During the first semester in which state funding for distance learning has been available from Senate Bill 204, UNLV has provided distance learning to more than 1,000 participants, said UNLV Provost Douglas P. Ferraro.
"That's just the beginning," Ferraro said. "The program is expanding rapidly, which will enable us to reach more students in even more locations."
"What makes this SB204 program special is the partnership between UNLV, the Community College of Southern Nevada, the chancellor's office of the UCCSN (University and Community College System of Nevada), System Computing Services, and the Clark County School District," he said. "It is only by working together that we can bring this program to its full potential."
The SB204 distance learning program is the result of a bill passed by the Legislature in 1995, said Lori Temple, UNLV associate provost. It mandates that the state provide funds to allow the universities, community colleges, and school districts to develop the infrastructure necessary to accommodate distance learning, she said.
Two of the most common types of distance learning are interactive video, which allows a professor or instructor to teach students at multiple locations, and educational television, she said.
To handle the program in Southern Nevada, the Nevada Distance Education Consortium was formed, Temple said. Members include UNLV, the Community College of Southern Nevada, the Clark County School District, and KLVX, the public television channel operated by the school district. In its implementation of the SB204 program, UNLV thus far has emphasized interactive video more than educational television, Temple said.
One of the shining examples of the implementation of SB204 so far is a joint effort between UNLV and the school district in the form of a family literacy class in which 17 teachers of bilingual kindergarten classes participate, along with their students and the students' parents, said Carrol Steedman of UNLV's continuing education department.
Using video taping equipment and educational television broadcasts, the teachers work together to improve their bilingual teaching techniques in reading, while at the same time involving parents and students so that the parents will learn the importance of reading to and with their children, she said. The course is taught by Martha Young, UNLV associate professor of instructional and curricular studies.
This fall UNLV will use interactive video equipment to offer credit-granting classes to qualified students at six Southern Nevada high schools, Temple said. The courses to be offered include Russian I; English Composition I; Finite Mathematics; Humans and the Environment; Gender, Race, and Class; and General Psychology. Equipment now is being installed at Bonanza, Eldorado, Laughlin, Pahrump Valley, and Valley high schools, as well as at the Advanced Technologies Academy, so that students at those locations can participate.
The instructor for each course will have students at UNLV as well as at the remote locations, Temple said. The interactive video equipment allows the students at each site to see each other as well as the instructor. Because the equipment is voice activated, the camera automatically focuses on the person speaking, she explained. While the instructor may be based at UNLV, rotating to the other locations will be encouraged, she said.
Non-credit courses such as real estate classes also are offered using the equipment, Temple said.
Ferraro said the hallmark of distance learning is bringing the educational experience to the people where they are.
"The barrier of time and distance no longer exists," he said. "The classroom is no longer the place you have to go. It is the place you are."
For additional information about Senate Bill 204 programs at UNLV, contact Temple at 895-3628.
