LJWorld.com / Reverse outsourcing

Archive for Sunday, January 20, 2008

January 20, 2008

KU professor discusses distance learning

Val Stella, a distinguished professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at Kansas University, discusses how the distance-learning program is part of KU's global approach, how the process works, and how he's been something of an old dog learning new tricks when it comes to dealing with the new technology. Enlarge video

Special to the Journal-World

Lectures conducted on campus at KU are transmitted live, through the Internet, to remote sites. This image from a lecture this past fall includes video of Stella (upper left), his backup material (at right), and icons for all his backup slides (bottom left), which can be accessed by students at any time. While technology has eliminated geographic barriers to education, the folks in India may need to set their alarms if they indeed sign up. “They’ll be taking classes at 4 o’clock in the morning,” Stella says.

Photo by Richard Gwin

Val Stella, a distinguished professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at Kansas University, is looking forward to the possibility of offering his graduate-level instruction to students as far away as India.

The United States no longer is simply sending jobs overseas — now the country is sending its knowledge, too.

Next year, Kansas University aims to deliver masters-level courses in pharmaceutical chemistry to professionals in India, where demand for such education at the professional level is stressing the country’s own universities.

While welcoming foreign students to Lawrence for school is nothing new, the concept of beaming KU professors’ lesson plans, projects and lectures into areas that have become increasingly popular as outsourcing sites for U.S. companies is a whole new facet for the ever-expanding global economy.

Some money from India might actually make its way back to Mount Oread.

“The world is ‘flat’ in all directions,” said Val Stella, a KU distinguished professor of pharmaceutical chemistry, whose course in pharmacokinetics went to a dozen students at four remote U.S. sites via the Internet this past semester. “The water doesn’t only flow to India and China. There is flow back to this country: They need the things that we do well, and we can use the things that they do well.

“We tend to think of it only as a one-way street, but it isn’t that way.”

As pharmaceutical companies overseas scramble to give their own employees solid benefits and added expertise — often by hiring professors away from academia to provide classes, offer training and conduct research — some companies are looking elsewhere to meet their needs.

Enter KU, with what Christian Schöneich describes as “reverse outsourcing.”

“There really is no limit,” said Schöneich, chairman of KU’s department of pharmaceutical chemistry. “For a reasonable investment, this project will go.”

The department launched its distance-learning master’s program this past fall, an effort started with a grant from Amgen. The program has a dozen students who watch live lectures from four remote U.S. sites.

KU has yet to secure formal arrangements with foreign companies, but officials are optimistic. Two companies, all with KU graduates in positions to influence decisions, have contacted the department about offering courses.

KU officials also have been to China to discuss possibilities.

For a department with 80 doctoral and post-doctoral students in Lawrence, leaders are looking forward to extending the program’s reach.

Howard Rytting, developer and director of the distance-learning master’s program, expects more than 50 students to be taking part in the three-year program within as little as five years. As the global economy evolves, Rytting said, KU will continue its work to meet the demand for top-tier pharmaceutical education, using distance technology to make new connections.

“We want to be visible and as much on the forefront of educating people as we can be,” he said.