Work in progress — Transitioning an established engineering distance learning program infrastructure to an on-line instructional setting

For over 25 years the Commonwealth Graduate Engineering Program consortium has used distance learning technologies to deliver courses to qualified working professionals and on-campus graduate students. In recent years, the program´s courses have been delivered using interactive video conferencing, a solution that has proven to be increasingly limiting. This paper will highlight the motivations for moving the primary delivery mode of the program to on-line delivery of courses to the computer desktop. It will also summarize key points of discussion from a June 2009 workshop held to introduce faculty to key pedagogical elements of online instruction. Discussions at the workshop highlighted how recent developments in information technology have made the delivery of substantive, interactive online courses feasible. Given that engineering faculty are most familiar with traditional classroom-based instruction and learning, the workshop sought to raise faculty awareness about how equally effective pedagogy can be accomplished in an online instructional environment, using appropriate technology in teaching solutions. Particularly, the workshop sought to convey to those in attendance that effective engineering pedagogy can occur in an online instructional environment.