The delivery of continuing education: teleconferencing, an alternative mode

An experimental offering of the Medical Library Association's continuing education course CE 46, Library Management/Budgeting, was made available to sixteen health sciences librarians via the University of Wisconsin-Education Telephone Network. Features of the hardware of the teleconference network, a few applications relating to medicine and library science, and administrative considerations are examined. The paper also describes how the experimental course was conducted, course participants, design, problems encountered, and evaluation data obtained from participants. A comparison between the teleconferencing mode of delivery and the traditional face-to-face format is stressed. Recommendations call for continued consideration of teleconferencing as a method of delivering continuing education courses and suggest the possibility of MLA providing its own teleconferencing network.