August 1995 — Features
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First-Hand Observations on Tele-Course Teaching
by GEORGE W. WHITAKER, Instructor Florence-Darlington Technical College Florence, S.C. A college course offered as distance education via the media of communication technologies can not only be comparable to an onsite classroom course of traditional pedagogy but can broaden and enrich the teaching/learning experience. The following observations intend to show how this conclusion was reached. They come from the developer and instructor of the course, an experienced classroom teacher but first-time distance education practitioner. Background In November 1994, Florence-Darlington Technical College contracted to offer English 101 to a class of 11 employees of a regional industrial firm who were pursuing their bachelors' of science degrees via an out-of-state university. The class consisted of 16 weekly, three-hour sessions, conducted in a videoconferencing center at a local plant site and transmitted by fiber-optics to two other plant sites in North Carolina. I was the instructor for this class. Four students were present in the classroom with me. Class sessions were taped to be viewed by students who were absent, since they missed from two to four class sessions due to shift scheduling. Students submitted writing assignments (essays) prior to the next week's class session by faxing them to my office. Graded assignments were faxed back, either directly to the students' work sites or to a site administrator who forwarded them to students by the overnight courier service used by the employing firm. Students corresponded with me primarily via e-mail or telephone; one-on-one discussion and revision of essays was frequent. Teaching Observations: Room Design As a teleconference center, the room at the local plant site is good inasmuch as it is designed for a group of people sitting at a table; teleconferencing simply extends the size of the table. The room contains three cameras: a wall camera ("table") placed face-on to the conference table that can zoom to the speaker or pan to all participants, including those in a raised gallery behind the table; an overhead camera ("graphics") that focuses on a 9"x12" horizontal display area on the table; and a ceiling-mounted camera ("presentation") behind and to the left of the table focused on a whiteboard at the front of the room. On the wall in front of the table are two 35" monitors that display the remote conference sites. A smaller 8" monitor displays the host site's output. Each site can see all the other sites. Teleconferencing is achieved by voice-activated switching with ceiling-mounted microphones. (See Diagram.)1-3405
