Chicago's TV Colleges. Final Report of a Three Year Experiment of the Chicago City Junior College in Offering College Courses for Credit via Open Circuit Television

From 1956 to 1959, Chicago City Junior College offered courses for credit via open-circuit television. These courses, in the sciences, humanities, social sciences, and languages, attracted an average for-credit enrollment of 1,261 students each semester, two-thirds of them women. The average not-for-credit enrollment each semester was 3,550 students. About 65% of those enrolled for credit completed their courses. The instructors, responding to the challenge of teaching by television, demonstrated that, through careful preparation and well-directed creativity, the necessary adaptations to televised instruction could be made. Teacher-student interaction was accomplished through mail-in conferences. Achievement test data collected in controlled experiments during the three years showed that televised instruction was superior to conventional classroom instruction only for certain subjects and certain audiences. The cost per enrolled student was slightly higher for this program than for classroom teaching, but an expanded enrollment could bring the per-student cost below that of conventional classroom instruction. The televised instruction program enabled many persons, including homemakers and prisoners, to pursue a higher education. (RS)