Multi-Institutional Programs: IT Infrastructure

for Distant and Collaborative Instructional

SupportJaved MostafaAssociate Professor

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USAMay 27th, 2008

Outline

• Current state-of-the-art

• UNC infrastructure

• UNC, SILS goals

• UNC and Al Akhawayn Collaboration

Boundary between online & offline?

* Making the Grade: Online Education in the United States, 2006, The Sloan Consortium

Demand for Online Education• Larger institutions tend to have higher demands

* Making the Grade: Online Education in the United States, 2006, The Sloan Consortium

Demand for Online Education• Demand for undergraduate online course is higher in

larger institutions

* Making the Grade: Online Education in the United States, 2006, The Sloan Consortium

Multi-institutional Collaborations - International

• Several schools in the USA have successful international and domestic inter-institutional programs

Singapore(NUS & NTU)-MIT joint programs are some models

Graduate Distance Education programs Up to  PhD level Originated about 10 years ago (1998) More than joint degree program -- offers opportunities for research and

educational collaborations

More information:http://web.mit.edu/sma/

o In UNC we developed a joint undergraduate program with Singapore, NUS: http://studyabroad.unc.edu/nusjdp/ (since 2007)

Multi-institutional Collaborations -

Domestic Online Consortium• WISE or Web-based Information Science Education is a

successful consortium in the USA which focusses on LIS educationo By the end of 2007 Spring term students from 13

programs have participated in 161 WISE courses

Multi-institutional Collaborations -

Domestic Online Consortium• Relies on an airline industry "excess capacity"

model to make "seats" available to online students enrolling from peer institutions o Students register in their home institution o Students follow calendar and course model of the

host Including synchronous attendance and

residencieso Home institution provide facilities and resources

Long-term Demands

• According to Chief Academic Officers, online education is a strategically critical area for their institutions

* Making the Grade: Online Education in the United States, 2006, The Sloan Consortium

Long-term Demands

• Pew Internet Life survey found between 2000-2005, a 45% increase in the number of teens who used the Internet in school work (about 16 million teens)o About 1 in 5 use the Internet most often when

they are in school

Barriers in delivering effective Online

Education

* Responses from 2,200 colleges and universities, Making the Grade: Online Education in the United States, 2006, The Sloan Consortium

Infrastructure

• Numerous options exist depending on what the institution wishes to accomplish

o Some of the key dimensions are Amount of content and level of support to be delivered

online Synchronous versus asynchronous Archive and reuse Level of interactivity Number of sites involved (two-way versus one-to-

many)

Video - Synchronous

Tandberg 880MXP

UNC Infrastructure Options

• Using Tandberg VTC technology we can do end-to-end live video synchronous class delivery (see break-down)

•  We wish to supplement the above with "class-room" capture and asynchronous support (for post-class delivery of class materials) using Mediasite webcasting

• We can lease capacity from a university partner without the need to purchase and install equipment for live delivery (~$12,000/eight-week session/six-hour each week)

Video-based Synchronous Delivery

• Tandberg 880MXP Codec ................................. $8,377.00• The above is the main compressor decompresser unit

• Computer (PC) .....................................................$659.00• Accessories (mouse & keyboard) ........................$290.00

• NEC P50XP10-BK 50" Plasma Display ...............$2,699.00• Speakers...............................................................$402.00• Accessory (Mount)............................................... $72.81

• Labor and cabling ................................................ $600.00

• Overall, total cost per room................................$12,000

MediaSITE User Interface & Key Functions

Asynchronous Multimedia Delivery

• Mediasite combines lecture and presentation materials (slides) into a single display and aids in delivery o RL440 recorder - can deliver live and record for later

delivery .......................................................... $14,000o Support for above ......................................... $2,900/yearo Distribution server support ........................... $4,500/yearo Local server hardware .................................. $2000

• Cost of recording unit and distribution server support can be shared among partners

• Overall, one-time startup cost is ....................$23,400• Overall, ongoing cost .......................... .......... $7,400/year

UNC- Al Akhawayn Collaboration

• Context and scope of potential collaboration

• Phase I program development

• Resources for program development

• Schedule for implementing Phase I

Deliverables and Targets

• SILS UNC is one of the few highly ranked educational programs which does not have a strong footprint in the distance education sector– We are interested in developing alternative

modalities of teaching• Modules • Courses• Certificates• Degrees

Deliverables and Targets• Potential areas for developing new courses

and training opportunities in the areas of

• Cataloging, reference, collection development, and management

• Digital libraries, digital curation, and information management and administration

