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Rensselaer

Universities, eLearning andThe Internet Tsunami

Jack M. WilsonJ. Erik Jonsson Distinguished Professor of Physics,

Engineering, Information Technology, and Management

Creating eLearning EnvironmentsFrom the Convergence of

Computing, Communication, and Cognition

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RensselaerWhat shapes my views?

• Experience at Rensselaer implementing– Studio Classrooms– Integrated classes (Chem-Materials, Physics-Engineering, etc)

– Student mobile computing (laptop)– 4 X 4 Curriculum

• NRC Committee on Information Tech.• NRC Physics Decadal Overview• Pew Center for Academic Transformation ($8.8 M)

• National Learning Infrastructure Initiative• Lots of visits, speeches, writing, reading, and visitors

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RensselaerLearning: The Killer App

• Is Learning the "Killer App" of the next generation of computing?

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RensselaerThe Fact:

• It is the worlds best communication tool combined with what will be the • World's Largest Library Creating the First and Only• Global Continuous Learning Environment

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RensselaerRelentlessly changing the way we

• Labor • Live• Love and • Learn

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RensselaerThe Internet Tsunami

Incl. Int’l Tech Companies

1980s 1990s 20001970s19801970 1990

Source: Securities Data Company

MicroprocessorPCs

Client/Server

Software

Data

Communications

Internet

$ Trillions

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RensselaerChanging the landscape of industry Top 40 US-Traded Tech. Comp.

4/9/1999 Market Value ($B) 4/9/1999 Market Value ($B)* Microsoft 469.7 * TSMC 32.1 Intel 204.8 * SAP 31.1* Cisco Systems 189.7 * Amazon.com 30.1 IBM 167.5 EDS 26.1* America Online 159.2 * Auto. Data Processing 25.9* Lucent Tech. 158.6 Applied Materials 23.8* Dell 105.8 * eBay Inc. 23.0 Nokia 80.4 * Tellabs 21.4 Hewlett-Packard 69.0 * Ascend Communications 20.6* EMC 66.1 * At Home Corp. 20.3* Sun Microsystems 53.2 * Computer Associates 18.9 Motorola 49.5 * First Data Corp. 18.2 Northern Telecom 49.0 * STMicroelectronics 16.1 Ericsson 45.5 * Micron Technology 11.3 Texas Instruments 42.1 * Priceline.com 11.1* Compaq 40.9 * Gateway 2000 10.9* Yahoo! 40.8 * E*Trade Group 10.8 Siemens 40.6 Computer Sciences Corp. 9.3 Xerox 39.0 * Linear Technology 8.7* Oracle 37.8 * 3Com 7.8

* IPO since 1980 Source: Frank QuattroneCredit Suisse First Boston

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RensselaerWilson’s Favorite Laws!

• Moore’s Law: CPU performance doubles every 18 months

• Bandwidth law: Bandwidth is doubling even faster!

• Metcalf’s Law: the value of a network scales as n2 where n is the number of persons connected.

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RensselaerA New Paradigm

• OLD Paradigm:Physical Capital / Resources

• NEW Paradigm:Knowledge / Intellectual Capital

– Frank P. QuattroneManaging DirectorHead of CSFB Technology GroupCredit Suisse/First Boston

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RensselaerWhy we are running so hard?

• The Internet’s pace of adoption eclipses all other technologies that preceded it. – Radio was in existence 38 years before 50 million

people tuned in; – TV took 13 years to reach that benchmark. – The Internet crossed that line in 4 years, once it was

opened to the general public.• 1 internet year = 2 dog years = 14 people years

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RensselaerInternet Tsunami -a reprise

• In 1994, 3 million people were connected to the Internet. By the end of 1997, more than 100 million people were using the Internet.

• Internet Traffic is doubling every 100 days.• registered domain names grew from 26,000 in

July 1993 to 1.3 million in July 1997. • Over same period, the number of hosts expanded

from under 1.8 million to 19.5 million.

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RensselaerInternet Tsunami -what next?

• Consumer electronics companies, media giants, phone companies, computer companies, software firms, satellite builders, cell phone businesses, Internet service providers, television cable companies are aggressively investing to build out the Internet.

