Electronic conferencing in undergraduate engineering classes

Two different electronic conferencing programs have been used in undergraduate engineering classes at ASU. The capabilities of these programs will be compared to faculty-generated `wants' and `needs' for electronic conferencing. Classroom experience with small and large, lower and upper division engineering classes will be described, and student feedback will be used to highlight specific strengths and weaknesses of the conferencing programs described. We 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 on-line or off-line. Specific examples will be 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 their is strong potential for such programs to facilitate direct contact between industry and students within the context of course topics.