Each of the four groups came up with a unique set of conclusions relating to their respective areas of study. Synopses of the conclusions for the ICARUS analysis were reported as follows:

In order for the ICARUS project to be accepted by the Georgia Tech community, it must cover the fundamentals of resume writing, as well as the basics of writing proposals and progress reports. Also, it must promote interaction between students and professors. The ICARUS Project must also meet the ten specific requirements set forth by the Board of Regents. At its current status, the ICARUS Project does indeed meet these requirements. The students feel that they learn more comprehensively through a hands-on approach to writing coherent documents and relating difficult material effectively. This lack of congruency leaves one to question whether the web-based course will be an effective tool in teaching technical communication.

According to the students and faculty who were interviewed, the benefits of web-based learning are the flexibility of class time, the ability to repeat lectures, and the continual access to lectures, notes and homework. However, the detriments include the inability to monitor student attendance and work, the lack of interaction, the accessibility issues, and unclear communication of difficult materials. In the user interface, it is necessary to keep content organized and aesthetically pleasing as well as to limit information to small enough pieces that can keep the attention of the reader. As for the evaluation process, the progress of the student will be more difficult to assess in a web-based class. Overall, the enthusiasm is behind the obvious advantages of the web-based course, however, not all of the problems which are introduced by such a novelty have been ironed out.

The introduction of a web-based course in lieu of the face to face technical writing class will obviously have some repercussions on the goal of the LCC. Since this course will be purely information based it will hopefully make better use of the resources. The reason for the web-based class is that it will allow a professor to more easily teach larger numbers of students. The LCC with its reallocated manpower can offer a wider range of humanities courses. Students must also be a consideration of the LCC in the teaching of this new course, in the respect that technology is not always cooperative and far from flawless. The LCC needs to make sure that the students do not become the victims of technology breakdown or professor neglect. Though with the technical aptitude of the average Georgia Tech student, that problem isn’t likely to surface. Through a wide range of new technologies and faculty to match the bill, the LCC has tried, and are succeeding, in presenting the best possible ways of integrating this technology into their classes. Taking the ICARUS program as an example we can definitely see that they are meeting their goals.

When developing a web-based technical communications course, many technology factors must be considered. These include accessibility, user interfaces, copyrights, and technology needed to run the course. To accommodate all students the class must anticipate any physical disabilities the student may have, any software or hardware incompatibilities, as well as Internet connection problems. The user interface must be easy to read and consistent so as to make learning easier and prevent navigational confusion. Documents used in a web-based course must be copyrighted. And while any of a number of tools can be used to create and update ICARUS, there must remain staff on hand that can handle any glitches in the course of things. Given its complex nature, technology issues are the stickiest branch in the development of ICARUS.