The college district has invested for years in
distance-learning technology that allows
students on one campus to plug into a course
offered on another. Those opportunities
expanded with the advent of the college’s six
learning centers.
But the teleconferencing equipment can
sometimes be “the incorrect tool for what the
instructor is trying to accomplish,” Christopher
Cummins, the college’s director of instruction
technology, told the Lincoln Journal Star.
Robots give students chances to interact in
classes, join small-group activities or linger
behind after classes to ask follow-up questions,
he said.
Students establish communication through a
tablet computer mounted on a self-balancing
chassis on wheels. They can then navigate the
class locations as robotic avatars, guided by
personal digital devices. Cameras, microphones
and speakers on the robots let the long-distance
students talk to students in the classrooms and
to instructors.
Audra Podliska, a district resource development
specialist, said the robots are intended to help
students living in rural areas connect with
college offerings that would otherwise be out
of reach.
“This is the closest thing to being in a classroom
without being in a classroom,” Podliska said.
The district bought its first robot for use in the
health sciences department before receiving a
$120,582 Rural Utilities Service grant from the
U.S. Department of Agriculture. The grant let the
district purchase five more robots.
antfer
(Antfer)
#1