Effects of Educational Television on Higher Education in the State of Colorado

Educational opportunity is demanded by almost every segment of today´s technology-oriented society. However, concurrent with enrollment increases at institutions of higher education, state fiscal authorities are becoming increasingly critical in the allocation of educational funds and the way in which such funds are spent. Colorado State University is solving this two-sided problem of economically utilizing the educational resources of the State while meeting the academic needs of a wider segment of the population by means of two innovative programs whose medium of communication is videotape. Industrial personnel in Colorado can now study graduate-level courses leading to higher degrees in a majority of the engineering disciplines via Project SURGE, without leaving their work location; college students enrolled in two-year pre-engineering programs throughout the State can now transfer directly to four-year university degree programs with all their key prerequisite courses completed via Project CO-TIE (Cooperation via Televised Instruction in Education). Although the state of Colorado is somewhat unique in the geographical constraints it imposes on the use of educational television, the experiences gained in Projects SURGE and CO-TIE are directly applicable to the solution of similar problems facing educators throughout the United States.