Thank you for visiting "The Navigator – Live." Today's chat ended at 3 p.m. EST.

Today my guest was was Carolyn Louper-Morris of CyberStudy101, a company geared toward students. We talked about distance learning, distance cheating and other aspects of contemporary school life.

"The Navigator – Live" appears each Thursday from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern time. It's a live, moderated discussion offering washingtonpost.com users the chance to talk directly to intriguing and sometimes unusual guests who are shaping the digital world. "The Navigator" appears in The Washington Post print edition every Thursday. You can read past columns by following this link.

Linton Weeks: Greetings, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Navigator--Live. Carolyn, we're glad you're here. Let's get right to the questions.

Linton Weeks: Carolyn, what exactly is CyberStudy 101 all about?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: CyberStudy 101 is an Internet practice test tool designed to allow students to prepare for test in the best possible environment (hopefully one without stress). It was designed to allow the student to be as prepared as possible for tests. The software was developed to be simple, easy and assessible. No whiltles, bells or difficult sub-applications. Just come to our site, find the class you are taking and register for a subscription. Start adding notes, (type in, cut and paste in, drag in) then take a test from those notes. Primarily, CyberStudy 101 was designed to answer the question that is foremost on the minds of most students, "what's gonna be on the test?"
We also have a student learning community that we are proud of. It allows students to automatically send notes and tests to other members in the community including students and professors. It also allows members to have discussions about tests and hopefully, in the end, help students get better scores.
Like any other test preparation on line like Stanley Kaplan, Cyberstudy 101 "prepares students to take 'that' test" We are all clear that the more one practices, the better the scores will be. Before CyberStudy 101, most students attempted to find study-aids that would simulate "the" test for them. Now they have CyberStudy 101. We are on-line, open 24/7 and we grade the test for the student instantly. But, CyberStudy 101 is not just a product for students, its also a tool for professors. Professors can create their own tests on-line for students. Either practice tests or actual class tests. And best of all, no more grading for professors, unless they are giving essay exams. Finally, CyberStudy 101 will allow the professor to proctor the exam of course "at a distance." CyberStudy 101 is a great novel distance learning tool that combines the Internet with the learning process.

Linton Weeks: Now that was a sales pitch

Linton Weeks: Tell us a little bit about yourself. You taught political science at Ohio State, right?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: I am a former professor of Political Science. I describe myself as "just a little ole professor." I earned my Ph.d. from the University of Washington in Seattle in Political Science. I have had some memorable teaching experiences at such institutions as: Atlanta University, The Ohio State University and Eastern Connecticut State University. Over the years, I have traveled to India, West Africa, and Haiti. I have owned several businesses, a consulting firm and a printing company. I'm also happy to report that I'm a practicing political scientist. I've run a few major campaigns and kept involved in politics no matter what businnes I'm in. So, often I have combined the business world with the academic world often times working in both at the same time.

Linton Weeks: What gave you the idea for CyberStudy 101? How difficult was it to launch the Web site? What steps did you take?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: I got the idea for CyberStudy 101 as a professor throughout the past 23 years. During that time I had been searching to find a way to answer the one question that most students always ask, "what's gonna be on the test?" I always heard a tone of panic whenever that question was asked. And, of course, I really wanted the student to not panic about the test. But, with the pressure on students to 'get good grades' tests scores have become more important than the application of the information. Until the advent of the computer, except through the lecture and talking to students individually, I had no way of minimizing the fears of "the test." So, through alot of pyayer and meditation, I developed CyberStudy 101 and shortly thereafter, the follow-on product, The Professor's Notes.

Washington DC: How do I find out which distance learning programs are good and which are bad?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: That's a good question. I suspect it depends upon your audience. If you have young students, or older students. Are you in an institution or homeschooling? Do students have access to computers or to video? Are teachers versed in the processes? Those are some questions that must be answered first.

Bethesda: What about all of those students who don't have computers? Isn't there enough pressure on lower-income families as it is? And now their kids are falling further and further behind.

Carolyn Louper-Morris: Computer are bedoming readily available for everyone now. I was in a library two nights ago and there were over 50 computers for use, free. Internet use was also available. Also, lots of companies are giving away free computers. Almost all schools have computer labs now.

