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Show I THE UNIVERSITY JOURNAL• SOUTHERN UTAH UNIVERSITY• FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1994 FOCUS: CONTINUING EDUCATION ~,, Concurrent enrollment delivered electronically SUU's Sue Stratton focu ses on a bright future for the university's ED NET system. EDNET system is growing at SUU By JIM ROBINSON CAMPUS EDITOR Electronic delivery of educational offerings will be enhanced and interactive conferencing potential expanded with the completion of advanced technology projects now under way at SUU. The university is now electronically delivering two four-quarter-hour interactive college courses to six southern Utah high schools over the improved Utah Educational Television N etwork (EDNET) system. The two courses are offered under a concurrent enrollment plan which allows certain high school students to enroll for college classes. '"Interactive' means that students in each of the six schools will be able to see and interact with each other and with the instructor, 11 Sue Stratton, SUU coordinator of instructional media, said. "They will be able to ask questions and view any number of visual and audio aids, many of which may be computer generated." SUU's EDNET service area will actually include 12 public schools in southern Utah; however, only the six have opted to receive or have the technology now in place to receive the telecasts of these programs. The university will act as the "hub" for the service area, m eaning all transmissions between and among drop sites in the area will go through SUU's routing control. Currently, the EDNET hub for the entire state is located at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. A drop site for the EDNET system has been located on the second level of the SUU Library since 1981, but the existing microwave transmission system severely limits the capacity and flexibility of program delivery and reception. "With the new fiber optics system under construction here and in communities throughout the state, our utilization of EDNET will not be limited by transmission," Stratton said. "We will be able to transmit and/or receive many programs, classes, conferences, or other communications all simultaneously. Each transmission can be programmed to be sent to or received from any combination of public schools or other 'drop' locations in the area." In preparation for the enhanced capability and with its role as an EDNET "hub," SUU is- with funding assistance from the Utah System of Higher Education Technology Initiativedoubling the size of its current control room and expanding its studio into a 40-student interactive learning video classroom/ studio. A second, smaller studio will be built especially for video conferencing. Both studios will be adjacent to the expanded control room. A second interactive learning classroom/studio is completed and equipped on a lower level of the library. That classroom will be interconnected with the other elements of the system. SUU expects to have its three studio/classrooms in operation by October. Stratton and television engineer David Culler will coordinate the SUU EDNET hub site. SUU students will be involved as production crew members, camera operators, and control room technicians. Upon completion of the new SUU Library, now under construction, up to four new interactive "smart" classrooms are planned to be built and equipped on the second level of the current library. These will further enhance the university's EDNET participation potential. "The potential applications of the new technology both on campus and for distance learning through EDNET are almost infinite," Michael D. Richards, vice president of university affairs, said. "One of the major objectives of the EDNET upgrades is to improve the educational offerings- at several levels-in the state's rural areas. We will begin that process next month." The number of interactive workshops is also expected to increase sharply because of access to the EDNET system at more drop sites and because of SUU's increased ability to facilitate those m eetings. "We have already been involved with many interactive workshops ranging from family life services to agriculture," Stratton said. "Those should just multiply now. We have the potential ~o save people thousands of miles and hours by facilitating interactive televised meetings with the participants located at sites all over the state." Students at six southern Utah high schools now have direct access to the first-ever electronically delivered concurrent enrollment courses offered by SUU. Each of the two courses- Humanities 101 (Introduction to Humanities) and Animal Science 110 (Introductory Animal Science)-partially fill a general education requirement at SUU. Each is taught for 50 minutes four days per week and offer four quarter hours of college credit. Students at Bryce Valley, Cedar City, Escalante, Kanab, Parowan, and Valley high schools are offered the Introductory Animal Science class at 8 a.m. each Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 8 a.m. running through Dec. 6. The humanities course is taught at the same schools each Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10 a.m.; it will also run through Dec. 6. "There is no tuition cost to high school students who enroll in these courses, if their school district contracts with SUU. However, a $20 registration fee is charged each student," Jack Hill, SUU director of distance learning, explains. "College credits earned under this program will be the same as if the classes were taken at the university, and those credits will be as transferable as if they were earned on campus." The interactive courses is offered over the Utah Education Television Network (EDNET) system directly to those schools in the SUU service hub area. Students in each school interact with the instructor and with students at other schools. Additional electronic delivery concurrent enrollment courses, each of which counts toward satisfying general education requirements, are planned for winter and spring quarters. History 101 (Introduction to Western Civilization) and Political Science 110 (American National Government) are scheduled for delivery during winter quarter. Spring quarter offerings are Finance 287 (Personal Finance) and Music 101 (Introduction to Music). Museums and galleries a growing part of SUU The Braithwaite Fine Arts Gallery and the Museum of Southern Utah are integral facets of the university reach out to the community-as well as those on campus. The Gallery, which has long been a mainstay of the cultural scene of both the university and southern Utah as a whole, is located in Braithwaite Center, and Director of Museums and Galleries Mandy Brooks sees it as an essential aspect of the community. The Gallery opens Oct. 6 with a retrospective of the works of Glen Dale Anderson, professor emeritus of teacher education who also taught art here for ma ny years. Hours of operation are from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10-5 Friday and 1-5 on Saturday. In addition to the care and exhibition of the university's permanent art collection, important traveling exhibitions are scheduled year-round Heather Cope enjoys the exhibits and exhibits of the in th e Museum of Southern Utah. senior portfolios of SUU art students are regularly scheduled as well. The museum, located in South Hall, contains displays that interpret "the southern Utah wildlife, landscape, and Native American artifacts," says Brooks. "We utilize the museum for a number of purposes, 11 says Jeff Hill, SUU associate professor of biology and chair of the museum committee. "It serves as an educational tool for both students and the general public to illustrate principles of ecology, anthropology and geology and it allows us to reinforce topics dealt with in class." The museum is open and ready for visitors Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. |