By day, Normann Fischer works as a principal power engineer for Schweitzer Engineering Labs (SEL; Pullman, Washington, U.S.). At night and on the weekends, he takes distance-learning graduate courses in the Engineering Outreach program at the University of Idaho. Fischer has been in the program since 1999 and has already earned his master's degree in electrical engineering. Now he's working toward his doctorate and is also teaching somes classes in the program.

Fischer is one of more than 800 students enrolled in the university's Engineering Outreach program. There are currently 97 students taking electrical engineering classes and 57 of them are working on graduate degrees. “I think [the Engineering Outreach program] is for people like me that work. It's one of the best ways to further their education,” Fischer noted.

Courses are delivered on DVD, and interactive websites complement the DVD lectures. Homework and exams are completed via mail or e-mail. The only time students have to come to campus is for the final defense on their project or thesis.

“Most of our students travel so much. Over 90% of our students work for business and industry like SEL. And so we found with online solutions that [students] were restricted really to the online capabilities of the hotel they were staying at,” explained Barry Willis, the associate vice president of educational outreach and associate dean of engineering at the University of Idaho. “We opted with an approach where we put the basic course content on DVDs and then we have interactive websites, so if you are in a location where you've got good bandwidth, then you have access to additional web resources. And even if you don't, you've still got the basic course content all on DVDs, and you can just use low bandwidth on the web for interaction and feedback.”

The program is currently exploring the prospect of next-generation high-resolution webcasting, which is basically DVD audio and video quality streamed over the web, a much higher quality than regular web streaming.

Willis is quick to point out that the distance-delivered program is of the same high quality as the on-campus program. As a student, Fischer concurs: “It is a big commitment. Just to watch the DVDs alone takes three hours. Depending on the course, you can spend an average, if a course is worth three credits, of about 12 hours a week on the course. For the more advanced courses, the exams can take three or four days.” But, Fischer says, the time is well worth it. “The quality of engeers are being upgraded.” For more information on the University of Idaho's Engineering Outreach program, see www.outreach.uidaho.edu/eo.