Dr. Jay Gabbard, Assistant Professor of Social Work who also teaches online, received the 2007 award for teaching excellence for his ability to motivate and inspire students outside the classroom. He has used tegrity to support both his face-to-face courses and his online courses since 2005.

Welcome to the Office of Distance Learning at Western Kentucky University.
We are dedicated to providing the most useful and up-to-date information possible for students interested in distance learning courses.

Distance Learning is an exciting and continually developing field. The purpose of this introduction is to help you understand what distance learning is and how WKU makes distance learning accessible to you.
What is distance learning? Broadly, this term means that the learning process takes place at a distance, through technology-mediated communication, instead of face-to-face communication. There are different ways of content delivery that are considered distance learning. At WKU, the most common forms of course delivery are:

		Web based from WKU online courses.
		Self-paced courses offered by print, CD, e-mail, & Web from Independent Learning.
		Videoconference based: from Interactive Video Services (IVS).
		Broadcasting Television based from from Kentucky Educational Television (KET).
		Blended or hybrid courses from WKU. Mainly face-to-face with an online component.

Each program may use a mix of technologies as tools to manage course materials. At WKU most web classes use Blackboard as the platform of presenting learning materials, resource links, and instructional guidance. Blackboard also enables you and your professor to communicate with each other. Using Blackboard, your professor can present materials supported by several other multimedia resources, such as audio files, video files, animations, charts, etc. so that content is presented in the most appropriate way.

Why distance learning? Whatever your reason for choosing a distance learning class, the experience will give you an important advantage in your professional preparation. At a minimum, you will be exposed to technology that will be a day-to-day tool in your current or future job; but you will also learn how to play a key role in your own learning process. It will improve your writing skills. It will help you learn how to manage deadlines. And it will help you know yourself better by making you responsible for your learning experience.

What programs are used most often in distance learning? Most online courses offered through WKU use the following programs that you will need to familiarize yourself with: e-mail (WKU Webmail), TopNet (the student information and registration system), Blackboard (the course management and delivery system). Under the Electronic Student Services you will find the basic information on how to use each one of these resources.