• Within the next five years, the vast majority of Americans should be able to interact with the Internet from their television sets, or watch television on their PCs, and make telephone calls from either device

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RensselaerThe horrible mismatch

• People change very slowly

• Technology changes very rapidly

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RensselaerWhat Happens to Us?

• Proprietary universities cherry pick

• Brand name universities franchise

• Publics turn to government for protection

• Privates either “get it” or struggle

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RensselaerProprietary U’s Cherry Pick

• Venture Capital is flowing into space– $1.7 billion has been invested in new ventures in an effort to tap

an education market estimated at over $600 billion annually • Focus on Management and IT

– Cash cows of the universities– ~ 20 courses teach the majority of the SCH

• Focus on Education for the Masses

• Avoid the expensive specialties

• Team with Universities, then supplant

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RensselaerBrand Names Franchise

• U. Penn Wharton School• NYU- On-Line• MIT-Singapore-Microsoft• Stanford • eCornell• Formation of for-profit subsidiaries of many

many other universities.

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RensselaerPublics turn to government for protection• All dog technologies turn to the government for

protection – George Gilder

• Outmoded rules– NY State Regents – DL Task Force– No one follows the rules– Capacity review

• Protectionism

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RensselaerPrivates in turmoil

• Why should they exist?

• Can they offer the same education at N times the price?

• What are strategies for differentiation?

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RensselaerThe Future?

• There are those who think that higher education will indeed be displaced by other alternatives.

• Stephen Talbott argues that this will indeed happen and that it is the universities own fault.

• While Talbott seems disturbed (even angry!) about these prospects, Lewis Perelman is positively welcoming.

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RensselaerLewis Perelman

• “I've analyzed and forecasted trends that, I am increasingly confident, will lead eventually to the collapse of the academic system in a way and for reasons that are basically the same as those that led to the collapse of the Soviet system.”

• Perelman does not think that there is any hope at all for reform in higher education and he thinks that reform is a complete waste of time.

• In his words: “I have no interest in reform; and, when asked, I discourage others from wasting time and money on it. Education reform over a period of decades has proven to be either unnecessary, futile, irrelevant, or even downright harmful. ”

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RensselaerMatter of Fact Approach

• Recognizes inevitability while neglecting subtleties • Dewayne Matthews, director of student exchange and state

relations at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), assumes that “programs can be structured around asynchronous learning. ”

• requires a much more calibrated approach. – Which programs? For what audience? Under what

circumstances? – An asynchronous program for a motivated adult learner in a

discretionary program may be the ideal solution. An asynchronous program to teach calculus to young adults with the expectation that over 90% of them will be able to use calculus in the next course is a much more difficult proposition.

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RensselaerDenial

• Others in higher education are in denial. They hide behind platitudes of “immutable values” and “centuries of stability.”

• One university administrator once responded to one of my talks by asserting that the current structure of higher education was the “stable product of long evolution.” I pointed out that the dinosaur was one of the most stable products of long evolution, but that evolution does not create “stable products!”

• It will be important to understand the core values and practices and to see how they play out in this changed environment.

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RensselaerWhat are the healthier opportunities?

• Key Trends:– Pervasive Technology– Globalization– Mass Customization– Focus and Differentiation

• Remember that the 18-21 year old will still be with us, and many will want the whole thing.– Focus on the Student’s Experience

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RensselaerTen Commandments of TEL

1. Restructure around the learner. Neither over-emphasize nor under-emphasize technology.

2. Build upon research results, which inform design; don’t try to reinvent the wheel.

3. Remember that technology has an intrinsic educational value beyond helping students learn better.

4. Do systematic redesign and not incremental add-ons. Do not automate the lecture. There is always a tendency to just add on a few computer experiences to everything else. By definition this costs more, is more work for faculty, and adds to the students’ burden. An innovative approach changes rather than adding poorly integrated exercises.

