What is ITV?
ITV stands
for "Interactive Television". The teacher is located at one site and students
are located in the classroom with the teacher, additional students are
also located at one, two or three other sites connected by television.
The students see and hear the teacher, and the teacher sees and hears
the students. They talk back and forth to each other making it a live,
interactive, television distribution system. ITV is one type of distance
education method in use by MATC.
Why have ITV?
MATC wants to offer the courses that the public wants and needs. Sometimes
we have to cancel classes because of low enrollment. Such as when not
enough students sign up to be able to run a class. By collecting students
at a number of sites it is possible to have classes run that would otherwise
have been canceled, or not offered in the first place. We see it as a
way of increasing access to our classes, improving the opportunity for
people to get the education they need, and helping students who are unable
to travel to the main campus for their courses.
Is it like a regular class?
The courses and instructors are the same as the traditionally delivered
classes. The only difference is that some of the students are connected
with the instructor by a live interactive television system. We provide
training to the faculty in the use of the new technology to insure that
the quality of instruction meets our rigorous standards.
Where does the television
system come from?
MATC belongs to four different local networks. This allows us to connect
our main Truax campus with our campuses in Portage, Reedsburg, Watertown,
Fort Atkinson, the Downtown Education Center, and the sixteen other Technical
Colleges in Wisconsin. We can also connect with twenty one high schools
in the MATC district. Three of the networks are part of the state-wide
Badger-Net system using digital technology over special high speed/high
capacity phone/data lines. One network is a proprietary television distribution
system similar to the cable TV service that you receive in your own community.
Where are they offered?
Specific locations are listed here and in the MATC Course Schedule. MATC
operates distance learning classrooms at its Truax location that can be
connected to similar classrooms at its Downtown Madison, Portage, Reedsburg,
Watertown and Fort Atkinson campuses. MATC also can connect to classrooms
in the 15 other Wisconsin technical colleges, as well as 21 high schools
in our district.
For more information
about distance learning, read Online
Learning Frequently Asked Questions.
Last Modified:
January 30, 2007
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