2-Way Video System Affords VGCC Many Advantages In Instruction

The new classroom building that opened in January at Vance-Granville Community College’s Warren County Campus gives the college more than additional, modern classroom space.

While the new building contains state-of-the-art technical equipment, including 70 new computers, projectors in every classroom and new networking equipment, it is a two-way video system being installed in one of the new classrooms that has college officials so excited. This system allows Vance-Granville to teach classes at either the Warren Campus or the main campus in Vance County and feed them to the other.

“If only a handful of students in Warren County want to take courses, we might not be able to justify hiring instructors, which are difficult to find, to teach them there,” said Marsha Nelson, VGCC’s Vice President of Instruction and Student Services. “But with this two-way video system we can beam classes from the main campus to the Warren Campus where the local students can participate in them.”

This will save the college money on instructional staff and make the classes more convenient and save travel costs and time for Warren County students, Nelson added. The same advantages can be gained in reverse by beaming the classes from Warrenton to the main campus.

Classes will be carried on a fiber optic link that currently exists between all four of Vance-Granville’s campuses, in Vance, Granville, Franklin and Warren counties. This allows the college to run video, Internet access and telephones, and it supports data, voice and video traffic.

The Warren Campus classroom will be equipped with two 36-inch video monitors, two cameras, microphones and document imaging cameras, and VCRs and DVD players to tape all the classes. Classrooms in buildings and additions under construction or planned at the Franklin County Campus near Louisburg and South Campus in Granville County will also be equipped with this two-way video system, and the Information Highway classroom on the main campus will be upgraded for this service.

Vance-Granville is in the process of acquiring the necessary equipment, and classes will be offered as soon as it is set up and instructors are trained to use it, said Ken Lewis, Director of Information Technology for the college.

“This will be a great boon to our instructional programs,” said Dr. John Beck, Dean of General College and College Transfer. “I look forward to the day when the system is in place at all campuses so that we can offer classes at one site that can be accessed by students at all campuses. This way we can serve many more students with fewer instructors.”