The ride can get pretty exciting when you teach energy conservation with a computer. Institutions of higher education are undergoing major transformations in response to fast-paced technological advances and changing societal needs. Some professors are using multimedia teaching aids in the classroom and some are using the Internet for providing information to their students, answering their questions, and collecting homework. The university has established a Center for Distance Education, which is funded to support the development by its faculty of multimedia courses for remote delivery. A campus-wide Distance Education Steering Group is fostering the development of new ideas for courses, faculty issues, marketing, and external partnerships.
Many pilot projects are underway in our various academic disciplines.
The university has set the development of distance education as a high priority and faculty are actively encouraged to become involved in this area. During the spring 1997 semester, with support from the university administration, the Department of Biology added new computers, overhead projectors, and multimedia equipment to the major lecture halls and laboratories. The equipment allows faculty to present videos and multimedia demonstrations on lecture hall screens through projection panels. It further allows the use of computer simulations, statistical analysis, modeling, and real time data acquisition and display in lecture hall settings. Coupled with data acquisition hardware and software, it is also making new experiments possible in several laboratory classes.