Big network on campus

Communications News, May, 1998

Northern Arizona University's distance-learning network provides two-way, broadcast-quality video and audio.

"The state is your campus." That's what the state of Arizona told Northern Arizona University (NAU) in 1983. It gave the school a charter to provide undergraduate and graduate programs to time-bound and place-bound citizens throughout Arizona. The only exceptions were Maricopa County, home of Arizona State University, and Pima County, where the main campus of the University of Arizona is located.

NAU responded by having professors crisscross the state by car and later bought an airplane to ferry instructors to remote sites. When those modes of transportation became too time-consuming and expensive, they turned to technology.

In 1992, working with Tandberg, the university began the construction of an interactive distance-learning network, called NAUNet. "We wanted a network with far more capabilities than the typical distance-learning system that just provides one-way audio and video broadcast with audio return," says Paul Neuman, director of TV Services and one of the architects of NAUNet. "We required a voice-activated system with two-way, broadcast-quality video and audio."

The school also needed a system that could integrate analog and digital transmissions without experiencing the audio and video delays that may occur when these signals are mixed. A combined analog and digital system could take advantage of the relative cost advantages of T1 facilities in metropolitan areas like Tucson, Phoenix, and Flagstaff, and analog facilities in rural areas. Even though NAU's requirements were stringent, the NAUNet network exceeds the school's expectations for ease of use.

At some sites, NAUNet supplements the instruction delivered by the on-site facility; at others, it is the primary means of instruction. NAUNet uses Tandberg's Codec 3000 product to display split screen images from multiple cameras as one stacked image on a single large monitor.

In addition to live television, several learning media are used on the network--films, compact discs, software, CDROMs, document cameras and laser discs--to supplement and enhance instruction. The Internet is also incorporated into the video interface of NAUNet.

Before they participate in the interactive program, professors receive in-depth training that teaches them how to use the equipment and integrate it successfully into their teaching. Students see an orientation tape on the first day of class that explains the use of the microphone and the video camera. To ensure that distance learning is as close to face-to-face teaching as possible, NAU requires that all NAUNet courses be given with students present in the classroom where the instructor is teaching.

Classes in NAUNet can originate from anywhere in the network. The NAUNet system now links classrooms in NAU's main campus in Flagstaff, its academic center in Yuma and other NAU locations, 10 community colleges, five rural school districts, Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, Native American reservations, two state agencies, and the Arizona legislature.

Students and professors seem to adapt quickly to the technology. For instance, students sitting in the front of the room often forget to use the microphone. Students at other sites quickly remind their peers to speak into it. Professors also have the option of taping individual classes for review by students who miss class.

The faculty can teach classes in person at any one of the locations participating in a NAUNet course. Most professors in the program teach at three to four sites during a given course, although one professor is planning to teach at all 15 sites during his spring semester course.

NAUNet classes operate each semester, from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Friday and nine hours on Saturday. NAUNet provides 70 to 80 three-hour courses per semester, with an average of 17 courses per site. Classrooms adapted or built for NAUNet use range in capacity from 18 to 90 students.

NAUNet is the backbone of the NAU Community College Arizona Partnership Plan and its 2 Plus 2 program. This program lets students attend community colleges for the first two years of undergraduate work. Through this same interactive network, they can finish their undergraduate degree and even take graduate courses.

Because of its popularity, NAUNet is expanding the system regularly. This past January, NAUNet completed installation of four new Codec 3000s.

The University of Arizona medical school is using NAUNet to provide Masters of Public Health degrees to students in remote areas. One of its professors is also giving a course in the Hopi language to high-school students in danger of losing knowledge of their native language.

Earlier this year, NAU set up its own interactive C-Span at the Arizona legislature. Individuals and groups from all over the state can give testimony in hearings and listen to sessions and committee meetings.

Constantly expanding NAUNet's reach, NAU is exploring the possibility of connecting it with the distance-learning systems of contiguous states. NAUNet and its use of distance-learning technology is truly fulfilling its promise of creating Arizona's electronic classroom.