Using Streaming Media In The Classroom

An interactive, CD-ROM based, audio/video presentation was produced that documents an investigation into the benefits, problems and impact of using internet technology to alter the traditional on-campus lecture delivery model. The questions explored included: What is the impact of students receiving “lecture” at home and participating in either individual or group study in class? What are the technical problems? How should the course be structured? What tools can be used? Can you or should you mix on-campus audiences with off-campus students? Is the technology ready? The extensive experience of several University of Maine faculty is drawn together in a Macromedia Director presentation to answer these questions and draw conclusions. The process of creating the Director presentation is discussed as well. Process We created a multimedia presentation that documents how faculty at the University of Maine are using streaming media in their classes. See Figure 1. We videotaped the remarks of seven faculty who have used the media in several different ways: • Live streaming audio in which the professor is teaching from a home office • Asynchronous audio/video. The audio lecture is prepared ahead of time and linked with a web page prepared with IT support no live in-class students • Minimum production value efforts. The preceding situation is contrasted to a situation where the faculty member has little support for creating content with high production value. • Using streaming media to explore new paradigms for distributing education. We have begun to see signs of “franchise” relationships between Universities with recognized centers of excellence and universities with fewer resources taking advantage of the offerings of these centers. Technology makes it possible to “connect” them. • Teleconferencing using compressed video over ISDN lines. The experience is nearly like the classroom, but student access is limited. Findings Some common myths are discussed: • “You can save money, time, and allow faculty to teach larger classes.” The faculty interviewed here all agree that the effort equals or exceeds that related to live, in-person courses. • “You can simply expand the walls bringing students from afar into your regular classroom.” In the absence of substantial external support, this goal has still not been attained. Although P ge 6.115.1 Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright Ó 2001, American Society for Engineering Education the tools are getting easier to use, the technology commonly available to faculty is still not powerful enough to perform the tasks needed. A desired “ideal” system is described. Issues and Problems discussed • “When are your office hours?” The difficulty is that students believe on-line faculty are available at any time of the day. • “Am I being taught by a real person?” The problem of on-line courses lacking the passion of in-person classes are discussed. Interaction involving some variation of a synchronous component is seen to be one solution. • Around final exam time, “how did you say I log into this course?” On-line asynchronous courses tempt some students to put off all coursework until late in the semester. It’s important to be clear about the course schedule and requirements. • “Murphy’s Law applied to the on-line classroom” If the delivery system is too complicated, faculty won’t use it. • “How will I ever find the time to teach this way?” The difference in lesson preparation time is discussed. Figure 1 – Production Table of