Our first objective for our program was full integration of the online students. In a sense, we do not try to improve upon a classroom experience that has established itself over many millennia: we simply try to achieve it. (Yet there are significant benefits of the online program that extend to the local students, as discussed later.)
Integration means, among other things, that online students follow the class as much as possible following the same schedule as the local students. We do not know of any other program that emphasizes this critical and novel aspect of distance education. The students are requested to follow the lectures live, and are required to comply with the same due dates for homework and exam times as the local students.
This approach will obviously not be ideal for every student, since it represents some loss of flexibility compared to most distance education. We designed our program based on the conviction that it will be of benefit to many students. It can provide a more structured and more personal approach that is of advantage to both the students and the faculty.
By presenting the lectures live and requiring attendance, we provide an impetus to stay current with the course. Live lectures also enforce that the professor is a real person, and that the student is a member of a class. The students become aware of the difficulties that fellow students experience. Comparing themselves to other online and local students that are on schedule, there may be more motivation for the distance students to stay current too.
A greater a priori commitment is required compared to asynchronous learning, since the class times and due dates are fixed. In our opinion, this is likely to be beneficial. It becomes less likely that the students will commit themselves to more than they can possibly handle. It is hoped that all these effects will increase retention and success rates for the distance students.
As far as the instructor is concerned, the online student is a student like any other student, not a distraction at times that the instructor is occupied with other tasks. This is mutually beneficial for the interactions between the instructor and the online student.