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Assessing Quality Issues in Interactive Video Teleconferencing‐based Graduate Level Engineering Courses
Author(s) -
Rafe Gary,
Manley John H.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of engineering education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.896
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 2168-9830
pISSN - 1069-4730
DOI - 10.1002/j.2168-9830.1999.tb00421.x
Subject(s) - teleconference , context (archaeology) , engineering education , distance education , quality (philosophy) , interactive video , videoconferencing , multimedia , graduate students , public university , computer science , medical education , engineering , psychology , engineering management , medicine , pedagogy , epistemology , public administration , political science , biology , paleontology , philosophy
Abstract The continuing education of engineering professionals has been an important objective of the University of Pittsburgh's Manufacturing Systems Engineering Program (MSEP) since its inception in 1987. Making relevant graduate‐level programs accessible to the population of engineering professionals separated from traditional university communities has been the object of much effort for more than three decades. The distance education tool of interactive video teleconferencing over the public telephone network has recently become a viable method for extending the university environment to these remote students. This paper considers the context and analysis of student reactions and attitudes toward MSEP graduate‐level courses delivered to the University's regional campus at Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Since the fall of 1994, MSEP has offered these courses using off‐the‐shelf interactive video teleconferencing systems over the public switched digital network. Issues that may affect the perceived quality of these programs (e.g., in the areas of audio communication quality, instructional strategies, course materials distribution, and course offerings) are identified and discussed.