An Integrated Approach to Local/Distant Mathematics

Instruction

Brief Background:

Program started with several NSF projects– Needed for distance learning, dissemination

Investigated whether systematic DL in mathematics can work at UK– economics must make sense– infrastructure requirements– human resources requirements– faculty interest required

Underlying Realities:•With our current level of experience the initial presentations of a mathematics Distance Learning course require about four times the resources per student ascomparable on-campus courses,

•UK currently funds DL instruction on a per studentbasis of 63% of tuition,

Tuition for 3 hr course:

UK (i.s) UK (o.s) U. of Phoenix*

GRD $450 $900 $1380

UGRD $300 $1320 $1095

* 5 week “online” course, 20 hrs/wk with 2-3 hrs of connect-time (brief upload/download sessions)

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Allocation of UK DL Tuition

Central Admin 30% DL Prgms

17.5% Instruction

52.5%

Instructional Funds per Student (in-state) for 3 hr DL course at UK

Undergraduate: $157.50– $2362.50 for 15 student course

– (15 is a large DL math course) Graduate: $231.72

– $3475.80 for 15 student course

Conclusion:

DL feasible only at supplemental rates (i.e only as an auxiliary activity to the on-campus instructional program),

No funding for senior faculty program development,

Our approach determined by:

Severe economic constraint,

Several years of experiment

Initial DL Courses:

Shower curtain

Ancient borrowed“elmo”

Last second hardware fix

Undergraduateassistant

Instructor

phone

Live session:

Home camcorder “control room”

In Our Early DL Experiments we

Observed:

We were basically talking to VCR’s. People need DL because the time they have to invest in education is available at random

Students tended to cluster together in small groups to work on course material

The communications technology the distant students were using was virtually identical to that being used as instructional technology on campus

Basic Assumptions for DL: Traditional format provides the optimal

instructional experience, Primary objective in distant instruction is to

provide the same experience to remote students as that afforded on-campus,

Distant and local students will have essentially the same electronic communication and computation environments,

Individual distant students will participate on schedules tailored to their individual needs

General Strategy:

Model DL as a metaphor for the well-understood lecture recitation format

Use the identity of DL and local instructional technology to integrate programs so that development and faculty costs are shared,

Use supplemental income from DL to support graduate students who provide the additional teaching services to distant students.

Any course has two primary features which must have DL analogs

Entertainment– lecture, web page, text, etc.– scales (essentially) indefinitely– DL can provide very large scale factor

Service– student consultation, evaluation– certification– does not scale– DL requires fractional scale factor ( ½)

( twice the cost per student)

Try the easy part first:

See if we can make the lectures work

Local/Distant Lectures Faculty prepare lectures in advance and they

are recorded in ITV studio– lectures take huge amount of time to prepare– must be done with prepared slides– blackboard not systematically feasible– lectures have very high information density– less need for repetition when they can be replayed– Doesn’t work well to record in-class lectures if they

involve technical details (expository lectures work well)

Numerous Formats Possible Compressed video Direct broadcast tv tape CD/DVD netcast

– cheapest– most flexible– fewest dissemination problems– smallest bandwidth– least developed

In addition to Faculty, DL lectures require substantial:

Staff Resources– production and post-production– most can be done by advanced students– must work closely with faculty

Technical Infrastructure– production and distribution

Resources to build on: Large, strong faculty with ability to recruit,

serve, and effectively employ graduate teaching assistants,

Excellent campus-wide communications infrastructure,

Excellent administrative support from College and V.P for Information Systems

Math Sciences organization with Extensive experience in distance learning and computer communications

Math Sciences DL Staff Infrastructure (Fall 1998):

P ro d u c tion(S tu de n t S ta ff)

D e ve lop m e nt(S tu de n t S ta ff)

S o ftw are an d C o m m un icatio ns(p rofessio na l m an ag er)

P ro d u c tion(S tu de n t S ta ff)

F a c ilit ie sS tu de n t S ta ff

F acilities and Pro du ction(p rofessio na l m an ag er)

Faculty Director

Student post-production staff and senior staff mentor/supervisor

Liu, chemistry graduate student

Dan, senior staff andcommunications graduate student

Kathryn, math graduate student

Senior Hardware Specialist (Mike)

Math Sciences DL Communications Infrastructure

LibraryCampus High Speed Network

Classroom Building

Faculty, staff offices

World

Internet

Math SciencesInstructional Labs , ITV Classroom

New very high speed R&D network

The basic Model

Lectures for a regularly scheduled class are moved to a DL classroom/studio

Lectures recorded electronically,

Instructional visuals (slides, sketches, computer screen images captured dynamically)

Current Studio (built ca. 1985)

Not needed for Algebra Talk

Lectures are edited at the desktop by faculty, staff, graduate student team

Supplemental audio and video clips, links previous classes added, class web page edited, etc.

High speed Math Sciences Network and DL Studio make this possible

Computer/DL Staff Desktop

Graduate TA Desktop

Math SciencesVideo Server

Faculty Desktop

Digital DL Studio

Campus Network

Students in Labs and LibrariesHave Access to Edited Lectures and Integrated Software on DemandVideo Server

LABS

Library

Internet

student

studentstudent

student

student

Open lab facilities in library

40+ stations inthis facility

Earphones

Library is “distant” enough to simulate

“D” in DLDorm ComplexLibraryView from faculty,

staff office building

Studio, developmentlabs, and most mathclassrooms

Development Program Home Page: www.ms.uky.edu/classes

Calculus CourseExperiment

Information

Overview of the current experiment

Ma123 - 3 semester hour, general studies calculus course

Experiment involves 3 of 30 fall 1998 sections - initially about 75 students– students did not volunteer

Experimental Intro Calculus Course

Syllabus

Text:HTML and colorPostscript

Course VideoPage

Individual Lectures

Lecture Segments

Course VideoPage (cont.)

