The FOCUS (For an Open Campus within the University System) program grew out of an innovative proposal submitted to the Department of Youth and Education (Planning and Research) in the Fall of 1971. The proposal, prepared by Evan H. Pepper (Brandon University), carried the recommendation of the Inter-University Committee on Sumer and Evening Sessions. The original proposal aimed at reaching individuals who were denied access to university by virtue of geographical isolation or inadequate educational background. It also provided a more effective method of supplying course materials to remote areas. Finally, the course content was deliberately planned to include large components of discussion, feed-back, evaluation and self-direction. While the original proposal was designed to deliver a course in Environmental Biology, with a rather modest budget, the final project was altered in serveral ways. The budget was increased substantially and additional courses were added. The delivery systems and teaching strategies remained essentially unchanged.
Following several trips to the north, teaching centres and discussion leaders were selected for the two courses: Biology, which was offered in The Pas, Gillam, Leaf Rapids and Churchill; and Economics, which was ofered in The Pas, Flin Flon, Thompson, Gillam and Leaf Rapids.
Each course in each centre had a person serving as a discussion leader, equipment operator, and liaison with the southern instructors. Each centre was supplied with library reference materials, a video-tape recorder, video-camera, video-monitor, an Instamatic camera, an audio-tape recorder and cassettes, and assorted instructional materials. The courses were organized in such a way that a certain amount of material was standardized and inflexible, while the remainder of the course content was determined by the students to meet their special interests and needs. The video-taped materials that were prepared in the south served as "discussion stimulators" to which the students at each centre reacted and responded. The students, in turn, pepared audio- and video-tapes that were to be sent south for evaluation and response.
The FOCUS project was funded by the Provincial Government, although students did pay tution for each of the courses. Arrangements were made for financial assistance for some students.
The goals of the FOCUS program were: to deliver university degree-credit courses to small, sparesely-populated, remote locations in Manitoba, north of the 53rd parallel; to deliver university degree-credit courses to individuals who have not previously been involved in traditional university programs; to relate university degree-credit coruses to the local community, wherever possible, and to repondto the educational needs of the community; to provide learning that is inter-disciplinary; to utilize, to the fullest, the resources fo the local community and its members; to promote lifelong learning and motivation to action; to provide for course and curriculum flexibility and a program that would satisfy individual differences in learning rates.
Notes
The information in the History/Bio field was taken from documents found in the FOCUS files. The document was most likely written by Evan H. Pepper.
Storage Location
RG 6 Brandon University fonds
Series 9: Department of Extension
