Evaluation of the NCIH Initial Deployment

Examples of NCIH Education Applications

Guilford County became the first school system in North Carolina to equip and network all high schools for distance learning. The district-wide interactive video network regularly serves 3,000 users and is available to another 54,000. Students in rural parts of Guilford County school district are now able to take pre-college physics from a teacher at another larger high school by using the school system’s new distance learning facilities connected to the NCIH. In addition to student academic use, the network is also being used for staff development, PTA meetings, community economic development conferences, and training area public health professionals.

The MCNC’s NCREN (North Carolina Research and Education Network) which links more than 16 sites including universities, medical schools and research facilities, weekly provides more than 100 hours of two-way interactive video programming to 50 classrooms. By connecting NCREN to the NCIH, the remaining nine state universities are able to have the same access to shared classes and conferences as the original seven state campuses using the NCREN.

The growth of connectivity to high speed networks provides comprehensive access to the resources available in universities and colleges nationwide. Libraries are the center of any great research institution. With the utilization of NCREN, North Carolina’s higher education and private college institutions can all function as if these library resources were resident at each school, and, in time, in each student’s private library. University connection to the state’s broadband network is the first step in arranging this "virtual proximity".

Two masters degree programs are being offered in Catawba County by Appalachian State University, using the NCIH.

In the western part of the state, Impact North Carolina - a distance learning pilot using narrowband, ISDN platform - links Appalachian State University and four public schools in a cooperative network effort.

A second project in the southwestern part of the state is Community Link, a telecommunications project consisting of an interactive educational and training network serving Jackson, Macon, and Swain counties and the Cherokee Indian Reservation. Courses are shared, and originate from the campuses of the Southwestern Community College, Western Carolina University, or any of the 4 high schools in the network consortium. The technology used is an analog fiber-network using tunable transceivers to link the schools.

Both networks are connected to the NCIH at least at one location. This type of interoperability has proven to be extremely valuable in sharing of scarce resources.

The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) has been a proactive participant in the use of the NCIH for education, providing advanced courses, special class sessions, and teacher in-service opportunities across the state. As part of the school’s outreach mission and to advance equity in educational opportunity, NCSSM has become a leading provider of high school credit courses via the NCIH, bringing some rural school systems opportunities never before available.

The NCSSM Department of Distance Learning broadcasts nine courses over the NCIH. The Distance Learning courses include eight high school courses and one graduate course through NC State University Extension Division. These courses serve 224 students (201 high school students and 13 high school personnel) in 12 counties (Brunswick, Catawba, Dare, Durham, Guilford, Lincoln, Ash, New Hanover, Pasquotank, Pender, Perquimans, and Tyrrell.) The NCSSM Rural Science Initiative over the NCIH served 20 teachers in Camden, Chowan, Hyde, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Tyrrell and Washington counties. Other short topics for students and teachers will be available throughout the school year.

The NCSSM conducted a survey of students and teachers on their experience with the NCIH. The key questions are given in the following graphs.

The NCIH has been instrumental in helping the NCSSM to reach out to teachers across North Carolina in the Rural Science Initiative. In 1993 the school received funding from the Bryan Family Foundation to support a workshop for rural science teachers. The workshop focused on teaching science research skills in the classroom. In the second year of the workshop teachers could not come to the campus due to personal financial limitations. In 1995, the workshop was held on the NCIH to eliminate the travel and financial limitations with great success. Workshops were held each morning utilizing the NCIH with time out for group laboratory work. From information gathered in a workshop evaluation, all teachers strongly agreed that the workshop was valuable to their teaching and to their personal professional development.

The benefit of the NCIH was very clear. Teachers who participated in the workshop were able to do so because the workshop was held on the NCIH which allowed teachers to stay at home. Using the state-based formula of $69 per diem plus 25 cents per mile, $445 would have been allocated for each teacher or $9,345 for 21 teachers. The NCIH cost of $2,100 based on $75 per hour. The savings of $7,245 was applied towards a stipend for the teachers.


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