With the press of a touch screen button, professors will be able to play director in the recording of their own lectures.
UT's list of distance learning options has expanded from eight to more than 1,000 courses in the 10 years since the program started, and it may soon include complete lecture recordings as well.
UT students may take Web-assisted classes, classes conducted entirely online or even obtain complete degrees or certificates through DL, and UT teachers can have an entire class of students located anywhere in the world.
But now UT is integrating Echo 360, lecture capturing software, into classrooms on campus.
Network Specialist Denis Logan, also a part-time student in political science, uses DL for some of the courses he takes in the evenings. Logan gave a demonstration of the capabilities of Echo 360.
By using a small touch screen, located on the desk or podium where the lectures take place, a professor has total control over the direction and focus of the camera, microphone, screen capturing features and the overall recording of the lecture. The complete lecture is then made available by linking it to the course page through Blackboard on the myUT portal.
The hub of UT's distance learning program is in the basement of Carlson Library. Located there are servers, administrative offices, the Instructional Design department that helps develop the DL courses and rooms used for distance learning. UT's distance learning program began between 1997 and 1998 with a total of eight classes offered and had 63 participating students. Today, there are about 1,000 courses offered filled by thousands of students.
Eight online programs offer associate's degrees, 17 offer certificates, 11 offer bachelor's degrees and six offer a graduate degree, such as a doctorate in nursing practice.
"It would be nice [to have online courses in my major]," said Kurt Schlarman, a freshman majoring in chemical engineering. "Some of the classes are pointless to go to anyway. [Online degrees] will probably let UT get more students and allow schedule flexibility."
This flexibility in students' schedules is why some UT professors utilize the online classes.
"The major benefit is that people can schedule their time as they wish throughout the week," said Donald Stierman, associate professor of environmental sciences. "I do insist that people get a certain amount of work done within each week, but they can do it any time they want during that week."
Other students said they favor the traditional classroom setting.
"I prefer being in actual classes. The environment is better for education," said Sarah Brett, a second year pre-pharmacy student who was interviewed via webcast from Ursuline College in Cleveland. She is the lone student in a distance learning course conducted by Dr. Fred Williams, a professor of pharmacology.
"I like this because it beats having to move to Toledo all the time, but if I were on campus I would prefer to go to the actual class," she said.
Stierman said although he is unable to show as many visuals to his online students, the student participation received from online courses is difficult to find in traditional classrooms.
"I think we get a lot better participation that requires students to participate on bulletin boards," Stierman said. "Even with 50 or 100 students, there still can be a quite vigorous discussion that you could never have in a standard classroom."
Stierman teaches both online and traditional in-class courses, and he said he can see the benefits to both approaches.
"I'm able to use some Web tools that in a standard class would probably not work, so the students do, I think, get some experiences that really open their eyes," he said. "There are classes I teach you could not do online, so I think most majors probably have areas that would require some face-to-face interaction."
Williams has been posting audio and PowerPoint presentations of his lectures through WebCT (now Blackboard).
"I've been involved with distance learning since ... 2002," Williams said.
Two scholarships are offered for DL students. The first is a military scholarship for active duty Ohio residents taking all their classes online and paying Ohio taxes. The second is for out-of-state students who are taking all their classes online.
The option of offering a DL course is available to all fields of study, and the decision is left to individual departments and professors to decide.
"Associate deans or department chairs go to us, and we work with them to develop the face-to-face course into the online format," said Karen Rhoda, associate dean of libraries, eLearning and academic support.
The Instructional Design department works alongside the professors to develop the content, features and look of the course Web page.
"We're putting together new programs all the time," said Gary Carr, director for eLearning student services. "There are huge, huge changes in Ohio. We need to drastically increase the number of two and four-year graduates."
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