FARNET Stories Project

51 Reasons to Invest in the National Information Infrastructure

story209.OK

Submitted by:

Myra Traynor
Coordinator of Member Services
National University Teleconference Network
v: (405) 744-5191

e: nutnmat@vm1.ucc.okstate.edu

Categories:

Education, higher; Education, continuing or distance

The Story:

National University Teleconference Network is a satellite-based, full-motion video teleconferencing service. The network offers noncredit continuing education courses via satellite. Colleges, universities and businesses use our services by pulling live, full-motion programs down from the satellite. Though our offerings are quite varied, at the moment our biggest teleconference being planned is for the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. Called 'Building Partnerships for Community Service and Learning,' this teleconference will address how colleges and universities can use community service to grant students academic credit.

As our name indicates, National University Teleconference Network reaches across the country (though we are based in Oklahoma). Given the geography of our members, and the fact that all programs are interactive, we find ourselves using Internet both in our teleconferences and for the administration of our program.

For example, at our downlink sites, students can use the Internet during teleconferences. While watching a program, they can send questions, via the Internet, to the national presenters. Sometimes the instructor answers these questions live during the program. Sometimes he or she waits and sends a detailed reply back via Internet. Individuals can also use the network to register for classes and contact instructors.

Seventy-five colleges and universities are members of the National University Teleconference Network. Facilitating professional sharing among the telecommunications professionals who make up the Network is one of NUTN's most important functions, and the Internet plays a very important role in doing this. Member institutions use the Internet to find out about upcoming programs, plan new programs, discuss how existing programs can be improved and explore new options for interaction. What's more, because we have our own LISTSERV (NUTN-L) many of our members can use the Internet to do credit programming.

Myra Traynor, Coordinator of Member Services, gives some examples of the effects Internet has had on her clients. One Australian registered for a conference ... because he saw a notice on one of the LISTSERVS in which Traynor participates. Two men from Russia arranged to come to the States and speak on "Distance Education in Russia." One member, located at a New York university, remarks on how impressed he has been with the speed of Internet communication. A few years ago, he was working on a video project with a friend who lived in the Soviet Union. At the time of the 1991 coup attempt, he couldn't reach his friend by telephone or by mail, but within thirty minutes he got a message through on Internet.

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