CYBER SCHOOL: SEMO UNVEILS NEW INTERNET LOOK TODAY, STURDAY, NOV. 1

When Dr. Fred Janzow traveled to Boston for a meeting, his students in Cape Girardeau never missed a class. Janzow taught the course via the Internet.

Online education is becoming more commonplace at Southeast Missouri State University and the university continues to expand its use of the Internet as an information source.

Today the university debuts a new look for its own Internet site following a redesign of the content this summer.

The site can be accessed at www.semo.edu. It provides information about the campus, Cape Girardeau and the region; academics, including Southeast's colleges, schools, departments, off-campus centers, programs, Kent Library and study-abroad opportunities; administrative information, including employment opportunities, policies and procedures, strategic planning and computer services; news and events; alumni; the Southeast Missouri University Foundation; student life; athletics; and faculty, staff, students and alumni, including phone numbers and e-mail addresses.

The site will also provide prospective students with information on admission, financial aid, scholarships and campus visits.

"The new look is designed to be user-friendly and aesthetically appealing, and to provide comprehensive information about the University," said Jim Biundo, assistant to the president for University Relations and chair of the University Web Page Committee.

The committee established policies and procedures and the design for the opening web page and the first level of pages beneath that.

Then the university hired students from computer science and art and teamed them with faculty members to develop web pages for specific departments, programs and projects.

The web page will likely become a focal point for the university's use of the Internet, Biundo said.

The use is expanding, said Janzow, who is director of the Center for Scholarship in Teaching and Learning.

The university offers 162 computers in open labs for students to use whenever they need access to the Internet. In addition, many classrooms have banks of computers linked to the Internet for use in a classroom setting.

Three-fourths of the students enrolled at Southeast have requested user codes, which allow them access to the Internet through the university.

Students can find course descriptions online. Faculty members are writing interactive projects for students to complete online.

Class discussions take place in a bulletin-board format online. Committee members across campus are holding meetings online.

A nursing course is being offered entirely via the Internet and other uses are being explored.

When Janzow's students attended his class online, they signed on to the Internet from computer labs on campus, computers at their dorms or from home.

New uses of the technology are being developed all the time, Janzow said.

Biundo said the university has established a tradition of serving students and its student-centered philosophy is evident on the Internet.

Utilizing the Internet, a technology to which students have responded, is another way the university is attempting to reach more students, Biundo said.