Using Interactive Video Conferencing for Multi-Institution, Team-Teaching

Abstract

The use of interactive video conferencing (IVC) and related technologies to teach courses over the Internet is becoming more common. The typical model for a distance-learning course is a single instructor teaches students distributed in remote locations connected via IVC technology and a web-based learning management system to facilitate interactions. Our approach extends this model to include several instructors co-located with students at multiple locations (three locations in our case: Utah State University, the University of Utah, and Brigham Young University, who partnered to develop and offer a new, joint course on hydroinformatics to predominantly civil engineering graduate students at the three partner universities). The course was offered in the Fall 2012 semester to 28 students. This paper describes the novel approaches used in the course, the challenges and benefits associated with the use of IVC technology across multiple universities, the effectiveness of IVC for student learning, and the complications and benefits of having multiple instructors. Novel approaches include having separate instructors and assessment at each site while sharing course content, live lectures, and discussion forums. Challenges identified include originating content from multiple locations, building rapport with remote students, communicating effectively within a multiple-classroom environment, engaging local and remote students, stimulating critical thinking during lectures and demonstrations, and addressing different institutional regulations and students at each university. Benefits include the efficiency of involving multiple instructors through IVC and sharing their combined knowledge and expertise with students at different universities. Students were surveyed at the midpoint of the semester and after the course concluded to solicit their assessment of the effectiveness of course content and delivery techniques. Instructors self-assessed the course conduct at the midpoint and conclusion to reflect on the effectiveness of course materials, delivery techniques, and student learning. We used the results gathered in this initial offering to identify areas to improve the delivery in subsequent offerings using this new team teaching IVC model. Specifically, we concluded the need to increase active learning and critical thinking when using IVC and to vary learning activities to include non-IVC elements and individual institution elements. Interactive Video Conferencing The use of IVC for engineering and pre-college engineering education is not new nor is the assessment of its effectiveness. Numerous distance education courses make use of IVC and textbooks have been written with sections on the topic. Moreover, there has been a recent proliferation of web-based courses offered for free (so-called Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, such as Edx, Coursera, OpenCourseWare). For example, Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/) has offered more than 300 courses from more than 50 universities to millions of students. Like its predecessor, instructional television, IVC has typically been used to distribute instruction from one instructor to multiple sites. This breadth approach has been lauded as a cost-efficient way to distribute traditional lectures and increase access for students at remote locations. In the case of the hydroinformatics course described in this paper, we took the approach of involving multiple instructors through synchronous team teaching. Rather than one-to-many, we adopted a many-to-many approach where course sessions were divided among several instructors and each instructor took a lead teaching role at various times according to the objectives for that session and the expertise of the instructor. All instructors were also present in the classroom regardless of whether they were leading that session or not and engaged students at each location simultaneously through IVC. This synchronous, team teaching approach is a novel use of IVC and particularly well-suited to the interdisciplinary nature of this course. Synchronous, team teaching has likely been part of previous distance education courses but the engineering education literature has yet to describe, assess, or recommend best practices to promote student learning. Several past studies have assessed the effectiveness of IVC technology in general for distance education or collaboration. One study concluded the effectiveness, in terms of increased attention, is dependent on the characteristics of the material being presented and the quality of the speakers making the presentation. A meta-analysis comparing academic performances of distance education students relative to those in traditional settings over a 20year period indicated that the probability of attaining higher learning outcomes, as determined by final course grades, is greater in the online environment than in the face-to-face environment. Studies have also focused on particular areas of IVC that influence learning effectiveness including interactions. Numerous past applications of IVC for engineering education have blended IVC with other learning activities and teaching techniques to accomplish course learning objectives. In one example, the instructors used IVC as a communication method for team projects. Overall, the literature on the use of IVC for engineering education is extensive, and even more so for distance education in general. However, the use in courses team taught with multiple instructors offered simultaneously at multiple institutions is limited. IVC in the course described in this paper involved simultaneous two-way video and audio communication connecting classrooms via internet protocol (IP) at the three participating universities. The core technology relies on digital compression of audio and video streams in real time and used H.264/MPEG 4 video-coding standards. The universities shared a multiple control unit (MCU), routing, and scheduling was facilitated by the Utah Education Network. Course sessions were also recorded centrally and made available for asynchronous viewing over the online common learning management system (LMS). To facilitate student engagement during class time, the course operated with continuous presence, meaning all classrooms could be seen on the screen at the same time, rather than switching based on voice activation or manually. The IVC capabilities varied across institutions, from temporary equipment to a new building installation. The remainder of the paper describes the course offered and the assessment of the effectiveness of IVC for synchronous, team teaching.