Setting the Context

The University of Manitoba (UM) offered its first degree credit correspondence course in 1950 through the Continuing Education Division, and Brandon University (BU) by the early 1980s was offering several print-based courses through its Extension Division. The UM correspondence offerings grew significantly post-1950 and by the 1980s included a BA degree with several majors and courses from other faculties. The UM Distance Education Area was staffed and led by female faculty members. All of these women joined the department holding graduate degrees and completed doctoral studies while working, focusing their research on distance and online learning in higher education.

Graduate work was completed at American institutions and the Open University in the United Kingdom using academic leaves for research and writing. As the University of Winnipeg (UW) and Brandon University became involved in distance education, their units mirrored that at the University of Manitoba, led by women concurrently studying and completing graduate degrees. I joined Brandon University with a non-traditional MSc from the University of Guelph, where course work was completed over a three-week period in the spring, complemented by an online course, a comprehensive examination, and a thesis. My graduate work required me to balance multiple priorities: family, work, community service, and study, and living in a rural area I found internet access a challenge. Fortunately, my workplace provided me with much-needed access. I travelled to Guelph for three summers to complete the MSc course work and then finally took time off work to complete my thesis; this was a luxury that many women do not have. This experience in both my MSc and my PhD (which I eventually completed at a distance from a UK university) made me familiar with the challenges faced by those studying at the margins. Moreover, I was fortunate to do my graduate research first with rural female students and then with Indigenous female learners accessing education in a northern Indigenous community. Learning from these women was a humbling experience for me and guided my academic practice.

Early Days: First Year by Distance Education Program and Inter-Universities North

By the mid-1980s, politicians in Manitoba spoke about increasing access to higher education and serving students in rural and remote areas. Concurrently, new technologies were emerging, and courses began to include teleconferencing sessions augmented by print, with one-way video soon available. In 1989, the provincial government directed the three universities to work together to provide a first year of study at five rural northern settings to reduce relocation expenses for students. The program was known as the First Year by Distance Education (FYDE), launched in the fall of 1990.

Fortunately, the government already had an operating agency in which to situate the administrative arm and an agreement that would streamline the academic operations. The FYDE utilized the Inter-Universities North (IUN) agreement and placed administration of the program in the existing IUN office in Thompson. The IUN agreement—a special arrangement made in 1971 by the Committee of Presidents of Universities of Manitoba—allowed students living north of the 53rd parallel taking courses through IUN to use these courses for both credit and residency at the Manitoba university where they wished to graduate. The impetus for the IUN agreement was the growth of industry in northern Manitoba and the provision of education for transported southerners (primarily female partners of individuals moving north for employment) who wished to complete their education. Many teachers with only one year of Normal School completed their degrees by participating in the forward-thinking IUN agreement. Although transfer credit is always important, the residency component made the agreement exceptional, and students in this region did benefit. The first woman who utilized IUN to graduate was Emily Sawicki, who graduated in 1979 (archival documents, Brandon University).

The IUN office in Thompson was led by a female administrator, an internationally trained physiotherapist who, after coming to Canada, began her university study at night school, completing both her undergraduate and her graduate degrees. The FYDE was assigned to an IUN coordinator—a woman who had utilized the IUN agreement to complete her degree and went on to further education through non-traditional programming. These two women, Shirley Lyon and Carol Girling, made the FYDE happen within a one-year window, laying the foundation for further initiatives.

It was an intensely busy year. The FYDE directed funds to all of the universities to develop and deliver courses. Each course was offered in a three-hour block over 13 weeks, utilizing one hour of video and two hours of audio-conferencing, along with print materials. This mirrored the three-hour-per-week lecture model within face-to-face delivery. Sites were established in dedicated spaces at high schools in five centres in the province: Dauphin, Russell (south of the 53rd parallel), Thompson, The Pas, and Flin Flon (north of the 53rd parallel). Coordinators were hired to manage the centres. A range of courses offered in the social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences recognized the need to equip students with foundational courses to enter into second-year programs.

