Perhaps what makes UMUC unique is its combination of proprietary course management system, WebTycho, and its impressive history in providing distance education (onsite, hybrid, and online) to ten of thousands of students throughout the world, who have been affiliated with large DOD contracts. This is part of a series of profiles of e-learning programs and initiatives in colleges and universities selected as exemplary, innovative, or otherwise ground-breaking in the area of online and technology-enhanced learning. The information provided here is based on interviews, articles, reviews, correspondence, and the institutions’ own websites. It is possible that it is not complete and there may be unintentional inaccuracies, although strenuous attempts have been made to avoid errors or distortions. This is intended to be helpful and to serve as a point of departure, a jumping-off point for discussion, debate, and idea exchange. Please let me know if I’ve made egregious errors. They will be corrected. (The minor ones will be, too.) Thank you for reading.

Institution: University of Maryland University College
Main website address: University of Maryland University College is accessible through a consortium of Maryland colleges and universities, Maryland Online. The colleges in the consortium offer courses, degrees, and certificate programs primarily online.
Mission and Vision: University of Maryland University College (UMUC) has a vision and mission statement in line with that of MarylandOnline, stating that its vision is to “advance Maryland as a world leader in distance learning” and the consortium is “dedicated to championing distance learning in Maryland. Through collaboration among Maryland community colleges, colleges, and universities, MarylandOnline facilitates students’ access to articulated courses, certificates, and degree programs offered via distance; and promotes excellence in Web-based learning in the physical as well as in the virtual classroom. With strategic partners, MarylandOnline enhances the quality and availability of higher education for the citizens and employers of Maryland and for students worldwide.” http://www.marylandonline.org/about/vision_mission
What makes MarylandOnline’s mission somewhat unique is that it expressly mentions developing strategic partners. It does not mention community-building, global understanding, or any of the other familiar catch-phrases found in distance learning mission statements.
Degrees and Courses offered online: UMUC offers masters and bachelor’s degrees online. The specific degree “road maps” and curriculum planners take some maneuvering to find, perhaps because one must go find the specific degree plan for each university in the consortium.

Course Management System: The University of Maryland University College uses a proprietary product, WebTycho. In appearance, WebTycho is not unlike Blackboard, WebCT, Prometheus, or other course management systems. Although it does not say so, one can surmise that using WebTycho can be challenging. Many professors require students to complete an online tutorial, Using WebTycho.

According to UMUC’s description of its product, “WebTycho is a customized program developed by UMUC to facilitate course delivery via the World Wide Web. WebTycho works in conjunction with a web browser to provide an interactive classroom experience to more than 35,000 UMUC students and faculty around the United States and the world. Uses for WebTycho range from complete course delivery at a distance to supplemental enhancement of face-to-face classrooms.”

WebTycho Functionality Issues: According to comments posted in weblogs and discussion boards by students and instructors, WebTycho has the following flaws:

1—Cannot use embed java or javascript.
2—Automatically converts dashes, quotations and other punctuation marks into meaningless symbols.
3—Does not work well with all browsers.
4—Slow to load over a modem, times out – definitely a problem in distance settings.

Advising and Degree Information: Once one decides on a consortium member and a degree program, one may advance and obtain more specific information directly from the institution.

For example, if a person seeks a degree in Liberal Studies from UMUC, they find immediately that they don’t have one. They do, however, offer a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities and Liberal Arts. It is an interdisciplinary program which “encourages thinking across traditional disciplinary lines.” A link on this page connects on with a degree requirements sheet: In addition to the course list, course descriptions are also available as one-paragraph overviews.

Although there is not a clear link to semester schedules, overviews, or other necessary information, it is possible to follow two links and find the University of Maryland’s home page: http://www.marylandonline.org/Jump?to=http://www.umuc.edu

An online form allows one to contact the university to obtain more information about the Bachelor of Arts degree in Humanities. The e-mail address is not specific to the degree plan (Humanities) which could cause confusion: Email: umucinfo@info.umuc.edu

Which student services are offered online? MarylandOnline’s student services portal page allows students to contact multiple universities within the consortium, and to have one-click access to the following services:
Admissions
Career Services
Distance Learning
Financial Aid
Library
Online Tutoring

MarylandOnline has partnered with SmartThinking http://www.marylandonline.org/student_toolbox/student_services/tutoring/smar_thinking which describes itself as a “provider of live, online, just-in-time tutoring and academic support solutions for high schools, colleges, universities, government, and textbook publishers. To date, our e-structors have worked with 49,583 students logging over 208,595 individual tutorial sessions.” SmartThinking is based in Washington, DC, and functions, more or less as a clearinghouse and matchmaker for students, tutors, and educational support services providers. It is completely online.

Information and Guides: A series of links on the Prospective Students page: provides background information about online learning. Articles from Peterson’s Guide, The Technology Source, and OnlineLearning.net describe student experiences, national trends, and current issues concerning higher education and online learning.

Online Calendar: This is fairly difficult to find. One must go to the general University of Maryland home page (NOT the UMUC page), http://www.marylandonline.org/Jump?to=http://www.umuc.edu/studserv/admissions.html then link to class schedules and class catalogues.

Again, using the example of the student who wishes to earn a degree in liberal studies, it is fairly unclear. It is not clear whether or not this is the same institution that offered the Bachelor of Arts in Humanities and Liberal Arts.

Online Course Schedule: This can be found by following the same links as for the Online Calendar.

Faculty Selection, Orientation, Training:
All faculty who wish to teach for UMUC online must complete a five-week training course in WebTycho. It is available online: http://www.umuc.edu/facdev/training.html

Throughout the semester, faculty technology conferences and development workshops are made available online for synchronous participation.

Faculty Website: Faculty members are provided with webspace and a template in which they can post their information. It has a banner with links back to UMUC. There are no graphics. It is not particularly attractive: http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~prichard/ecom/ec_sched.html .

Faculty e-mail: Faculty members are given UMUC e-mail address.

Faculty WebTycho account: UMUC provides space for the faculty member to upload information. Weekly assignments are pasted into linkable text boxes. The appearance is rather cluttered. http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~prichard/ecom/ec_sched.html#Week_1

Students are asked to submit their assignments electronically into their WebTycho folders. Here is a typical syllabus, for First-Year Composition — http://academic.ad.umuc.edu/detrain/CLIC%20201/ENGL101.html

Critique: the appearance of this is rather hard and intimidating. Undoubtedly this will change as new versions are released.

Course Content:
Course content, syllabi, textbooks, etc. are generated by the faculty, monitored by academic unit. Faculty members are responsible for uploading course content into WebTycho.

WebTycho support is available through downloadable handbooks and guides. http://tychousa2.umuc.edu/help.nsf There is no indication whether or not live help or support is available.

Course Syllabi Accessible to Public? No. In order to see the course syllabi, one must enter the course management system, WebTycho, unless the professor has made it available on a website via his/her individual website.

Open Source Software Initiatives: No.

Institutional e-Learning Initiatives: MarylandOnline has a number of initiatives involving partnering between academic institutions and private, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations.