UB Opens Fiber-Optic, Interactive Distance-Learning Lab

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo has opened its first fiber-optic, real-time, distance-learning classroom.

Located in 200G Baldy Hall on UB's North Campus, it is a completely interactive, full-motion, video learning and conferencing center.

The $160,000 facility was funded and developed principally by a consortium made up of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Office of the Provost and Graduate School of Education. It is available for use by any UB academic department.

The first course to be offered live via the new facility will be a graduate course on public-school finance to be taught by Austin Swanson, professor and chair in the Department of Educational Administration, Organization and Policy in the Graduate School of Education. Graduate students will participate in the class via distance-learning labs at Pioneer High School in Arcade and Franklin Elementary School in Olean.

The special classroom, linked to a satellite site in Bell Hall, was designed and implemented by Engineering Computer Services under the supervision of Lisa Stephens, lead technician on the project.

It is designed to accommodate the needs of EngiNet, the state-wide learning network that connects SUNY engineering schools with one another and with industries throughout the state.

Engineering classes for up to 45 students are now produced in the Baldy lab and distributed under the auspices of EngiNet to the SUNY universities at Stony Brook and Binghamton and the SUNY College at New Paltz, all of which have engineering departments. UB receives tapes of classes taught at the other SUNY institutions.

Currently, four EngiNet courses are offered through the new lab, taught by Christina Bloebaum, Ph.D., and Joseph Mook, Ph.D., assistant professor and associate professor, respectively, in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Cemalettin Basaran, Ph.D., assistant professor of civil engineering, and John Zahorjan, adjunct professor of industrial engineering.

"The new lab also links with the campus-wide cable system, so that information can be broadcast into different classrooms and dormitories," said Corky Brunskill, director of Engineering Computer Services.

Associate Provost Sean Sullivan said the lab is part of the provost's Educational Technology Action Plan, which focuses on the university's goals in the rapidly evolving field of educational technology.

"The lab is a prototypical site that employs several different kinds of distance-learning technologies and involves coordination among different faculties with different needs," Sullivan explained.

"It will let us get our feet wet by studying different distance-learning technologies, teaching approaches and the demand for various methods by various schools and faculties," he added.

The Baldy Hall learning facility resembles UB's first real-time distance learning site, the Roswell Park Distance Learning Lab located in the basement of Abbott Hall on the South Campus.

Both are "synchronous" learning labs. That is, students and instructor at all connected sites are visible and audible to one another, making real-time class instruction and discussion possible across the miles. On-screen digital data, slides, overhead projections and other visual materials also can be broadcast live.

The Abbott Hall site , which does not involve fiber optics, has been used to teach, among other things, UB's nurse practitioner graduate-degree program to students in the Southern Tier at a learning site in Olean. Many of the enrolled nurses are in their fifth semester of study.

David Ellis, M.D., associate professor of medicine and chair of UB's campus-wide distance learning committee, said an investigation is underway regarding use of that lab for the preceptorship phase of the nurse practitioner's program. Physician preceptors or mentors, using a portable broadcast system, will broadcast live to the students, allowing them to question patients and develop diagnostic experience.

Thomas Shuell, professor of education and director of the Center for Educational Resources and Technologies in the Graduate School of Education, explained that the Abbott Hall lab, which opened in 1995 and has been upgraded several times since, operates with ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) technology, a synchronous system that is relatively slow and relies on point-to-point connections.

Shuell and Ellis pointed out ISDN-operated labs can connect to phone-in sites all over the world, but, as sites are added, Shuell said visual quality can deteriorate, depending on the number of telephone lines dedicated to the system.

The Baldy lab has ISDN capability, but also is part of a fiber-optic network of 24 Western New York learning facilities stations designed for simultaneous interactive broadcast among only three or four sites. Fiber-optic connections provide much greater speed and broadcast-quality visuals. Communication, however, is limited to other sites on its fiber-optic system.

The new Baldy lab is part of the Erie I BOCES system called "Project Connect," which includes 24 sites, including those at BOCES locations, Buffalo State College and 11 Western New York school districts.

The BOCES system has been up an running for some time and UB faculty have taught courses through a lab in the Williamsville School District, making otherwise inaccessible classes available to rural, suburban and city school districts on the system. More than 30 additional sites are slated to be added to the BOCES network this year, with dozens more scheduled for connection with two years. It's expected the system eventually will expand statewide and to sites across the U.S.