In developing a distance education course, the core content remains basically the same, although presenting often takes more advance preparation than it does for traditional courses. When planning course material, regardless of the medium, the instructor should consider the needs for the course. It is important to focus on the learning process. One of the goals is to create an environment that facilitates collaboration among students and to assist the learner in creating new knowledge.

As technology is used to enhance teaching and learning, instructors tend to be forced to re-think their approach to how the material is presented. IVN encourages instructors not to rely solely on lecture as a format for delivering material. Creativity thrives and technology provides instructors with the opportunity to incorporate a variety of pedagogical strategies.

Work with the Site Coordinator on classroom logistics, the distribution of materials for the course, examination procedures, student services and/or other special needs specific to the course.

Where Do I Start?

The most common questions are:

• How much time will I need to invest in the interactive video delivery of a course?
• How long will it take to present the material via distance education as compared to the traditional classroom?
• How will I convert existing materials for IVN delivery?
• How will I engage students and stimulate interaction?

Focus on the course content and not the technology.

• What do I plan to teach?
• What are my goals for student learning?
• What will be some of the instructional strategies that I will incorporate into my teaching?
• Who will I be teaching to?
• What information do I need to convey to assure that students are competent in the subject area?
• What are the procedures I need to consider when offering a course via distance education?
• How will I assess student learning?
  
  

Getting Started

• Begin with a course proposal outline.
• Prepare a detailed outline of the material you anticipate presenting.
• Determine the number of general topics you would like to discuss and make note of them.
• Use clear, concise running notes so the causal reader will understand what it is you are trying to convey.
• Determine the course requirements, needs and format (library resources, reserved materials, text- book(s), computer access, Internet access, outside presenters, etc.)
• Consider some issues that are not related to the course content.
  

  Pre-requisites	Student demographics
  Learning preferences	Geographical location
  Learning styles	Class size
  Registration Process	Class policies
  Teaching assistance	Instruction format

Reserve a portion of the session for interaction.

• Based on the detailed outline and teaching experience, determine the amount of time you feel it would take to deliver the session's material in the traditional classroom. Add time for interaction questions and answers.
• Integrate a variety of instruction methods. Deliver lecture material in short segments
  augmented with small group experiences, role-plays, question and answer sessions,
  presentations, panels, guest presenters, etc.
• Add a block of time for planned interaction.
• Prepare questions to facilitate interaction.
• Emphasize dialogue across sites.
• Use handouts to stimulate communication.
• Create interactive formats.
• Be aware of the student who tends to dominate.
• Listen appropriately, providing feedback, acknowledge student contributions.
• Be aware of student's need for reinforcement, and repetition and clarification.

Allow time for required non-instructional activities.

• Consciously prepare for this time and deduct it from either content delivery time or interaction time.
• Welcome students to each session, share introductions the first session, including the Classroom Technicians
• Close with "see you next time," etc.
• Prepare a seating chart for each site if you wish.
• Develop a rapport with distance students, not forgetting students at host site.
• Prepare both yourself and the students for technical difficulties should they occur.
• Develop back-up plans.
• Allow break times, especially if the session is more than 90 minutes.

Make advance arrangements.

• Visit the IVN classroom before your first session; observe a seasoned IVN instructor if possible. Meet with the site coordinator prior to your class so he/she can explain the system to you.
• Prepare a comprehensive syllabus and have it available at all sites the first session.
  A sample syllabus is included in Appendix A.
• Arrange for peripheral enhancements (audio visuals) ahead of time. Pre-test all visuals, videotapes, audio tapes, etc.
• Make prior arrangements for proctoring of examinations with the Site Coordinator.
• Be familiar with off campus student services.
• Arrange with Site Coordinator for reserve materials, textbook(s), reading packets, any appropriate reference materials before the semester begins.
• Focus on having materials to the distance sites one week prior to the session. Try to
  be clear in your instructions for the Classroom Technician.
• Consider instructing from the remote site(s). If you plan to teach from another site, inform the Site Coordinator so they can alert the other site.

Course Management Tools

The purpose of course management tools such as Blackboard, webCT, e-College and other similar products your university is using, is to maintain communication and provide information for students in a distance learning environment.

Course management tools have several features depending upon the product your university has chosen. Articles can be downloaded, grades stored, tests dispersed, group interaction can take place prior to class and more.

Course management tools make it possible to have handouts available for students on the web. This would make it convenient for students to review materials before the session, barring they would have access to the material. Also, in the event the materials for the session do not arrive at the distance site(s) in time for the session (via regular mail or fax), the students would then have access to them.

Students may also be able to forward papers to you as an attachment via e-mail, allowing for a more timely feedback.

Journals are also available on course management tools. This can help create a link between the student and the instructor removing barriers for the learner such as the sense of remoteness and isolation he/she may be experiencing.

