College lectures used to be simple affairs; rows of wooden desks (inkpots optional) stretching high above a platform where a learned academic (maniacal haircut compulsory) pointed at a board and the students furiously scribbled down notes.
This is still more or less the way most undergraduates consume their knowledge, but these days we need a lot more graduates and our students have a lot less time, particularly if they are already in the workforce.
So if you can't come to the lectures, IT Sligo will bring the lectures to you. For some time, the college has been doing this online; now they are offering content via podcasts, or downloadable videos compressed into a small file format to make storage easier, making it a pioneer in this field in Ireland.
"IT Sligo have been running online courses for three years now, so this is just taking it to the next level," says Brian Coll, lecturer in engineering and co-developer of the podcasts at IT Sligo with his colleague Brian Mulligan, chairman of the Irish Learning Technology Association.
"Students who live locally can come in and attend the lectures, but most people take them online, via video streaming software. The benefit of this is that as long as you have a PC with a high-speed internet connection, you can watch the lectures whenever you like.
"The lecturer uses a smart board and a smart pen so whatever is written on the board comes up on the screen. We use Macromedia breeze for the online streaming and we also use Moodle, which is open-course software and widely used in academic institutions, for online interaction between students and to post up information on assignments and extra reading.
"Although this opens up courses to so many more people than traditional lecturing methods, you still have to be at a PC with a broadband connection to view the lecture.
"But now the lectures are being made available via podcast, you can view them on any MP3 player with video facilities, on your PC, home TV or mobile phone - or you can listen to the audio portion of the lecture on your car radio, or even at the gym. This makes life a lot easier for people who are unable to receive a broadband connection, particularly in rural areas. With the podcast, they can download it at work and then watch it later on without needing a high-speed connection at home, so the online lectures now offer mobility as well as flexibility."
Some people may dismiss the idea as just another way to work around our busy consumer lifestyle, but its implications range far beyond colleges showing off their technological trickery, or students swotting up on macroeconomics while on the treadmill.
The nature of the economy demands more and more graduates each year, and although the percentage of school leavers entering third level has also rapidly increased, the demands of the knowledge economy means many people at work will have to undergo further education.
The National Centre for Partnership Performance's The Future of the Irish Workplace report, published last year, estimated that by 2015, over 45 per cent of all jobs will be for third-level graduates and over three in four net new jobs will be for people with third-level qualifications. Another report from the expert group on future skills needs stated that projections of economic demand for skilled graduates suggest a deficit of some 100,000 graduates over the next 10 years.
To satisfy this need for graduates, colleges have to be increasingly inventive to provide facilities and learning for their students. Unsurprisingly, the wealthier US institutions are leading the way.
"They are using this technology in some of the bigger American colleges, such as Stanford and Duke," says Mulligan. "In fact, I believe some of the faculties offer free iPods as part of the course. We're working with Apple at the moment and we hope to be able to offer discounted iPods for the new term.
"We introduced the podcasts a month ago and so far we've had a very positive response; the students are delighted, they love the idea of being able to take it round with them. The lectures are around 200MB for an hour, which isn't very much by today's standards and it means that even with a 1GB memory stick, you can carry around five lectures, almost a week's worth. Obviously, a 40GB MP3 player will hold a lot more.
We held a successful trial and then launched it and so far, we've had no hold-ups or hitches. We will be able to fine-tune things slightly over the break, but our main focus will be rolling it out to all the online courses.
"We've started with the engineering courses, which in fact is one of the hardest places to begin, because the lecture material is obviously a lot more technical than the business or humanities courses.
"The equipment itself is not particularly expensive; we try to make it as transparent as possible. Apart from the smartboard and a pair of headphones, as far as the lecturer is concerned, it's just a normal class. Often, you might have to give a lecture to an empty class, but you get used to that very quickly, it's not a problem.
"We want to make it as seamless a possible from the lecturer's point of view. And for the students, online learning used to mean taking lectures when you want, but now it means when and where you want."
