Early in 1997, eight TCRCs are to be on line in communities around the state with potential for additional sites. A TCRC is a distance education and information-sharing facility equipped to receive and transmit live, interactive video, sound and data to and from any other similarly equipped facility, regardless of location. It is a place where people can come to participate, learn and access an electronic window on the world.
Telecommunications can eliminate geography as a barrier to obtaining that knowledge and information.
The Poplar Bluff TCRC has been open since December 1993. The facility was upgraded in 1995 to serve the citizens of southeast Missouri and to provide a place where citizens interested in becoming acquainted with distance learning can see a TCRC in operation. Poplar Bluff's first 22 master's degree nurse practitioners will complete their two-year program and graduate in December 1996. The graduate nursing program has been provided by the UM-St. Louis School of Nursing.