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Professional development for engineers and other technical personnel is
an essential part of today's business world. Yet, work demands often
preclude taking traditional courses offered during the day or evenings.
There is now a solution. The Watson School distance learning programs
provide students with a new and effective way to fit courses into busy
business and personal lifestyles. The use of advanced streaming technologies
create a virtual classroom where students actually feel part of the classroom.
Classes can now be taken at the times most convenient to each individual.
Binghamton University's Watson School of Engineering has developed
a series of on-line non-credit courses formatted to meet the needs of
busy technical professionals. The list of courses is growing monthly and
many new courses designed to meet specifically requested needs will be
added shortly.
Several leading video and distance
learning technologies have been combined to make up the Watson School
distance learning virtual classroom. First, real class
sessions are taped in high resolution video to assure crisp detail on
even the most complex charts. Next, a special split-screen video format
is used to allow the learner to see both the instructor and visuals such
as slides, computer screens, or actual demonstrations simultaneously.
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| Why
take courses via distance? |
Distance
learning programs allow the learner to literally take the classes on their
own terms. Business trips, family obligations or changes in workloads
at the job, can easily be accommodated. Plus, winters in the northeast
can make commuting to campus an adventure many of us would prefer to avoid.
Because most classes are formatted around one hour segments, it's
easy to take a class over lunch or at the end of the day.
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| What
to expect from a Watson School distance course. |
| Watson School professional development courses are offered periodically
during the year. Courses have a specific start date and end date. The time
span is a generous one that allows ample time for someone to take the classes.
The defined start and end dates allows the instructor to manage e-mailed
questions from students and comment on exercises that may be asked of the
learner. Registered students will receive an access code valid for the duration
of the course. Upon successful completion of the course, a certificate of
completion will be mailed and the student will receive the appropriate number
of Continuing Education Units (CEU).
All courses are offered as streaming video classes and there are some software
and hardware computer requirements that must be in place. Please refer to
the System Requirements section. Class sessions will be organized
by lesson and appear as split-screen images on your PC. Lessons are designed
to be viewed as on hour classes but, you can also view a portion of the
class and return to view the remainder at another time. Any portion of a
lesson can be replayed or reviewed as needed. Lessons can also be indexed
at various points for review purposes.
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| Course
Completion Requirements |
Most courses will have a final
test or exercise designed to both reinforce course work and measure mastery
of the course content. Upon completion of all applicable projects or exams,
a certificate of completion will be mailed to the student and applicable
Continuing Education Units (CEU) will be assigned.
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| System
Requirements |
Connection: any broad band
connection higher than 100 kps (such as Roadrunner, ISDN, DSL, LAN, T1,
etc.)
Hardware: PC with minimum of
Pentium II at 800 mz and 128 MB of RAM. A 16 bit sound card with speakers
is also required
Internet Browser: Internet
Explorer 7.0 or above.
Software: Real Player 6.0 or
above, Adobe Actrobat Reader 5.0 or above, Java and Javascript enabled
(Note: all software is available on-line free of charge) |
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