Electronic conferencing in undergraduate engineering classes

Two different electronic conferencing programs have been used in undergraduate engineering classes at Arizona State University, USA. The capabilities of these programs are compared to faculty-generated “wants” and “needs” for electronic conferencing. Classroom experience with small and large, lower and upper division engineering classes are described, and student feedback is used to highlight specific strengths and weaknesses of the conferencing programs described. The authors have found that faculty and student satisfaction with electronic conferencing depends very strongly on the organization of topics within the conference, on ease of learning of the conferencing program, on the appearance of the program interface, on simplicity of program use and on the quality of instructional materials, whether online or offline. Specific examples are cited. Potential future applications of electronic conferencing in an academic environment go well beyond conferencing within a course, and include departmental, programmatic and student organization bulletin boards, cross-department, cross-college and even inter-university topical bulletin boards, and there is strong potential for such programs to facilitate direct contact between industry and students within the context of course topics