North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 91, No. 11, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 31, 2008 Page: 3 of 8
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Thursday. January 31.2008 Page 3
News
O
New center assists in
continued education
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By Charlie Heck
Intern
The new Center for
Achievement and Lifelong
Learning plans to bring
NT's continuing education
resources to the level of
other colleges around the
country.
"UNT is late to the game.
Virtually any other college
you can think of has a
substantial continuing
education program," said
Ken Robertson, assistant
vice president for lifelong
learning and the president of
the Professional Development
Institute. "When there
are 42,000 students and a
research facility, you need to
be a player."
Provost Wendy Wilkins said,
"the Center for Achievement
and Lifelong Learning, or
CALL, is a recasting of what
the Center for Continued
Education and Conference
Management, CCECM,
used to do while adding the
Professional Development
Institution, or PDI."
The institute has been
actively involved in the
continuing education
program for years but still
works independently from
the university.
Continuing education
traditionally includes confer-
ences, summer camps, post-
graduation education and
professional developments,
but now NT wants to go even
further than that, Robertson
said.
"We hope to be involved in
extension credit fairly soon,"
he said.
Extension credit would
allow a person to take up
to 12 hours of credit work
without having to enroll in
the university.
"If a person takes a couple
of classes and decides to
enroll and finish a degree
plan, the classes then become
credit you already have. Our
goal is to have the extension
credit program implemented
by fall 2008."
Along with extension
credit, the center has other
plans for education programs.
A continuing professional
education program would
give individuals the option to
take non-credit classes.
"People who do not neces-
sarily care about college
credit and just want the
knowledge resources could
get a certification of comple-
tion in areas like the exten-
sion classes," Robertson said.
"We also want to plan some
outreach programs in the
community like ESL/SAT
preparation courses."
The Continuing Education
Center was the original center
in charge of continuing
education.
"CCECM primarily focused
inward on campus as a service
organization that assisted
colleges and departments
with their conferences. Not
a lot was outward," Robertson
said. "Now you have got a
perfect marriage. PDI is very
much outward while CCECM
still focuses inward on the
university. So when we work
together, we provide both
sides, and it becomes a place
where CALL is the center of
the two."
The institute has been
active for more than 35 years
and is a nonprofit educa-
tion foundation set up for
the benefit of the university,
Robertson said.
"We are here to help the
non-traditional students,"
he said. "Finally UNT is
going to enter the market
for continuing education, and
when we do, especially in the
DFW area, we are going to
make a big splash."
Cleaning up the damage
1
— - .
Photo by Justin Tennison / Staff Photographer
A firefighter collects hose after the flames were put out along highway 114 Wednesday, January 30 in Paradise, Texas.
Nonprofit awards leadership scholarship
By Roberto Rodrigez
Contributing Writer
Richardson senior Betty
Wan has become the third NT
student to receive the American
Humanics Next Generation
Nonprofit Leader scholarship.
American Humanics, an alli-
ance of colleges, universities
and nonprofit organizations,
received a $5 million grant from
the W. K. Kellogg Foundation
and created the scholarship
fund last January.
American Humanics will
choose a total of 1,000 students
for the Next Generation program
during the next five years.
"I felt really proud," Wan said
about receiving the scholarship.
"I really owe it to all the people
who mentored me."
Wan said Pamela Sybert,
American Humanics interim
director, encouraged her to
apply for the scholarship and
supported her through the
process.
Project redesigns undergraduate courses
By Megan Schwarz
Intern
William Moen, director of
the Texas Center for Digital
Knowledge, and his cadre of grad-
uate students have been awarded
almost $260,000 by the Texas
Higher Education Coordinating
Board.
Phil Turner, vice provost of
learning enhancement, said it
is too early to know how much
money the school will save by
transforming undergraduate
classes from large audience
lectures into sessions conducted
partially online and partiallyface-
to-face.
"We don't have that data yet
since we are just at the starting
point. We're more concerned about
the difference that the project is
making in student success rates,"
Turner said. "We do know that the
'footprint' of the classes will be
significantly smaller, and that will
save on construction and main-
tenance."
The grant will fund phase II of
the development of a Learning
Object Repository (LOR), which
will store blended-learning under-
graduate courses for the Texas
Course Redesign Project.
The project incorporated the
repository at the behest of the
center, which also suggested
breaking down each course into
five different sizes, or learning
objects, such as courses, units,
lessons, topics and trivia games.
