Community Building in a Distance Delivered MPA Program at the University of Alaska Southeast

Abstract

This paper presents a brief case study of the distance delivered Master of Public Administration program at the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau, Alaska. The US Department of Education notes that from 1995 to 1998 distance education programs in the US have increased by 72% (complete study available at http://nces.ed.gov/). Many would say one of the greatest challenges to higher education in today's world is the challenge of distance education, particularly distance education mediated by technology. For years, Universities have undertaken distance education through correspondence courses. Despite the existence of such distance education courses, the fact that they were few in number, that they normally involved only preparatory or elective courses, that they rarely involved whole programs, and that they were normally administered by Departments of Continuing Education made them somehow less controversial.