Toronto, Washington, and Wisconsin-Madison.
Schools were asked to indicate
how their CE programs are funded.
The percentages of funding sources include salaries for the
CE portion of administrators and support staff, stipends or salaries
of instructors, travel, facility rental, and other direct costs. Excluded are overhead costs for the use of the school's own office
space and other facilities for which no direct charges are incurred. The data are summarized in Table
V-7.
As in the last year, over 60
percent of the schools relied on fees for the bulk of their financing. External sources of funding were by far the
exception, a pattern consistent with that seen in previous years. Those schools that were the most active CE
providers were also the ones that relied most heavily on fees. Very few report substantial federal funding.
The University of Washington had some of its support from the
third year of a federal grant program that supports innovation in
post-secondary education, which was used to institute Internet delivered
CE. Illinois, Maryland, Pittsburgh,
and San Jose also reported some grant funding, but the standout was
the University of Missouri, with 95 percent of its expenses covered
by a grant from the Institute on Museums and Library Services, awarded
for introducing Web based CE.
Table
V-8 summarizes information on how instructors are compensated
for their teaching efforts in both credit and non-credit situations.
The pattern is almost exactly the same as in the previous year,
with flat and negotiated fees being equally ubiquitous.
Table
V-9 provides a profile of the instructional force used in continuing
education offerings, both credit and non-credit.
The pattern is not very different from previous years, with
schools’ own faculty and practitioners providing the
majority of instruction.
The last question asks schools
to indicate who administers and coordinates continuing education activities.
The results for this year, presented in Table
V-10, are very similar to the previous year.
Fourteen schools have shown
continuity in designating a CE coordinator.
These are: Drexel,
Emporia, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Pittsburgh, Puerto Rico, Rutgers,
Simmons, South Carolina, Toronto,
Washington, Wisconsin-Madison, and Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
The schools with the consistently most active programs have
coordinators who bear a title indicating that responsibility.
Summary
Contact hours for non-credit offerings and credit hours for academic courses may be used to measure effort in providing continuing education. In recent years, the schools that fall into the top ranks in one or both categories usually include Drexel, Kent State, Maryland, Michigan, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Simmons, South Carolina, Southern Connecticut, Toronto, Washington, Wisconsin-Madison, and Wisconsin-Milwaukee. It is significant that those schools that regularly record the most intensive programs are the ones that have designated directors whose primary responsibility is CE administration. In most of those cases, the programs are financed primarily by fees and tuition. In this category, only Michigan appears to offer its program at no cost to registrants.
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