Linton Weeks: How prevalent is online cheating?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: We don't have alot of statistics yet on that, but I would assume that it is less than on-land cheating, because the questions on line can be altered so quickly by the testor.

Linton Weeks: What do you think are some of the most successful distance-learning projects?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: Almost every University has video instruction courses. They are successful and growing. But, homeschooling and Internet education is also successful. And of course, CyberStudy 101 is a great DL product.

Washington DC: Isn't distance learning just a new way of taking correspondence courses?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: Of course the introduction of corespondence courses was the beginning of distance learning. But, DL today is far more interactive than it was yesteryear. Today, students can ask questions and get answers on line instantly. Also, One's ability to be creative is heightened today on-line.

Laurel, MD: Is this program available on
platforms other than Windows?

TLM

Carolyn Louper-Morris: This program is available through the Internet at www.cyberstudy101.com. Any way you can get to the Internet will be good.

Columbia: How will Internet 2 effect your business? What advantages does this new Internet have for digital schooling?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: Internet 2 will not affect our business, in fact it will help. I understand internet 2 to be a new highway that can enlarge research and interactive education. I look forward to it. More students can be on line taking a test at one time for example.

Linton Weeks: What impact will distance learning have on universities in the future?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: That's a wonderful question and of course many professors are afarid it will replace them. I believe that universities will benefit greatly in the future from distance learning and Internet education. They will be able to educate more people, with less dollars from far away. Also, professors can teach from home or other places, like libraries. Everyone will benefit especially students. And through the internet 2 we can teach such things as hands-on auto mechanics.

Washington: Do you think online sources will eventually replace textbooks as we know them? Aren't there pros and cons to the argument?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: That debate is continuing to be explored. I believe that textbooks as we know them will always be available in some form or another. But, there will be soon different ways to access text information. We are certainly pushing the envelope on that.

New York, NY: Can uncredentialed individuals offer courses on line ?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: Good question.
I'm sure that anyone can offer courses on line. But, consumers are pretty good at checking sources both on-line and off-line. Those of us online try and give our customers information about our abilities.

Chicago, Illinois: How much pre-submission preparation and/or formatting of student notes are required for the viable development of quizzes--how do you assure substantive content, not to mention relevant content in the quizzes produced? Are there tools in CS101 that can aid raising the quality of source notes?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: A wonderful question;
We hope that students are taking and studying from better notes these days. They have lots of help. Professors are posting their notes on line and some companies go into classes and take notes and sell them to students. With Cyberstudy 101, a student can paste and drag and get good notes from a variety of places. Content in the quizzes is answered easily because in most of our quizzes, professors will produce them for their students. Otherwise, we hire quilified professionals to produce quizzes.

New York, NY: Will independent groups be able to set up widely publicized educational courses that are free of censorship of their ideas?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: We certainly hope that the Internet will eliminate censoring of any kind. That's going to be called a revolution in education.

Washington, DC: I heard some report recently about the amount of term papers that are available on the internet? There are so many out there and it would be impossible for a professor to familiarize themselves with all of them. How, if at all, do you think this effects educational concerns of plagarism? It seems that it would be hard to fight it.

Carolyn Louper-Morris: Thank you for that question. Many years ago, when I was at The Ohio State University, I saw my first term paper that I knew was written by someone other than the student. So I called the student in and asked for a reinterpretation of the paper, in their own words. It's a difficult issue, but information is becomming so readily available, and that's a good thing, that the role of professors will probably be needed alot longer than most think. Machines still can't call a student in to question authenticity.

Linton Weeks: All right, folks. We're a little more than halfway through the hour. I'm going to take a swig of some apple-cranberry concoction I found on my desk and, though the wonders of the Internet, sit back and enjoy your great questions and Carolyn's answers. Keep them coming.

