Remote Development and Distance Delivery of Innovative Courses: Challenges and Opportunities

The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) offers programs of study at several of RIT´s international campuses: Dubrovnik and Zagreb (Croatia), Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and Priatina (Kosovo). At RIT Croatia, some courses are delivered as distance education courses using Polycom, a video conferencing system, supported by other online education tools. Although distance learning methods and tools provide an effective way to offer instructions remotely, delivering a course that emphasizes team-based software development, with laboratory exercises and in-class team activities, creates new challenges that need to be addressed. This paper discusses the authors´ experiences with the remote development and delivery of one of those courses - the SWEN-383 Software Design Principles and Patterns course in the Information Technology program at RIT Croatia. The paper first explains the role and need for offering this particular course. It then discusses how the collaborative development of this new course was conducted between the U.S. And the Croatian campuses, including remote delivery from Zagreb to Dubrovnik. The paper concludes with observations and suggestions for those who may engage in such a project in the future.