| Abstract: | Abstract Advances in and access to technology have loosened academia's ties to the traditional classroom. In this paper we present our experiences in developing, implementing, and evaluating three approaches to distance education. The first program was delivered by interactive videoconferencing and provided multiple gerontological lessons for Extension agents gathered at two different sites in Virginia. The second program was a graduate-level course taught simultaneously at multiple sites also using interactive videoconferencing. The third program was a full-fledged Internet course whose target audience included students enrolled in a gerontology certificate program. The overall strengths of the programs included enhancing the instructors' ability to reach students in a variety of locations without leaving campus and expanding the flexibility and availability of course offerings. The weaknesses and constraints of the various approaches centered on the amount of instructor time necessary to develop and implement the instructional units, technological problems, and student involvement and motivation. |
