Online Ed at the Regents Next Week

As we previously noted, among the topics to be discussed at the Regents next week is the scope of online education at UC. The issue comes up in two places. One is a general discussion of what is being offered at Academic and Student Affairs. In a later full board session, the more controversial issue of how much strictly online education will be allowed toward degrees.* 

The agenda item says UC has offered "online" courses since the 1970s - probably a stretch of the word "online" to include some form of remote education.** There have been TV courses in higher ed since the 1950s, radio courses before that, and correspondence courses (postal mail) still earlier.*** However, a list of all UC courses has been posted for the various campuses including UCLA. You can see the list at:

https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/jan24/a3attach1.pdf [Scroll down until you get to the UCLA offerings.] 

You'll find some standard stuff, e.g., basic economics, genetics, more obscure offerings, e.g., Amharic, and pop stuff, e.g., Reel Beatles: Understanding the Beatles through Film and Me. The table does not indicate what the enrollments are in the various courses. And it does not indicate how much instructor time was involved in creating and delivering the courses.

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2024/01/lots-of-interesting-topics-in-upcoming.html.

**https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/jan24/a3.pdf.

***https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2020/03/return-of-straight-lecture.html; https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/1950s-tv-show-set-stage-modern-distance-learning-180976734; https://archive.org/details/youtube--_LpAu8kbXI.