My interest in distance education began when my advisor, Chun Leung, got involved in setting up a laboratory for distance education at RPI. I assisted in setting up the lab, and in teaching a pilot program to a group of very dedicated AP and Regents physics students at Cobleskill High School.
The program expanded last year, when I taught the class with a local instructor, Greg Kichton. We delivered the course content remotely, with local experiments. We tested methods of performing interactive laboratory demonstrations remotely. The groups involved with this project include the Anderson Center for Innovation in Undergraduate Education (CIUE) directed by Brad Lister, and the Center for Initiatives in Pre-College Education (CIPCE) directed by Les Rubenfeld. Jack Wilson (Dean of Undergraduate Ed, Acting Provost) and John Kolb (Dean of IS) are also principle investigators.
The Cobleskill Project is currently being continued by DJ Wagner, a clinical faculty member in the Physics department.
The Interactive Distance Learning Laboratory, in room 1W01 of the Johnson Rowland Science Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has a number of video conferencing enabled desktop PCs, which can be hooked up in a variety of combinations over LAN/WAN, ISDN, and internet connections. An instruction station, consisting of a video conferencing enabled desktop PC and audio/video equipment is connected to the rooms integrated sound system and two large projection screens.
We utilize a variety of software packages for synchronous and asynchronous distance learning, including LearnLinc, Intel ProShare, Scientific Notebook, and WebCT.
e-mail me at
djoiner@shodor.org, or return to my homepage.