Distance Education and Technology: What are the Choices for Higher Education?

Abstract

The Education Network of Maine (ENM), the distance education arm of the University of Maine System, connects 10 Centers and more than 100 sites around the state of Maine with an interactive television system that broadcasts to homes, offices, and the 100 plus sites. In addition to delivering courses over an interactive television system, the ENM has begun to offer courses asynchronously using the World Wide Web, videotapes, and other delivery modes, increasing access to higher education for Maine citizens. Ongoing evaluations reveal that students were satisfied with the logistics of courses offered, with the professors, and with the technology. An area of weakness in one of the courses studied here was the lack of connection students in the various locations felt to each other.

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