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Unique Online Master's Program in Speech-Language Pathology Graduates First Cohort of 24 Students "This program was the only way I could get my degree and continue to work." Debra Colombo, Palmdale (Wilsona School District) In 1999, CSUN became the first university in the state to offer an online master's program for speech language pathologists. The program was developed jointly by the College of Extended Learning (ExL) and the Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences (CDS) in the College of Health and Human Development. Thirty students - all employed in California school districts - enrolled in the program's first cohort. In May, 24 of these students will receive their M.S. degrees in speech language pathology. "For a three-year distance program to have retained more than 80 percent of its students through all of their life changes - one student moved to the East Coast, others married, had babies, or dealt with major illnesses, disabilities and deaths in the family - is truly impressive," said Tyler Blake, ExL's director of distance learning. According to Blake, student retention rates as low as 50 to 60 percent are not unusual in online education. Blake attributed the program's success to its unique relationship with the "rigorous, solid, academic on-campus program" on which the online course of study is based. According to CDS chair Stephen Sinclair, more than 2,500 students have received master's degrees from the CDS residential program since its inception in 1959. "By helping me fulfill a state requirement, the program provided greater job security and made me better qualified." Kelly Smith, Foothill Ranch (Orange U.S.D.) The online program was created in response to the state's shortage of speech-language pathologists needed to work with children in public schools. Master's degrees are required for all California public school speech-language pathologists as well as for membership in the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). While 14 universities in the state offer masters degrees in this field, they graduate only about 350 students per year. Blake credits Sinclair with the "entrepreneurial vision" that led to the program's creation. Sinclair originally approached ExL with the idea of televising and videotaping existing classes for use in a distance bachelor's degree program. Karen Green, a CDS faculty member, was asked to analyze and evaluate the proposal's prospects. "The best thing was being able to do the coursework at my own pace." Jana Everhart, Mentone (San Bernardino S.D.) With the help of Green's study, CDS and ExL determined not only to offer a master's program but also to use the Internet as its delivery vehicle. Green subsequently became the program's coordinator, a position that is funded entirely by ExL. Blake and Sinclair described Green's role - which focuses on student support - as the "heart and soul" of the program. "I had more personalized contact with professors than I would as a residential student." Genie Stearns, Wildomar (Fullerton S.D.) The program development team takes pride in the program's "soup to nuts" design. According to Blake, the technology component, for which his distance learning department is responsible, is the easy part. "What makes or breaks the program is not whether you have the latest server. It's whether you have a total systems approach, designed around the students' needs. You don't just put on a program. You build a community of students, and you do this by engaging them interactively with their material, their software, their instructors, their fellow students, and also with professionals in the field," Blake said. "The supervisor of my externship was impressed with my knowledge and ability to keep up." Lori Darnley, Sun City (Murietta Valley S.D.) Clinical fieldwork is the one component of the CDS master's program that cannot be simulated online. To verify that what students have learned online works in practice, CDS has contracted with approximately 150 clinical supervisors and speech-language pathologists in the communities where students live. With this innovative approach, even the student who moved to the East Coast was able to complete the externship. Since the first cohort enrolled three years ago, the program has been expanded to students across the nation. "We now have students in Maryland, New York, Virginia and Washington state as well as California," Green said. ExL's Blake points out that the CDS program model can be configured to serve other departments throughout the University Projects currently in development include a two-year online master's program in engineering management; a hybrid Master of Public Administration program that offers the best of both online and residential learning; and online content for one of the human resources certificate programs offered by Los County Training Academy. "I was able to share the new approaches and knowledge I received with my coworkers." Jill Litchfield, San Dimas (San Bernardino S.D.) According to Blake, as budgets get tighter, enrollments climb and the ability to hire new faculty fast enough gets harder, departments who partner with ExL Distance Learning can bring in extra resources at no cost to their on-campus programs. Examples of the benefits include access to "tens of thousands of dollars' worth" of interactive software and materials that ExL has developed; full technical support for their online programs; and a flexible faculty reward program that can include release time for project related research. "After all, there's a limit to what CSUN can bring in via grants and contracts versus what the top research institutions can get from these sources. But we could beat the pants off of Stanford with our distance learning model," Blake said. "The classes were very applicable to my work - and there were no parking problems!" Denise Druiff, Huntington Beach (Magnolia S.D.) Home
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