5. Benchmark your plans and build upon examples of systematic redesign. Find the best examples and build upon them.

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RensselaerTen Commandments of TEL6. Count on Moore’s law ("What is hard today is easy tomorrow"). Eg.,

CPU power and bandwidth relentlessly double. 7. Cost is an important aspect of quality. There is no lasting quality if

there has been no attention to cost. There are more than enough examples of expensive high quality solutions. We need more examples of inexpensive high quality solutions!

8. Avoid pilots that linger. Design for a large scale and pilot projects only as a prelude to scaling up. It is easy to design innovative educational experiences that work for small groups. It is harder to address the needs of the 1000 students taking calculus I at the large research or comprehensive university.

9. Develop a balance between synchronous and asynchronous distributed learning.

10. There is no longer any way to do good scholarship without technology, and there is no longer any way to teach good scholarship without technology.

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RensselaerPervasive Technology

• Studio Classrooms• Laptop Curriculum• Fully wired campus• Fully “wireless” campus

• Used pervasively not just for homework, in computer labs, or outside of class.

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RensselaerGlobalization

• Extending your reach globally– Not just marketing your programs overseas

• Bringing global experiences to your students– Junior year abroad is nice …. but…..– An international student body is nice…… but…

• Allowing students to participate in experiences that they could not have on your campus.

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RensselaerMass Customization

• The notion is that you take customers and put them at the center of their own universe. –Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com– Amazon.com– Dell Computer– Expedia.com

students

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RensselaerMass Customization

• Mass Customization is NOT– Pandering– Allowing the student to define the course– Abdicating responsibility for student learning

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RensselaerMass Customization

• Mass Customization is– Based upon sound cognitive research– finding out where the student is (initial condition)– Defining a personalized path to success

• Mass customization is only practical through creative use of technology

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RensselaerFocus and Differentiate

• No more “all things to all people”• Not every institution can sell distant learning to

Asia!• Watch for “consolidation” or “shakeout”

– Failures are good for the system and bad for the victim

• What is YOUR special expertise?– Babson, CalTech, etc.

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RensselaerYou ain’t seen nothin’ yet

• Remember Moore’s Law, the Bandwidth Law, Metcalf’s Law.

• Present asynchronous courses are primitive and rudimentary precursors to real distributed learning.

• Don’t wait, get started now.• “Don’t look back, somethin’ might be gaining on

you.” –Satchell Paige

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RensselaerOur Strategies

Interactive Learning

Information Technology

InternationalizationCritical Focus

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RensselaerWhat happens to me?

• Will the Web or a CD-ROM Replace your <Blank> Instructor?

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RensselaerThe transmission model

• The mainframe approach

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RensselaerInteractive Learning

• Distributed Collaborative Model

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RensselaerThe Traditional Classroom

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RensselaerThe Studio Classroom

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RensselaerThe typical Studio

Traditional• Credit Hours: 4• Contact Hours 6

– 2 Hours Lecture– 2 Hours Recitation– 2 Hours Lab

Studio• Credit Hours: 4• Contact Hours 4

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RensselaerThe Studio Classroom

• Hesburgh Award 1995• Boeing Award 1995• Pew Prize 1997• Pew: $8.8 Million in 1999.

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RensselaerNew Resources

• Texts• Interactive Texts• Access to Databases• Full Motion Video• Data Acquisition/Analysis/Visualization• Collaboration• Live Links to Experts

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RensselaerThe Forty Year Degree

• Christopher Galvin, President Motorola:

• We are not hiring any more graduates with four year degrees.

• We want employees with forty year degrees

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RensselaerDistributed Cognition

• The "Client-Server" model.• Connecting students, instructors, and resources into a

rich interacting community of learners.• Peer Teaching• Cooperative Learning• Student-student as well as student-instructor and

student-resource interactions• Synchronous as well as asynchronous• Video/Audio/ and Multimedia interactions• The real "World Wide Web"

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RensselaerOur Strategies for the distance

• Follow our corporate partners throughout their own globalization process– ex: GM into Mexico, Luxembourg and elsewhere

• Focus on Engineering, Management and Technology, Computer Science, and Information Technology

• Offer old, new, and leading edge technologies.

