Technology Challenges At a Distance.

Teaching students on interactive TV or online...how can you teach technology?  A growing number of majors is positive in the minds of most academic departments.  However, with those added majors and limited additions of faculty, it is very difficult to offer face-to-face courses to all students.  The Department of Agriculture at Southeast Missouri State University has seen recent success of adding majors to our Agribusiness: Plant and Soil Science major.  This growth is greatly due to finding a connection to potential students in southern regions of Missouri's 'bootheel'.  In order for faculty to offer similar coursework to that offered on campus, some courses are being offered in distance learning approaches of interactive television or online.  Students and faculty are finding challenges in communication and in hands-on experiential learning of technology (such as geographic information systems) at a distance.  Perspectives from faculty and students will be reported, and academic comparisons will be made between distance and face-to-face approaches.