Distance Education via the Internet (Methodology and Results).

Overview & Synopsis

While Purdue University Calumet (PUC) (Hammond, Indiana) has been a receiver of distance education for a number of years, a number of faculty expressed interest in developing courseware that would allow PUC to be a provider. After a distance education mission statement and goals were outlined, a pilot course was established. The distance education pilot consisted of a 12-week required class to complete an associate degree in the ISCP program. The course includes basic operating system concepts and terminology as well as an experiential lab component. The course was taught entirely via the Internet and e-mail. All supplmental materials used for the course were created as PowerPoint presentations. A course evaluation was administered twice in the semester during midterm and final tests. Overall there was a positive student response to the class and a comparison of final grades between the distance education course and traditional course indicate that the distance education method is viable for instruction. A trial course in Management Information Systems (systems analysis) was also taught in the traditional method and at the same time via Internet distance education. The Distance Ed participants had higher marks than regular students; however, older students had been picked for the distance education method. A copy of the ISCP Distance Education home page included indicates positive development and a commitment from the faculty to more forward with distance education. (AEF)