Delivery Methods
WPI has adopted a campus-wide learning management system that provides faculty and students with a consistent framework for their distance courses. All courses are available online and use a mix of media technologies to deliver courses to students around the world.
Distance Formats
Asynchronous Delivery - Many of WPI’s distance students are busy professionals who live or travel globally. Single direction communication techniques are used extensively so that students do not have to routinely access course material at specific times. Students may view materials at their convenience, as long as weekly assignments and other projects are completed as required.
Synchronous Delivery - Occasionally the faculty will use two-way communication techniques, such as chat- or web-conferencing to enhance the material in a course. This type of delivery is not a mainstay of any of WPI's distance courses and is not a program or course requirement.
Learning Management System - All classes use a learning management system (referred to as myWPI) that provides an easy-to-use interface for Web-based course content and a suite of collaboration tools that help foster interaction among faculty and students.
Online - All distance courses are delivered through the Internet in an asynchronous format. Faculty use myWPI to manage class communications, make announcements, and deliver course content.
Video - Some courses use streaming video as the primary method for delivering course content to students. In particular, most courses in the engineering programs stream video classes as they are taught in real-time in a TV studio on campus. The video content is then made available in an archived stream over the Internet.
Maintained by webmaster@wpi.eduLast modified: March 11, 2008 14:33:43