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I .— - Session 1639 ..-. —

-.. . Lessons from Teaching a Cost Management Course via Interactive Television

Kim LaScola Needy University of Pittsburgh

Abstract

Interactive television (ITV) is being used at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Engineering to increase the number of course offerings available to its graduate students located at branch campuses. Not only has this technology been paramount to extending course offerings not generally available at the branch campuses, but it has also directly benefited students who might not otherwise be able to travel the long distance to the main campus for the course. In the Summer of 1995, the author taught a newly developed graduate Industrial Engineering course entitled “Cost Management for Advanced Manufacturing” using ITV. This paper will begin with a general overview of distance education and specifically describe ITV, the components making up an ITV system and various advantages/disadvantages of the technology. It will discuss the necessary components for effective instruction and learning along with recommendations as to the frequency and type of student feedback required. Finally the paper will describe specifically how ITV was incorporated into the cost management course.

Introduction

The United States educational system is challenged to provide increased educational opportunities without the usual increases in budgets. Many educational institutions are turning to distance education to help address this challenge. The University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Industrial Engineering, through its Manufacturing Systems Engineering Program, began using ITV (a form of distance education) in the Fall of 1994 to increase the number of course offerings available to its graduate students located at branch campuses. Not only has this technology been paramount to extending course offerings not generally available at the branch campuses, but it has also directly benefited students who might not otherwise be able to travel the long distance to the main campus for the course. It is an emerging technology which has thus far proven to be a viable means of providing continuous, two-way communication between the instructor and students - both visual and audio.

In the Summer of 1995, the author taught a newly developed graduate Industrial Engineering course entitled “Cost Management for Advanced Manufacturing”. Due to an unusually large demand for the course, the class was offered locally, plus at two distant sites - representing the first time in the history of the program where there was more than one site operating simultaneously. The greatest challenges were to make the students located at the distant sites feel that they were a part of the class, and to make the technology un- intrusive or “transparent” to all students - local and distant. This paper will describe lessons from teaching this course via ITV. It will begin with a general overview of distance education and specifically describe ITV, the , components making up an ITV system and various advantages/disadvantages of the technology. It will discuss

?$ifii’ 1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings } ‘..+,~yll’;:

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Needy, K. L. (1996, June), Lessons From Teaching A Cost Management Course Via Interactive Television Paper presented at 1996 Annual Conference, Washington, District of Columbia. 10.18260/1-2--6164