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Distance Education
Distributed Learning Expands Med School's Reach
9/12/2007
In addition, each campus has a staffed central control room in which a video technician can closely monitor the classrooms. The technician is responsible for making sure the right signals go to the correct classes, as well as a myriad of details including the quality and stability of the network, the quality of pictures and sound delivered, and control of cameras if a speaker is moving about the classroom.
Because the two partner universities had not offered medical courses before and were building new classrooms from the ground up, they were able to build them specifically to accommodate the complex remote delivery solution.
The system incorporates an off the shelf videoconferencing system that includes many carefully tailored parts. UBC contracted with Visual Defence, an Ontario, Canada-based company that specializes in highly technical custom solutions for security, often with integration of sophisticated digital audio and video services. UBC is using the Visual Defence Audio/Visual/Control system for its complex and technical installation. Visual Defence provided custom programming for each of the control systems that monitor the A/V system, which are from Crestron. The A/V system itself contains equipment by manufacturers including Tandberg, Biamp, and Extron.
UBC's technical team worked with a designer to come up with solution and specs, Keating said, then sent the project out for bid. The university then selected Visual Defence's product, as well as using the firm to help with system design, installation and integration of controls.
To maintain the feeling of connectedness that is important to first and second-year medical students, who often develop important bonds with classmates by moving through their courses together, the system uses three channels to transmit the full feel of classroom participation to students on both remote campuses. One channel carries the video conferencing, Keating explained, while one carries presentation materials such as PowerPoint slides.
A third channel produces content for a large composite screen at the front of the class, divided into quarters, that shows the class itself. That allows students to view each other in each classroom. "Lots of thought was put into how to support interactivity and questioning," Keating said. "We felt it was important that all students could see and hear questions, but it was definitely a technical challenge."
To address the issue of student participation, each remote classroom is equipped with push-button activated microphones, one per pair of students. Activating the microphone triggers a preset camera that shows a close-up of the two students on one screen, and cues the instructor that someone has a question—the high-tech equivalent of a remote student raising a hand.
From the front of the class, monitors allow instructors to see each classroom, in order to maintain their connections with the distant audiences. Also, cameras focused on the instructor have intentionally been placed behind those screens, rather than to the side, so that to students in remote classroom, the instructor appears to be looking into the camera and at them, instead of to one side.
The highly complex system and its careful attention to detail has drawn the attention of other universities, Keating said, who have contacted him for details and advice.
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Linda L. Briggs is a freelance writer based in San Diego, Calif.
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