ABERDEEN—The South Dakota Electronic University Consortium will be ready to offer courses on the Internet for the Fall 2000 semester, the Board of Regents was told today at its regular business meeting on the campus of the South Dakota School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

The Electronic University Consortium (EUC) will establish a web-based single point of contact for electronic information and access to campus-free education from the six South Dakota public universities. To accomplish that, numerous system-wide committees of university faculty and staff have been meeting throughout the year to set procedures, coordinate and review curricula, and plan for growth in off-campus distance education offerings.

"People at all of the six public universities have worked to determine procedures for admissions, financial aid application, marketing, common business practices, computer coding for distance delivery, and a host of other practices," said Janet Lewis, Regents Fellow, who is chairing the system-wide effort to develop the EUC. "Students will be able to take a course, use the library, enter into discussions with faculty and other students, and learn from home or the office. This is a comprehensive approach to course delivery. To get this up and running, many people in several departments and offices throughout the system have been collaborating to develop processes. We all want the students to have a positive experience."

Internet delivery of instruction requires faculty to learn new teaching methods. To assist them the Regents are sponsoring three days of training for faculty in the use of WebCT, software that supports on-line instruction. The workshop is scheduled for March 28, 29, and 30 at South Dakota State University in Brookings. Those trained at this workshop are expected to return to their universities to train other faculty members.

The EUC web applications will be supported by the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology through its HPCNet. For more information about the EUC or about the conference, contact Janet Lewis, Regents Fellow, (605) 773-3455.