Anywhere-anytime engineering education in a complete undergraduate program

Increasingly, many STEM schools are interested in offering their educational programs online. They struggle with several difficulties associated with online education: the structure of programs and individual courses, communication among students and teachers, delivery of learning material, delivery of exams, accreditation, equity between on-campus and off-campus students, and especially the delivery of practical and laboratory training. This paper presents a longitudinal case study of engineering distance education and online learning in Australia. In the early 1990s, Deakin University faced these same challenges when it commenced teaching undergraduate engineering by distance education. It offers a full bachelor of engineering degree in both on-campus and off-campus modes. Student cohorts are approximately 70% on campus, 30% off campus. Fully accredited and part of the Washington Accord, the programs have adapted to advances in communications technology and changes in educational design. The success of the off-campus program was measured by five key performance indicators: enrollments, graduations, attrition, graduate employment, and graduate satisfaction. Data on these measures are presented from 1992 to 2016. The future direction of the school includes an emphasis on design- and project-based learning.