Sat Nov 07 2009
New technology at Kentucky State University takes on-line classes a step further, giving students access to lessons from anywhere.
Video-based classes at KSU's aquaculture program allow students to download lessons to computers and MP3 players.
Aquaculture Multimedia Producer Tod Porter said the school started online classes in 2002 and decided to move to a video-based format in 2005.
"We started experimenting some (with video technology) and decided we could do a pretty good job with it," Porter said.
Digitally recorded lessons are converted into MPEG files, allowing students to download them through a section of Apple's iTunes music store, then load the lessons onto their portable video players.
Launched in 2007, iTunes U allows colleges to upload content for students' use. The site is used by more than 30 universities nationwide, including Yale, Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The department currently offers one video-based class, Principles of Aquaculture, and is preparing to launch a second one for the upcoming summer semester. The aquaculture staff is currently in production on a third class, scheduled to premiere in the summer of 2009.
The classes are not only for KSU students, Porter said. Students at other universities can take them and transfer the credit to their schools. Professionals in aquaculture also take classes to learn more about specialized areas of study.
Students from Canada, South America, Africa and other places around the world have enrolled in the program.
"Most people would get a degree somewhere else and they're coming to us for very specialized content," Porter said.
Aquaculture professor James Tidwell said the lessons are more personal than typical on-line classes.
"This livens it up, to not just have links to written pages and links to other Web sites but to be able to basically sit there just like they were one of the students here and have a lecture from a live human it really seems to personalize it for the students," Tidwell said.
KSU graduate student David Woods said he likes the technology because he can study when he is away from home.
"You can do it anywhere," Woods said. "If you're on a bus or a long commute, you can listen to the lectures."
Changes in teaching are necessary to adapt to a new generation of students, Tidwell said.
"It's kind of a video generation these days, you've got to consider your clientele," Tidwell said. "Try to get (information) to them in a way that they're going to want to participate."
Tidwell said the video-based classes sometimes encourage more interaction between students and faculty than traditional classes.
"Students these days are so comfortable with e-mail that there's quite a few studies that say (video classes are) actually more interactive (than traditional classes) because they're less inhibited about asking questions," Tidwell said. "They may not raise their hand in class but they'll shoot you an e-mail in a second."
Although other universities post lectures on-line, Tidwell said KSU is unique in the way it packages the video content.
"I don't think anybody else is doing this, the Berkley's or the MIT's or anything, as far as having video edited down that's got action video cut into it," Tidwell said.
"If I talk about large mouth bass production its not just a picture, we've got video that we shot out on the farms actually cut into the lectures."
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