Although initially the politicians intended to build distance education capacity equally across institutions, doing so was not practical. We had three very different institutions. The University of Manitoba was the oldest and largest institution, with the only professional faculties and medical and doctoral studies. The University of Winnipeg was primarily an undergraduate school and had not ventured into distance education prior to the FYDE. Brandon University was a small institution outside Winnipeg with a handful of correspondence courses, a strong access mission, and the northern teacher education program for the province. When determining which university would take on development and delivery of an FYDE course, respective academic departments had to agree to offer a course and identify and contract an instructor prepared to teach the course in the FYDE format.

Despite the willingness of designated distance units within the respective institutions, the challenge came when seeking agreement from departments and finding an instructor willing to teach the course. Therefore, the University of Manitoba offered most of the courses, in English, psychology, sociology, philosophy, economics, calculus, and linear algebra. The University of Winnipeg, which had never offered distance education, agreed to offer courses in chemistry, biology, and history. Although Brandon University was only able to offer six credit hours in computer science, it became involved in other ways. While the FYDE supported an already established distance education program at the University of Manitoba, for the University of Winnipeg it provided a foray into remote learning (a catalyst for further televised credit education in Winnipeg). Services and supports were also divided among the partner universities. Even with these challenges, within one year and by the fall of 1990, the group of women administrators (of which I was not yet a part) demonstrated their commitment to access to education by getting the work done. The FYDE was up and running.

Although responsibility for operationalization and delivery of the FYDE rested with IUN, the academic home of and responsibility for the courses rested with the three southern universities. I was the newest member, having joined Brandon University when the first FYDE courses became available. I was fortunate to have female colleagues at the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg who answered questions and provided advice, often outside work hours. Courses were delivered by faculty members from one of the three universities using first video- and teleconferencing and then computer conferencing as technologies evolved. Compensation for course development and delivery and other associated costs was provided to the respective universities, but tuition flowed to IUN as per the agreement. At the outset, packages of print material were sent to each location. All of us remember delivering boxes of textbooks and materials regularly to bus depots for subsequent delivery to students. Similarly, the face-to-face IUN course offerings that continued alongside the FYDE and involved fly-in professors also required logistical support (e.g., flight arrangements, airport pickup, and transport to the off-site classroom). In the 1970s and 1980s and into the 1990s, IUN and FYDE course delivery was labour intensive and completed by a committed group of women in both faculty and support positions. It is now hard to imagine how things got done in the absence of email and digital materials. Today phone and fax are seldom used, and Greyhound, our main bus carrier, is no longer in business.

Identifying and contracting instructors for IUN courses remained a challenge, but the group of women administrators formed a network, calling on each other for assistance when an instructor was needed or a problem emerged. We built relationships that remain intact today. Moreover, we were all still completing graduate programs alongside our work.

Evolution of the FYDE and IUN

The year 1990 saw changes for IUN, including the hiring of a new executive director, a man with a doctorate in science but a career in community-based and distance learning. With his arrival, the staff grew to include another female coordinator and new positions in student support. The IUN agreement and offerings initially supported transported southerners in northern urban areas, but Indigenous communities called for on-site programming. A third female coordinator, an Indigenous woman, was hired, and she also completed her graduate education while working. In consultations with communities, IUN initiated formalized, community-based, full-degree programming for a cohort of learners in First Nations communities. Local coordinators were hired in communities to provide student support and services. These new ventures were not without challenges, but committed staff made things work. It is interesting to note that almost 100% of the learners involved in postsecondary community-based studies were women; only a few Indigenous men entered postsecondary studies, and in most cases they withdrew from them (Matheos, 2000). University College of the North (UCN, n.d.) data reflect this trend today, with Indigenous women participating in studies toward a degree in greater numbers than Indigenous men.

As technologies emerged, it became possible to offer IUN courses via audio-conferencing or courses in a hybrid model in which instructors made some face-to-face visits supplemented by audio-conferencing. With the affordances of technology, along with exponential growth in demand, the pressure on university distance education units increased, often with no increases in resources; in spite of such challenges, though, offerings increased.

