Short Features

Like many professors today. David Watt is caught up in Web technology. After teaching a pilot course in engineering on the Internet last semester, he is cautiously optimistic about the success of online classrooms.

Dave Watt is on a roll, talking nonstop to his computer. Or so it seems. He sits alone in his office, expounding on thermal boundary layers, solid body conduction, viscous friction and molecular-level transport. Deftly, he maneuvers the computer mouse as he speaks, zapping the blue arrow on his screen from one corner to another of the displayed diagram. When he pauses for breath, he asks if there are questions. Apparently, someone, somewhere, is listening.

"You sort of feel like a radio disc jockey," says Watt, associate professor of mechanical engineering. He adjusts his headset. Pauses. Then, at the sound of the beep, he takes his first question from Jeff Hall, a student in Manchester, N.H. Watt's twice-weekly "show," Mechanical Engineering 895, has a select audience of eight, who sign on from their own computers at different locations. But they are faithful listeners. They have to be. They are tuning in for credit.

UNH's College of Engineering and Physical Sciences launched its cybereducation pilot with a simple goal: to see if it worked. Aptly dubbed the Far View program, the effort has demanded vision and patience. "We had some technical difficulties," acknowledges Kent Chamberlin, who taught the first course last spring. "But we hammered out most of the kinks. And we've pretty much come to the conclusion that it works."

None too soon, according to Chamberlin, who is a passionate advocate of the cyber-classroom. "There's a tidal wave—a tsunami if you will—of universities using this approach," says the professor of electrical engineering. "We don't want to get left out." In fact, UNH was the first college in the region to offer this sort of live, instructor-led, online course. If the pilot is successful, the college plans to allow students to obtain complete professional degrees within the program.

Yet many people still find the idea of earning a degree without ever setting foot in a classroom completely unappealing. Chamberlin attributes this skepticism in part to the fact that some universities pursue distance learning as a sort of "cash cow." The recipe is simple: one professor plus thousands of (paying) students who can sign on anywhere in the world, equals a substantial profit. Already, this approach has sparked student controversy and complaints at some schools.

Chamberlin is quick to distinguish this mass-marketing approach, complete with virtually invisible teachers, from the more intimate, carefully tailored approach UNH is taking. Done right, he argues, classes online can be even better than a regular classroom. He ticks off a few advantages he discovered during his semester teaching in cyberspace. "With distance education, everybody gets a front-row experience," says Chamberlin, who in traditional classes has had to move students in trouble to the front of the room to improve their learning experience. With Far View, he points out, everyone has the materials and the professor right at hand.

Students can also ask questions anonymously, which encourages some who might otherwise remain silent. And the slides displayed on the Internet allow much more detail than the quick sketching done on the spot on a blackboard. "Instead of spending my time writing," says Chamberlin. "I can spend time explaining. Also, students can print out all the material, rather than taking arduous notes."

The most obvious benefit, perhaps, is that students can take the course from anywhere in the world. Not only is this a help to, say, a northern New Hampshire resident who can't make the three-hour commute to Durham, it also enables professionals to attend class during business trips. "I've had people log in from different cities during the semester," says Chamberlin. "They were able to keep up with the class, even though they were traveling."

Indeed, the Far View program is designed, in part, to provide a link to business and industry in New Hampshire. "Industry leaders throughout the state are interested in continuing graduate education for their employees," says Roy Torbert, dean of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences. "Far View will help make this a reality."

Challenges remain, of course. Both Chamberlin and Watt acknowledge that the preparation time to create the slides, for example, is immense—about seven hours per class. And there are still, occasionally, technical difficulties.

When Watt logs on for one of his Monday night mechanical engineering classes, he begins by asking if everyone can hear him. He waits. Silence. The cyber-prof hits a few keys, makes some adjustments, and tries again. "If you can hear me, would you please raise your hand." He eyes the list of student names displayed on his screen, looking for the icon, listening for the affirmative beep. Finally, he makes contact. Somewhere in cyberspace, someone is listening.

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