Distance Learning

Excerpted from "Renaissance Fundraisers: The Future of Philanthropy" in Advancing Philanthropy, January/February 2001 issue.

Providers of continuing education in fundraising all agree that online learning has a role to play in professional development, although opinions vary about what that role is — from complementing in-person classes to virtually substituting for them.

The Center of Philanthropy at Indiana University, for example, offers Internet-based courses, but director Tempel says that results are preliminary: "Our fundraising education program is largely successful because of the workshops where people come together. Can we provide training through other formats and media? Will we lose people if it becomes information sharing rather than education and training? A lot of evaluation is going on around this right now."

Both Hayes Briscoe's Marion and Linda Lysakowski, CFRE, president and CEO of Cornerstone Consulting, teach online. They see the medium's possibilities and limitations. "There's a synergy and rapport you only get in a group," says Lysakowski. "But distance learning comes into play as a good choice for those who are good at self-study or who have geographic or financial limitations." For her part, Marion, who teaches at the University of San Francisco, feels that her more technical course (Development of Fundraising) works well online, but her more theoretical course (Philosophy and Theory of Philanthropy) is better suited to the classroom, "where you can transfer your enthusiasm and fire to students."

Others feel that student-faculty interaction is enhanced online. Cargo, who taught at George Mason University before moving to Virginia Commonwealth University, is a strong proponent. "With a Kellogg Foundation Building Bridges grant, I offered a certificate in nonprofit management at George Mason completely online," he says. "It was one of my proudest achievements."

Cargo posted lecture notes and discussion questions every Sunday, and the discussion flew fast and furious throughout the week. "In my view, students actually demonstrated a higher level of performance. In a typical classroom, I might just hear form two or three students on a particular issue. I found there was actually more personal contact." He notes that in focus groups conducted afterwards, students said that had felt close to each other, even though few, if any, had met in person.

But caveat emptor. Gary Matkin, PhD, dean of continuing education at University of California Irvine, warns, "As online education becomes more prevalent and common, quality becomes a significant issue. It becomes hard for an unsophisticated consumer to discriminate between good and bad." And good instructors and good instructional design are keys to quality online, just as they are in person. But it's not that simple. Some successful classroom instructors have a written style that is too cryptic to work well online. Even more important, Matkin notes, is instructional design, which he defines as the "selection and sequencing of learning objects" such as lectures, charts, tests, and other components that an instructor uses to design a course. "Good instructional design is always important, but it's absolutely critical in an online course," he says. "There's an art to sequencing the learning objects, especially without the glue of the instructor's personality that you get in the classroom."

A potential advantage of online continuing education is that different institutions can offer a uniform course. "I'm not talking 'McEducation,'" Matkin says. "But if different institutions offer the same course based on the same design, you can define a consistent body of knowledge and method of assessment. Then you can certify that body of knowledge." And that way lies greater professionalism of fundraising.