Distance learning allows the Cockrell School of Engineering to extend its excellent educational opportunities beyond the confines of its buildings. Given today’s technology, faculty can reach a broader audience. It has also become a necessity for some of today’s busy students, especially those who are not able to attend classes due to schedule conflicts or geographic limitations. Utilizing the distance learning technology of the FIC, students can view the class presentation online at a time of their choosing from a location that is convenient for them. Distance learning also enables the School to offer classes taught from other campuses or universities. The FIC can accommodate distance learning classes in three different ETC classrooms: 5.148, 2.132, and 2.136. Each room has different capabilities and different seating arrangements to allow for a wide variety of events.
ETC 2.132 and 2.136 are technology classrooms with similar recording capabilities. The recording in these rooms results in a streaming Windows Media video file, which is a widely compatible file format. ETC 2.132 seats 38 people. ETC 2.136 can accommodate an audience of 94. Scheduling for these rooms is done through the Office of the Registrar.
If a live webcast is needed for an event or class, the FIC can accommodate it with our distance learning classroom, ETC 5.148. This room seats 35 people and features an interactive whiteboard and flat-panel plasma monitors for display of presentations. The online viewing audience will see and hear a video of the presenter as well as a full-resolution slideshow of the presentation, all within one Internet browser window. Presenters wear a tiny microphone to ensure excellent sound quality and ceiling microphones can record sound from the audience if desired.
Any combination of multimedia sources can be displayed through the webcast, including personal laptop computers, document cameras, DVD’s, etc.
Professors sometimes find it useful to record “make-up” classes ahead of time if they know they will need to miss class for some reason. They can simply direct the class to watch the video online rather than missing valuable class time.
This room also features video conference capabilities.
For scheduling ETC 5.148, and for all other distance learning or video conferencing needs, contact Jack Prather at jack.prather@engr.utexas.edu or at 232-1531.