The problem considered in this study was the equality of experience between the main campus site, and external sites in programs that employ video teleconferencing. An end of year survey found significant differences in student experience between programs, and between the main campus and the remote site in this study.
Marvin Minsky popularized the term telepresence to characterize the ability to interact with the world at a geographic distance in 1980.1 From the prescient Dick Tracey watch to Facebook Live, the ability to connect geographically disparate sites has advanced rapidly. Telepresence offers colleges and universities an opportunity to meaningfully serve the increasing number of geographically distributed student populations and thus achieve their goals of preparing students for successful lives.
The problem considered in this study was the equality of experience between the main campus site, and external campus sites in programs that employ video teleconferencing. Multi site campuses pose unique challenges regarding instruction, resources, culture, and continuity. This study was conducted in order to foster continuous improvement in assessing and understanding the student experience in telepresence courses. A systematic and data-driven articulation of students’ telepresence experiences should provide insight into several areas including, faculty technology development needs, instructional and technical support for programs involved in courses in which telepresence impacts student attitudes.