Using the Internet for distance teaming/distance teaching

Abstract

This paper presents the results of two semesters of experiments involving distance teaming and distance teaching. In the Fall of 1994, students from senior-level digital signal processing classes at the University of Colorado and at George Mason University participated in joint project teams to design solutions to digital signal processing problems involving real data. In the Spring of 1995, a Special Topics in Digital Signal Processing course continued this joint experiment, with joint teaching by Professor Etter and Professor Orsak. Lectures were shared by video tape, and the Internet was used for general questions and comments between the students and the professors. Mosaic pages were developed relative to the classwork and were available on the World Wide Web. We believe that these experiences are excellent opportunities for students to prepare for the jobs, since companies frequently team their employees over widespread regions when undertaking large and detailed projects. At present, these industrial enterprises use leased analog and digital communication lines but they will no doubt switch to computer networks as the Information Superhighway becomes a reality. From a pedagogical point of view, this modern approach to teaming requires that educators develop in their graduates the skills required for this new reality. These skills include, among others, identifying expertise and interest within a larger distributed group, segmenting tasks in a meaningful fashion, integrating designs across a high-speed network verifying performance against specifications, and compiling and writing a comprehensive final report. The joint teaching efforts also allow universities to pool their talent, and hence, students have access to the wider pool of topics that are represented by a group of faculty at various universities who are interested in joint teaching.