Northern communities had long articulated the need for a regional university. Although students could complete two years of study at a local college, most needed to travel to Winnipeg or Brandon to complete their degrees. With the plan to establish a university, IUN was moved to Keewatin Community College in 1996. This was justified since the college was the higher education institution in the North, soon to become a university college with degree-granting status. The FYDE was not so easy to move since students were not all located in the North. As well, rural communities throughout Manitoba voiced the need for local degree credit courses. Moreover, though offering a first year of university credits was helpful, some individuals throughout Manitoba had completed some postsecondary studies and wanted a means to complete their degrees. Most importantly, the residency and transfer credit features of the IUN agreement were essential to student success throughout the province.

In 1998, the FYDE disbanded and was replaced by Campus Manitoba (COPUM, 1998). Its administration relocated to the Brandon University Extension Division, where I became the director. The Campus Manitoba mandate expanded the FYDE introduction of courses beyond the first-year level and the establishment of sites throughout Manitoba. I saw this as a very positive change; many students, particularly women who stopped their postsecondary education before its completion, needed courses to obtain a credential. As programming grew and colleges joined the partnership, the IUN transfer credit agreement was no longer used.

By 2002, 21 new courses were added. By 2006, all seven public institutions became members of Campus Manitoba. By 2008, 15 regional centres were established, to be phased out by 2013. Campus Manitoba became a fully online course provider, including degree, diploma certificate, and professional learning courses. It now maintains an online catalogue of e-courses, including transfer credit information as well as a streamlined process by which letter of permission fees are waived. To support the development and delivery of online offerings, the Flexible Learning Hub, accessible to faculty and staff from all partner institutions, was launched in cooperation with the UM Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning. Currently led by a woman, Campus Manitoba is also a strong advocate of open educational resources, launching and funding such resources and open textbook initiatives. What began in 1990 as the FYDE in five Manitoba centres offering 60 credit hours of first-year programming from three universities has grown exponentially to provide access to e-courses at multiple levels to individuals across Manitoba (Britton, 2006).

With the establishment of University College of the North in 2004 as the successor to Keewatin Community College, IUN became Inter-Universities Services—a consortium of four universities (UCN, UM, UW, and BU), now led by an Indigenous female administrator, Lavina Fecteau. After moving to the University of Manitoba as the associate dean of extended education, I was fortunate to join the Inter-Universities Services committee and to see the excellent work being done to provide courses in northern communities.

Concluding Comments

I have seen enormous growth and transformation in distance education. Technology has provided new affordances to teach and learn, and the pandemic pushed us in much-needed directions. In the three original FYDE and IUN partner institutions, there are no longer distance education units in extension divisions with responsibility for distance and online learning. These modes of delivery are offered by faculties alongside hybrid and face-to-face offerings. As I think back to 1990, it is important to acknowledge the women leaders whose commitment and collaboration created the firm foundation for the present online and hybrid learning.

References

• Abramoff, K., & Janzen, R. (2023, January 3). The top ten year in review 2022. Academica Forum. https:// forum .academica .ca /forum /a -review -of -2022 -the -top -ten -year -in -review
• Anderson, T., & Dron, J. (2011). Three generations of distance education pedagogy. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 12(3), 80–97. https:// doi .org /10 .19173 /irrodl .v12i3 .890
• Britton, A. J. (2006). A historical listing of significant events in Manitoba’s elementary–secondary education, post-secondary education and training systems 1989–2006 [Unpublished manuscript]. Campus Manitoba.
• Committee of Presidents of Universities of Manitoba. (1998). Towards a virtual learning environment [Unpublished manuscript]. Campus Manitoba.
• Government of Manitoba. (1994, June). Doing things differently: Response of the government of Manitoba to the report of the University Education Review Commission. https:// news .gov .mb .ca /news /archives /1994 /06 /1994 -06 -23 -doing _things _differently _response _of _the _government _of _manitoba _to _the _report _of _the _university _education _re~1 .pdf
• Matheos, K. (2000). Community-controlled education: Putting education back into the culture [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Kent at Canterbury.
• UCN (University College of the North). (n.d.). Graduate satisfaction and employment report. https:// soar .ucn .ca /ICS /icsfs /2016 -2017 _GSES _2017 -2018 _SEP .pdf ?target = 230606c3 -08ea -442d -adfa -56bea40bc666