Using technology to deliver distance education in computer science

Journal of Engineering Education, Oct 1998 by Boulet, Marie-Michele, Boudreault, Serge

Using Technology to Deliver Distance Education inComputer Science*

ABSTRACT

During the past fewyears, four distance education courses in computer science were designed, developed, and delivered at Universite Laval. These courses make use of thirteen 30-minute television programs that form an integral part of the teaching and learning content. Each television program was rigorously designed for its role in the corresponding course. One of these courses is discussed in this paper. Data taken from distance and on-campus students are used to address the following question: Does delivery mode (full television-based distance education, partial televisionbased distance education, in-class education) affect learning? The main result of this study is that there was no significant difference in effectiveness ofthe distance learning approach compared to more traditional approaches.

I. INTRODUCTION

Becoming a good information technology professional is a difficult task. Various skills have to be mastered, including technical and interpersonal skills.1,2 As mentioned in reference 3, a professional has to know how to talk with clients or users, how to communicate with them and how to understand their information technology needs. A professional has to understand each business and its own culture. Students are not really aware of this workplace reality. To give them this awareness, we designed thirteen television programs.

The television programs are documentaries aimed at showing what is going on in the "true life," while at the same time allowing the students to make the link with fundamental knowledge. They are not considered as being the theoretical foundation of the course. The programs are regarded as an extension of the theoretical foundations of the course. They present daily reality through the eyes and words of actual information technology professionals. They show the nuances that must be added to the fundamentals when an information technology professional works with customers or clients.4 5

This paper first summarizes the result of the needs analysis that informed the design of the television distance education course. The second part briefly presents the knowledge that must be acquired by the students. The third part gives an example of the content of one television program and its instructional objectives. The paper then presents the results of the evaluation with respect to this unit.

II. NEEDS ANALYSIS

The various educational programs at Universite Laval are regularly evaluated. The undergraduate program in Computer Science was first evaluated by sending surveys to 100 employers, 363 computer professionals (former students) and 450 current students. Brainstorming sessions were then organized with employers to identify the capabilities that the computer professionals of the future must master. Among the results obtained from those surveys and brainstorming sessions was the need to link fundamental knowledge to the reality of the workplace. Sending students for training periods with businesses was not sufficient to attain that goal. In order to improve the situation, television programs for several courses were developed that were closely linked with the fundamental knowledge presented in a written or electronic format. The written material is a required text6 that was especially designed to fill the needs of the televised distance education course.

In the following section, we describe the knowledge to be acquired by the students in Information Technology, one of the distance education courses at Universite Laval.

III. THE IT DISTANCE EDUCATION COURSE

The Information Technology course is divided into thirteen units. The titles of the units with their main learning objectives are presented below. Note that the instructional objectives are based on the professional tasks the students will have to perform when they are on the workplace.

evolution of the function: to explain the background of current trends in design and uses of information technology

evolution of the investment: to present a picture of the evolution of a business investment with respect to the development of information technology

problems and challenges: to determine the limits of the current methods and techniques

methods: to explain the roots of the current methods and techniques

strategic aspects: to prepare a strategic plan pertaining to a particular company

process modeling: to draw process models using data flow diagrams

data modeling: to draw data models using entity-relationship diagrams

levels and scope: to perform modeling at three levels and with three degrees of scope

design: to transform a logical representation of what a given system is required to do into physical specifications

economic and financial aspects: to estimate the costs and benefits derived from the use of information technology

implementation: to manage the implementation of information technology

profession: to describe the nature of tasks performed by actual information technology professionals