Technology continues to creep its way into classrooms

By JOSEPH GALANTE

Hays Daily News

As a national leader in distance education, Fort Hays State University continued to grow this year as it added classrooms to the Salina area.

Students in the Smoky Hill Learning Center can now take classes from FHSU instructors through live television or the university's Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) system.

The partnership in Salina is the latest addition to Fort Hays' expansive list of areas it offers education. Both domestically and internationally, Fort Hays has expanded its distance learning ability in the past five years and seen its enrollment skyrocket. The university's commitment to technology has fueled its growth.

In the past decade, the university has poured millions into technology infrastructure and integrating computer and telecommunications technology into classrooms.

Many times, adding new options to classrooms means experimenting with new technology. In the late 1990s, FHSU was a case study for the California technology company Tegrity, which transforms traditional classrooms into e-classrooms, said Dennis King, director of FHSU's Virtual College.

Although the university eventually switched to another e-classroom system called Blackboard, experimenting with software is something it does regularly.

“One thing I think we do extremely well here is take educated risks,” King said. “There are not a lot of universities that don't take a lot of risks, and we do. We've had a flop here and flop there, but overall it's been a big success.”

Mediated classrooms are one area the university has found to be successful. Mediated simply means that instructor share access to different types of media in each classroom.

Each of the 60 mediated classrooms at Fort Hays has a ceiling-mounted LCD projector, a rolldown screen, at least one computer (but often both a Mac and a PC), a document camera, Internet access and a complete sound system.

“We're pretty proud right now of what we have, because, to the best of my knowledge, we were the first school to have all of our general purposes classrooms mediated,” said Jack Jackson, coordinator of mediated classrooms for the Center for Technology and Communication at FHSU.

Having access to multimedia enhances the learning process, the university said.

Students in Tom Johansen's Investment Theories and Strategies Class regularly use different media during class. Between the rows of computers they sit at analyzing stocks to the plasma television screens on each side of the classroom to watching a Power Point presentation given by Johansen, students interact regularly in the classrooms with a wide display of technology.

“I don't think I do anything real fancy or unique,” said Johansen, a professor of economics and finance. “I just use what's available to help the students.”

The mediated classrooms were so popular when they were first installed a decade ago that one professor who taught three consecutive classes would go to a different building every hour just so he could teach in a mediated classroom, Jackson said.

“He wanted the mediation bad enough that he would bounce all over campus to get it,” Jackson said.

Apart from providing an enhanced learning environment on campus, Fort Hays has also expanded its technology regionally, as demonstrated by its newest Salina partner.

“We have a lot of area to cover. We really couldn't do it without technology,” said King. “Not all of the schools face the same challenges we do with distance and dwindling populations.”

While other universities struggled over the past five years to maintain enrollment and increasing tuition, FHSU kept tuition low and set enrollment records for three consecutive years.

Enrollment in the Virtual College expanded by 42 percent to 4,200 students last semester. Technology was the driving force behind the explosive growth and is a strategic advantage FHSU has over other universities.

“With the smaller population out here, the advantage we have is that the person that's in Liberal, Pratt or Dodge City that would normally have to leave there to come up here to take classes would hurt their economy,” King said. “We can help western Kansas. We can help small towns. And of course we can help ourselves by bringing in students.”

Reporter Joseph Galante can be reached at (785) 628-1081, ext. 139, or by e-mail at

jgalante@dailynews.net.