GEOGRAPHY ON THE VIRTUAL UNIVERSITIES

Abstract: The article brings summary of virtual universities abroad, where education of geographical sections is realized. The purpose of paper is charted to contemporary situation of this area of virtual education in geographical context and carried out reciprocal comparation with reference to spatial aspects. The area of research with reference to possible utilization of information and virtual courses in Czech environment constitute especially virtual universities from English-speaking states in the Czech contents.

Keywords: virtual university, eUniversity, geographical eLearning, geographical eCourses

1  Introduction

So called virtual universities represent specific part of eLearning area. Virtual universities could be named eUniversities according to quotation  that asserts „conception of virtual university is based on the idea that „school“ is not physical place indeed. The classroom of virtual university is situated anywhere and anytime the only connection to the web is necessary. Preponderance of selfeducation study materials is provided via Internet. The structure of virtual university includes chatboxes where problems and topics are discussed by students, tutors and among themselves. Virtual universities exist in variety of virtual study spaces that provide tools to running, distributing study materials and discussion.“ (translated from Milková, Poulová [online], 2008)

Basically there are two types of virtual universities – „with campus“ and „without campus“. Although this „campus difference“ seems marginal in reality the distinction is sharp and in Czech republic no campus universities aren´t so frequent (vide infra) – in opposite to world´s trend. If virtual university is (especially in legal framework) part of physical university (with campus) so eLearning is considered as addition to university programs or as program completely new. De facto this combination maintains some physical contacts with students (matric, certificate, exams etc.) whereas respects time requirements of students. This type of physical and virtual combination is called blended-learning.

My article is methodically based on content analysis and is aimed to put up list of contemporary campus universities in USA, Canada, Australia and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland that provide blended-learning of geographical courses. Another output is comparison of Czech geographic e-space.

2  GEOGRAPHICAL eCOURSES ON THE VIRTUAL UNIVERSITIES

In significant English speaking countries virtual universities cooperate at one platform. The platform in Canada is Canadian Virtual University, in USA ADEC (The American Distance Education Consortium). The system in UK is different. The Open University, one of the oldest virtual universities in the world (since 60’s of 20th century it exists as a correspondent school), occupies dominant position in the British eLearning space.. Nevertheless, there are several virtual universities without geographical eCourses in the UK. The Australian
system is similar to the one used in the Czech Republic (vide infra).

In English speaking part of Northern America (incl. French speaking regions) geographical eCourses are provided by 7 Canadian and 16 American universities. 23 universities altogether offers 95 geographical eCourses, 37 of them is being learned in Canada and 58 in USA. Description and division of eCourses in particular universities can be observed on graphs 1.

If there were mentioned British universities (only one with geographical eLearning), it is necessary to say that that it runs 7 geographical eCourses. Geographical eLearning in Australia is even worse because geographical programs does not run via eLearning form in general. Moreover, platform joining virtual universities does not even exist in Australia. That complicates the analysis of Australian eCourses. In addition web platforms of Australian universities are very faulty. From this point of view the comparison of Czech eSpace with these 4 English speaking countries could be very interesting (graph 1), because three Czech Virtual Universities afforded 82 eCourses.

3  CONCLUSION

Content microanalysis of platforms in chosen English speaking countries and Czech Republic shows (considering limited content of article) that in spite of Czech Republic isn´t as populated as chosen countries, Czech position in educating geographical eCourses is dominant. This conclusion is very surprising if we consider that overwhelming majority of this courses is provided only by three universities – University of Ostrava, University of Brno and University of Liberec (graph 1).

Statistically (according to number of the population) in Czech Republic fall 160 000 per one eCourse whist in USA it´s 520 000, in Canada 900 000 and in UK even 8 500 000 inhabitants per one eCourse. Analysis shows progressive trend of Czech eLearning, although we can speculate upon real progress of Czech geographical eLearning (it wasn´t aim of this article), but in reality Czech’s geographical eLearning is now very progressive in the comparation with the advanced English speaking countries. It should be interesting theme for next analysis. As well should be interesting translation Czech’s geographical eCourses or their titles to English-language, because in the Czech’s version are neglected in research of English speaking specialists. Adumbration of this Czech’s phenomenon in short summary was also objective of this article.

Graph 1  Geographical eCourses at Canada, USA, United Kingdom and Czech Republic

LITERATURE

MILKOVÁ, E.; POULOVÁ, P. E-learning a semináře k otázkám distančního vzdělávání na vysokých školách [online]. Univerzita Hradec Králové, rok nemá [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://www.daha.cz/andr_cl_10.html.

Bowling Green State University [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://www.bgsu.edu/

Clark State Community College [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://www.clarkstate.edu/

Cleveland State University [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://www.csuohio.edu/

Columbus State Community College [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://cscc.edu/Lakeland Community College [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://www.vu.msu.edu/site/

Cuyahoga Community College [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://www.tri-c.edu/Pages/default.aspx

Jefferson Community College [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://www.jcc.edu/

Pennsylvania Governement University  [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/

State University of Michigan [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://www.vu.msu.edu/site/

Technical University of Liberec [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://oldweb.tul.cz/en/

The Open University [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://www.open.ac.uk/

University of Athabasca [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://www.athabascau.ca/.

University Colorado-Denver [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://www.cudenver.edu/Pages/home.aspx

University of Florida [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://www.distancelearning.ufl.edu/

University of Kentucky [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://www.kcvu.org/

University of Manitoba [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://www.umanitoba.ca/distance/guide/degree/environment.shtml.

University of New Brunsvick [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://www.unb.ca/.

University of Ohio [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://www.ohio.edu/

University of Ostrava [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL http://www.osu.cz/en

University TELUQ [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://www.teluq.uqam.ca/index.html.

University Thompson Rivers of British Colombia [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://www.tru.ca/distance/about.html.

University of Toledo [online]. [cit. 2008-02-03]. URL: http://www.utoledo.edu/