ADVANCING ASYNCHRONOUS DISTANCE EDUCATION USING HIGH-SPEED NETWORKS

The Center for Telecommunications at Stanford University, in partnersh ip with the Stanford Center for Professional Development, has designed and deployed an experimental system for delivery of Stanford courses in multimedia format to distance learners using the Internet as well a s two experimental, asychronous transfer mode (ATM)-based, high-speed network testbeds. This configuration is designed to prototype the emer ging broadband communications infrastructure in the United States and elsewhere, The courses are stored on servers and made available to dis tance learners on-demand. The user interface is implemented on the Wor ld Wide Web, Issues of systems integration, educational effectiveness, and economics are under study as part of the project, called ADEPT (A synchronous Distance Education ProjecT). In this paper, ADEPT is descr ibed along with its experience to date.