Remote Student Access to Education via Satellite Delivery

For many years, the New South Wales Department of Education and Training has .. been using radio technology to deliver lessons to children in remote rural areas. Due to the expense and inherent unreliability of radio, the Department commenced looking for a replacement amongst emerging communication technologies in 1997. This paper reports on a Trial which was conducted by the Open Training, and Education Network - Distance Education section of the Department of Education and Training using satellite technology developed by GilalofIsrael, delivered and managed by Telstra. The 'virtual classroom' enabled distance education teachers at Broken Hill School of the Air to deliver interactive lessons to primary students at remote sites across western New South Wales. This paper provides an overview of the technology, and outlines the processes proposed for evaluation of the teaching and learning supported by this satellite based system.


Introduction
The New South Wales Department of Education and Training has sought to extend the use of appropriate technology to support distance teaching and learning, partially as a result of the Rural Schools Plan (Metherell, 1989).These initiatives have included: i) creation of the five Access Clusters, where audiographics tele-teaching has been used in the senior curriculum since 1990; ii) introduction of video-conference teaching in the Riverina Access Cluster in 1998; Hi) upgrading of the radio network in the rural Primary Distance Education Centres; and, iv) use of audio conferencing and audiographics tele-teaohing in the Primary and Secondary Distance Education Centres.
This paper reports on the extension of these processes, and is concerned with one 0:£ the continuing challenges for the Department of Education and Training, with regard to concerns about the quality of the radio network.In particular, in the remote regions of New South Wales, the quality of radio transmission has been adversely affected by a range of factors including climatic conditions, solar activity, wildlife activity, time of day, and the vagaries of the electrical power supply.As a result, the system is unreliable and expensive to maintain, and an active search for an alternate delivery system has occurred since 1997.Through an extensive analysis of the data aVail~ble on a range ofoptions to the New South Wales Department of Education and raining, it was decided to trial the use of a satellite based delivery system to support teaching and learning for the most geographically isolatedprimaryschoolstudents in the state.This trial of the satellite based technology to these remote primary students became known as the New South Wales OutbackSatellite Education Trial.It is important to stressthat the project is a Trial of the technology, not a pilot project with the implication that implementation will occur at a later date.

Participants in the Trial
The Satellite Trial is located at the Broken Hill School of the Air.The use of the satellite technology enabledthe distanceeducation teacherto deliverlive interactive lessonsto the class of twelve (12) Year 3/4 students living on remote and isolated properties within a 250 km radius around BrokenHill.The targeted Year 3/4 class received one lessonper day while their siblings received one-to-one and small group instruction by their respective teachers at other times (see Figure 1 for the locationof thesestudents).
The evaluation collected data from the students, home supervisors, teachers at Broken Hill School of the Air, support teachers located at other Distance Education Centres, staff working at the Learning Materials Production Centre (LMPC) within OTEN, and key senior management personnelwithin the Department of Education and Training.

The Trial
Followinga planningand trainingphase, the Trialproper tookplaceover a period of 6 weeks (3 + 3 with a week in between) in April and May.However, various informal trials and technology tests continueduntil the end of Term 2.
The evaluation then involved analysis of the data collected during the Trial, and periods of reflectionon the programby all of the key participants.

Evaluation of the Satellite Trial
The Trial sought to develop a dynamic learning environment where all participants were comfortable using the technology, and where opportunities for interactivity were created to enhance learning at a distance.As part of the Satellite Trial, an external and independent team from Charles Sturt University (Colin Boylan and Andrew Wallace) was contracted to conduct the evaluation.The overall focus of this process was: To evaluate the capacity ofthe New South Wales OutbackSatellite Educationprogramto provide live, interactive educational experiences for outbackstudents using the satellite> computerbased system.
The evaluation was to take cognisance of the differing perspectives of each of the key participants, including teachers, students, home supervisors, materials developers and support staff.Five major areas were seen as appropriate for the study, these being: The pedagogy developed using the technology.

How was teachingand learning influenced by the use ofthe new technology?
Materials development -implications of the use of the technology.

Ho-w mightprofessionaldevelopmentforstaffbe implemented?
Engagement with the technology.
How easy is the technology to use?
Appropriateness of the technology.

Collection of information
A variety of methods were used to gather information about the implementation of the Trial.These included: 1) beforeand after.questionnaire; ii) face to face interviews with all participants; ill) telephone interviews with home supervisors, and teachers; and, iv) lessonobservations.

Satellite technologies
The Satellite Trial has been undertaken with the supportof Telstra, using satellite technology developed by an Israeli company Gilat.This company provides satellite services for private companies, banks, government agencies and academic institutions, allowing them to conduct live and offM line teaching and learning.
Gilat is presented in their own literature as the dominant domestic and regional provider of sophisticated satellite communication services in Israel,andis a significant providerofone-way and two-way VSAT technologies across the globe.Their systems allow communication betweena centra1location and a largenumber of geographically dispersed sitesusing terrestrial transceivers and disk antennas.Gtiat uses the technology to provide a widerange of satellitebased communications services including voice communications, data, and digital video broadcasting usingTI> multicastsystems.
The systemsutilisedin this Trial were developed by Gilatin close cooperation with the Open University of Israel, who have considerable experience in Distance Education, especially Interactive Distance Learning (lDL), and Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB).The Open University sought to reach students in their own homes, rather than to use more traditional classroom based systems for the deliveryof educational services.The solutions developed by Gilat to meet these needs involve proprietary hardware and software whichare used to create, broadcast, and conducteducational and training sessions.

