By Michele Jacques

Distance Education Clearinghouse on the web at: 
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/home.html  

At first, this may seem like a strange question, since many of us know and use the Distance Education Clearinghouse web site quite frequently. The Clearinghouse has been on the web since 1995, (and before that, a smaller version was available via gopher). However, it might not hurt to take a moment to answer a few basic questions about our site.

First, what may seem obvious, is that the Clearinghouse is indeed a web site. Every so often we get a question from someone who wants to know how many square feet the Clearinghouse has. So, no, there is no physical storage space for materials: but we do have a very large virtual space...some 2000 files now.

Next, who maintains the Clearinghouse? Here at Instructional Communications Systems of the University of Wisconsin-Extension there are two of us who do the primary development and updating of the Clearinghouse: myself and Barb Klein, although we get some help from others on the staff as well. Also note that ICS has a web site too, which has been developed by Milly Jones. Individual sections of the Clearinghouse have had major contributions by others. We work in cooperation and collaboration with each of the University of Wisconsin institutions and other State of Wisconsin agencies and collaborative partners, who contribute to the resources and information which are maintained on the Clearinghouse.  The site is continually updated, so the "Last Update" date you see on the homepage is real!

Who uses the Clearinghouse? Well, hopefully anyone who is interested in obtaining information and resources on distance education and related issues! Last month, the home page had 18,200 hits. We receive comments and questions from all over the world, and whereas we are an acknowledged and respected international resource, we consider our primary audience to be Wisconsin educators.

Recently, we received this comment from Dr. Anthony Koyzis, on the faculty at the College of Education and Human Services, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh: "I have an academic and research interest in the areas of International Lifelong Learning and Distance Education. I have come to rely a great deal on a number of web pages for  general  distance education information, updates and the latest innovations in the field. I have found the Distance Education Clearinghouse web page as my first stop to any search for the latest in distance education. It is in my opinion one of the most useful web pages on distance education internationally. Keep up the good work."

Thanks...and we intend to!

Michele Jacques
Distance Education Clearinghouse
Information Resources Manager
Instructional Communications Systems (ICS)
University of Wisconsin-Extension
jacques@ics.uwex.edu