State of the Art:

Distance Education via the Internet

Want to enroll in a cutting edge Harvard Extension School course without having to fight for a parking space near the Science Center--or without having to commute at all? More than half a dozen students currently enrolled in Leonard Evenchik's course, CSCI E-131b Communication Protocols and Internet Architectures, are doing just that. Living in such distant states as Colorado, Pennsylvania, and California, as well as such far-away countries as Sweden, these remote learners are able to see and hear Evenchik's weekly lectures via the World Wide Web, typically within 36 hours of the live class meeting.

This technological feat is made possible by the use of new "streaming video and audio" software that allows users to begin viewing the lecture immediately after it is made available on a special file server. The lectures are viewed in "real time," without having to wait for the entire file to download to the user's computer. Compression and decompression are performed completely in software, requiring no upgrades to a student's existing computer equipment. The basic requirement is a reliable high-speed connection to the Internet via modem or through a local-area network; the necessary software, which works as a "plug in" for the most common types of web browsers, is available at no cost.

Evenchik's Monday evening lectures are recorded on digital tape in front of a live audience. The next day is post-production work, much of which involves compressing the original two-hour lecture from its raw 10 gigabyte form into a mere 50 megabyte file that gets streamed on demand to enrolled students. The instructor's transparencies and other audio-visual materials are incorporated into the final production. Thus what the student experiences over the Internet is a web page with a small video window showing the actual lecture, including VCR-like controls to stop and start the lecture. Although the video window is rather small, the audio portion of the lecture comes across clearly, as do the instructor's slides and other materials that appear on screen synchronized with the lecture. Hypertext links in the web browser window allow the user to move to certain sections of the lecture that the instructor has deemed noteworthy. Additional multimedia and Internet technologies are used to allow real-time interaction with the instructor and his teaching fellows, and for working on exams, class projects, and homework assignments.

The course website currently includes the first two lectures, which can be viewed by anyone. All lectures beyond the second lecture require a password, which is provided to enrolled students.

Extending CSCI E-131b to the Internet and creating a "virtual classroom" means that students who are unable to commute to Cambridge and who have access to the Web can enroll and participate in the course, and students who miss a lecture can see it at their convenience. For industries where continuing education is critical for success, particularly in the fields of communications, computers, and software development, future Harvard Extension School courses now can be made available to them. According to Evenchik, "The Internet has been a major part of my lectures for many years, and it is really exciting using the technology itself to make the course available to more students."