Pseudo Asynchronous Distance Education Course Delivery

This paper describes an experiment in delivering a graduate level course in a pseudo– asynchronous manner using modern digital communication technology. The purpose of this effort was two-fold. One was to reduce the logistics and increase flexibility in an existing distance educational delivery system for engineering graduate courses. The second goal was to improve the efficiency and academic effectiveness of graduate course offerings for both oncampus and off-campus students. The mechanism employed was to place all knowledge content normally presented by live lectures on a CD ROM. This CD included graphics, text, and mathematical content with accompanying audio presentations in a book format. With the classical lectures delivered by the CD the class meeting schedule was reduced from three to one weekly meeting. Assessment of the acceptance and value of this form of delivery and the resulting educational experience was performed by administering pre and post-survey instruments to all the participants. The results of the evaluation were positive but not dramatically conclusive in the opinion of the students. However, the performance of the class was significantly better than experienced with previous classes that took the course in the standard offering delivery format.