Students today have expectations and backgrounds far different from those of prior generations. Most students who come to Rensselaer are very knowledgeable about computers and technology.  With this literacy, however, comes increased expectations and a decreased tolerance for courses without obvious applications.  At Rensselaer, we have developed an innovative physics course called The Science of Information Technology (ScIT). Development of this course has relied heavily on the asynchronous learning capabilities of WebCT, such as interactive quizzes and streaming video.

The pilot offering of ScIT yielded encouraging results. Students accessed readings, notes, homework, video streaming of guest lectures, and quizzes, all from their home computers. Participation in WebCT reading quizzes significantly exceeded class attendance and traditional homework completion rates, suggesting that a course using WebCT for all assignments could be very successful. In a post-class survey, the WebCT quizzes received the highest rating of all course features.

We plan to use our experience with this undergraduate course to optimize the implementation of a graduate distance course.  The demanding and irregular schedules of working professionals combined with long commutes to technological universities can make taking traditional university courses impossible. WebCT will facilitate bringing innovative courses like ScIT to this audience. Instead of coming into a physical classroom, researchers can give guest lectures over video conferencing. Students will have the option of either watching the lecture live or through streaming video. Students could also interact with the lecturer using the Bulletin Board and Chat Rooms inherent to WebCT.