Distance Education Links Downtown Campus and C of C- North

July 11, 2002

Through distance education technology, students at C of C-North can take class taught from the downtown campus.

The Spring 2002 semester saw the debut of three new computer science distance education courses at the College of Charleston. Video and audio links enabled students at College of Charleston- North in North Charleston to be part of classes taught in specially equipped classrooms at the downtown campus.

C of C- North is in the process of moving from Northside Drive near Ashley Phosphate Road and Interstate 26 to the Trident Research Center near the Charleston International Airport. The distance courses will continue from this new location in the upcoming fall semester.

The distance education courses offer flexibility and accessibility to busy professionals and non-traditional students.

“Being a working professional, you bet I would take courses here again,” said Manuel Moyer who took Information Technology Law at C of C-North. Moyer is a longtime worker at the nearby Robert Bosch Corp. plant. Professor Alex Kasman taught the class downtown from a special classroom in the Education Center. Moyer and other students at C of C- North sat at a table and followed the class from a television monitor. They are able to ask questions and are themselves seen in a monitor in the front of the downtown classroom.

Christopher Starr teaches a computer science course from the Education Center. Students at C of C-North can be seen in the monitor located in the top left corner.

“It takes a while to get used to taking a class this way,” said Moyer. “It’s up to me to pipe in if I’m not hearing all questions and answers but overall I feel like I’m part of the class. Professor Kasman will check up on us.”

“The students seem to appreciate having a choice of locations for the computer science courses without having to compromise quality,” said Christopher Starr, chair of the Department of Computer Science. “The College of Charleston's strength is small classroom learning environments with highly qualified faculty who are motivated to teach and concerned about student learning. Technology is used only if it can provide additional value to our learning goals. Farthest from our mind is the creation of an online degree program in computer science.” Starr says that the computer science department has plans to offer courses to high schools in the near future. A pilot project is planned that would provide an opportunity for local high school students who are interested in computing to take a computer programming course for college credit.

“Most high schools in South Carolina do not offer computer programming courses,” says Starr. “Distance education technology can put highly qualified high school students into a college classroom with other college students without leaving their respective high school campuses.”

The College’s Office of Media and Technology has been instrumental in setting up and maintaining the school’s distance education facilities. Each class can be digitally recorded for streaming on the internet.

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Contact: Patrick Harwood
College Relations
(843) 953-2548
harwoodp@cofc.edu