Virtual Reality - Classroom Goes to Cyberspace
CIT successfully conducted trials on virtual classroom solution with several lecturers participating

NUS lectures can now conduct virtual tutorial sessions for their students. The Centre for Instructional Technology (CIT) recently conducted a successful trial with several lecturers participating in the virtual classroom solution, powered by Centra Symposium.

Dr Ng Tuck Wah, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Engineering, who attended the trial commented, "I found the sessions using Centra to be highly useful. I hope the system will be implemented soon so that I'll be able to conduct more of my teaching online. I am also facilitating a research group within my Faculty to look into online/distance education, and I have included the pilot project with Centra as an initiative."

Centra Symposium is a leader in providing live, online and interactive environments that simulate a classroom. The lecturer using Centra can interact with students through live audio and video. Students can also view the lecturer's presentation through synchronised slides.

Unlike a normal webcast, however, students can simulate hand raising and lecturers can decide if he/she wants to address questions from the students immediately - replicating typical classroom interaction in real-time over intranets, extranets, and Internet. The strong selling point about Centra is that it works well even on very low bandwidth through dialup modems.

This solution is expected to be especially beneficial to students who may have difficulty coming to classes on campus. This would include, but is not limited to, part-time working adults and students in the executive MBA programs.

Aside from informing lecturers of this new teaching technology, the key objective of the trials was to understand whether such a solution is relevant for the NUS community and the deployment issue that may arise.