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Imagine a course held at all hours of the day in the bedroom of every student. For the 40 graduate and undergraduate School of Engineering and Applied Science students enrolled in Systems Engineering Professor Keith Ross' Telecommunications 500 -- the first Penn course taught entirely over the Internet -- such a class was more than just a dream. The master's level course -- which is also offered in the traditional classroom format by Computer and Information Science Professor Jonathan Smith -- is about the Internet and how it is put together, Ross said. "We are using the Internet to learn about the Internet," he said. "This gives people an additional insight." Ross said the class is unique in that there is "no textbook, no bulkpack, and no hard copy materials whatsoever." Supported by a grant from the Sloan Foundation, the class is accessed via the World Wide Web at http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~ross/tcom500/fall97.htm. At the beginning of each week, students listen to Ross' recorded lecture by using the Internet streaming program RealAudio. The accompanying graphics and supplementary information are also available on line. The lecture prepares students for two days each week of "on-line asynchronous discussion." Ross posts questions and the students respond, adding questions of their own. Ross said this method facilitates student participation, a large component of students' final grades. Two in-class exams and a programming assignment are also required. "Students are much less likely to say something 'stupid' because they have time to think about their response and discuss with other people," Ross said. "They can get more in-depth into the material." And to create what Ross called a "virtual presence," he asked students to create personal Web sites with their pictures and information about themselves. According to Ross, the course was in great demand by both graduate and undergraduate students, with undergraduates comprising roughly half of those enrolled in the course. Graduate students, who often have full-time jobs and families, are able to "attend" at their own convenience. "It seemed smart to use the on-line approach as a try at avoiding 1 1/2 to two hours of travel per class for an interesting course," said part-time graduate student Joseph Blazewicz, who has worked full time in the aerospace business for more than 30 years. But Ross said undergraduates chose the class for a variety of reasons -- some wanted to avoid course conflicts, but most were just "enormously curious." "The unique learning experience allowed me to interact with my peers and Dr. Ross far more frequently and easily than normal face-to-face courses," Wharton and Engineering senior Eugene Huang said. And Engineering junior Tara Todras-Whitehill said the format of the course allowed her to become more involved with her work. "In order to answer the questions in the hypernews discussion, you really have to know what you are talking about," she said. Ross, who will not offer this course again because he is leaving the University at the end of the semester, said he hopes one of his colleagues will "pick it up" this summer. He will conclude his 12 1/2 years at Penn to work for Eurocom, a French company specializing in networking and communications. "In the future, I hope to develop new software systems that support asynchronous on-line education," Ross said.

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