boosting enrollments for fall '96

[Robert Beard]

Ernie is too kind, though attention is always appreciated.  I must admit
that we won't have the evidence that a WWW is effective until the fall.  It
did not affect the upper-class enrollment for the fall despite increased
activity when I put up the Gateway party site.  A lot of people from outside
come in but I've only received 2 inquiries from potential students--most
comments are from students at other colleges who want me to help them write
a term paper and from random surfers.

We hope, however, that as more and more high schools connect to the net, it
will be effective in the long run.  We must keep in mind that the enrollment
drops in Russian, French, and German are not caused by students suddenly
forgetting that we are here.  Bucknell has rather clear evidence that it
results from a change of attitude in in-coming freshmen.  For the past 2-3
years our freshmen have been avoiding the unfamiliar.  This is ostensibly
why Spanish has been benefitting from our misfortune--Spanish is the most
familiar language.

Aside from the PR value, a Web site offers the opportunity for an
'interactive syllabus', such as my syllabus for RU 125 (FN 046) and LN 105 &
110.  I will have one up for RU 201, my advanced grammar course, but the
fall.  I would invite everyone to take a look at these as simple advances in
pedagogy.  They allow students to test themselves, retrieve information from
Russia (and around the world), while providing all the information about the
course available from all sources at Bucknell.  I anticipate that these will
be the wave of the future, adding immensely to the efficiency and richness
of courses.

I hope my experiments benefit the discipline as a whole. They represent a
major investment of time though I do enjoy it and it is more a vacation
after slaving over the last book for a decade.  I will keep everyone posted
on the effectiveness of WWW sites and on techniques we develop to make them
more effective.

--Bob
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Robert Beard                              Bucknell University
Russian & Linguistics Programs            Lewisburg, PA 17837
rbeard at bucknell.edu                              717-524-1336
Russian Program   http://www.bucknell.edu/departments/russian
Morphology on Internet        http://www.bucknell.edu/~rbeard
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