WKU Interactive TV Courses
Set Record
July 04, 2003
Bowling Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University's Interactive Television program has set records again during its 19th year of continuous operation.
During fiscal year 2002-03, 116 courses were offered reaching more than 2,300 extended campus students through interactive television. Both figures are records for WKU. The increase in courses offered reflects an increase of more than 27 percent from the previous year, with extended campus enrollment up more than 31 percent, according to Jerry Barnaby, director of Educational Telecommunications.
Interactive Television (ITV) consists of specially equipped classrooms with complete audio and video systems allowing an instructor and students in one location to be seen and heard in a "real-time" classroom setting by students in similarly equipped classrooms at distant sites. WKU has multiple ITV classrooms on the main campus and at the extended campuses in Owensboro, Glasgow and Elizabethtown/Fort Knox.
In 2003, new ITV classrooms were constructed in Glasgow and on the main campus in Tate Page Hall. These bring the total of WKU owned and operated ITV classrooms to 16 with partnerships in two additional rooms in Taylor and Russell counties.
The Office of Interactive Distance Education (IDE) has responsibility for constructing, scheduling and maintaining the ITV classrooms. Also, the ITV rooms are available for educational, business and government videoconferences. In addition to the WKU courses for the past year, IDE coordinated and facilitated more than 100 videoconferences.
The IDE office will soon be located in the new Mass Media and Technology Hall on the Bowling Green campus. The new building will include two additional ITV classrooms and a new interactive videoconference room. With the growth of this operation and another increase in courses for the fall 2003 term, the future of Interactive Television at Western Kentucky University appears very positive, Barnaby said.
Interactive Distance Education is a part of Educational Telecommunications under the division of Information Technology. For more information, contact Barnaby at 1-800-599-2424, or email jerry.barnaby@wku.edu.
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