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Distance Education and the Web <strong>in</strong> Eng<strong>in</strong>eer<strong>in</strong>g and Mathematics:<br />

Examples and Projects at Harvard, Stanford, and UC Berkeley<br />

Masayasu Aotani, Instructor<br />

Department of Mathematics<br />

University of California at Berkeley, USA<br />

aotani@math.berkeley.edu<br />

Stanford University has been teach<strong>in</strong>g various eng<strong>in</strong>eer<strong>in</strong>g courses quite successfully over several years while<br />

UC Berkeley Extension's EXTEN program and Harvard Extension are also try<strong>in</strong>g to launch a series of courses<br />

<strong>in</strong> eng<strong>in</strong>eer<strong>in</strong>g and sciences.<br />

Even with today's real time videoconferenc<strong>in</strong>g technology and video cameras with fast track<strong>in</strong>g speed, it is not<br />

easy for distant sites to emulate a real on-site classroom. Furthermore, by gather<strong>in</strong>g people at various sites, we<br />

are beat<strong>in</strong>g one of the purposes of distance education; namely elim<strong>in</strong>ation of time spent commut<strong>in</strong>g to the<br />

school site. In order to address these shortcom<strong>in</strong>gs, universities across the nation are beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g to distribute<br />

teach<strong>in</strong>g materials through the web and mak<strong>in</strong>g parts of lessons available to students over the net so that they<br />

can study when they have time and where they are comfortable.<br />

Harvard Extension's Mathematics courses rely heavily on a software called Mathematica, Stanford University's<br />

eng<strong>in</strong>eer<strong>in</strong>g distance education is basically videoconferenc<strong>in</strong>g, and UC Berkeley's project aims to <strong>in</strong>corporate<br />

real-time lectures, web, videotape, and snail mail.<br />

Summarized below is a rough sketch of how it is structured at UC Berkeley at this relatively early stage of their<br />

project. The target audience is anyone with enough background to take first semester calculus.<br />

0. Advertis<strong>in</strong>g<br />

Snail mail, email, web<br />

1. Application Process<br />

Both email and snail mail applications will be accepted.<br />

2. Textbook<br />

``Real book''; i.e. a hard copy<br />

3. Examples <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g those not covered <strong>in</strong> the book<br />

(updated regularly)<br />

Available at our website<br />

4. Homework<br />

Available on the net<br />

5. Homework Solutions<br />

Available at our site<br />

6. Summary of Lectures<br />

Summaries of all lectures to be given through the semester are available at the beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g of the semester.<br />

This is to allow the students to proceed at their own pace.<br />

7. Lectures (Telecast to various sites)<br />

This is basically videoconferenc<strong>in</strong>g. Attendance is optional.<br />

8. Exam<strong>in</strong>ations<br />

Supervised on-site exam<strong>in</strong>ations<br />

Advantages and limitations of teach<strong>in</strong>g a distance mathematics course <strong>in</strong> this manner are as follows.<br />

The advantages <strong>in</strong>clude:<br />

(a) No need for daily commut<strong>in</strong>g to school<br />

(b) Ease of review<strong>in</strong>g<br />

(c) Self-paced study<strong>in</strong>g

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