There is evidence that the context for learning is undergoing a metamorphosis, and that distance learning is becoming a viable option for furthering one's higher education. Advances in technology, academic research, pedagogical innovation, the increase in the chronological age, maturity level and personal commitments of the average college student, and geography and demography have led to a substantial alteration in the structure of the learning environment. The purpose of this workshop is to aid the participants and their institutions to deliver better online courses from the points of view of the institutions, the professors, and the students. By familiarizing the faculty primarily from smaller institutions who might not have the opportunity to readily share research about the issues and concerns of distance learning with others, we will also be providing a network for future research for our participants. The workshop will include the following with respect to online education: discussions and projects of how to teach mathematics and science courses, and of associated generic issues, and a substantial component of lab time, both guided and open. Mercy's successful online educational system, MerLIN, will be used as a working example throughout the duration of the project. Our follow-through activities will include a reconnoitering of the participants to share results of how they integrated the information provided into their courses, a dissemination package consisting of a sixty-minute edited video tape of the workshop, two study papers, and information of where to find resources on the Internet with regard to the virtual university. In addition we will establish a repository of information regarding the teaching of online courses that will be available on the Internet. The second year of this workshop series will be taught using distance learning giving participants the added advantage of experiencing this instructional mode from the student's perspective.