"Decomposition of course
content" is key to the success of
the repository Moen said, because
the more flexible the objects, the
more easily they can be "reused
and re-purposed" by instructors
of various disciplines.
Undergraduate courses of Texas
institutions of higher learning are
being redesigned according to the
Texas Education code, which was
passed in May 2006.
The objective of the redesign
project is "to improve student
learning and reduce the cost of
course delivery," the mandate
said.
Moen was nostalgic as he
considered how the project has
transformed the undergraduate
learning experience.
"After working on this project,
I wish I could go back and be an
undergrad again because the
results I've seen so far, the feed-
back have been so positive," Moen
said.
He cited a recent YouTube.
com video of bored students in
a huge lecture hall to illustrate
they are "a different kind of audi-
ence, immersed in communica-
tion. We need new ways to present
information that are applicable to
their lifestyles."
The graduate students working
for Moen were quick to praise
him.
"Dr. Moen is a wonderful
person. I've worked with him for
three years," said Svetlana Barnes,
a library science international
graduate student. "He's asking
a lot from other people, but he's
working much harder himself. If
everybody was doing as much as
he does—my goodness!"
There is plenty of workyet to be
done. Moen's phone never stops
ringing and he confesses to being a
"workaholic," although his family
keeps him "sane."
He said he wishes he could go
back to his days of being a truck
driver every once in a while.
"I'll see an 18-wheeler," he said,
"and think, Wouldn't it be great
to just go back and do that for a
living?'"
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"I get so excited all the time
with how much AH has done
for me and all its students,"
Wan said.
The $4,500 scholarship will
serve as a way to compensate
Wan for her work with the
nonprofit organization Habitat
for Humanity without forcing
Habitat to come up with the
money, said Nathan Edgerton,
American Humanics campus
director.
Wan began working with
Habitat for Humanity in Denton
earlier this month and must
complete a total of 300 hours.
After completing her 300 -hour
internship with Habitat, she
will be qualified to receive the
American Humanics certificate
for nonprofit work.
The certificate assures recip-
ients know how to raise money,
develop boards and commit-
tees, manage volunteers and
manage budgets along with
other nonprofit skills, Edgerton
said.
Participants in the Next
Generation program are
eligible to continue working
with nonprofit organizations
after completing their 300 hour
internship through the AH
Americorps Procorps program,
which can provide further
financial awards, Edgerton
said.
Wan will graduate with
a bachelor's degree in soci-
ology and minors in business
foundations and music, along
with receiving her American
Humanics certificate.
After graduating in May,
Wan said she is unsure of
where she would want to work
but would like to stay in the
nonprofit sector.
"I never really imagined
myself doing an office job,"
Wan said. "I really feel good
when I'm working at Habitat.
When I know about these fami-
lies...when I get to know them
and their stories, it makes it
really fulfilling."
Student
balances
activities
Continued from page 1
between several hobbies and
passions.
She is an aerobic instructor
and personal trainer at Fitness
Evolution in Denton. She typi-
cally keeps one client and
teaches about one to three
classes a week. She instructs
everything from step to boot
camp style classes, she said.
White is also a singer and
piano player in a cover band,
which plays everything from
classic 1980s pop tunes to
modern hits from Gwen
Stefani and Kelly Clarkson.
She doesn't talk much about
her singing, she said, because
she keeps her role as an elected
official and her nightlife sepa-
rate.
She even goes by a stage
name, Shyler, when in her
band.
White just finished her first
semester of graduate school at
NT. She's earning her master's
degree in communication
studies and said she hopes to
graduate within three years.
She is currently taking a
break from tests and studying
to concentrate on her re-elec-
tion campaign, she said,
and will return to NT this
summer.
She graduated from NT in
1999 with a bachelor's degree
in fashion merchandising.
Before entering the political
arena, White worked in retail,
eventually becoming a buyer
for a small family-owned shop
In Lewisville.
Going back to school "is a
lot of work," she said. "There's
a huge chasm between
academia and the real world.
I have to get back to thinking
academically."
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IMPORTANT
ANNOUNCEMENT OF A
PUBLIC HEARING
The University oí North Texas will hold a
public hearing to discuss the following:
proposed change in tuition paid by students.
The hearing is scheduled for
Tuesday, Feb, 5, 2008
University Union
Room 417
10:30 a.m.
UNT
UNIVERSITY OF
NORTH TEXAS
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North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 91, No. 11, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 31, 2008, newspaper, January 31, 2008; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth145536/m1/3/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.