If you want to tame that paper tiger, invite someone from your instructional design center to visit with you on Blackboard, webCT, e-College or whatever your university is using. If you do not know who this individual is, contact your Site Coordinator. Some campuses will even provide instruction or assistance.

Suggestions for Instructors Concerning the Proctoring of Exams

The administration of tests and examinations in an IVN classroom tends to be different than in the traditional classroom. These guidelines are meant to provide direction for the instructor and the classroom technician/proctor during these sessions.

Instructors are responsible for providing guidelines with regard to academic integrity (i.e. cheating and plagiarism) at the beginning of each course. The instructor should be encouraged to address precautionary measures. Each university/college tend to have a policy with regard to academic integrity or scholastic honesty. The host site instructor may want to consult the host site university policy for direction with regard to this issue.

It is recommended that a statement regarding scholastic honesty and the submission of a student's own work be included in the course syllabi. Students should be informed that the policy of the host site institution be followed. Students are subjected to disciplinary action should cheating or plagiarism occur. Instructors have the rights to determine the penalty for academic conduct in the class. In situations where cheating has the potential to occur, precautionary measures can assist in creating an atmosphere supportive of academic integrity.

It is important to have someone designated to receive the tests/examinations prior to the session. The instructor will need to make the necessary arrangements with the Site Coordinators so that he/she can make the arrangements with the Classroom Technician/Proctor to distribute and proctor the tests/exams, unless the instructor has made other arrangements with the Site Coordinator for proctoring of the test/examination.

Helpful Proctoring Suggestions

Prior to the administration of the examination, forward complete directions to the Site Coordinator on how you would like the proctor or classroom technician to administer the test. Directions should include:

• Where do you want the student to put his/her name on the examination?
• How would you like the examination to be completed?
• Do you allow materials on the table in front of the student? OR do you want the tables cleared of all materials except for test/examination and appropriate tools required for completing the exam (example: calculator).
• Would you like all books/materials left in the back of the classroom or on the floor beside the student?
• Do you want the microphones left on?
• Do you want the classroom technician/proctor to periodically pan the classroom in a point-to-point class?
• Do you want the classroom technician to speak to you over the system periodically to bring the classroom into view in a multi-point class?
• Do you want to have the classroom taped during the test/exam? If so, you would need to make arrangements with the Site Coordinator prior to the session.
• How would you like the classroom technician/proctor to bring questionable behavior to your attention? (Example: Call the instructor on the phone; put a note on the student's exam).
• Determine if you would like the completed test/exam photocopied before they are returned to you for grading. Make sure you have prepared postage paid, self-addressed envelopes and that you have forwarded these to the Site Coordinator ahead of time.
• Determine how you want the photocopies of the exams disposed of once the assessments have been returned to the students at the receiving sites.

Issues Related to the Posting of Grades and Returning of Assessments with Regard to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

FERPA stands for the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (also known as the Buckley Amendment). Passed by Congress in 1974, FERPA is a Federal law designed to protect the privacy of education records, to establish the right of students to inspect and review their educational records, and to provide guidelines for the protection of inaccurate and misleading data through informal and formal hearings. The Act grants specific rights to the student:

• The right to inspect and review their education record.
• The right to seek amendment to those records and in certain cases, append a statement to the record.
• The right to limit disclosure of personally identifiable information contained in their record.
• The right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education
  In returning tests, assignments, etc to students it is important to be aware of this law. Here are a few things to consider:
• When returning student assessments, it is best to do this in a concealed envelope, file folder, or hand it back to the student directly. This is if you return it to the other course sites. One faculty member has his/her department send the papers directly to the students at their mailing address.
• When forwarding assessments to students at the remote site(s), remember to place assessments in some type of concealed item as it is against the law to disclose any part of a student's record without the students consent in written form.
• When posting grades, it is also illegal to identify the student's name to a grade using his/her NAID number or his/her Social Security number as all of these items are protected under FERPA. Therefore, instructors need to have a system of separate numbers or other alternatives when posting grades.

For additional information on FERPA, you can check out these university websites:
http://www.und.nodak.edu/dept/registrar/FERPA/index.htm
http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/ndsu/ochoa/general_counsel/notify.html

Issues Related to Students with Disabilities and Special Needs

Each campus will have a statement regarding disability services focusing on students with special needs and the supportive services available at each of the sites.

A statement regarding disability access and special needs should be included in the syllabus.

Contact the Site Coordinator for facilitation of this process and to provide direction as to how to access the supportive services required for accommodating students with special needs. Most campuses will have academic support services available to students who qualify. Services that may be available include readers, assistive technology, transportation services, and interpreter service.

Familiarize Yourself with this Method of Instruction

If the opportunity presents itself, request to observe a seasoned IVN instructor and to visit with him/her about the experience this person has had with this method of classroom delivery.

