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Practice Report: Transforming a Traditional Personnel Preparation Program in Orientation and Mobility into an Online Program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) has offered a personnel preparation program in orientation and mobility (O&M) since 1975. Since that time, nearly 400 individuals from the United States and numerous foreign countries have either received degrees or have become eligible for national U.S. certification in O&M. However, it became increasingly apparent over the years that fewer individuals were willing to move to Little Rock for up to 13 months to receive their education and training. For many, this relocation for educational experiences meant leaving their families and even terminating their employment. Most had to make career changes to become O&M specialists. To address this predicament, UALR’s O&M program initiated one of the first summer mobility programs in 1987. Students came to Little Rock for five weeks in each of three consecutive summers to receive core mobility courses and to do their student teaching with children from the Arkansas School for the Blind (ASB). They completed their programs with a fullor part-time internship in their home areas. Individuals who participated in this summer institute were primarily classroom teachers who had or planned to have a student with a visual impairment in their classrooms and who did not have an O&M specialist available to them during the academic year. Over time, it became apparent that the majority of students in the O&M program at UALR were coming for the summer institutes Practice Reports and that the number of students who were able to attend during the academic year was declining. To meet the changing needs of students and to keep the program viable, it was necessary to find a way of attracting students to the program (and to the profession) throughout the calendar year, not just in the summer.