Employing new advances in IP videoconferencing to enhance teaching and learning through the use of a hybrid distance learning course

ABSTRACT

This paper will discuss new opportunities for adding cost effective high quality IP ("Internet Protocol") video teleconferencing in a hybrid synchronous and asynchronous learning environment. The increase cost of education in the form of both state and federal mandated programs as well as instructional personnel present barriers to access to resources that would enrich the curriculum. ISDN video teleconferencing, once thought to be a solution to this dilemma, has proven to have limited impact due to its cost and complexity. Until now, efforts at videoconferencing over the Internet, IP videoconferencing, to reduce cost resulted in unsatisfactory results due largely to artifacts such as latency arising from bandwidth requirements. New advances in CODEC ("COmpression-DECompression") technology now allow much higher quality results across the commercial Internet. With the advent of access to higher bandwidth and educational access to Internet2 even higher quality results can be anticipated. This paper will describe how IP videoconferencing is combined with face-to-face and an asynchronous component, Blackboard, to provide an engaging teaching and learning experience. Examples will be shown and the hardware and software platform described.

REFERENCES

• 1: Holstein, W. J. (1999, September 13). "Building the Next Internet: In the future, you may be able to touch what you buy online". USNews. Retrieved August 29, 2003 from http://www.internet2.edu/resources/19990913-USNews.pdf.
• 2: Howell, F. M., Tung, Y., Wade-Harper, C. (1996, October). The Social Cost of Growing-Up in Rural America: Rural Development and Social Change during the Twentieth Century. (Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University. No. MAFES D-8985).
• 3: Ronchetti, M. (2003, May). From the Classroom to the Computer Screen: Delivering a Traditional University Course in a Non-Traditional Way. (Department of Information and Communication Technology, University of Trento. No. DIT-03-018).
• 4: Statistics, N. C. F. E. (2002). "Percent of Internet Access in Public Schools." Education Statistics Quarterly.
• 5: Wave3 Software. (2003). The Wavelet Transform Video CODEC. Retrieved August 29, 2003 from http://www.wave3software.com/wavelet.pdf.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.1 Computer Uses in Education
          Subjects: Distance learning

Additional Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.1 Computer Uses in Education
          Subjects: Computer-assisted instruction (CAI)

General Terms:
Design, Economics, Management, Performance, Reliability

Keywords:
IP videoconferencing, distance learning