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University of South Florida Nurses Video Conferencing Onto the Internet
12/11/2001
Students participating in video conference-enabled distance-learning courses meet at designated sites near their homes or businesses. For instance, nursing students may gather at the hospital that employs them rather than travel for an hour or more to reach USF. Polycom’s MCU connects USF to community colleges, hospitals, and other venues around the state. “We rely on Florida’s 28 community colleges to help us deliver distance learning,” Rejniak says. “And video conferencing is the distance-learning format of choice for them.”
More than 35 percent of USF’s distance-learning courses implemented video conferencing last year, making it one of the most important tools the program uses. Outside of the classroom, however, researchers and administrators are also finding uses for video conferencing. One of USF’s prominent marine biologists is using video conferencing to collaborate with a colleague at the University of Hawaii on a project to study the impact of shark attacks on submarine cables. USF and the Universidad del Norte in Colombia have developed an ongoing collaboration using video conferencing to help the South American institution implement many of the technology tools USF has adopted. And administrators at the four USF campuses have found video conferencing to be a valuable tool, using dedicated IP-based video conferencing rooms to meet with one another.
Currently, USF offers three degree programs completely off-site: master’s programs in engineering and public health and advanced degrees in nursing. During the next few years, USF hopes to increase the number of complete distance-learning degree programs.
“Portability is very important to us,” Rejniak says. “Being able to literally pack up the equipment into a briefcase and take it to where it is needed gives us the flexibility we need to develop new applications and programs as we need them.”
For more information, contact Lynn Rejniak at rejniak@admin.usf.edu.
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