In Instructional Media Services, we're taking distance education far beyond correspondence courses—or even classes taken totally on the Internet.

We maintain a fully equipped electronic classroom and supporting control room. Students and professors at opposite ends of the state interact in real time with all the benefits of eye contact and vocal inflection.

In the classroom, three wall-mounted video cameras cover the 24 students and the teacher. We pan, tilt, and zoom these cameras according to the needs of the class. If a student has a question for a "distant" professor, for instance, we zoom in on that student. Showing him on a big screen makes it the next best thing to being there. Of course, monitors for both local and distant sites surround the classroom.

A fourth camera, ELMO, is dedicated to documents and two-dimensional objects. This camera is controlled by the professor. Some faculty members use it as a new-fangled blackboard and write as they lecture. Some require students to use the document camera to show visual support materials in their presentations.

We also have a networked computer hooked into the system. Showing a PowerPoint presentation or hooking up to the Internet is easy. Talk about having the world at your fingertips! Use the Web to enhance your lecture.

Even though our control room is physically off to the side, it's really the center of the operation. Through it we do everything from riding microphone levels to downlinking satellite feeds. It's where we record classroom events and performances, playback videotapes, and even superimpose our IU South Bend logo. Our routing switcher combined with our video switcher gives us a great deal of flexibility in who sees what and where.

Would you like to teach a distance class? The technology isn't nearly as intimidating as it might seem. Joe or Kathleen would be delighted to show you what's available.

Would you like to take a distance class? You'll be getting an educational extra if you do. Videoconferencing is a technology—and a skill—of the future. By taking a distance class, you'll develop valuable, real-world experience.