Comparing Quality In On- Campus And Off-Campus Courses: Perception Of College Of Agriculture Faculty

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare college of agriculture teachingfaculty members' perceptions of the quality of on-campus and off-campus courses. The population included 262 faculty members with teaching responsibilities or with teaching experience in the College of Agriculture at Iowa State University. All members of the population were surveyed and the response rate was 54.2%. Overall, college of agriculture teaching faculty perceived off-campus courses to be of lower quality than their on-campus counterparts. On a positive note, faculty perceived the difference between on- and off-campus courses on user-basedand value-basedfactors to be small. From a Total Quality Management perspective, user-based and value-basedfactors are most important. Faculty perceivedgreater disparities between on-campus and off-campus courses on manufacturing- and transcendent-based quality factors. Efforts to enhance offcampus course quality should be focused on the manufacturingfactor. Quality is enhanced on all factors by systematic analysis and improvement of workprocesses (Gilbert et al., 1993). In order to improve the process of delivering instruction off-campus, on-going faculty developmentprograms thatprovide hands-on experience are needed. Faculty should also have technical support and instructional design support available as they develop courses for off-campus delivery.