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Session 3260

Development of a Synchronous Distance Education Project Between UGA and Kagoshima University

Chi N. Thai, Kazuo Morita and Koichi Iwasaki University of Georgia, Biological & Agricultural Engineering Department, Athens, GA 30602-4435, U.S.A. / Kagoshima University, Department of Environmental Science & Technology, Kagoshima, Japan

Abstract

An IT architecture was proposed herein to deliver synchronous distance education materials from UGA to Kagoshima University. This architecture was designed for extensive computer and Internet resources such as gigabits network, video conferencing and remote control software. But we found that it could be adapted to minimal IT resources such as cable modem at 1 Mbps and audio-only feedback between teacher and students. System performance and student feedback for the first 7-week class period are reported herein.

Introduction

One of the thrusts in the UGA/Biological & Agricultural Engineering Department curriculum is to enhance the experiential learning aspects for our engineering students during class lectures as well as during laboratory experiments needed for the course. Based on Student Technology fees and departmental funds, the Collaborative Distance Education (CDE) Laboratory was created in Summer 2003 to achieve the first goal (Thai1). This lab currently has 30 workstations for students and a teacher station connected to an isolated 1.0 Gbps LAN with direct connection to the UGA Gigabit backbone. These PCs are equipped with specialized software to allow synchronous collaborative interactions between teacher-students and student-student for in-class projects, as well as for receiving classroom instructions from experts located outside the Athens campus via videoconferencing technologies. The second goal can be met by improving and increasing access to our laboratories, along with more test equipment and lab stations, however, expanding laboratories requires sizable investments in equipment and lab-proctoring personnel. Our innovative approach capitalized on the facts that about 90-95% of BAE students have PCs and Internet access from their residence, and that our teaching test apparatuses are accessible and controlled through networked PCs. Thus in Spring 2002 and using the ENGR-4540/6540 course (Applied Machine Vision) as a starting point, we had designed a computer system, consisted of a Web/FTP server and 2 completely equipped test stations, that allows students to access the test stations from anywhere in the Web to perform their laboratory assignments in spectrometry and machine vision techniques without having to be physically present in the laboratory, but without loosing the touch and feel of actual hands-on experimentation (Thai2). This system is operational since January 2002 and has good performance even from modem connections at 56 Kbps and 60

Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2004, American Society for Engineering Education

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Iwasaki, K., & Morita, K., & Thai, C. (2004, June), Development Of A Synchronous Distance Education Project Between Uga And Kagoshima University Paper presented at 2004 Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--13169