Bethesda, MD: Carolyn. I've read and reread your description of how CyberStudy 101 works, and I'm still not sure I understand. Is it for college kids or high schoolers? What does a student do to use CyberStudy?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: CyberStudy 101 is an Internet practice test tool designed to allow students to prepare for test in the best possible environment (hopefully one without stress). It was designed to allow the student to be as prepared as possible for tests. The software was developed to be simple, easy and assessible. No whiltles, bells or difficult sub-applications. Just come to our site, find the class you are taking and register for a subscription. Start adding notes, (type in, cut and paste in, drag in) then take a test from those notes. Primarily, CyberStudy 101 was designed to answer the question that is foremost on the minds of most students, "what's gonna be on the test?"
We also have a student learning community that we are proud of. It allows students to automatically send notes and tests to other members in the community including students and professors. It also allows members to have discussions about tests and hopefully, in the end, help students get better scores.
Like any other test preparation on line like Stanley Kaplan, Cyberstudy 101 "prepares students to take 'that' test" We are all clear that the more one practices, the better the scores will be. Before CyberStudy 101, most students attempted to find study-aids that would simulate "the" test for them. Now they have CyberStudy 101. We are on-line, open 24/7 and we grade the test for the student instantly. But, CyberStudy 101 is not just a product for students, its also a tool for professors. Professors can create their own tests on-line for students. Either practice tests or actual class tests. And best of all, no more grading for professors, unless they are giving essay exams. Finally, CyberStudy 101 will allow the professor to proctor the exam of course "at a distance." CyberStudy 101 is a great novel distance learning tool that combines the Internet with the learning process.
Now available in k-12 standardized state tests.

New York, NY: Isn't there a danger in following so closely set lecture note patterns that the critical openness on line courses might offer would be lost and we would be right back with the rehashed dogma that has often dominated the formal educational institutions for so long?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: This is the day of critical and creative thinking on the part of students. But the issue for educational institutions is developing the environment and informational base for critical and creative thinking. You certainly sound like a professor and I believe that you might agree, lecture notes have no pattern. Thank goodness. So, a good test like CyberStudy 101, allows the student and professor to be creative and test to those notes.

Mankato, Minnesota: Which type of test offered at your site is most popular from student requests?

Which type of test offered at your site is most popular from professor requests?

Linton Weeks: And which are the least popular? What other feedback--positive and negative--are you receiving?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: Student membership is found most in U.S. History, and Psychology. Those classes are probably the largest in Colleges and Universities, thus 1st year students (most of our courses are introductory courses) have a bit more difficulty.
Our Professors Notes product is going on line soon. But, our professors product allows the professor to build any test they wish. They aren't bound by our choices.
Our feedback from customers is filled with the anxiety around the class and tests. Our product is so new that students are still in the mode of "wait until the day before and study for the test" So we answer alot of questions about how to find certain definitions.

Chicago, Illinois: As I understand the product the primary content source for quizzes is student notes and the quiz questions are constructed by some algorithm/pre-programmed procedure from said sources. How then do you assure content and format of sufficient quality so as to yield a viable and relevant quiz? Does the product come with support tools/guides for quality note production/capture. Can the notes be "moderated" by the associated professor?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: We offer three kinds of tests: multiple choice, true/false and our unique "step-thru test. The multiple choice and true/false test are canned to introductory information which is very basic. Our "step-thru" test is designed to allow students to put in information they wish and the software will generate a test to it. Content is up to the consumer. We have a vry nice user-friendly help and on line support for users. A student's notes can be sent to a professor for review. A professor 's on-line notes can be inserted by the student and then create a test from them.

New York, NY: It is precisely the serious lack of critical thinking and critical analysis that I feel needs careful attention from our new technologies. How does your product serve better a critical function, if it does? That is really my question.

Carolyn Louper-Morris: I believe that the new technologies are only as good as the creators. CyberStudy 101 is simply a tool to allow a student to test what they "think" they know. If they don't they must reconnect themselves with the original information. In many ways, CyberStudy 101 is simply a study-tool. But, it does allow a student and professor to create a customized test from their information.

Washington: How big is your staff? Where are you located?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: We have a technical staff of 6 people, technicians and professional developers. We originally had a larger "temporary" staff that developed the original "canned" We are located in Minnesota.

Mankato, Minnesota: Do you have any supporting evidence that your site improves students perfomance?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: Thanks for that question. The answer is no and yes. No, we don't do any follow up with customers to ask what grade they got. But yes we do get comments from students/ customers about why they bought the product. But, as a product on the market, It's like buying clothing, you know the product is good with return customers. And we have many. We would like to at some time in the future take a survey, buy on the web, so many surveys are answered and with little truth. Just to get through it is the customer answer.

