Bit of a niche question, but… in 2003 Georgia Tech was offering an undergraduate mech engineering B.S. degree by Distance Ed. That was pretty unusual in 2003.
They’ve dropped the program. Not many places find that engineering degrees are suitable for distance ed. but does anybody know what exactly GT found when they tried, and why they quit?
It might be an issue with ABET, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. They have been reluctant to accredit online and distance-education programs leading to bachelors degrees in engineering. They have long accredited degrees in “engineering technology” but you can’t become a professional engineer with those degrees. I note however that they now accredit a couple of online programs in electrical engineering, which I think is relatively new. Currently nothing available in mechanical engineering. www.abet.org/accreditation/new-to-accreditation/online-programs/
The problem for most colleges was that these programs ended up undercutting their in-classroom degree programs.
They were much cheaper than the on-campus programs, and the degrees were just as good in the job market. So schools cut back on offering them.
And then the accreditation boards (controlled mostly by combinations of schools & alumni) also began to restrict them, for much the same reasons. If lots of people could get degrees much cheaper from online work, who would go to the on-campus programs? And an increased number of graduates with degrees out there would be more competition (= reduced prices) for alumni graduates.
I lied. Apparently a four-year engineering technology degree meets the formal education requirements for becoming a PE in some states, but not all.
It is kind of weird that the OP mentions GT’s ME program.
Circa 1990 that program was in serious trouble. The ME certification board was just about ready to drop the bomb on the program. The program was lagging in tech, esp. using computers for design and such.
It came very, very close to losing its cert which would have been a major problem for a prominent Eng. school like Tech.
I am tempted to think that their short online foray was a later fallout of this problem, but the post by Tim@T-Bonham.net sounds more rational.