Pros and cons for teaching courses in the classroom and online simultaneously

  • Authors:
  • John Mark Pullen

  • Affiliations:
  • George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 17th ACM annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

In adding an online delivery option to an existing graduate program in computer science, important choices include (1) synchronous or asynchronous delivery and (2) for synchronous delivery, whether to deliver classroom and online teaching simultaneously. This paper describes the decisions made in adding an online option to an MSCS program, which now is maturing. The factors in favor of and against simultaneous delivery are discussed in detail and the conclusions reached for one particular program are described, including experience gained in the process and an open-source software system developed to support this form of delivery.