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Software eases NMC teacher shortage
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Posted on Dec 12 2006
The cash-strapped Northern Marianas College is getting some help in mitigating the shortage of teachers at the lone community college in the CNMI. That help, though, comes not in the form of a person but through a software called Elluminate Live.
Information and Learning Technology director Mary Anne Campo told Saipan Tribune that the software, which had just been implemented this semester, helps the college address the teacher shortage problem.
Right now, NMC uses the technology for its Distance Education Program. She said at least six courses from Saipan, Tinian and Rota benefit from the technology. Classes from Criminal Justice, School of Education, English, Health and PE courses now use this technology.
“Classes vary. There are 10 classes [using the software] this semester,” she said, adding that the college provides proper equipment to different islands. “All technology is set up on different islands,” she added.
Elluminate Live, which creates virtual classroom to remote sites, is intuitive and provides an instructor-led environment delivering real-time, interactive education. According to its website, the technology also extends the boundaries of the traditional “bricks and mortar” classroom.
Campo said that the funding for the use and implementation of the system came from an earlier local funding and was assisted by a grant that the college received years ago from the Administration for Native Americans Grant, an organization that awards grants to American Indians, Native Americans, Native Alaskans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.
Campo said since NMC has been suffering from a shortage of teachers, this technology could have one instructor lecturing simultaneously to students from the three islands at the same time. [I][B](Marconi Calindas)[/B][/I]
