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Session #2793

Developing an ‘In-Class Atmosphere’ for Distant Learning Courses using Streaming Media

By James Kamm

Abstract: The current standard for the delivery of distance learning courses involves some creative and interactive components such as chat rooms and immediate feedback scoring on sample tests. But by and large the course material is disseminated to the student by reading; either reading a great amount of material that has been published to the site or by the extensive use of a textbook. Therefore, the primary cognitive learning approach, which all instructors have used since Archimedes, has been abandoned. The lecture, the face to face presentation consisting of sight and sound, is missing. The lecture has not been abandoned because on-line learning has a better way, but because the text-based Internet site is much easier to create, and it requires no sophisticated user software to view the site, and the download time of text copy is very fast. This paper describes ‘research’ into alternative delivery mechanisms, such as multimedia presentations that include voice and other audio, graphics that are created by the author or are captured from other resources, and animation that combines voice and graphics. This paper will make recommendations for the optimal approach for this development given the constraints that a) most University professors do not have the time nor the inclination to take on tremendously sophisticated software for media development, b) that ‘bandwidth’ is a serious constraint when transmitting over the Internet, and c) that the clarity of graphics is an important requirement for engineering and technical education.

Introduction: What are the basic elements of a ‘classroom atmosphere’? A common time and a common space? The comfort of a ‘group’? A lecture? Dialog and questions? Of these, which ones can be delivered through distance learning via computer? An argument can be made for each, but the one that is most difficult to do, over the Internet, is ‘the lecture’.

The lecture is that period of the class where the room goes relatively quiet while the instructor delivers the message of the day. The students hear it, and they see it. There is an audio component and a video component. ‘The lecture’ in distance learning courses is almost always delivered by text material, that is, by reading. It may be the ‘notes’ of the instructor. It may be a summary of the available literature, or pertinent information. It may simply be the textbook reading assignment for the course, in which case there is no lecture component and the ‘class’

“Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright Ó 2002, American Society for Engineering Education”

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Kamm, J. (2002, June), Developing An 'in Class Atmosphere' For Distance Learning Courses Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--11193