Supported by ASPH and the University of Michigan School of Public Health

• Distance Education Beyond Public Health: Lessons For Our Field
• State of the Field in Public Health Online Education

Distance Education Beyond Public Health: Lessons For Our Field
Monday, September 24, 2007
Noon to 1:30 PM
Archived webinar available here

Schools of public health are increasingly developing courses and degree programs offered using distance education technologies and modalities. A lot of distance education is happening outside of public health, though, and this webinar will provide participants with the opportunity to learn about two successful efforts–Rio Salado College’s online programs, and Penn State’s World Campus—and to discuss how lessons, tools and resources from these programs might be of use in graduate public health education.

Presenters:

Ken Udas, Executive Director of Penn State World Campus
Click here for the PowerPoint presentation.

Carol Scarafiotti, Vice President Emeritus at Rio Salado College in the Maricopa Community College District, Executive Consultant for Online Learning
Click here for the PowerPoint presentation.

Respondent:

David Potenziani, Senior Associate Dean for Planning, Coordination and Administration, UNC Chapel Hill School of Public Health

Presenters' Biographies:

Ken Udas - As the leader of Penn State's online campus, Ken Udas oversees all of its various components—including program management, student services, marketing, finance, and technology—ensuring that the World Campus will continue to meet the needs of online learners. In addition, Ken maintains and forges partnerships and develop new initiatives to enhance Penn State's leadership position in the growing field of online education.

In 1998, The Pennsylvania State University launched its 25th campus of the University, Penn State World Campus.  The World Campus is "Penn State | Online," delivering more than 50 distance education programs to learners around the world. The World Campus carried on Penn State's proud tradition of more than a century of delivering distance education programs designed to meet the educational goals of a diverse set of learners. The World Campus provides adult learners worldwide with some of Penn State's most highly regarded graduate, undergraduate, and continuing professional education degrees, certificates, or courses available anytime, anywhere.

Carol Scarafiotti - From 1989 until her retirement in 2004, Carol Scarafiotti was Vice President for Academic Affairs at Rio Salado College, where among other responsibilities she provided leadership to Rio’s online program that now serves over 28,000 students annually.  Her career in higher education includes various administrative positions, all associated with the goal of making education accessible to working adults. She is a recipient of the Sloan-C Award for Excellence in Online Access and is noted for her broad range of experience in developing scalable and sustainable approaches to comprehensive online learning systems. 

Rio Salado College has one of the nation’s largest online programs serving over 28,000 community college students annually.  It provides students seeking convenient access to education with over 450 unique courses, most available to enroll in every two weeks.  This presentation provides an overview of Rio’s online system and the underlying strategies that contribute to student success and that make RioOnline scalable and sustainable.

David Potenziani - Currently serves as Senior Associate Dean at the UNC-CH School of Public Health. His responsibilities include coordinating the administration, finances, information technology, student affairs, and the North Carolina Institute for Public Health. He formerly held the position of Director of the Instructional and Information Systems (IIS) office at the UNC-CH School of Public Health. His duties included managing information systems used to provide video and data networking, data processing, web development, and developing instructional systems to educate public health students over the Internet and via videoconferencing.

He was one of the originators and served as project manager for an online graduate-level certificate in Core Public Health Concepts (completely web-based with students participating worldwide) launched in the summer of 1999. IIS supports two masters-level programs (Executive Master’s and Public Health Leadership) that allow students to earn degrees in a mix of short residential sessions and online encounters. His group subsequently helped develop a certificate program in Community Preparedness and Disaster Management launched in 2003. The programs that his group supports serve more than 700 students around the globe. He holds an adjunct faculty appointment in the Department of Health Policy and Administration and teaches an online course each year in public health informatics. His students reside around the US as well as Lisbon, Shanghai, and Riyadh.