Case Study 14: College. Bellevue Community College 

This case study is a transcript of an interview written by Robin Mason. 

Bellevue is a community college in the State of Washington, specializing in evening and 

weekend courses as well as distance education programs. Bellevue College represents a 

typical extension of adult (evening) provision to distance taught courses on the Web. 

Currently most of their students on the Internet courses live locally, but they can cater for a 

global student body and expect this area to grow. 

The Web is used to carry the content of the courses as well as the discussions between 

students and tutors. The administration of the courses is also available on the Web. Most 

courses supplement the Web based course content with set books or recommended readings. 

Students are expected to purchase these through Amazon.com or borrow from local libraries. 

One of the nice Web features used by Bellevue is a self guided test called `Is Distance 

Learning for you?' If the prospective student scores over a certain percentage, they can 

assume they will be successful as a distance learner. 

The Web pages make use of sound and video. Discussion forums are used for group 

interactivity and private e mail to the tutor. Students are assigned to tutors who animate the 

discussions and mark assignments. Each course also has a final examination. As yet, this is 

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