Reflections on a Distance Education experiment in DSP

Distance Education is becoming an increasingly important means of reaching a wider variety of traditional and non-traditional students and of developing unique educational partnerships between universities. In an effort to assist engineering departments just beginning to pursue distance education, the authors reflect on an innovative four year experiment in Internet based distance education involving students and faculty from the University of Colorado at Boulder, George Mason University, Rice University, Cornell University, and Sandia National Labs. The educational and research benefits to both the students and faculty will be discussed in detail. In addition, the weaknesses and limitations of this experiment will also be addressed. It is hoped that these comments and observations will benefit other institutions beginning to pursue similar distance education programs.