Teaching geoscience courses collaboratively using compressed videoconferencing technology: An experiment conducted between the United States Air Force Academy and the United States Naval Academy

During the spring 1999 semester, two United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) authors conducted a senior level course focusing on the application of the geosciences to Naval and joint Air Force-Navy operations. As part of this course, they requested the United States Naval Academy (USNA) bring their naval and oceanographic expertise and experiences to the USAFA cadets through the use of compressed videoconferencing technology (CVT). Using CVT, the authors conducted five 50-minute lectures using two instructional strategies: interactive lectures and collaborative problem solving.

The authors will describe the results of this brief, but potentially important, distance learning experiment between two geoscience departments. We will discuss the experiment from several perspectives including the instructors and students, the equipment and classroom layout used, the instructional strategies employed, and demands placed on instructors. From our initial assessment, it appears that this media has tremendous potential in terms of providing expertise and knowledge to students regardless of distance while still maintaining the pedagogical quality of visual and audio interactive exchange. However, because this tremendous potential does not come without costs-we feel that our experiences need to be shared with the geoscience educational community.

Finally, we will discuss plans for expanding distance learning between our departments and the revisions needed to improve the process.