College Offers Online Education to Alumni

On Nov. 29 Professor of Economics and Director of the Middlebury Center for Social Entrepreneurship Jon Isham will teach an hour-and-a-half long online course for alumni called “What is Social Entrepreneurship?”

Isham was approached by the Alumni Office in September to lead a course on social entrepreneurship. He quickly modified the subject matter to address social entrepreneurship in the liberal arts, specifically, as the topic has been a focus of his recent research.

“It’s a topic that people are talking about and thinking about and are curious about,” Isham said of the course’s material. “Alums […] will be curious based on their own experience […] how social entrepreneurship fits in at Middlebury.”

“That means asking 'What are the goals of the liberal arts?’ and ‘How can social entrepreneurship enhance and complement those goals?’” wrote Isham in an email.

According to Isham, social entrepreneurship is the use of business practices to enact social change, an approach different than traditional charitable or philanthropic tactics.

“It takes the civic engagement model and brings in approaches that have been developed, say, in the business sector,” said Isham.

Ian McCray, director of the alumni and parent program, said that this topic is on the minds of many students and recent alumni.

“The idea of social entrepreneurship is one that we get a lot of questions about from alums who come back,” said McCray, who works to organize programs for alumni across the country.

Thanks to help from several professors, the College is able to keep alumni actively involved and intellectually connected to happenings on campus. This engagement has recently become even more readily available to alumni around the world through the employment of online courses.

“We’ve dabbled [with online courses],” said McCray. “It’s something that we’re exploring more and more, as a lot of our peers are.”

Amherst College offers an online book club for alumni and Williams College has established an Alumni Online Community group.

“The ability to do this and to do it in interesting ways online is really the new [issue] here,” said McCray. “And it’s a way for us to expand our outreach to alums.”

The Alumni Office has offered online courses in the past, but they are not a commonplace occurrence.

Last year, John Elder, professor emeritus of English and American studies offered an online course on the poems of Robert Frost for 15 alums. Through Adobe Connect software, the class offered video and audio connections and allowed students to type in comments or personal notes to Elder.

“It didn’t work so well,” said McCray. “[The course] was relying on a lot of back and forth because it was a discussion class, and there was some delay in the software.”

The participants ended up continuing the discussion over a conference call with Elder, which proved a better method.

Isham’s course has a higher capacity, fully registered at 90 people, and will therefore use the Adobe Connect software. Isham will be broadcasted through video to all of the participants, who can type in questions during the lecture. Though he does run the risk of being delayed, this way Isham can communicate more directly to a larger audience.

“People will be able to see me talk, and at the same time, we’ll be able to show PowerPoint’s or links online,” said Isham. “It’s a very flexible approach.”

Alison Byerly, former provost and executive vice president who is currently on academic leave at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, feels that online courses open the doors to continue education with members of the college community.

“An online course for alumni would in most cases not be replacing an in-person seminar,” she wrote in an email. “It would be making participation possible for people who would otherwise not be able to take part.”

She added that communication through technology can extend the possibilities of engaging alums from locations around the world, no matter how far they might be from Vermont.

The Alumni Office does not have concrete plans to increase the number of online courses offered, but hopes to keep experimenting with new ways to reach alumni through technology.

McCray said he could see the College holding online courses two or three times a year, but added, “I don’t see this as something that we plan on scaling up to the volume that some of our peers do.”

“We’re treading cautiously,” he said of future pursuits into online courses. “I think it’s something that for us is going to contribute around the margins, but we’re not going to become the University of Phoenix. But we’re trying to take advantage of the technology that is available to be able to reach more people.”

The College does not allow professors to take time away to pursue other for-profit teaching, but alumni courses do not fall under this category.

One other educational venue in which participants are charged is when members of the faculty give lectures in locations they travel to personally. Every year, about 20 to 25 professors will participate in such lectures. The College charges a registration fee for most of these to cover costs such as venue, refreshments, travel, and a small honorarium for the professor.

Elder’s course cost $25 per person; Isham’s will charge $15.

“It’s our policy to compensate our professors for their time,” said McCray.

According to McCray, the “crown jewel” of the Alumni Office’s work is the Alumni College, a program open to all alumni that is held annually at the end of August.

The typical turnout is about 100 alums, who spend four days at the Bread Loaf Campus taking a course from one of the College’s professors. The program costs about $400 or $500, which, according to McCray, “barely breaks even.”

“They’re not money-makers,” said McCray of alumni courses in general. “It’s really just another way to help alumni engage with the College and engage with the professors.”