An Exploratory Assessment Of Distance And On Ground Delivery Of Business, Math And Engineering Technology Courses

This exploratory and interdisciplinary study illustrates students’ assessments on teamwork, creativity, communication, and critical thinking skills developed in multiple study areas across the campus of Tennessee Tech University located in Cookeville, Tennessee. Specifically, this illustration covers business (management and marketing), mathematics, and engineering technology courses that were delivered both traditionally on-ground and fully online distance over a period of six years. A total of 781 students were enrolled and 577 students responded the IDEA TM survey. Total usable sample size was 549 with an overall response rate of 70.3 percent in 31 courses from 2000 to 2006. The paper initially introduces individual courses in each discipline with their course objectives and teaching methods, and later compares the aggregated mean scores for selected areas as well as distance and on-ground courses. Finally, authors highlight some important similarities and differences on distance and on-ground courses based on the findings of the study and their individual experiences. The study concludes with some insights for future research avenues.