BlackboardEngineering Colleges at FAMU-FSU and USF Venture into Team-Teaching
This Fall Semester 1997, the Colleges of Engineering at Florida A&M University-Florida State University (FAMU-FSU) and University of South Florida (USF) are venturing into a new "distance education" strategy - Team Teaching. Faculty members, Dr. Marilyn Barger, P.E., Assistant Professor in the Civil Engineering Department at FAMU-FSU and Dr. Scott Campbell, Associate Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at USF will utilize a tried and true teaching design - Team Teaching - but in a brand new way: via distance education technology.
The course titled Chemical Fate and Transport in the Environment is offered on both college campuses and will meet twice a week throughout the semester. On Tuesday of each week the classrooms are separate and taught by each instructor on their respective campuses; on Thursday of each week, the class meets together via a compressed video teleconferencing link connecting both campuses. This link is fully interactive allowing both faculty and students to hear and see one another during the class. Faculty and students are connected in "real time", creating a sense of one large classroom where students can talk to one another regardless of location and ask questions of faculty at both campuses. A third site at the FSU Panama City Campus is also tied into this connection and students there are fully interactive with faculty and students on the originating campuses.
The College of Education at FSU is providing use of their newly designed distance education classroom for class meetings on days the course is transmitted. The Department of Management Services is providing all telecommunications connectivity for this venture. Distance education administration and staff at both FAMU-FSU and USF FEEDS (Florida Engineering Education Delivery System) Offices are providing technical assistance to insure effective delivery of this course. Future plans include continued delivery of courses that are best suited for the team teaching approach as well as multi-site connectivity for delivery of courses over a distance.