Review forTest 2

Chapter 12Lecture (multiple segments)

Solutions toExam 2

Access toWeb pages with orwithoutvideo

Video lecturesynchronizedwith web pages

HTML Index

“Lecture Diagram”

Web Page

“Click and Clack”Model with twolecturers

Narrated explanationof text example

Students particularly likebrief, annotated, “step by step” clips

“Interaction” withLecture (“Click and Clack” model)

There are frequentbreaks where studentswork are asked to workon a problem beforecontinuing

Break Problem

Interaction: is essential component of “web outline with video” format

Student initiatesbrief topicalvideo from withinweb page

Page is based onbook organization

Textbook Concerns:

Intellectual Property– What portion of a text can be posted to web?– Homework problems? (solutions?)– Does “fair use” extend to cases when non students

have access? Wanted web version of text for easy reference Wanted to tie lectures closely to text by using

text organization for lectures. Wanted to be able to adapt course in light of

experience

Resolution: Adapted a “GNU License” text prepared by

Neal Koblitz of University of Washington Original source in AMSTeX Moved to LaTeX in Calculus and ATE

projects - LaTeX source on dissemination “CHISEL” CD’s from those projects.

Moved LaTeX source to Maple Worksheet format then exported various version:

All figures in text were converted to Maple Graphics

Multiple versions of text then generated from Maple source

Idea developed by Carl Eberhart

Uses PERL file manipulation scripts to organize multiple worksheets into books

Generate indices “colorize” graphics methods shared in

workshop format

Multiple Documents Derived from Single Source Document

HTML (full color and graphics from web) On-line formatted text (Color Postscript to

be viewed directly or downloaded from web) “Live Text” (complete text in form of computer

algebra text - text calculations and graphics can be calculated directly by student or teacher).

“Lecture Slide” version for in-class and video “Hard copy” inexpensive student text and

workbooks (In principle) changes in source produce changes in

other materials making adaptation easy.

HTML Version of Text

Viewed with any web browser (e.g. Netscape)

Hyper-text Index

Full color

PostscriptVersion of Text

Traditional Book Formatwith full index, graphics

From exported LaTeX

Also online

Inexpensive Student TextPocket book size,Retained byStudent

Cost about $10

Elaborate graphicsin electronic versions

Local versioneach course ifdesired.

Produced from Postscript version

“Live (interactive) Worksheet Text

Computer Calculations done and graphics created directly from text

Video/Slide VersionText directly edited to produce lecture slides and web pages for videos

Experience to Date in MA123 Major problem is student compliance

– Large number (50%) do not view lectures– attendance not enforced directly– these students dropped out very quickly

Students who do comply do very well– high grades, student morale,

Recitation format is enjoyable for faculty– time for remedial work– animated classes– recitations themselves don’t require that much work

Production : (Faculty Perspective) Video lectures take a very large amount of time

to prepare and deliver– figure 5 hours per class hour (initial production)

Job can be shared - no need for one person to do them all

Relatively simple to supplement lectures– review sheets– test solutions– makes it simple to “personalize” recitation sections

Consensus:

Lectures will work lecture load can be shared among multiple

instructors lectures can be improved incrementally some component of the course is needed to

reinforce compliance

Next Steps: Remote services

Spring 1999 with small number of Ma123 students

“Distant Office Hours” Will use conferencing software such as MS

Netmeeting to talk to students in the study rooms in the library.

Open path to distant recitation sections using same technology in fall 1999.

DL Students view lectures electronically

Tape, CD, DVD, TV, Netcast, etc.

Formal appearance same as for on campus students viewing in labs or library

Typically in small groups

Exchanging Mathematics Using Maple or TeX Source Documents

Student computer

text file

email

text file

Teacher Computer

Real Time Application Sharing

Student computer Teacher computer

InternetInternet

Small group discussion and office hours are

handled primarily via electronic conferencing

Internet

Spring 1999 Experiment

Small group study rooms in library used to model distant student environment

Conference directly with faculty office

Small study rooms serve as metaphors for “home” environment

18 Rooms with computer, table and chairs, and marking surface

Signs say “Reserved for MA123”

Connected to faculty, TA, staff offices by high speed network

Now

Soon

Conferencing Capability

“Course Packaging” Write lectures, web pages, communications

software to CD (DVD) Experience in doing so developed with CHISEL

project Prepare Ma 123 distribution in summer 1999 for

use on campus in Fall 1999 Intellectual Property Issues:

– faculty/UK ownership– control

CHISEL CD System:Standard communications environment and materials distribution

CHISEL System

CD format, Contains all material distribution form and

in source, Contains all formatting software and viewers

which can be freely distributed (system does install),

establishes common communications environment among all users.

DVD System under development:

Contains complete (updated) CHISEL environment

complete materials in source with formatting software

Complete set of lectures (20 hours) coordinated with web pages

Cross-indexed among courses– permits packaging of prerequisite materials– permits production of programs rather than

simple courses

Concurrent development in `99:

Second Iteration of Ma 123

– development philosophy: improve by iteration

– no “final version” dissemination program:

– tools, production methodology

– ma375 (Communicating Mathematics)

– ma503 (Summer workshop series) Other courses:

– PDE (sp. 1999)

– Ma162 (sp. 1999)

3 Week Summer Workshop Programfor teachers

Building text materials

Ma 375/503

Dissemination of techniques, methodology,

Develop graduate and undergraduate staff and teaching assistants

Math 375:

Communicating Mathematics

Department of MathematicsUniversity of Kentucky

Tools for electronically sharing mathematical ideas