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IU Alum hooks technology up to higher education

Darrell L. Cain

Indiana native Darrell Cain returned to his undergraduate almamater this summer, to develop a class on support services for "distance learners."

During the first summer session, Cain relied on his research and classroom background to teach "Issues in Student Support and Online Learning," a graduate seminar in Instructional Systems Technology (IST). He based the course on a "systematic approach to designing student-support services," for those who take Web-based, distance-education courses.

He described distance learners as students who don't attend traditional-classroom courses on campus, often because they work off campus, or are busy with family and other time constraints. They take distance-learner classes as an alternate option.

His class studied how distance learners could better access university services such as financial aid, counseling, tutoring and writing lab, from outside campus.
Cain put those ideas to work during the second-summer session, in developing an online, peer-mentoring program for IST distance-learner graduate students.

"It's a growing field," he said. "I guess you could say it's kind of cutting edge."

Cain wants his work to help make university education, including student services, more accessible. He added that distance learners not only have difficulty accessing "academic services," such as writing lab, but they also often lack exposure to "social supports," such as relationships with classmates.

Distance learners usually can't meet classmates and professors or participate in student organizations. For starters, Cain hopes that the IST online-mentoring project can facilitate better communication between distance learners and other students.

He said distance learning provides educational opportunities to working professionals, too. They can take development courses to pursue professional growth. He aims to improve access for everyone, he said, and he hopes, in particular, that distance learning can enable more African Americans to pursue higher education.

He expects to culminate distance-learner projects and classroom experience in his doctoral dissertation, tentatively based on "building online communities for student organizations, using Web portal systems."
Still in the early stages of development, the theme includes a combination of:

• Text-based information;
• Collaboration - an exchange of files or other resources; and
• Community - engagement and interaction online.

Cain's course and projects intertwine IST into general higher education studies - a necessary development in order to promote successful distance learning, he said. He has created a niche in higher education and IST. "I'm just trying to build or connect a bridge between the two."

In addition to the dissertation, Cain is conducting a literary review of academic support services. And, he just completed a qualitative study about graduate students at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia, where he's a Ph.D. candidate in higher education and student affairs, with specialization in instructional technology.

Born and raised in Gary, Indiana, Cain obtained his bachelor's degree from IU Bloomington in 1993, with major Arts and Humanities, and a concentration in business management. He obtained his M.A. in "Student Personnel Administration in Higher Education," from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, in 1995.
In the future, Cain wants to continue research in online community relations, to analyze different types of software and systems processing, and to teach. "I really enjoy being a guide," he said.

This summer, Cain felt fortunate to meet faculty members in the School of Education and other areas of the university. He also looked forward to meeting Head Coach Mike Davis of the IU men's basketball program.

He was especially happy to live close to home for a period. He and his wife, Nicole Cain, visited family in Gary during the Fourth of July holiday, and viewed fireworks in nearby Chicago.

Nicole is a first-grade teacher at Roanoke Community Elementary School in Blacksburg. Darrell joked that while he sometimes tries to help Nicole design classroom Web pages for her students, his research doesn't directly apply to the youngsters, yet.

Darrell didn't originally intend to pursue higher education, and he represents the first generation in his family to do so.

He said he earned enough confidence to attend the university while taking some community college courses.

He hopes to inspire high school graduates who don't finish "at the top of the class," to go to college.

"You can learn those study skills; you may have to work a bit harder, but you can achieve whatever your heart desires," he said.

He remembers being inspired by Dean of Students Michael V.W. Gordon, an African American man, while attending IU as an undergraduate.

- Written by Regina Galer