Higher Definition Distance Learning at Madison College

With the initiative to innovate distance learning, Madison Area Technical College–CISCO wired and wireless network user the college has installed the CISCO TelePresence technology as its distance learning platform in six classrooms. A newly video-conferencing technology is giving Wisconsin’s distance learners the opportunity to talk with their instructors and classmates face to face. The university has its main campus at Madison with four regional campuses an hour apart. With the passion of giving its distance learners a way to attend a wider variety of classes and to access the top-notch instructors the college can offer, the administrators chose CISCO TelePresence. The platform it chose will raise the meter in terms of mobility on instructions. The college is using high definition large screen displays and super fast transmission technology from Cisco which can hasten up learning to the higher levels.

Madison is to be the first higher education institution to adopt the technology for instruction according to Cisco. The system is set up so the two linked classrooms both using Cisco TelePresence CTS-3200 systems are identical. Every classroom has an instructor computer to enable instructors to share content, a high definition camera, a high definition document camera, and two large monitors that echo whatever is on the instructor computer. The monitor shares information to the both room simultaneously. Laptops are individualized to students allowing access during class Blackboard Microsoft Office programs and the internet. There are currently 12 TelePresence rooms and 5 small rooms can hold two people and intended only for distance tutoring. The college uses Cisco’s interactive television systems to link distance teachers at regional campuses. The class offering is limited students gather up to four different classrooms with four television screens in each. The television provides the view of the instructor and students can see a view of all class participants at all locations. Truly it’s a revolution in the field of distance education with the help of state of the art technology.