Distance Education: The Application of Technology to Education and Training (APTEC).

Nova University (Florida), offers off-campus undergraduate and graduate degree programs in education, business and public administration, psychology, and computer sciences. This paper describes one of these offerings, the Application of Technology to Education and Training (APTEC) specialization in the Ed.D. program in Child and Youth Studies (CYS). The APTEC program requires six courses in the specialization area and is designed to prepare the student as a child and youth advocate in the use of educational technology. Students in the CYS program meet twice a year for a 3- to 5-day period to interact with the instructor; this is followed by interaction through the audiobridge, videotapes and audiotapes, electronic mail, and the electronic classroom (an electronic forum on the Unix system). Four clusters of students are included in an ongoing evaluation that will encompass the 3-year span of the program and study its effectiveness. Results of the first evaluation year indicate that the program is successful. Appendix A contains a description of field-based programs by John Scigliano, and Appendix B describes the APTEC courses. (SLD)