Collins-Blair New Dean of Distance Education

Marlene Collins-Blair, Associate Professor of Spanish, recently accepted the position of dean of distance education. Distance education is a form of education that takes place outside of the traditional classroom. Once based in West Seneca, all adult education programs and online initiatives are now based on the home campus.

“As we have developed our vision for Distance Education at Houghton College,” commented Linda Mills Woolsey, Dean of the College, “we have been aware that we can offer a stronger program by basing our online and distance programs on the main campus.”

Collins-Blair accepted the position in June. In addition to teaching eight credits’ worth of classes, she is responsible for overseeing all aspects of online and summer coursework and adult education.  According to Mills Woolsey, this includes “budgets, curriculum development, program accreditation, faculty recruiting and development, and program assessment.”

“There was a need to have everything centralized,” said Collins-Blair. She noted the adult education and summer online initiatives had previously been handled by separate administrators.  Collins-Blair plans to expand into the pre-college network to reach juniors and seniors in high school who may be looking to earn college credit. She also hopes to hold faculty training sessions about teaching courses online, and eventually offer entire Bachelor’s degrees online.

Both Mills Woolsey and Collins-Blair mentioned within the next few years, the Distance Learning Department also plans to offer classes online throughout the school year instead of just during the summer. This would allow students studying on the main campus to supplement their regular semester with online coursework.

“It would be like an independent study, but with more guidance in a way… I’d be interested in something like that,” commented junior, Christina Moyer. Sophomore, Clarice Thibault said, “It could bring in more people because someone might want to take just an online course and then they may want to come visit and see what the campus is like.”  Senior, Luke Rosamilia, said while it would be good for the college, he wonders whether doing online coursework as well as regular on-campus studies would be the best thing for students and faculty involved.

When asked what she looks forward to most about her new role, Collins-Blair said she is excited “to see the programs grow and expand,” and hopes to show both students and faculty how exciting online learning can be.

“Our hope,” said Mills Woolsey, “is that her vision and passion will inspire Houghton faculty as they explore distance education possibilities and that she will initiate a renewal of Houghton’s distance education programs by shepherding new program development and faculty development.”