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RensselaerTechnologies in Use

• Satellite Video• ISDN Videoconferencing• CD-ROM Creation• Mail out materials • World Wide Web materials• ILINC LearnLearnLincLinc

– Desktop Video (multicast)– Network based materials management– Classroom management

• Software Spin Off: ILINC

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RensselaerLearnLinc 3.0

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Rensselaer

• On- Air indicator• Raise your hand• Picture or video of speaker• Audio and Network controls• Agenda or class roll• Feedback section

– (can be pace, agreement, T/F, Yes/No, etc.)

• Chat Window

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RensselaerOn-Line Testing (LearnLinc TestLinc)

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RensselaerStudent Results and Records

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RensselaerRecord book

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RensselaerNTU-Rensselaer Course

• Satellite broadcast• Hands On Exercises• Synchronous Tutoring• Asynchronous support

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RensselaerNTU-Rensselaer Course

Hands-On World Wide Web• Feb 10 & 17, 1998• 8000 participants• 500 sites• Most successful NTU course ever• “The future of satellite based education.”

– Lionel Baldwin, President, NTU

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RensselaerRensselaer and Hong Kong City U.

• Survival Skills for Astrophysics• Professor Chun Ming Leung

– Graduate Students in Astrophysics• Video/Audio/ LearnLearnLincLinc Web Data Conf.• Both ISDN and Internet connection• 7 am Eastern ( 6 Hong Kong)• Student Collaborative Presentations• One Semester length

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RensselaerChemical Mechanical Planarization

• RPI/Intel/Applied Mat./ Matsushita/IBM– New York; Osaka, Japan; California; Arizona; Texas

• Murarka, Schowalter, Duquette– (Introduction to Copper Metalization)– (Wall Street Journal article)

• Month long course to engineers and scientists in the workplace.

• Video/Audio/LearnLearnLincLinc Web data Conf.– ISDN and Internet– ProShare, PictureTel, Panasonic multipoint

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RensselaerCMP Course

• Profilimeter trace showing dishing of the titanium liner relative to the adjacent recessed copper metal. An electrochemical interaction between the copper metal and the titanium accelerated the normally low polish rate of titanium to produce the negative dishing.

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RensselaerU.S. Problem

• Few high school students studying math & physics• Lack of qualified teachers• Rural and inner cities are particularly bad• Solution:

– LearnLearnLincLinc used to teach physics over the network– Funded by:

• AT&T• Lucent• Bell Atlantic• IBM

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RensselaerRemote Physics Course

• Introductory Calculus Physics• Delivered via ILINC LearnLearnLincLinc• Cobleskill High School in rural upstate NY• Collaborative between the physics teacher at

Cobleskill and faculty and graduate students at Rensselaer

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RensselaerNichole

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Rensselaer

The End

Dr. Jack M. Wilsonwilsoj@rpi.edu

http://www.RPI.eduhttp://www.JackMWilson.com

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RensselaerRSVP

• 10 Years +• '93 Telecon "Best Distance Learning Program"• '96 USDLA Industry-University Collaboration • 1066 Students in Credit/Degree Courses(S99)• Several hundred more in short courses• Bringing education to the workplace

– (GM, IBM, Lockheed Martin, AT&T, Lucent, Con Ed, GE, UTC, Pratt &Whitney, Ford, Intel,Applied Materials, Matsushita, Bugle Boy, Albany International, Key Bank, +++++)

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RensselaerSuccess Story-LearnLinc

• ILINC LearnLearnLincLinc distributed learning system– Video-audio-collaboration-synchronous-asynchronous

• founded in 1994 by one faculty (Wilson) and two alums (Bernstein and Usluel)

• RPI Research joint with AT&T and Bell Labs• Began in incubator• Moved to Tech Park• Bootstrap start-up and two rounds of venture

including one with Intel.

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RensselaerAlbany International Paper

• Management and TechnologyGene Simons– North America– South America– Europe– Australia– Asia

• Face to Face first then PictureTel and Web

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RensselaerSuccess Story

• MapInfo– Founded by four undergraduates and staff member– $60.6 million in 1998 rev.(1999 $70 M est.)– NASDAQ Stock– Develops desktop mapping software– Offices in Beijing and Hong Kong– Research with campus on software design

collaboration across distance and culture