| A college education is larger than a regular class-room experience. It is more than delving through a stack of books: It is a time to grow, to learn and to interact with new and exciting people. It is a time to foster new networks, plan for career development, and attain skills and resources for a life-time of growth! The student affairs profession claims responsibility for many of these collegiate outcomes; outcomes that touch on every aspect of campus life. A wide array of pedagogy has been developed and advocated to guide practice in the field.; And, during this digital era, they have yet to harness the new web environment to incorporate student affairs pedagogy and to achieve these student development outcomes through the internet. Conventional educational practice seems acquiescent to the thought that on-line distance education will focus around the faculty, the syllabus and online course delivery systems. The challenge student affairs educators must meet is to find ways to provide the depth and breadth of quality education, to stimulate student interests, to invoke critical thinking skills and interactions, and to weave a total learning environment into this online mode of delivering education.; Student Affairs units have an opportunity to take on a leadership role on this new, online adventure by reengineering their current on-line practices to incorporate pedagogy and to offer a content rich, seamless learning environment on-line through “portals.” The question is: how?; In this dissertation I propose a web portal designed for student affairs, and built to address the profession's values and cherished traditions. I suggest that traditional, campus-based, student affairs theories can manifest in the online environment. I offer and discuss a prototype that encompasses four mainstream student affairs theories to prove my assertion. |
