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Volume 2 Issue 9October 1998

Distance Education Experiences Using Compressed Video

Dr. James E. Poulsen
Shasta College, Director, Extended Education and Telecommunications

Shasta College is located in the far northern end of California in the city of Redding. The college District is composed of three counties, and has a geographical area of 10,000 square miles with towns being separated by mountain passes and two-lane highways. During the winter months it can be very difficult to travel to the Redding campus. Even in good weather, the travel time from the major population centers located to the east and to the west is a little over an hour.

The college was aware that it was not totally meeting the educational needs of the people who live in these remote communities. Live courses were offered, but due to the difficulty of employing qualified faculty and the minimum class size necessary to support the course, only a limited number of courses could be offered.

Shasta College has made a commitment to serve the educational needs of students located in rural locations by developing centers using current technology. The technology of choice is live interactive two-way compressed video.

Educational centers are located in Red Bluff, 30 miles to the south; in Burney, 50 miles to the east; and in Weaverville, 40 miles to the west. Each semester, through the use of a multi-point conferencing unit and T1 connections, the college is now offering approximately 20 live classes to the three remote sites.

Also located in the south part of Redding is a facility owned by a Native American tribe. The tribe has purchased compressed video equipment for an educational center, and is using ISDN connections, dial in to the multi-point conferencing unit (MCU) to receive classes at their site.

Last year the college offered approximately 40 classes in a large variety of disciplines using the technology to the Red Bluff center. We asked students at the Red Bluff center what they thought of the educational experience they received by using videoconferencing technology to provide the courses. A summary of the responses of students and faculty members included the following:

• Students appreciate having access to courses that may not normally be available live at a remote site.
• Students appreciate having access to courses with a greater selection of times, faculty members, and instructional methods, etc.
• The quality of the educational experiences as perceived by students using the technology is very good.
• Faculty members enjoyed teaching in a technologically-based environment.
• Students at the Red Bluff center had completion rates typical of those on campus.
• Some faculty members stated that the class at the Red Buff center seemed to perform better than the class on campus. As a general rule the students at the Red Bluff Center were older than the makeup of the class on campus.
• Approximately 93 percent of the students would recommend to a friend that they enroll in a course delivered through the use of compressed video technology.
• Students appreciated the opportunity to take classes at a distance because it would save them time or money and allowed flexibility in scheduling to meet employment or other obligations.

The biggest technical problem was with the audio system. The original design of the classrooms utilized live microphones hanging from the ceiling. It was very difficult to hear students at the far corners of the classrooms, and, at times, students would need to yell in order to be heard. The college has since replaced the microphones with a touch-to-talk system that enables two students to share one microphone. The current quality of the audio for all students is much better, and this change has eliminated most of the concern regarding the audio system.

This academic year, the college added three more remote sites for a total of four end-points. The response by students has been very good. There are over 55 students enrolled in Weaverville, 33 in Burney, 17 at the Redding Rancheria, plus those students enrolled at the Red Bluff Center.

At the end of each semester the college will provide an opportunity for students to evaluate this instructional system. From the input of students and faculty, the college can continually strive to better serve the educational needs of all students in the District.