Imagine an entire college course dangling from your key chain. Sounds like something out of a futuristic scenario, doesn’t it? But at Thomas Edison State College in New Jersey, the future is now.

Last spring Edison unveiled FlashTrack; a true education innovation in college course delivery. FlashTrack uses flash drives that have been loaded with an entire course, including application, for use by students enrolled in on-line classes.

“It was really originally intended for students in most extreme circumstances,” said Matt Cooper, and instructional technology specialist at Edison, “like students [in the Navy] serving on submarines for months on end.”

The initial results are so positive that Edison, aided by a $250,000 federal grant, is planning a major rollout over the next two years. The grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), will be used to develop 40 courses that will be delivered entirely via flash drives.

The advantages of FlashTrack-delivered courses include increased accessibility and reduced technical glitches for distance learning degree-seekers. Edison educational specialists point to FlashTrack’s ability to deliver a complete course on a flash drive. Other programs use devices like cell phones and iPods, but the primary function is lecture delivery. Another plus: students attending these courses will only need to log on to an internet connection to submit assignments or participate in online discussions.

“You can take the courses from different computers and the USB drive won’t leave any trace data behind and applications don’t need to be installed on the host computer,” Cooper explained.

The flash drives will include lectures, book assignments and all course materials. In addition, the flash drives will be loaded with Web-based course-management system like Blackboard, a word-processing program such as AbiWord, and an open-source media player so students can listen to lectures and see presentations. Edison has even initiated negotiations with book publishers to include required text books in an etext format – a true breakthrough that could upstage similar moves by ebook manufactures.

In a recent statement, Dr. Henry van Zyl, Thomas Edison College’s vice provost of Directed Independent Adult Learning said, “I think what we are doing is revolutionizing course delivery methods in higher education. We are going to be able to reach a level of flexibility and access that is unprecedented, and that goes beyond recreating the online experience in an offline setting.”