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A mashup of lecture and distance learning improves student performance.
An many circles, distance learning is seen as an alternative to classroom instruction. Distance learning certainly addresses some of the limitations of classroom instruction, particularly the barriers of "at this time and in this place." Distance learning can eliminate one or both, but not without its own costs.
In this article we will look at an ongoing effort at The University of Michigan-Flint to use distance learning to augment classroom instruction, and vice versa, in a room it calls the Cyber Classroom. Using video, audio, and lecture capture technology, presentations given in that room are automatically turned into recorded distance learning programs and are made available to all of the students on a multimedia website.
We'll see that students' situations and learning styles vary and that having both classroom instruction and distance learning resources available to all students enrolled in a course improves their understanding of the course material. This is demonstrated by the students' final grades.
The Cyber Classroom Technology
The Computer Science, Engineering and Physics (CSEP) Department of The University of Michigan-Flint started making video recordings of lectures in 2007. They use Foveal Systems, LLC 's AutoAuditorium System as a front end to Sonic Foundry, Inc. 's Mediasite to capture class sessions for their students.
Each recording is automatically composed of shots of any projected material. It is combined with a tracking camera shot of the professor walking around the front of the room and an occasional shot from the back of the room. The AutoAuditorium System does the shot selection and composition while operating the tracking camera, changing pan, tilt, and zoom settings as appropriate. If there is more than one person moving "on stage," the tracking camera zooms out to film all of them. If there is only one person walking and gesturing, it zooms in enough to keep the person in the frame. Someone calmly standing in one place results in a head-and-shoulders shot.
The audio comes from the professor's wireless microphone. Additionally, there are...