• Domain-centric “informatics” courses in the domains of health and finance

Deliverables and Targets

• We are interested in targeting – Students from traditionally underserved areas

• Those pursing professional careers• Those that do not wish to take a complete degree but wish to

be trained in specific areas• Those who do not or cannot re-locate to our institution (even

temporarily)

– Staff or Personnel for newly created libraries in regions where LIS training may be lacking or unavailable

• Founded in 1993, a modern, high-tech based campus, located in a resort area in Morocco about 2 hrs from Rabat

• Primarily undergraduate but fast growing graduate programs

• Some prominent programs• School of Business Administration• School of Science and Engineering• School of Humanities and Social Sciences• Language Center• Center for Academic Development

• The university is a renowned public state university in North America with an established School of Information and Library Science

• Offers four degree programs: BS in information science, MS in LS and IS, and PhD

• Offers joint programs with other disciplines including history, health policy, business, law, and medicine

• Two international programs (summer): Charles University, Prague and Oxford

Scope of Collaboration

• We are interested in a collaboration which has the target of developing a full Master's level degree program

• We would like to take an incremental approach toward that aim and wish to begin with a pilot program

• Pilot program may involve launching two courses during the summer term (starting in June 1st) of 2009 - henceforth referred to as Phase I

• Our goal is to explore multiple delivery modalities in Phase I

Phase I Program Development

• A market survey would be useful to establish potential student demand for taking summer courses in June 2009 and preference for topics

• The survey could involve a meeting with leaders from information services institutions (i.e., stakeholders)o It may also utilize a classic form: sending out

questionnaires to institutions and collecting feedback from them

Phase I Program Development

• Our goal is to have one course delivered in a "classic" format - delivered by an instructor in an Al Akhawayn classroom

• Another course will use “hybrid” format• Face-to-face combined with• Online delivery modality

Phase I Program Development

• “Hybrid" formato The hybrid format will involve students going to a class-

room in Al Akhawayn for a synchronous lecture delivered using distance education technology 

o The lecture will be captured using "class-room capture" technology for later perusal by students and for the provision of student support by instructors

o Training a "local" instructor for Al Akhawayn based support to instructors

o Having an assigned instructor at UNC for the course

Phase I Program Development

• The rationale for the two types of delivery modalities is to be able to compare their effectiveness (with the expectation that the "hybrid" modality will be able to duplicate the effectiveness of the "classic" modality)

• We are interested in the "hybrid" modality at this point because of the following reasons:o Jumping directly to a an asynchronous modality may be

too novel or too burdensome for students o Having two instructors would ease the burden associated

with time-zone difference, extremely large distance, and potential language barriers

Phase I Program Development

• We are fortunate to have colleagues in UNC with strong experience in developing both joint international programs and distance education programs that we are beginning to engage

• Some of the potential UNC partners in the project may include the UNC FedEx Global Education Center, School of Pharmacy, School of Public Health, RENCI, and  the School of Medicine

• We are also highly interested in seeking partnership with foundations and grant-giving institutions such as A. Mellon Foundation, Gates, IMLS, and NSF

Resources for Phase I

• We are beginning to invest some resources on this project that include staff time of Jeff Tibbs, Administrative Associate Dean and me

• We have identified a new doctoral student with strong interest in the area of distance education who has agreed to participate in this projecto The student has been promised a funding package which

includes stipend and tuition-waiver starting in Fall 2008 term

• We have established contacts with funding institutions here in the USA to explore additional sources of funding

Resources for Phase I• We foresee expenses associated with the following items

o Travel to Al Akhawayn - for market study (once), for training the instructors (once), and for the UNC instructor to go there and deliver one course (once)

o Create content and ensure content is "certified" by UNC and Al Akhawayn This would require staff time for at least one semester  (one

faculty course buy-out and one student assistant tuition + stipend) for involvement in two courses

Purchase software and hardware for delivery of the "hybrid" course

Technology for live delivery Technology for "classroom capture"

o Deliver content Instructor at Al Akhawayn (one course) Instructor from UNC (two courses)

    

Schedule for Phase I

• Summer 2008 - Conduct market study: nature of demand, establish profiles of potential students, and topics

• Fall 2008 - Begin creating content for the selected topics and plan the certification/validation process

• Fall 2008 - Potential face to face meeting of instructors/course planners o End of Fall 2008 - begin recruitment of students (?)

• Spring 2009 - Conduct a pre-pilot test of the synchronous modality, classroom-capture technology, and associated support systems

• Spring 2009 - Assessment based on the pre-pilot; refine content and delivery system as needed