Abstract Introduction The College of Agricultural and Life Sciences offers several baccalaureate degree programs outside of its main campus in Gainesville using a combination of live and distance delivery. The primary means of distance delivery has been interactive videoconferencing (IVC), where a live class is deliv- ered synchronously to one or more remote sites. Instructors were concerned that scores on student evaluations were lower at remote than live sites, although only anecdotal information was available to support this concern. This study compared student evaluation scores between live and remote sites in a sample of 22 courses offered between summer 2005 and spring 2008. Live section scores were compared to scores from all remote sections combined using a Wilcoxan Signed Rank test on the differences between Likert scale scores (1=poor, 5=excellent) on an 11-question student evaluation. Results showed that live section scores were higher than the remote sections 64-86% of the time, depending on the question, and for 10 of 11 questions the differences were statistically significant (P<.05). This included the overall ratings of the instructor and the course, which are used to document teaching performance in faculty evaluations. Differences between scores for live and remote sections ranged from 0.18 to 0.47, depending on the question. The data suggest that students receiving instruction at remote sites via IVC are less satisfied than students at live sites, support- ing the concerns of faculty. However, remote site scores were at most 0.15 points below typical college means, and live site scores were above college means, suggesting that IVC courses are rated satisfactorily relative to other courses in the College. Distance education (DE) is growing at a rate more than 10 times that of traditional higher educa- tion (Allen and Seaman, 2009). More than 25% of all students enrolled in higher education have taken at least one course via distance. In 2010, the University of Phoenix, which delivers much of its courses and programs online, became the second largest univer- sity system in the United States despite charging double the average tuition of public universities (Wilson, 2010). Many public universities are respond- ing to the increased demand by increasing DE course and program offerings, but at this time there is no consensus on the technology or approach that provides the best experience for students and faculty. The number of delivery platforms available and associated learning curves can be daunting for faculty tasked with teaching DE courses. Delivery platforms for DE courses are generally divided into synchro- nous and asynchronous categories, with asynchron- ous, internet-based platforms being the most com- mon in higher education in the United States (Parsad and Lewis, 2008). Asynchronous delivery has its roots in correspondence courses, where instructors and students interacted via mailed materials. Synchronous delivery originates from the “extended classroom” model adopted in the 1940s where closed- circuit television was used to connect additional rooms to the main lecture hall to provide additional capacity (Bernard et al., 2004). Today, synchronous delivery has evolved largely into interactive videoconferencing (IVC) or live streaming video on the internet. Among the advantages and disadvan- tages commonly cited, asynchronous delivery allows greater flexibility for students but often less interac- tion with the instructor, while the opposite is said of synchronous delivery. Asynchronous may be more demanding on the instructor due to high inputs of time and resources for course development and different pedagogical requirements (Seaman, 2009). On the other hand, synchronous delivery methods such as IVC can be relatively transparent to the instructor and therefore preferred by faculty over asynchronous, internet-based platforms (Thornsbury and Griffin, 2002). The College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) at the University of Florida has been engaged in a number of degree completion or “2+2” programs outside of its main campus in Gainesville for several years. The programs are housed at Research and Education Centers located in Ft Lauderdale, Ft Pierce, Apopka, Plant City, and Milton, Florida. Eight majors are offered at one or more of these locations by deploying less than 18 teaching FTE off the main campus, thus there is a great need for course sharing among locations. DE delivery began asynchronously by videotaping courses at the originating site and Student Evaluation Scores for Courses Delivered by Interactive Videoconferencing Mark Rieger R. Elaine Turner and R. Kirby Barrick University of Florida Gainesville, FL 32611 1 2 3 , Student Evaluation Scores for Courses Delivered by Interactive Videoconferencing Mark Rieger R. Elaine Turner and R. Kirby Barrick University of Florida Gainesville, FL 32611 1 2 3 , 1 2 3 Interim Dean, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Box 110270 Associate Dean, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Professor, Department of Agricultural Education and Communication 16 NACTA Journal • March 2011