"BECAUSE CLASSES ARE CANCELLED DUE TO THE SNOW STORM, DOES THAT MEAN WE STILL HAVE TO TAKE OUR ONLINE TEST?"

An introductory geology course was one of 12 first-time online courses offered by Wilkes University. The online geology course was designed for non-majors seeking to fulfill a general laboratory science education requirement. Like all other inaugural Wilkes online courses, the geology course utilized Manila software and was capped at 20 students; 14 students completed the course. Course material was uploaded on a weekly basis and each week included subject content, reading assignment, problem set, laboratory exercise and an online quiz. Virtual office hours were used for electronic exchanges with students. Although all assignments and quizzes were conducted online, three "offline" exams were administered on campus in order to insure a secure site for testing.

From an instructor's view point, the online geology course: 1) required much more time to develop and maintain than originally estimated; 2) provided a gateway for the review of online resources in geology; 3) enabled an imperfect organizational framework to build and improve upon; and 4) was less effective in achieving course objectives compared to an equivalent lecture course.

From a student's view point, the online course: 1) required more time than a conventional lecture-laboratory course; 2) created a hardship by requiring on campus exams; 3) fell short in providing the level of flexibility, such as self-paced learning, expected in an online format; and 4) would not be a course that would be recommended to another student. Although the overall level of student statisfaction for the online geology course was low, the instructor's goal is to address problems and offer an improved version for fall semester 2003.