Distance Learning Portals

• provide access to Online course listings and/or courses
• provide registered students access to a variety of resources
  • Course work materials
  • Course postings
  • Chat and threaded discussion
  • Exams and other testing materials
  • Graded materials and grades
• present materials from multinational/international sources, regional cooperatives, and single sources

Multinational and International Sources

• TeleCampus from the New Brunswick Distance Education Network (Canada).   TeleCampus is truly a remarkable collection of online learning offerings from around the world.  Courses may be selected by subject, words contained in the title or description, or by institution. Popup windows provide more complete course information including cost, analysis of the offering, and links back to the offering campus to register for the class.  The "Before You Begin" section includes valuable information on unrecognized accrediting agencies and unaccredited institutions. The site is not personalized to the student, but provides chat capability and a wealth of useful information for distance learners.
• Open University from Great Britain is certainly one of the largest distance education providers in the world, with over 200,000 students.

Regional cooperatives

• The Electronic Campus of the Southern Regional Education Board is a successful 16-state electronic marketplace.  It includes a well-designed course search mechanism.  It offers over 3,500 courses and 150 degree programs.  
• The Kentucky Virtual University provides access to over 150 courses offered the public and private universities and colleges of Kentucky.

Institutions in Collaboration with Vendors

• Onlinelearning.net - combines the efforts of the UCLA Extension, University of San Diego, California CPA Foundation, and Houghton Mifflin

Individual Institutions

• CSU-DH Blackboard is the implementation by  California State University, Dominguez Hills of the Blackboard learning portal for distance education.  Blackboard has created a case study about their work CSU-DH which is available here. (Note: This is a pdf file and requires Adobe Acrobat.)
• UM-Flint Online results from a contract between the University of Michigan - Flint and eCollege to develop a virtual campus and offer online courses.   The virtual campus provides for online application for admission and many other student services.  The virtual campus site serves as a port of entry for many student services, including the Banner Web interface.  It was launched in Winter 2000 with six courses offered.  In less than nine months the number of courses has increased three fold and the number of online students has grown from 150 to over 550 this fall.
• WSU Online is a campus-developed product which provides access to over 120 Internet-based courses from Weber State University and includes over 3300 course registrations per semester.  A sample course is accessible from here.  For additional access, send an e-mail by clicking here.

Additional Information

Kentucky's Virtual Dynamo, Eric Pfeffinger, University Business, November 2000 - feature article on Kentucky's Virtual University