Internet delivery of instruction: issues of best teaching practice, administrative hurdles, and old‐fashioned politics

Abstract

The authors describe the preparation and execution of a statistics and a fine arts course, each of which was offered in parallel to an on‐campus classroom group and an online Internet group. The authors address the pedagogical, administrative, and political issues that must be resolved before one can legitimately offer a course of study to an Internet audience that the instructor will never physically see. Pedagogical issues are paramount if the goal is to achieve best teaching practice. In addition, there are numerous administrative hurdles to resolve where admission officers, registrars, and governing boards are working from a traditional mindset where rules and guidelines are based on local geography and physical presence. Further, political issues quickly present themselves, including time issues, faculty‐colleague and administrator perceptions of “legitimate teaching activity”, and valuations of the course.