Comparison of Engineering Economics Learning Outcomes and Student Perception.

Two growing trends in education are the increasing use of distance or on line delivered instructional materials and the struggle for improving the effectiveness of learning. There is a significant body of literature which examines both aspects of on line versus traditional instructional methods and the issues of effective teaching. This paper contributes to this literature by examining student perception and actual accomplishment of learning outcomes in engineering economics courses delivered in two universities and with different course delivery techniques: live face to face lectures compared to live distance delivered lectures. Three sections of engineering economics with three different instructors (two face to face and one distance delivered) participated in the study. All three sections used consistent exam questions, evaluated learning outcomes using shared rubrics, and compared student self-assessment of learning with actual results. The paper analyzes similarities and differences in student accomplishment based on these exam questions and student responses to related survey questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]