With the BBS, the only students with no access were those who could not come onto a campus and had no access to a computer and modem. Basing online classes on the Internet has greatly increased the teaching strategies available but it has made student access more of a problem. Students now need access to a more expensive computer, faster modem and Windows 95 as a minimum. While the four communities with campuses have local Internet service providers, other areas of the state do not yet have this capability. To counter these restrictions, we have come up with several strategies.
Students can still come into any of the four campuses and use a lab computer to access the Internet.
This allows them to attend the online class at a time convenient for themselves but limits them somewhat since they must come in when a lab is open. The most adventurous technique we use is providing our own Internet access service. There are modem banks at each of the four campuses. Students must still have their own computer but they do not need their own Internet service provider. Their Internet accounts are automatically removed at the end of the semester.