IEEE Societies: education is going for the Web

IEEE has long taken a leadership role in distance education. Since the 1980s, IEEE Educational Activities served its growing world-wide membership through video conferences, videos, and self-study courses to supplement conferences and publishing. It discontinued its live video-conference program in the mid-1990s, when it was found that users preferred to tape the telecasts rather than attend the live event. In 1998, IEEE experimented with online delivery of video, video on demand, a service that brings video and PowerPoint presentations to the desktop. Technically, this service functioned quite well, delivering streaming video for users with modems 28.6 kbps and higher. Video on demand included e-commerce and online help to configure end-user systems. Although technically successful, video on demand has not proven to be commercially viable. Meanwhile, IEEE has also moved to place its self-study courses on the Web, some entirely and others partially, in an effort to reposition its current array of products (print-based self-study courses, videos, and CD-ROMs). One major challenge is to explore how IEEE and its Technical Societies can take advantage of the Web to promote their education programs as well as publications.