Nuclear Engineering - Graduate Level Distance Education

What is it?
Distance education involves the linking of teacher(s) and student(s), through technology rather than face-to-face interaction. Distance education serves the educational needs of people who cannot come to a Penn State campus due to job, family, time, distance, economic, or other constraints.

Penn State’s first distance education courses, developed over one hundred years ago, used the U.S. mail to link students and teachers. Today, we employ various technologies, including: the Internet, CDs, DVDs, interactive video conferencing, live or on-demand streaming media, videotapes, fax, and e-mail to deliver and facilitate the interaction between learners and teachers. The tremendous technological advances in recent years in computing power, storage technology, and communication links have set the stage for marvelous advances in the quantity and quality of distance education. Penn State faculty and staff are working to bring you new and exciting learning opportunities through distance education.

How are these courses delivered and designed?

All courses are offered within the semester time line. For specific start and end dates see the individual course site.

To accommodate the distance student, live classes are offered through interactive videoconferencing and streaming media. Most distance courses are offered live simultaneously with a resident class in attendance here at University Park. For these courses, both live and on-demand streaming media is available. Typically two courses are offered per semester.

Several courses have been developed that are only offered using on-demand streaming media. Check the course sites for these details.

These courses may require textbooks, homework, exams, interaction, and projects as would be required in any graduate level course.

Penn State uses a course management/communication system referred to as ANGEL. ANGEL is a web based system that organizes and delivers all course materials including: live and delayed video lectures, class notes, reference materials, homework assignments, quizzes and projects. The course material in ANGEL is available for you to access 24/7.

ANGEL
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You will need internet access to take a distance course. But, we can work with you if you find yourself temporarily disconnected from the internet. Alternative ways of delivering course material to you can be worked out.

Faculty interaction may occur through ANGEL, email, phone calls, videoconferencing or face to face if you are in the area.

Student performance is evaluated through graded homework, class projects (if applicable), quizzes and/or exams. Some courses require proctored exams, in which case, it is your responsibility to work with us to obtain a proctor.