Dissertation Proposal Defense - "High-Tech Style:" A Student's Perspective on Another Use of Distance Learning Technology

Abstract

Most discussions of the increased use of distance learning focus on using distance learning technology for providing academic courses, a natural response to the high number of students taking distance learning courses. In fact, by this year (2000) it is expected that 11.6 million students will have taken one or more distance learning courses (Goldberg, 1998 in Banas and Emory, 1998). However, there are other uses for this technology within the educational setting. One such use of distance learning technology in the graducate educational setting is for dissertation proposal defenses, particularly when dissertation committee members are located on university campuses that are geographically separated. This paper is a case study describing such an event: a dissertation proposal defense facilitated by the use of interactive television (I-TV) distance learning technology. Included in this case study is the presentation of a student's perspective on using distance learning technology, supplemented by faculty responses to a survey distributed by the student soliciting feedback on their experiences in participating in the I-TV facilitated proposal defense.