Education at a distance: a report from the front

Abstract

| A course on computer systems performance analysis has been adapted for several di erent distance education delivery options, including an interactive television system, face-to-face presentation at a satellite campus, and delivery over the Internet to independent study students. Of the 114 students who have enrolled in this graduate-level course in the past three years, half have been nontraditional students who never set foot on campus. While the students who enroll through the interactive television and satellite campus options have a higher drop-out rate than the traditional on-campus students, the distant students typically earn higher nal course grades. None of the students enrolled through independent study has yet completed the course. There certainly appears to be a strong demand for delivery of this type of advanced course to distant students, but more needs to be done to engage these students in the