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In This Issue:
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Columbia Video Network Circles The Globe
CVN students can be anywhere in the world that has access to the Internet. Since its debut in 1986, when the “V” in CVN actually meant using a video cassette, Columbia’s distance learning network has adapted new technologies to evolve into an electronic learning tool rated “Best of the Web” three times in a row by Forbes Magazine. “When CVN rolled out its streaming and downloadable course lectures, we hoped students would grasp this chance to learn remotely,” said Grace Chung, Executive Director of CVN. “Now, our students have surpassed our expectations and have truly taken advantage of learning anytime and anywhere. We have students in places as far away from Upper Broadway as Papua New Guinea, who can continue their studies as long as they have access to the Internet,” she said.
The strengths of CVN’s program are known to all its students: flexibility—lectures are available 24/7 and can be replayed as often as needed—and responsiveness—professors are accessible and respond quickly via email, and CVN staff has a “customer-service” orientation. Whether the Internet connection is made from across the city or across the world, CVN students have access to the very same classes that are taught by SEAS professors in campus classrooms. “CVN is great because of time allocation,” said Jun Yamamoto, who works for Clay Finlay, Inc. in Tokyo. “I travel to cities all over Asia and often trips take more than six hours. I can download the lectures to my laptop and watch them on those trips and also during my usual 40-minute commute. I watch them in hotels, when I’m waiting between flights, even in taxis, but that can be a bit bumpy.”
Peter Grootelaar, whose work at Chevron Texaco in Maracaibo, Venezuela, requires significant travel, said, “I’ve done CVN classes at home, in Bogota, Colombia, in Houston, in Caracas, and at our company head offices in San Ramon, CA. I studied for my IEOR 4003 final in the Caracas airport during a 33-hour trip home from Bogota. Later this quarter, I’m traveling to Buenos Aires and CVN will be coming with me. Have laptop, will travel,” he said. “There are some differences when you are not in the classroom with the teacher and the rest of the students,” said Julian Monso, who works for an international company and is now in Santiago, Chile. “But, it is clearly an advantage to be able to go through the class more than once if necessary.” Nigel Boyden, whose undergraduate degree is from the University of New South Wales in Australia, works for Daily Credit. “I think the biggest advantage of taking lectures via CVN is the freedom of being able to take each lecture at your own pace, to even stop and rewind if you don’t understand something the first time,” he said. Boyden is a student in the financial engineering program and he determined it was the ideal course for him. After four years in London, he asked his company for a transfer to New York, and, he said, “they kindly obliged so I’m living, studying and working in New York.” Many CVN students are parents and specifically look for flexibility in a master’s degree program that helps them maintain the work-life-study balance. “I had always wanted to pursue an advanced degree,” said Scott P. Shafer, “but the nearest school was more than an hour’s drive away, my employer had a policy forbidding early departures for school, and I had four children, which made evening classes impractical.” In 2001, he began looking at distance learning options. “CVN was clearly the most established and prestigious program available,” he said. Shafer, who expects to graduate in January, 2006, with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, changed jobs in 2002, moving to Moog Inc. Aircraft Group in Buffalo, NY, without an interruption in his academic schedule. Irina Kalish credits her husband with finding CVN for her. “He found CVN on the Internet and quickly understood that this is simply the best on-line education program, very customer-oriented and user-friendly. It was a mind-boggling opportunity and I decided to try it out,” she said. Kalish, who works for Yazaki North America in West Bloomfield, MI, has enrolled in materials science courses and takes her exams in a unique setting—in Yazaki’s library, which is in a 165-foot long mahogany boat. “CVN offers a truly amazing opportunity for people who want to get the topnotch education without intruding too much on their personal schedules. I find studying at Columbia very inspiring and the professorial staff at Columbia is truly exceptional,” she said. Hiroshi Akima, who works for Epoch Microelectronics in Hawthorne, NY, has been in the U.S. for about a year and is now taking his second course via CVN. “In Japan, I would have been taught just equations but Prof. (Yannis) Tsividis teaches intuitively and looks at the essence of how something works,” he said. Laksen Sirimanne, who works for Edwards Lifesciences in Irvine, CA, will complete his degree requirements for a master's in electrical engineering in May. He was familiar with distance learning before he began with CVN; he had completed an M.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California via their distance learning program (DEN). He took two classes in EE via CVN because USC did not offer them. He had every intention of transferring those credits to USC’s DEN but “I realized that I enjoyed taking classes through CVN a lot more than through DEN. Even though they were excellent, I had a better experience at Columbia–I was very impressed by the teachers and, overall, I felt that the customer service of CVN exceeded my expectations.” Sirimanne says that he is so impressed with CVN that he will continue with CVN in the fall for a master’s degree in biomedical engineering. CVN offers M.S. degrees in applied mathematics, computer science, electrical engineering, engineering and management systems, materials science, mechanical engineering and civil engineering. It also offers Professional Degrees (PD) in computer science, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering for students who wish a degree beyond the M.S., but who do not wish to focus on research and publication. For more information on CVN, send an email to info@cvn.columbia.edu or visit their website at: www.cvn.columbia.edu.
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