The central information technology office controls the scheduling and equipment of these large rooms. In addition, says Stenerson, “The [academic] schools have developed their own smaller videoconferencing units to take care of any additional meeting requirements they may have and even some courses.”
Away from Campus
NEXT STEP: TELEPRESENCE Telepresence has been around for over a decade, but the technology is only now generating a buzz in higher education as institutions are turning to immersive telepresence solutions-which allow geographically dispersed groups to meet and work within projection-based virtual reality systems-to foster collaboration and communication overseas such as in virtual classrooms that span across distances. "They can create a virtual classroom where you can have a professor teach a group of students who could be in multiple sites [but] all attending the same class," notes Joan Vandermate, vice president of marketing for Polycom's video solutions group. "They are also finding that this is a great way to meet faculty, to bring them in virtually for meetings." In 2000, the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University adopted a Global Conference and Teaching System for the launch of its Cross Continent MBA program, which required study and residence in the United States and Europe. Developed to provide a "same room" meeting experience with remote participants, the system's usage is versatile and can be used for everything from admissions interviews to screen prospective students, to distance education components. Admissions officers from both campuses interview candidates for MBA programs such as Fuqua's joint program with the University of Frankfurt's Goethe Business School. The system is also used for planning and faculty meetings between both schools and has been used by student clubs for bringing in guest speakers virtually. This past February, Georgetown University implemented an immersive telepresence solution to bridge its Washington, D.C., campus with the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Doha, Qatar, allowing faculty and staff at both locations-separated by more than 7,000 miles of ocean and land-to interact with each other as if they were in the same room. In September, the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University (Calif.) opened a new facility featuring high-definition telepresence solutions, with the anticipation that the facility will provide students the opportunity to learn from guest speakers such as top global business executives along with interaction and collaboration with other universities worldwide. "We wanted to be able to easily tap into educational resources that couldn't come to our classrooms in person," explains Dean Barry Posner about the opening up of new possibilities for collaborative learning between SCU students and faculty and their counterparts at other institutions. "We can now plan to contact and connect with pretty much anyone or any place in the world." At what cost are these new experiences? A telepresence system can start off in the $10,000 range, estimates Vandermate, while a multiscreen version for the classroom setting can be in the $30,000 range and up per classroom. Roughly, fully immersive telepresence rooms run around a quarter of a million dollars.
The University of Notre Dame (Ind.) is another videoconferencing veteran. The technology was used primarily for the executive MBA program and for student career placement efforts. Others began requesting a videoconferencing facility for meetings, explains Dewitt Latimer, deputy CIO and chief technology officer, and about three years ago a facility designed for videoconferencing was constructed.
Videoconferencing plays a major role for Notre Dame in correspondence between states and overseas. During the 2007-2008 academic year, a total of 118 video and Access Grid conferences and 15 WebEx sessions—connecting to 11 different countries and 20 states—were conducted. The university’s London program has used international videoconferencing the most. “Two or three times a year, we would make a trip over there,” says Latimer. “This allows us to conduct face-to-face meetings now anytime we need to.”
Notre Dame has a Polycom 9004 high-definition, fixed-room system housed within the new videoconference facility in the IT Center that can seat up to 18 people, as well as a portable system consisting of a Polycom FX single camera codec and two flat-panel LCD monitors that access a 100MB Ethernet connection. Access Grid videoconferencing software is used to host multipoint videoconferences, primarily among other research institutions and national labs.
Videoconferencing has changed Notre Dame’s employee interview process too. Arrangements are made to get potential candidates to a facility so that interviews can be conducted by video. “[We’re] much more inclined to do it now via a videoconference to get it down to just the final one or two candidates before we fly them in,” says Latimer.
For Pacific’s various health clinics, meanwhile, Creative inPerson units have been used when a technician or an attending doctor is away, to enhance communications with professors on the Forest Grove campus when another opinion is needed, says Colaw. Both staff and students use videoconferencing to work jointly on committees and projects, such as a partnership with a remote hospital.
Collaboration with Education
Videoconferencing is also becoming a channel for collaboration and training for educators. Professors can get together over video to work on projects or with professional organizations. Tandberg’s Zanetis has seen educators present at conferences from a remote location.
The Georgia Digital Innovation Group at Georgia College and State University, which brings resources for collaboration to higher education and K-12, uses Apple’s iChat and the Elluminate Learning Suite not just to carry on business but also to host and present conferences, institutes, and summits from its home base in Milledgeville, Ga. Apple’s application presents several user options—such as text, audio, or full audio/video—that allow for participants to be seen in real time and in a conference table format. Elluminate’s suite facilitates large online events by supporting the entire cycle—what happens before, during, and after the real-time online session.
Apple’s iChat “duplicates and mimics as if we are sitting around a table talking,” says DI Group Director Jim Wolfgang. “We can share applications. We can do slideshows, show a keynote presentation mainly in a work session environment or as a guest speaker presentation. The record feature provides the equivalent of electronic minutes.”
Wolfgang used Video iChat on a weekly basis to develop a workshop and two presentations for a national conference with a Georgia College colleague and Keith Politte, manager of the Technology Testing Center at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri. “It made it much easier, using video chat for us to plan over the eight weeks,” says Wolfgang.