Be open to suggestions that may enhance the teaching effectiveness. Materials included in this guide can assist you in the development of the course.

Plan for a "mock" delivery of a session if possible. Check with the your campus' Site Coordinator to see if he/she can arrange for a time when you can deliver a mock lecture to another site, or even another room on the campus if available. If possible, observe a taped session of your class delivery.

It may be possible to be a guest speaker in an IVN class before you teach your course.

Perform ongoing formative assessment. Try this after teaching a few weeks. Having students complete a feedback form is a useful tool. Remember to address issues, concerns or comments from the feedback forms at the beginning of the next session.

Examples of questions to ask include: What is going well? What could go better? What can I do? What could you do?

Have students complete an IVN instructor evaluation at the end of the semester. This evaluation can focus on aspects such as: use of technology, delivery style, sensed connection to the instructor, timely feedback, materials arriving on time and the availability of materials can be beneficial. A sample is provided in Appendix B.

Develop Backup Plans

Technical problems can occur. Being prepared for these technical challenges by having a backup plan in place can assist in dissipating stress for both the instructor as well as the student.

The Classroom Technician may be able to assist with the process. If delivery fails, it may be possible to connect with the other sites through a conference call format and fax the overheads to the remote site Classroom Technician.

Weather may also interfere with your class (not the actual technology). The host site may be experiencing pleasant weather while one of your receiving sites on the other side of the state may be experiencing a blizzard.

Options to consider if technology is a problem:

• Ask the classroom technician to inform you how long the delay will be. This may determine whether you want to continue the class for that day/night.
• Reschedule the session with the Site Coordinator.
• Videotape the class so it can be shown to the sites not online.
• Group project time if a project is an expectation of the course.
• Structured small group experiences can be completed until the system is on.
• Connect to the other site through a phone call.

It is suggested that you include with your syllabus copies of other projects, small group discussion, or other work that can be ready in the event of a technical problem. OR include a videotape with structured questions for the students.

Issues Related to Copyright

As a participant in a distance learning course, the classroom is located miles away from you. Since this is not considered face-to-face teaching under the copyright law, there are more limits as to what is meant by your ability to "perform" works without obtaining copyright clearance from the owner.

It is important to obtain the permission necessary to reproduce copyrighted material. Your department on your campus should have information to assist you in facilitation of this process.

If you are going to have "Course Reading Packets" for purchase, it is important to begin early with the copyright clearance process so that materials will be available for the first class session. Make sure enough copies are ordered for each of the distance site(s) students.

Obtain from your campus' Site Coordinator, the Faculty Videotape Release Form. This form should be signed by the instructor prior to the beginning of each semester class and will be maintained by the Site Coordinator.

As the Classroom Instructor/Event Coordinator you may choose not to sign a consent form. In the event that you do decide to not sign a consent form, the class would not be able to be taped.

As a faculty member, your classroom delivery may be important to videotape. Reasons for this vary. A student may be absent and may request the tape to avoid missing class content. Video copies may be requested due to hazardous travel conditions or weather considerations. They may be requested for archival purposes or video copies of a class may be made available to a student to review at home. In addition, should technical difficulty arise, the session videotape would be available for students at the remote site(s). In other instances, as an instructor, you may want to videotape a whole course to use as part of a correspondence form of distance learning or for you to observe your style of delivery. See samples of videotape release forms in Appendix C.

If you decide to tape your class, students will also be taped as part of the class. They need to sign a release form. The classroom technician will have these forms for the students to sign at both the host and receiving sites. The Site Coordinator will maintain copies of signed student release forms for each semester class.

Classroom technicians are also requested to sign the Technician Confidentiality Agreement form. The classroom technician is asking to maintain a professional attitude and confidentiality at all times. It provides them with a list of duties including acting as a proctor for exams. Inform the campus site coordinator when you have an exam scheduled. This is to ensure that a technician will be available or if other arrangements need to be made.

Course Material

Determine course requirements such as textbooks, library resources, computer access, software, Internet access and outside presenters.

To order textbooks, follow your campus' usual procedure or contact the Site Coordinator for direction. Ask the Site Coordinator to familiarize you with the off campus registration process.

If you will be having reserve readings or textbooks reserved at remote site libraries, it is helpful if the materials can be forwarded to the Site Coordinator two weeks prior to the first class session. Prepare so that there will not be a delay in remote site students having access to these materials.

Handouts should be prepared as far in advance as possible. If you are using course management software such as Blackboard, Webct or e-College, these can be loaded on your course site and downloaded by the students as needed.

