Abstract
Internet revolution is creating unprecedented demand for technically qualified people. Many traditional and non-traditional students across the globe are joining this bandwagon. This is also changing education. Nontraditional students want education which is “customized”, “accessible” , “convenient” and “practical” and above all time and place independent. Advances in technology have created many solutions for “time” and “place” and even, “language” and “technology” independent web-based education (WBE). It is becoming easier to develop a course with the web as a “part” of or as a completely different web-based course. Webbased education (WBE) is diffusing in many traditional disciplines of business education, including finance, accounting, management and marketing. WBE is emerging in the US and the western countries However, the extent of its diffusion is not clear. Is it limited to certain universities or certain geographical areas? In addition, educators face with operational and Symantec questions like, Is it sufficient to mimic face-to-face education to WBE or do we need a completely different philosophy?. Researchers are struggling with these issues. This panel will address some of the issues raised above and describe their own experiences with webbased teaching. Dr. Legon will address WBE diffusion at the University of Baltimore and his experiences as a web-based educator. Dr. Suomi will discuss his experiences from Finland. In particular he will review the official initiatives in Finland to develop web-based education and teleworking, and will discuss difficulties encountered in this work. Dr. Valenti will discuss his experiences in developing MODASPECTRA, a joint project of Italy, Ireland, France and the Netherlands. The project's goals include defining an open and distance learning system usable by students, according to suitable tutoring pathways and schedules. This system will be assisted by online evaluation during the learning process and suitable open and distance learning packages will be developed accordingly. Dr. Cecez-Kecmanovic will discuss WBE diffusion in Australia. Dr. Jenkins will summarize where we are in WBE and what we should be doing to take WBE to the next millennium.
Recommended Citation
Aggarwal, A. K.; Legon, Ron; Jenkins, A. Milton; Cecez-Kecmanovic, Dubravka; Valenti, S.; and Suomi, Reima, "Web Based Education (WBE) and Diffusion" (2001). ECIS 2001 Proceedings. 22.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2001/22