New York, NY: Then would it be a fair assessment of your product that it is critically neutral and can be of immense help in assisting the student in his or her absorption of both benign as well as malignant knowledge?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: I certainly hope that our product is neutral. And I hope that the information a student gets, is useful and neutral.

Linton Weeks: How do you plan to make money with CyberStudy 101?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: Well I can't give away our marketing secrets on line- but suffice it to say, on line selling is much easier and cheaper than on-land marketing. Having a product on line is easier to "see and sell." Web search engines or 'yellow pages' is far superior to the on-land yellow pages. The web is a great place where people go on line for fun, information, education, activity, seeing and experiencing new things. No one 'surfs' the on-land yellow pages for fun. But, they do 'surf' the internet for fun.

Linton Weeks: Your mission sounds high-minded, but do you really think there's a market for your service? Your candidate is an English speaking college student who has

a) a computer and a modem,
b) the inclination and energy to take practice tests,
c) the time to enter notes into a computer and
d) gives a damn. How many students out there meet these criteria?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: What is your definition of high-minded?

Mankato, Minnesota: Can your product accommodate teacher notes with special notation, such as mathematics?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: We are pround to say that as of one month ago, YES, we now produce a math course.

Linton Weeks: What future plans do you have for CyberStudy 101?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: CyberStudy 101 is in the process of expanding courses for colleges and Universities, K-12, homeschooling and a variety of different students.

Linton Weeks: I guess by high-minded, I mean you hope to actually help students make better grades, among other things.

Carolyn Louper-Morris: Indeed, we are high minded.
To answer your question, Lots of students want to get better test scores with little effort. So much so that it was reported recently that students have been known to put cameras in their ties when they go to test to help others cheat. Incidents of students cheating on tests is extremly high. Students feel they need "good test scores" over everything else. So, CyberStudy 101 helps them 'get better tests scores' without cheating. Web courses are making our tests easier for students to create. As most students don't take "good" notes, professors are now posting their lecture notes on personal web sites and helping students to study from better notes. Each day, more and more students go to the web to ease their 'college woes.' Getting better study tips, tips on how to talk to professors, and overall, tips on how to get through college are subjects that student search the web for. And, students are more and more looking to register for distance learning courses. I just recently saw an article about students getting on a waiting list for opening of DL courses at Modesto Junior college. And I'm sure that is happening all over the country in all sorts of institutions. So, as we are moving students from on-land education to on-line education, our hope is that more students will study better, get better grades and feel better about the learning process.

Linton Weeks: Let's talk about distance learning. What, and how widespread, is it?

Carolyn Louper-Morris: One difinition of Distance learning is "any learning process whereby the majority of the instruction ocurs while the learner and teacher are at a distance from each other." A more recent definition by prof. G. Grimes is that "distance Learning or distance education is taking instruction to the student through technology rather than the student to the instruction. The concept is not new. Many traditional cultures have always communicated at great distances. In America some are celebrating 100 years of distance learning. Of course the earliest examples of DL in western cultures is the development of correspondence courses. And of course correspondence courses became popular because they allowed our very mobil lives to be lived with relative ease. The need to have our fast pace fast moving lives to be lived with ease is upon us in every area. Education not withstanding.

How widespread is DL? It's very widespread. It occurs on Sesame Street, University video courses, video cassette courses, audio cassette courses, Interactive Cd Rom's and now the Internet and Homeschooling . I'm excited that we are pushing the envelop on the definition. I would offer that Distance Learning or Distance Education and now Internet Education is a process of information received, learned from another source, no matter how far away, and no matter what process is used.

Linton Weeks: And that wraps up another Navigator--Live. Thanks so much to our guest, Carolyn, who taught us a lot, and from a great distance, I might add. Thanks, too, to the good folks at Washingtonpost.com and to all of you who sent in probing, cogent questions. Next week my guest will be Carla Cole, co-founder of The Sync, a company that produces video shows for the Internet such as SnackBoy! and CyberLove. Until then...

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