Distance education in criminal justice: Student evaluations of interactive, satellite television courses

After discussing the concept of distance education, this paper presents survey data gathered from students who took criminal justice courses via interactive television. Findings reveal that students were generally satisfied with the technological delivery of courses, that they found distance courses as interesting as traditional courses, and that most believed they learned as well from a distance instructional format. However, students who took televised courses from a main‐campus (versus off‐campus) location and those who took a team‐taught distance course had significantly lower evaluations of distance education. Implications of the findings are explored.

Keywords:

• interactive television
• distance education
• technology
• site facilitator
• electronic blackboard