The last but not least objective of our program is to provide better classes for every student, local or online.
One benefit that comes with the way our online program is conducted is the availability of full, organized, lecture notes free of transcription errors. It is up to the instructor whether to scan handwritten lecture notes or to provide formatted notes, but all five classes so far have used formatted notes. This represents a significant effort and is probably inspired by the increased visibility of having the classes publicly available.
Lecture notes on the web allow weak students to prepare for classes beforehand, as well as pay more attention to understanding, rather than copying, what is said during class. Many local students are seen to attend class armed with the lecture notes they printed out from the web beforehand.
Having notes on the web does allow the instructor to go quicker over some elementary items, increasing coverage. This aspect is not always appreciated by students.
As another major benefit of our program, if a student is studying the lecture notes and is unclear about any particular page, a click on a link at the bottom of the page will bring up the lecture at the exact point that the instructor discussed that particular page. Having lecture notes and lectures cross-linked in this unique way can assist in obtaining a deeper understanding of selected areas than studying the lecture notes alone.
Further, all lectures are now archived. Any student, local or online, can watch a section of a lecture which they did not understand a second or a third time from almost any place, at any time. The archives can also significantly reduce the effects that absences due to sickness or other have on the students. Even local students may sometimes want to watch the live lectures online (when they are ill, when they cannot make it to campus, et cetera.) Every student can make use of the additional avenues of assistance: E-mail, video-conferencing, and the class newsgroup.
There are also many enhancements a quality hypertext course web page can bring; although the distance program does not require such a web page, it provides a strong motivation for it.
The department can use archived lectures to offer classes for which the enrollment at any given time would be too small to offer the class live. Teach it once fully and archive it. Then the next time, teach it from the archives. This can greatly expand the electives available.