Spectrum - Volume 20 Issue 16 January 15, 1998 - Math Emporium open house set for January 21

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Math Emporium open house set for January 21

By Catherine Doss

Spectrum Volume 20 Issue 16 - January 15, 1998

Virginia Tech's Math Emporium will hold an open house for faculty and staff members and the local community on Wednesday, Jan. 21, from 10 a.m. to noon.
The keynote speaker for the event will be Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America. In addition, the event will feature tours of the facility, technology courseware demonstrations, presentation of the university's first XCaliber Award for outstanding contributions to courseware development using technology, and recognition of the university's receipt of a national award for excellence in campus networking.
The Math Emporium is an innovative concept in learning and use of learning spaces. It opened this fall offering two undergraduate math courses to 3,500 students almost entirely by computer. The emporium, located in University Mall, is open 24 hours a day and staffed by mathematics faculty members and student assistants 14 hours a day. Students enrolled in either of the two classes study and learn course concepts, complete practice problems, and even take assigned tests at a self-paced rate through the use of locally developed software and course materials. Assessment programs have been developed for both courses at the emporium to allow faculty members to monitor each student's progress and to intervene as problems arise.
The XCaliber Award, administered by Virginia Tech's Center for Innovation in Learning, recognizes outstanding contributions to learning that faculty members and teams of faculty and staff members are making as they develop courseware using technology. The award carries with it a $2,000 stipend and commemorative plaque.
A second award recognition that will take place at the open house will be Virginia Tech's receipt of the 1997 CAUS Award for Excellence in Campus Networking. The university has been presented with this prestigious national award for its pioneering work in developing Net.Work.Virginia, a sophisticated high-speed computing network. By using asynchronous-transfer-mode (ATM) technology, Net.Work.Virginia delivers voice, data, and video services.
A single connection to Net.Work.Virginia can be used to support different types of activities, such as two-way videoconferencing, asynchronous Internet-based instruction, and interactive multi-media applications. Net.Work.Virginia is an initiative of Virginia Tech in partnership with Bell Atlantic and Sprint.
The open house is free and open to the public.
A concurrent open house will be held January 21 from 9 to 11 a.m. at the new office suites for the Virginia Technical Information Center and the Blacksburg Electronic Village at 840 Point West Commons, located directly across the street from University Mall.