Tradition, Technology and Faculty Partnership: An Integrated Approach to Course Delivery

Technology continues to reshape the dimensions of virtually every industry and institution in our society. This is no less true for higher education than for any other institution. And within higher education, perhaps nowhere has the impact of technology been more powerfully felt than in schools of business where the customer demand for “distance learning” has been pervasive. As these schools have attempted to respond to the opportunity to enhance learning and to expand learning options through technology-delivered education, the challenge is to understand what the most appropriate use of technology for learning might be for a given institution. This study reports on the efforts of one school of business to answer this question for itself. The findings from this study suggest that distance learning may not be the preferred model of educational program delivery for many students. For at least some segment of the non-traditional student market, face-to-face interaction with faculty and classmates may be the priority in course design, with technology valued primarily for ensuring that time spent in the classroom is as productive and meaningful as possible.