Distance Education: Facing the Faculty Challenge. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 4(2), Available at: http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer42/bower42.html Council for Higher Education

Who could doubt that distance learning, in the multiple forms it takes today, is the hottest, sexiest, most controversial issue in American higher education? Hardly any issue of any higher education journal or newsletter is published that doesn’t contain at least one article on the topic of distance learning or educational technology. We are bombarded constantly with messages heralding the technological revolution that is occurring on campuses across the country. As faculty, we are warned that if we don’t "get with the program " our institutions will suffer and our jobs will be lost to more technologically, bottom-line oriented organizations such as the University of Phoenix. College administrators increasingly put pressure on faculty to participate in distance learning and other technology related endeavors. Most faculty, however, have not responded as quickly and enthusiastically as administrators would like. For example, an article by Wall Street Journal reporter John D. McKinnon indicated that even at Florida Gulf Coast University, a university "built as a testing ground for Internet-based instruction " (1998, p.14c), faculty expressed serious concerns and reservations regarding the effectiveness of distance learning. A 1998-99 national study of faculty conducted by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) stated tha