The online class was offered to 20 students this summer and will be offered to a larger group during the winter semester. So far, all students have put in some on-site class and lab time. But Collings noted that their use of lab instruments is a lot more efficient if they've had experience with simulation first. Students purchase their own copies of Electronics Workbench. They log onto a World Wide Web site, give their password, and see what appears to be various discussion groups.
Students read lectures, finish assignments and send files back for grading.
Students are required to post two messages per week, and they can read the messages posted by other students. From there, discussions start to snowball and the ongoing dialogue becomes a big part of the education. You're responding to a lot of the discussions. But it's giving the students an opportunity to voice their questions, and it's a lot better for me than staring into a theater with 60 or 80 people.