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State & National
Online Courses to Increase
Accessibility to Education
By Alex Kaplun
Staff Writer
Starting next fall, anew learning
opportunity will give all N.C. commu
nity college students a chance to receive
credit for online courses.
The project is designed to provide
educational opportunities for individu
als, such as working parents, who have
other time commitments that prevent
them from attending regular classes.
The Virtual Learning Community
project would include 10 online courses,
which could be taken for credit and
additional student services such as reg
istration, advising and library services.
N.C. community colleges already
offer more than 250 available online
courses and online course enrollment is
more than 10,000.
The online courses will cost $26.75
per credit hour for in state students, the
same as regular classes, unless individual
colleges choose to tack on a fee.
Colleges have complete freedom in
determining how to use the Virtual
Learning Community, said Neil
Hollands, VLC project coordinator.
Fla. Program Slows Teen Smoking
By Deepika Narasimhan
Staff Writer
Underage smoking is on the decline
in Florida, thanks to a preventative cam
paign partially designed by kids.
The Florida Tobacco Pilot Program,
paid for by a $ 13 billion settlement with
the tobacco industry, focused on a mar
keting campaign, community outreach
and stronger enforcement of underage
smoking laws.
Since the two-year project began,
teen smoking in middle schools has
dropped 54 percent while high schools
had a 24 percent drop.
Frank Panella, a spokesman for the
Department of Health’s secretary, said
the key to the program’s success was
youth involvement.
“For years public health officials have
said smoking is bad, but kids don’t listen
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Hollands said colleges could decide
for themselves whether to offer the class
es for credit, modify them or complete
ly ignore them. “The individual colleges
didn’t want this to be a separate institu
tion offering credit,” he said.
Hollands said that while many com
munity colleges had extensive distance
learning programs, some schools had no
available online courses. The project
would give schools without distance
learning an opportunity to get programs
off the ground, he said.
He said the project would also reduce
labor because many of the same courses
were offered at other community col
leges.
Janyth Fredrickson, N.C. Community
College system associate vice president
of academic and student services, said
distance learning would give more peo
ple access to public education.
“The most important thing is it
increases access for people to learn,”
Fredrickson said.
She said community colleges primar
ily served adults who lacked the time to
attend class. “(Virtual Learning
Community) really provides access to
to adults,” Panella said.
“Kids listen to their peers, and kids
telling kids that smoking isn’t cool just
works.”
Panella also said the growth of teen
involvement was encouraging. “We
began the program with a youth summit
of 1,500 kids,” he said. “Now 10,000 kids
are part of SWAT.”
Panella added that the program’s suc
cess made it a staple of Florida’s anti
tobacco campaign.
“It is no longer a pilot program, and
we have plans to help prevent smoking
in ages 24 and under,” he said.
“Since tobacco companies will lose
profits from teen smokers, they will
probably target an older crowd.”
The campaign also caught the eye of
other anti-tobacco groups, including
some in North Carolina.
“Florida’s results are stellar, making it
QUI? iatly ®ar
people from all over the state, no matter
where they are or when they are able to
study,” Fredrickson said.
But she said distance learning would
not replace the traditional classroom
education. “(Online courses) will never
replace regular classrooms," Fredrickson
said. “They will add to them.”
She said Virtual Online Community
will offer over 50 courses by fall 2001,
and students would be able to receive a
degree completely from online courses.
Jim Sadler, UNC-system assistant
vice president for planning, said system
schools were also creating more distance
learning programs. “UNC campuses
have been very active in developing on
line courses,” Sadler said.
He said this was only the second year
the system received government funds
for distance learning programs. He said
the system already offered five degree
programs that were completely online.
“We will see the distance learning stu
dent-credit hours that are available
increase dramatically.”
The State & National Editor can be
reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.
a model for other states,” said Deborah
Bryan, director of programs and gov
ernment relations at the N.C. branch of
the American Lung Association.
But Bryan said North Carolina’s lack
of sufficient funds contributed to the
state’s high underage smoking rate.
“It takes state funding to produce
results like (Florida’s), and North
Carolina doesn’t have that,” she said.
“This is why we have such a high under
age smoking rate."
Ed Bissette, a member of N.C.’s
tobacco commission, said he also
encouraged curbing youth smoking.
Bissette said, “I am certainly glad
underage smoking is being contained
and hope North Carolina follows the
example.”
The State & National Editor can be
reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.