If you are photocopying handouts, make sure you make enough for the host and receiving sites. Have the copies forwarded to the distance site(s) one week prior to the class. If the Site Coordinator facilitates the process instead of the department, originals must be sent to the Site Coordinator the week prior to the class. Though not encouraged, faxing of materials may be possible. One caution of this process though is the lack of copy and fax machine capabilities at the sites.

Audiovisual Preparation

In developing graphics for your class, whether adapting your existing materials or developing new graphics, keep these guidelines in mind.

Visual Presenter (overhead projector)
Overhead transparencies do not work well with this camera as they produce glare. Use regular paper either in light blue, light gray or ivory. White paper can also be used. Some white paper will cause glare on the screen as well.

In order to properly select or prepare visual material for a class, it is important to understand the design and layout requirements of video images. The aspect ratio of the television monitor is three to four. This means the picture is always three units high to four units wide.

	Reformatting of your transparencies is recommended in order that they fit the screen.
	The paper copy should print in landscape format, the 7" x 9" inch center of an 8 ½ by 11 inch sheet formatted horizontally.

Letters will need to be seen from 30 feet away on 36 inch monitors. Use a font size of 24-48 points. Sans serif fonts, those without lines on the ends of each letter, make it easier to read on a television screen. Examples: Helvetica, Arial, Eras, Geneva, Tahoma. You may wish to use bold face as it is easier to read the text.

Avoid using all upper case letters except for the title. It tends to be easier to read text when only the first letter is capitalized. Use no more than three styles of text: one for the title, one for the copy and one if needed for stressing important items.

Try not to highlight more than 10% of the words using techniques such as boxing, underlining, color or shading.

Colors that work -- Here's a great chart to follow when preparing:

Best Color For Lines, Text, Design Areas	Background Color	Worst Color
blue, black	orange	yellow, white
blue, black	yellow	white, cyan
black, blue	green	cyan, magenta, yellow
white, yellow, cyan	blue	green, black
blue, black	cyan	green, yellow, white
black, white, yellow, blue	magenta	green, cyan
white, yellow	black	blue, magenta
blue, black	white	yellow, cyan

Source: Smaldino & Herring, Active Learning at a Distance, AECT, February 1997

Avoid patterned or textured backgrounds.

In using data charts or spread sheets, use handouts. Avoid graphing all of the data from one table in a chart, select a subset illustrating the point you want to make. Use horizontal rather than vertical labels because they are easier to read.

Here are a few more tips on data charts from the University of Minnesota ITV website:

• Don't try to graph all data from a table in one chart. Select a subset that illustrates one point you want to make.
• Use horizontal rather than vertical labels for easier reading.
• Label bars, lines, and other data directly. Keys and legends are hard to read on a monitor.
• Keep "chart junk" such as tick marks, grids, labels, and decorations to a minimum. Emphasize the data, not the design.
• Use a dull color such as gray for tick marks, axes, and grids so these less important elements will not detract from the data.
• Divide the axis into units that are multiples of two, five, or ten for easier interpretation.
• Maintain consistent units of measurement on the axis from chart to chart. For example, don't switch from thousands to millions of dollars in a series of related charts.
• Begin the axes at zero or show a break in the axis to indicate a non-zero baseline when making comparisons.
  (Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 8/28/02, http://umrtv.cee.umn.edu/UMTIV/mat.htm)

Presenting Visual Aids
Presenting your lecture notes on the marlite (dry marker) board, if wall mounted, may not be the best method because you will be writing with your back to the students and the primary camera will be focused on the board and not on you. You will have greater difficulty watching the monitor, so you may need a room operator to keep your work readable. You need to write with thick lines, and you probably can't display as much written material as you might in a traditional classroom.

In some locations, a small white board can be place under the visual presenter camera. This allows you to face the students and watch the graphics monitor more easily. Or you can use white paper and write under the camera. Writing on the overhead display camera can be difficult initially, but with practice, perhaps using lightly ruled paper at first, you will be able to use this format rather than using a marlite board.

Most of the other visual aids used in the interactive video classroom are presented in the same manner as in a traditional classroom.

(Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 8/28/02, http://umrtv.cee.umn.edu/UMTIV/mat.htm)

Videotapes
It is possible to use videos in the IVN classroom just as you would in the traditional classroom, however, a test run is recommended. Testing will also make sure the audio and video is clear at the remote site(s). The Classroom Technician can help you with this.

Have the video cued up at the point you would like to begin showing or give the Classroom Technician the cue numbers for the sequence you would like to show. If you plan to show a complete video, please obtain copyright clearance to do so if necessary.

Laptop Computers
Check with the site coordinator or technician about using PowerPoint slides. In most classrooms, you will need to bring your own laptop computer. Some universities may have one in the IVN classroom.

Keep in mind the aspect ratio as discussed under the visual presenter information. For the laptop to work correctly in most IVN classrooms the laptop or PC resolution must be set no higher than 1024 X 768 at 75 Hz.