摘要：Florida Gulf Coast University, the tenth university in the Florida
State University System, opened its doors in August, 1997. As part of the
mission of the university, departments were mandated to deliver distance courses
to 25% of enrolled students. The finance department accepted this challenge, yet
realized that there would be significant barriers to overcome in teaching
effective finance classes in a distance setting. Finance as a discipline relies
heavily on theoretical concepts, which must somehow be imparted to students, and
also on technique-oriented applications. Another difficulty in designing finance
courses had to do with the fact that the whole field of finance changes rapidly
as market conditions change. A further challenge was the fact that many of the
students at Florida Gulf Coast University come from a variety of backgrounds.
Some students are quite skilled in math and in accounting principles, yet some
are lacking in these backgrounds. All in all, the challenges were great, so the
department decided to seek input from stakeholders.
