John A. Scigliano

From early to current developments in online learning at Nova Southeastern University: reflections on historical milestones

The authors trace the major historical milestones achieved by Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in its pioneering of graduate-level online learning programs. We share our story of building our online programs from scratch and from within the trenches. We highlight the milestones we achieved in online learning from first inception of the idea in the early 1980s to some of our present-day accomplishments. We hope the telling of our story will inspire higher-education professionals to start their own online programs, while perhaps avoiding some of the barriers we have experienced as challenges to building online programs.

A lifecycle model for online learning management: 21 critical metrics for the 21st century

Online learning environments (OLEs) are difficult to manage. They depend on many interconnecting networks and systems that all must function effectively, all the time. In this article, the authors present a model that depicts 21 metrics that managers can use to measure and monitor the online systems in order to assure continued effective current operations, network operations, and future operations. These metrics were developed over 17 years of operation in an OLE at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The metrics, as used in this article, are concerned with the process of measuring and specifying expectations for performance.

Moving beyond the White Cane: Building an Online Learning Environment for the Visually Impaired Professional.

This article is about the development of an online learning environment (OLE) for a retired, visually impaired professional named Donald Mitchell. He has macular degeneration (MD). Because of this he is legally blind. The article deals with his fight to overcome the barriers, threats, and challenges posed by the reduction of his visual capacities. The article is organized into four main areas of concern or barriers. The first is physical, the second is intellectual, the third is psychological, and the fourth is technological. The authors place special emphasis on the psychological, intellectual, and technological barriers. In addition, the authors relate the steps Mitchell took in building his personalized OLE that included a laborious process of selecting the right hardware and software as well as harnessing an array of technologies such as personal computing tools, Web-based resources, network resources, audio tapes, voice recognition software, and non-print support devices, including the audio features of broadcast and cable television. This development is especially relevant to this special issue of IHE since Dr. Mitchells work was done in the early days of online learning beginning in the late eighties.