John Lewis, computer science junior, had the opportunity to take LSU’s first video gaming design course during the fall without even being in the same class as his professor.
Students can now tune into class lectures unavailable at LSU on a high definition projection screen via video streaming. Video streaming – compressed images sent over the Internet – allows live communication between professors and students who may be located across the country. The students can ask questions and talk with the professor in live-time. Thomas Sterling, computer science professor, said students now have the opportunity to take specialized courses not offered by the University.
Demographics are no longer a barrier for students to receive education from a world class expert, he said. Sterling’s course – high-performance computing – is the first of its kind in the United States, according to the Center of Computation and Technology’s Web site.
Sterling teaches the course, identified as Computer Science 7600, at LSU and broadcasts it live to other universities, such as the University of Arkansas, Louisiana Tech University and Masaryk University in the Czech Republic. “At LSU, there are no faculty members who specialize in developing video games,” Lewis said. “HD video conferences allows an expert from another university to extend his classroom to ours.” Lewis used this technology to take the first video gaming design course offered in fall 2007. The course, CSC 4700, is taught by computer science professor Jason Leigh from the University of Chicago.
Students are overseen by Gabrielle Allen, associate professor in computer science at LSU. “The class motivates the students, and the student’s projects motivate the research which then updates the teaching material,” Allen said. “The cool thing is all sides of this wins.” But video streaming technology does have drawbacks. Lewis said technical problems, such as delays in picture or audio feed, remind students the professor is not physically in front of them. Lewis said regardless of the minor technical problems, he would not “trade the experience in for anything.” He hopes more classes are offered this way so LSU can broaden its curriculum.
“I encourage other computer science students to try out the video game class,” Lewis said. “It was a wonderful experience.”
Sterling said he knows video streaming will change the future of college education because it is cost efficient.
Usually, if enrollment in a course is below a certain number at LSU, the course would be dropped because of cost, he said.
“The course is still important but may not be on students’ required curriculum,” Sterling said. “Ironically, three students from each university want to take the course, so integrate the material over LONI [Louisiana Optical Network Initiative], and now you have two dozen students taking the course.”
Sterling and CCT researchers are working to put lectures on iPods and DVDs to allow students to revisit the lecture if necessary.
This would be beneficial for foreign language students and the hearing impaired he said. He is still developing material for his HPC course and hopes to connect more universities as the course evolves.
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Contact Emily Stuart at [email protected]