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1. How long have you been an instructor for distance education courses? In what field of study? Taught my first distance course in Fall 2001 in the area of computer architecture. I have taught compilers and advanced computer architecture over CAETE 2. What do you think are the advantages of distance education? Archived library of lectures. I've been able to offer courses to students in different semesters. 3. What do you think are the disadvantages of distance education? Format of lecture, discussion, interaction during lecture. Distant students don't get to interact. At the same time, when they do watch lectures, they are sometimes 2 weeks behind. Some call me up 2 weeks after a lecture, and I either have answered their question (but they haven't received the dvd or watched the next part.) Still difficult to record everything. Sometimes I need a separate terminal for linux experiments. This is not recorded as part of lecture. 4. What kind of technologies are being used to deliver your lectures and the course work (video streaming, email, instant messenger, CD-ROMs, web pages, conference calls, online reference books, etc.) to your students? Video streaming CD-ROMS Web pages Tegrity system 5. Which forms of these technologies are most effective? Tegrity - allows video/audio/slide show all in one for distant students We could do an "instant messanger", but from my understanding most students aren't watching live, but watch the web-cast during their own time. 6. What would you like to see changed/improved in these technologies? It would be great to perform an experiment on a students and have the "demo" of it be downloadable, step by step. 7. Do you think there is effective collaboration/interaction amongst instructor/student and student/student in a distance education setting? If not, in what ways could it be improved? No. Although some distant students know each other, there is not a lot of interaction. Things might be improved by making sure distant students kept up to speed and had the same access to remote computers, etc as regular students. 8. Have you ever taught "traditional" higher-education courses? How does instruction for distance education compare? Yes, my classes are taught simultaneously as traditional and distant courses. Traditional students generall seem to get more into the subject matter. Distant students tend to put things off for weeks at a time and then try to watch all lectures a once. 9. What aspect(s) of traditional education are lacking the most in distance education? Interaction and frequent meetings (repetition during the week). 10. What aspect(s) of distance education are an improvement over the "traditional" educational system? Archive of material for in-class students who miss a class. I assume these are helpful for review.
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