Inside Iowa State: Iowa State University

March 12, 2004

Portable distance education

Joe Monahan (right), Engineering distance education, adjusts the video camera as Engineering assistant dean Loren Zachary prepares to give a distance education lesson to students in Iowa high schools. The lesson will be delivered through the College of Engineering's new micro studio. The "studio" is a portable system with all the equipment necessary to turn any space into a distance education classroom. Micro studios also let faculty build a digital library for their students' use. Monahan said the entire system costs about $10,000, compared with about $150,000 that it takes to equip a distance education classroom. More information about the micro studio is online at http://www.ede.iastate.edu/microstudio. Photo by Bob Elbert.