News!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Darlene Robertson
937.769.1820
drobertson@mcgregor.edu

YELLOW SPRINGS, OHIO -- June 20, 2001 -- Dr. Linda Johnston, Assistant Professor of Conflict Resolution at Antioch University McGregor, has been in Simferopol, Ukraine helping the Crimean Institute of Peace develop a program in Conflict Resolution. The Crimean Institute of Peace is part of Tavrichesky National University.

During her recent visit, Dr. Johnston introduced the Institute to distance education. The fascination of an online delivery model resonated with the Institute’s faculty and students. Dr. Johnston noted that “Distance education is a very new and different concept for the Institute, so there will be a few steps in the process before a virtual classroom can be set up.” However, the concept was embraced positively and seen as an effective way of sharing knowledge cross-culturally.

Antioch University McGregor moved its Master’s in Conflict Resolution to online delivery in 1998; a limited residency with field training experts is held at the Yellow Springs campus in the fall. One of Dr. Johnston’s dreams is for McGregor faculty to teach courses online to the Ukrainian graduate students. She admits that it would take a new funding source to make this dream possible since most of the Institute’s students don't have email accounts or regular access to computers at this point.

Dr. Johnston’s participation in this project was made possible through a grant that George Mason University received from the State Department. George Mason selected Dr. Johnston to lead the overseas initiative because of her professional expertise in macro conflict theory and distance education as well as her foreign language skills.

Antioch University McGregor, located in Yellow Springs, continues to provide flexible and life-changing opportunities for adult students. Their MA in Conflict Resolution was the first of its kind in Ohio and the first in the United States to go online.