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49% of public colleges and universities and 34% of all higher education institutions offer complete online degree programs.
SOURCE: The Sloan Consortium |
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Distance Ed Student Becomes Distance Ed College Dean
Brandon Taylor's life operates as a sort of distance education loop: He
uses distance education to advance his career in distance education.
But Taylor's not going in circles. Having earned a master's degree in
instructional technology and telecommunications, he's going all the way
for a doctoral degree in the field.
On his way to becoming the interim dean for the Center for Distance Learning at the City Colleges of Chicago,
Taylor has worked in every corner of the distance education map. As a
student, teacher, course designer, and academic administrator, he views
distance education from a 360-degree perspective.
His childhood, however, offered him a much narrower
educational perspective. Adopted when he was a baby, Taylor grew up in
the modest town of Zion, Illinois, with his adoptive family. With few
financial advantages, he mastered a lifelong knack of exploiting his
prospects and finding a niche.
"I've been blessed with opportunity," Taylor says, "and I am taking that opportunity and making the most of it."
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Seizing Opportunities
In high school, Taylor spent much of his time on soccer,
wrestling, track, and student leadership. But those interests didn't
push academics out of his life: He won a full scholarship to Prairie
View A&M University and takes pride in having attended a
Historically Black College/University (HBCU).
Prairie View opened wide gates to far more opportunities. "As
a student, I had interned with GE Medical Systems," he says. "After I
graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer science, GE officials
called the school and said they wanted me."
Still, with opportunities come opportunity costs, the paths
not taken. After graduation in 1993, Taylor found himself having to
weigh the GE job — along with other corporate job offers — against a
full fellowship to graduate school.
"Both my mother and my grandmother were terminally ill, so I
waived grad school and went to work at GE Medical Systems in their
Global IT Management program," he says. Because of their health,
neither woman could attend his graduation.
Steering Toward Distance Education
After five years at GE, Taylor's interest in teaching and
consulting — not to mention his "entrepreneurial spirit" — led him
elsewhere. "I made my way into academia starting with K-12 schools,
helping teachers and staff integrate technology into teaching and
learning," he says.
The same year he left GE, 1997, Taylor finally found his
birth family, learning that he had 11 brothers and sisters. He also
discovered the source of his own passion for dancing: Both his birth
parents danced avidly.
Staying focused on his career, he soon began graduate school
while living in the Chicago suburbs, and at times he battled two hours
of traffic just to get to class downtown. Then he learned that a nearby
medical school offered classes via instructional TV, where he could
view the professors live and ask questions directly over the phone.
Because his grandmother was on oxygen, Taylor wanted to stay close to
her.
"It was only 15 minutes away from my home," he says. "If
something happened with my grandmother, I could be there in five
minutes." To Taylor, distance education meant more than convenience.
Snatching a Master's Degree
Taylor left the K-12 arena in 1999 to work full-time at the
College of Lake County. Along the way, he learned of a master's degree
program at Western Illinois University.
"I carved out an online program by picking out the right
classes with weekend academies," he says. "I attended from the summer
2000 to the spring of 2001 — three semesters. I only went on campus 11
times, including a road trip to visit a friend."
With his new degree and skills, Taylor began expanding his
distance education work for his college clients. DePaul University
hired him as an instructional technology consultant. "I worked in all
aspects of instructional technology," he says.
At DePaul, he was the instructional designer for a Master of
Business Administration (MBA) program that combined weekend
face-to-face classes with online learning. Taylor notes that for the
last 10 years U.S. News & World Report has rated DePaul's part-time
MBA program as one of the top 10 of its kind in the country.
Then the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) recruited Taylor to
fill the new position of director of distance learning. "They already
had some distance learning, but my role was to take it to another
level," he says. Among other accomplishments, he created CPS' first
online course, Art History, in a joint project between CPS and The Art
Institute of Chicago. He also significantly raised the distance
learning enrollment, retention, and pass rates at CPS.
The City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) recruited Taylor next,
hiring him as an instructional designer. Shortly thereafter CCC
administrators asked him to become the interim dean.
Going to the Next Level
Not quite content with just being an interim dean, Taylor
still consults. He has, however, slowed his consulting to make room for
his current pursuit: a doctoral degree in instructional technology at
Northern Illinois University.
Despite Taylor's professional and academic juggling act, he
makes time for his wife, Cassandra, and their two preschool children,
Caitlyn and Brandon. Education is big in the Taylor family: Cassandra,
who is a K-12 educator, recently opened a school-aged childcare center
in Chicago.
When he looks at his goal of obtaining a doctoral degree,
Taylor knows exactly why he's putting in the effort. "Post-doctorate, I
plan to raise my consulting fees," he says. "And it may affect the
perception of some folks. My kids are young, so when I interact with
their schools and teachers, it will have a different effect, being 'Dr.
Taylor's' children."
Article written by Greg Rosenthal
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