The program will consist of some classes taught at each campus and of courses taught to the nine campuses simultaneously. The core classes will be based in Knoxville where professors will be broadcasted to the eight satellite campuses, four in Tennessee, four in Virginia, with two-way audio and video technology. Each classroom has two monitors and camera and microphone equipment. One monitor will show whoever is speaking or asking a question at any of the nine locations and the other screen will display graphs or lecture notes, University Education and Distance Director John Howard Payne III said, who is in charge of equipping the classrooms in Virginia. The transmissions will be almost instantaneous and the video will only be slightly jerky.
Students do have the option to accelerate the program and complete it in less time.
One factor that makes this program unique is students attending Virginia schools will actually obtain a degree from Tennessee. U.Va. is just a vehicle. University campuses in Charlottesville, Hampton Roads, Falls Church and Roanoke will serve as the four connections to Tennessee. In many distance education programs, the connection between teacher and students is accomplished via satellite, but Virginia and Tennessee opted for a terrestrial connection to allow for two-way communication and to ensure only the nine campuses would be in the program, Payne said. With the satellite programs, anyone with a satellite dish can receive the signals, but not all can send transmissions back, making teacher-student interaction impossible, he said.