Expectations Of On Campus And Remote Students In A Course In Civil Engineering Technology

Old Dominion University has developed an extensive distance learning system (Teletechnet) which includes over 21 remote community college sites and a total of 13 hospital, military and industrial sites. The course which instigated this paper is a course in Plans and Specifications. This course was taught on campus in its current format in the spring semesters of 1994 and 1995 and received favorable student evaluations. The first semester in which the course was taught on Teletechnet was the spring of 1996. The evaluations of the on-campus students were much higher than those of the off campus students. It was found that the professional interests and experiences of the remote students resulted in their not being sufficiently challenged or insufficiently motivated to work in an area not directly related to their interests. It was determined that the course content should be discussed in greater detail at the start of the course and that the students should be clearly advised that their professional or academic experience may permit them to challenge the course and receive credit by examination.