An Integrated Approach to Local/Distant Mathematics Instruction

1. An Integrated Approach to Local/Distant Mathematics Instruction

2. Brief Background: • Program started with several NSF projects • Needed for distance learning, dissemination • Investigated whether systematic DL in mathematics can work at UK • economics must make sense • infrastructure requirements • human resources requirements • faculty interest required

3. Underlying Realities: • With our current level of experience the initial presentations of a mathematics Distance Learning course • require about four times the resources per student as • comparable on-campus courses, • UK currently funds DL instruction on a per studentbasis of 63% of tuition,

4. Tuition for 3 hr course: • UK (i.s) UK (o.s) U. of Phoenix* • GRD $450 $900 $1380 • UGRD $300 $1320 $1095* 5 week “online” course, 20 hrs/wk with 2-3 hrs of connect-time (brief upload/download sessions)

5. Allocation of UK DL Tuition • Central Admin 30% • DL Prgms17.5% • Instruction52.5%

6. Instructional Funds per Student (in-state) for 3 hr DL course at UK • Undergraduate: $157.50 • $2362.50 for 15 student course • (15 is a large DL math course) • Graduate: $231.72 • $3475.80 for 15 student course

7. Conclusion: • DL feasible only at supplemental rates (i.e only as an auxiliary activity to the on-campus instructional program), • No funding for senior faculty program development,

8. Our approach determined by: • Severe economic constraint, • Several years of experiment

9. Ancient borrowed “elmo” Initial DL Courses: Shower curtain Undergraduate assistant Instructor phone Last second hardware fix

10. Live session: “control room” Home camcorder

11. In Our Early DL Experiments we Observed: • We were basically talking to VCR’s. People need DL because the time they have to invest in education is available at random • Students tended to cluster together in small groups to work on course material • The communications technology the distant students were using was virtually identical to that being used as instructional technology on campus

12. Basic Assumptions for DL: • Traditional format provides the optimalinstructional experience, • Primary objective in distant instruction is to provide the same experience to remote students as that afforded on-campus, • Distant and local students will have essentially the same electronic communication and computation environments, • Individual distant students will participate on schedules tailored to their individual needs

13. General Strategy: • Model DL as a metaphor for the well-understood lecture recitation format • Use the identity of DL and local instructional technology to integrate programs so that development and faculty costs are shared, • Use supplemental income from DL to support graduate students who provide the additional teaching services to distant students.

14. Any course has two primary features which must have DL analogs • Entertainment • lecture, web page, text, etc. • scales (essentially) indefinitely • DL can provide very large scale factor • Service • student consultation, evaluation • certification • does not scale • DL requires fractional scale factor (  ½) ( twice the cost per student)

15. Try the easy part first: • See if we can make the lectures work

16. Local/Distant Lectures • Faculty prepare lectures in advance and they are recorded in ITV studio • lectures take huge amount of time to prepare • must be done with prepared slides • blackboard not systematically feasible • lectures have very high information density • less need for repetition when they can be replayed • Doesn’t work well to record in-class lectures if they involve technical details (expository lectures work well)

17. Numerous Formats Possible • Compressed video • Direct broadcast tv • tape • CD/DVD • netcast • cheapest • most flexible • fewest dissemination problems • smallest bandwidth • least developed

18. In addition to Faculty, DL lectures require substantial: • Staff Resources • production and post-production • most can be done by advanced students • must work closely with faculty • Technical Infrastructure • production and distribution

19. Resources to build on: • Large, strong faculty with ability to recruit, serve, and effectively employ graduate teaching assistants, • Excellent campus-wide communications infrastructure, • Excellent administrative support from College and V.P for Information Systems • Math Sciences organization with Extensive experience in distance learning and computer communications

20. Math Sciences DL Staff Infrastructure (Fall 1998): Faculty Director

21. Student post-production staff and senior staff mentor/supervisor Dan, senior staff and communications graduate student Liu, chemistry graduate student Kathryn, math graduate student

22. Senior Hardware Specialist (Mike)

23. Math Sciences DL Communications Infrastructure Faculty, staff offices Math Sciences Instructional Labs , ITV Classroom Classroom Building Library Campus High Speed Network New very high speed R&D network Internet World

24. The basic Model

25. Lectures for a regularly scheduled class are moved to a DL classroom/studio • Lectures recorded electronically, • Instructional visuals (slides, sketches, computer screen images captured dynamically)

26. Current Studio (built ca. 1985) Not needed for Algebra Talk

27. Lectures are edited at the desktop by faculty, staff, graduate student team • Supplemental audio and video clips, links previous classes added, class web page edited, etc. • High speed Math Sciences Network and DL Studio make this possible Faculty Desktop Computer/DL Staff Desktop Graduate TA Desktop Math Sciences Video Server Digital DL Studio Campus Network

28. Students in Labs and LibrariesHave Access to Edited Lectures and Integrated Software on Demand Video Server student student Library student student student LABS Internet

29. Open lab facilities in library 40+ stations in this facility Earphones

30. Library is “distant” enough to simulate “D” in DL Dorm Complex Library View from faculty, staff office building Studio, development labs, and most math classrooms

31. Development Program Home Page: www.ms.uky.edu/classes Calculus Course Experiment Information

32. Overview of the current experiment • Ma123 - 3 semester hour, general studies calculus course • Experiment involves 3 of 30 fall 1998 sections - initially about 75 students • students did not volunteer

33. Experimental Intro Calculus Course Syllabus Text: HTML and color Postscript

34. Course Video Page Individual Lectures Lecture Segments

35. Course Video Page (cont.) Review for Test 2 Access to Web pages with or without video Chapter 12 Lecture (multiple segments) Solutions to Exam 2

36. Video lecture synchronized with web pages

37. “Lecture Diagram” Web Page HTML Index

38. “Click and Clack” Model with two lecturers

40. Narrated explanation of text example

41. Students particularly like brief, annotated, “step by step” clips

43. “Interaction” with Lecture (“Click and Clack” model) There are frequent breaks where students work are asked to work on a problem before continuing

44. Break Problem

45. Interaction: is essential component of “web outline with video” format Student initiates brief topical video from within web page Page is based on book organization

46. Textbook Concerns: • Intellectual Property • What portion of a text can be posted to web? • Homework problems? (solutions?) • Does “fair use” extend to cases when non students have access? • Wanted web version of text for easy reference • Wanted to tie lectures closely to text by using text organization for lectures. • Wanted to be able to adapt course in light of experience

47. Resolution: • Adapted a “GNU License” text prepared by Neal Koblitz of University of Washington • Original source in AMSTeX • Moved to LaTeX in Calculus and ATE projects - LaTeX source on dissemination “CHISEL” CD’s from those projects. • Moved LaTeX source to Maple Worksheet format then exported various version:

48. All figures in text were converted to Maple Graphics

49. Multiple versions of text then generated from Maple source • Idea developed by Carl Eberhart • Uses PERL file manipulation scripts to organize multiple worksheets into books • Generate indices • “colorize” graphics • methods shared in workshop format

50. Multiple Documents Derived from Single Source Document • HTML (full color and graphics from web) • On-line formatted text (Color Postscript to be viewed directly or downloaded from web) • “Live Text” (complete text in form of computer algebra text - text calculations and graphics can be calculated directly by student or teacher). • “Lecture Slide” version for in-class and video • “Hard copy” inexpensive student text and workbooks • (In principle) changes in source produce changes in other materials making adaptation easy.