For Brian Hansen, a one and one-half hour roundtrip commute to his 50 to 60-hour-per-week job as an Industrial Hygienist at a large construction corporation leaves him little time to pursue a master’s degree. Add to the mix that he’s married and a devoted father of two very young children -- a two-year-old and a newborn -- and the prospect of furthering his education seems almost impossible. Yet, regardless of such time eaters, Hansen has maintained a 4.0 GPA in eight courses thus far as a fully matriculated graduate student studying for a master’s degree in Environmental Health and Safety Management at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). How does he do it? Hansen’s enrolled in RIT’s distance learning program, which means he can earn his master’s from his computer workstation at home, or anywhere else where there’s an Internet connection he can logon to, at times that are convenient for him.

RIT is one of the few campuses worldwide offering a complete distance learning master’s degree program in Environmental Health and Safety Management. Distance learning at RIT takes advantage of the Internet and computer conferencing along with other multimedia technologies, such as videotaped lectures, to deliver the classroom to the student’s home and computer connection. With more than 5,000 enrollments and 20 years of experience in distance education, RIT offers students the benefit of top quality and tested anytime/anywhere higher education degree programs.

"Higher education would not be otherwise available to me from my current geographical location if it were not for RIT," says Hansen who lives in New York State’s North Country in Ogdensburg, which is located along the St. Lawrence Seaway bordering Canada.

The 30-year-old Hansen admits that balancing his work, personal and educational responsibilities has been difficult, but he also says that earning a master’s degree "is an essential building block to my future aspirations. If not for the opportunities RIT offered, these aspirations would more than likely have ceased without physically uprooting my family, coupled possibly with a career change. For that matter alone, I consider myself both lucky and fortunate to have found RIT’s distance learning program…"

Hansen is no stranger to higher education. He has two bachelor’s degrees, one in environmental science from Clarkson University and another in biology from Geneseo State. He says the RIT master’s program is helping him at his current position at Morrison-Knudsen Corporation’s Environmental Division, where he works on an environmental remediation project at the Alcoa plant in Messina, New York. "At one time this was the largest privately funded hazardous waste remedial project in the country," he says. "I’m the guy who goes out in the field and does the sampling, whether it be air, water or soil-type sampling." He also trains employees who are responsible for removing the hazardous waste from the site.

Many of the classes in the environmental health and safety master’s degree program utilize team assignments as a learning tool. Through chat rooms, phone conferencing, email, online library research and conventional modes of communication, students cultivate educational partnerships. "Since students in the program come from a wide range of backgrounds, the team environment has encouraged me to help others where I may have more education or experience and has additionally allowed others to help me where my education and experience has been lacking," claims Hansen, who is at no loss for words to describe his distance learning experiences. "I have been fortunate to academically work with air/water/waste compliance professionals, industrial hygienists like myself and safety professionals employed across the entire spectrum of the occupational environment. Some work for industry, others work in academia, while others work within the regulatory arena. Having to work with these individuals, all with their own perspectives, beliefs and experiences, helps to broaden my level and breadth of understanding."

In addition to electronic-oriented team projects, students review course material via videotaped lectures that are mailed to them on a regular basis throughout the quarter. "The simple fact that lectures are captured on video cassette means that the student should never miss a class," says Hansen.

"Secondly, the availability of the instructors to provide regular and routine feedback on technical questions (via email, for instance) pertinent to course objectives, in addition to the fact that their answers are permanently recorded with the FirstClass network, results in a greater degree of availability than that which could be provided by a classroom-based instructor." FirstClass is a groupware product that RIT students use to participate in their courses over the Internet. It is a user friendly communication software package that allows students to interact with each other through threaded discussions, chat, conferences, web links, and file attachments.

"I was truly unaware of just what the Internet could do before enrolling into RIT," says Hansen. "The program forces students to tap into this resource, making us more and more proficient with its current usefulness as a tool. This resource helps us gain access to the intellectual library of information through a click of a button rather than the opening of a book."

And Hansen is taking full advantage of this new way of learning. "It’s either you go all the way or shoot for a 2.5 GPA," he admits. "I say that if I commit myself to this, it’s going to be a 4.0 or nothing. You try to reap everything you can get out of these classes. In essence, you make them work for you."

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