In addition to offering high quality, traditional face-to-face classroom learning, courses across the University use various learning technologies in different ways.
Distance education is a formal educational process in which the majority of the instruction (interaction between students and instructors and among students) in the course occurs when the students and instructors are not in the same place.
Instruction may be synchronous or asynchronous. A distance education course may use the internet; one-way or two-way transmissions through open broadcast, closed circuit, cable, microwave, broadband lines, fiber optics, satellite, or wireless communication devices; audio conferencing; or video cassettes, DVD’s and CD-ROMS if used as part of the distance learning course or program.
A blended course has significant portions of the course delivered both online and face-to-face. The face-to-face meetings may include but are not limited to lectures, active learning sessions, learner centered discussions, group work projects, presentations, posters, demonstrations, performance art, movies, laboratory experiences and assessments. Portions of the blended course are mediated by technology.
An online course has few face-to-face meetings. If any are held, the face-to-face meetings are typically limited to orientations or capstone events. The course may include face-to-face proctored exams. Learners of an online course have little or no expectation of meeting the instructor face-to-face. The entire course is mediated by technology.