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From the Field

March 1999

Turning Online Education into a
New Professional Discipline
by Steve McCarty

Greetings from a two-year college in Japan. Allow me to introduce the World Association for Online Education (WAOE) and its organizational, cultural and educational activities, both implemented already and envisioned for the turn of the millennium.   The World Association for Online Education (WAOE) is a new educators' organization dedicated to turning online education into a professional discipline. In less than a year WAOE has been recognized as a non-profit organization by the state of California even though WAOE operates almost entirely online. Moreover, officers hail from seven countries thus far, so WAOE is not dominated by any geographical region. Therefore WAOE is truly global in outlook and practice. WAOE is now open to all who are committed to pedagogical principles and interested in networking with other online educators worldwide. Currently WAOE offers free trial memberships at least through June 1999.

Educators concerned with online education in the broadest sense see their institutions cutting deals and their scholarly judgment over the curriculum undercut. Web-literate educators have their regional and disciplinary organizations, but when they reach out to the wider world through the Internet, they sense that the new medium holds great promise, but also that essentials are lacking in comparison to the face-to-face medium. Wandering from list to list, Website to Website, like so many nomadic masterless samurai, what online educators have been missing is a real organization.

This need was realized at the Third Annual Teaching in the Community Colleges Online Conference based at the University of Hawaii, particularly the 7 April 1998 Keynote Address by Professor Steve McCarty in Japan. (See the reference below to register for TCC99, the fourth annual online conference around 7-9 April 1999, depending on your time zone.) TCC98 conference discussions continued for months, resulting in an international Steering Committee that submitted Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws to the State of California in Sacramento. California soon recognized WAOE as a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization, approving epoch-making bylaws stating that WAOE will be fully operational in electronic media. It may therefore be fitting that WAOE is pronounced "Wowee!"  Since being widely announced in late November of 1998, WAOE has grown to over 700 members from dozens of countries, which shows that WAOE answered a great need.

WAOE brings online educators together for mutual support as well as to evaluate online courses and resources in any branch of learning. With the cooperation of many institutions already (click here for full listing), a minimum of expenditures on material things, and the voluntaristic spirit of educators, dues are waived for the time being, and expertise can continue to be provided in lieu of dues.

WAOE aims to be most global and accessible to non-Westerners and non-native users of English, promoting multilingualism and intercultural understanding. Focusing on online education since the advent of Web-based approaches, WAOE is working to turn online education into a new professional discipline.

WAOE is a non-profit organization of the membership type,  ess common and more challenging than organizations employing staff. WAOE founders believe that the aspirations of educators can best be reflected in a participatory democracy.

On top of all the concrete progress in a short time, WAOE has afforded social opportunities among its multicultural membership. The first annual meeting for members in 1999 was combined with a world culture festival synchronized by the global standard of GMT. Cultural presentations provided spice for members who voted in sufficient numbers to ratify WAOE as a charitable non-profit educational corporation of the type governed by consent of the members. While the meeting took place asynchronously via e-mail and Web forms, synchronous MOO and Web chat sessions were also conducted. Web-based presentations (still linked from the WAOE Websites) include the Brazilian Carnival, Japanese Doll Festival, Estonian and Indian festivals. Look for further imaginative events where participants bring their own culture and educational systems while WAOE provides the HTML and other programming and hosts for smooth real-time events.   Officers have been discussing how to conduct the whole organization like a global virtual university, reflecting the interest of members in mastering online educational environments. See the membership information below and be ready to tell colleagues "Wowee!"

The latest service to members, started already in March 1999, is a twice-monthly e-mail newsletter entitled WEB or the "WAOE Electronic Bulletin." In the inaugural issue, editor David Wyatt in Australia and Jenna Seehafer of California State University help members understand the nature of WAOE in order to make the organization their own. (Click here for excerpts)

WAOE members will be present to assist in the Fourth Annual TCC Online Conference. Register at http://leahi.kcc.hawaii.edu/tcc99/ and we'll see you there!  TO JOIN the World Association for Online Education (WAOE), which is currently free of charge, please fill out the membership form as explained below. Among many WAOE activities there is a discussion list WAOE-VIEWS and an announcements list WAOE-NEWS. Both are archived on the WWW, while members have the option of joining both or, to receive a minimum of e-mail, just WAOE-NEWS, as it is moderated.

To join WAOE, please go to: http://www.waoe.org/membshp.html and click on: Show Me The Membership Registration Forms

For more information see:http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/WAOE-founding.html and the WAOE home page: http://www.waoe.org/  

WAOE-NEWS is a moderated list for occasional WAOE announcements.  To subscribe to WAOE-NEWS, send an e-mail message to: Majordomo@uidaho.edu with only the following as the body of your message: subscribe waoe-news WAOE-VIEWS is an unmoderated list for general WAOE discussions of interest to all members.

To subscribe to WAOE-VIEWS, send an e-mail message to: Majordomo@waoe.org with only the following as the body of your message: subscribe waoe-views.

Both lists will automatically ask for confirmation, so please REPLY with only the following as the body of your message: ok Please register your interest or questions by e-mail to waoe@waoe.org or visit Websites including http://waoe.org/

Steve McCarty, WAOE President, is a full Professor at Kagawa Junior College in Japan. His Website is an Asian Studies WWW Virtual Library four-star site.  Born in Boston, Steve aspires to bring East Asian perspectives back to the West.

Home Page: http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/presence.html
E-mail: steve@kagawa-jc.ac.jp 

©copyright 1999 by Steve McCarty