Background to the satellite system
The Trial at Broken Hill was predicated upon the assumption that satellite technology was appropriate for the delivery of lessons to remoteisolatedstudentsin outback New South Wales.The existing radio system is expensive and unreliable.At the same time the current telephone systems (land based and radio/microwave) are inadequate to provide even base level access to facilities which are fast becoming accepted as the norm.These facilities include access for all students to the Internet and the World Wide Web.There appears to be no cost effectivemeans in the foreseeable future to improve the telephone system to these remote properties, where currentsystems are unreliableand operateat low transmission speeds.
The development. of satellite systems to deliver educational experiences for remote students would appearto have a number of advantages.These include that: there is no longer a reliance upon existing inadequate telephone communications systems; the system offers high quality sound.video and data communications to each student site, irrespective of location or physical circumstance; the sound quality problems experiencedwith the current radio systems are overcome.while quality video and data communications are added; and, costs of satellite communication are likely to fall as usage levels escalate in the next decade.

The research literature
The literature on the use of technology and learning has grown exponentially in recent years, though the major area of concern involves the use of computersin traditional classrooms.The impact of technology upon distance education has also grown through the past decade.In this regard Barker (1991) succinctly analysed the educational advantages and disadvantages of a range of telecommunicated distance education technologies, including satellite based delivery systems for teaching and learning.His analyses have direct relevance to the New South Wales Outback Satellite Educatlon Trial Barker (1991) identified a comprehensive set of advantages and disadvantages for satellite based deliverysystems.whichwere: Advantages i) Studentscan see their teacher.
ii) Real time video images are presented.
iii) Student~teacher interactions are possible.
iv) The satellite signal can cover a large geographicalarea.

Disadvantages
i) The teacher cannot see the students.ii) Little student -student interaction.ill) Audio 'echo' canbe a problem when students talk.iv) Oftenprograms are centrally controlledwith little local input.v) Somesatellite receiving dishes areweather sensitive.whileKu band reception ~ay be affectedintexmittently by 'sun outages'.vi) Large class sizes are not normally possible.vii) Establisluuentcosts and on going annualfees are high (Barker, 1991: 5-6).

!
The Satellite Trial inNew South Wales is not the first in the useof satellite based technologies within Australia.An interactive satellitetelevision trial (OLTC, 1994) was conducted by the VictorianMinistryof School Education during 1992 and 1993.This program used a one way video and phone I fax return to the television studio to deliver lessons around the state.This particular trial sought to provide better access to professional development forteachers, and to explore the strengths and weaknesses of the technology.In the resultant report, OLTC (1994) claimed that the educational benefits of the interactive satellite television system for teacher professional development were: i) no costly and time wasting travel; ii) no filtering of information by numerous consultants and oolleaguea: ill) quality of access to inserviceprograms; iv) better useof scarce resources; and, v) maximised.participation by cutting outquotas and lessening thetime release necessary for teachers to attendprograms (OLTC, 1994: 2).
Significantly, the evaluation of the Victorian trial identified that quality learning had taken place, and that teachers readily accepted satellite delivery mode.As a result of this trial more teachers participated in professional development activities, and the need for staff training in the methodologies associated with the delivery of programs via the interactive satellite television system wasestablished.
More recently, a trial of video-conference teaching through the South Australian Open Access College, as part of the Telstra Leam-Il' program, identified a number of issues that have direct application to the use of the satellite based delivery system in the New South Wales Outback Satellite Education Trial.TheSouth Australian experience identified positive outcomes which include: .

i)
students were able tosee their teacher and receive immediate feedback; ii) students developed better communicatlon skills; . ill) teachers were excited by the potential of the technology to permit them to teach in ways notpossible before; and, Iv) teachers were able to use the system for professional development session after schools hours, bringing distance education teachers from Port Augusta and Marsden together in ways that didnotexist before.
There were however somenegative outcomes identified bytheTelstra researchers, including: i) a doubling of lesson preparation time; ii) teachers needed 'tobe veryorganised' fora lesson; and, ill) there was a need to further consider the ways in which technology would be integrated into the learningprocesstTelstra, 1997).
The Gilat satellite system literature The Gilat satellite system is a recent technological innovation.It was first implemented at the Open University of Israel in 1995 (Kurtz, 1999).For the first implementation the system was based on a one way satellite video image delivered to a large television screen located in student study centres spread across Israel.Two way audio communication occurred via the telephone system.In 1997, a one way video and two way audio and data communication system was trialedby Gilat, againat the Open University of Israel,which wasbased completely Educationin Rural Australia, VoL 10(1) ... 7 J on satellite delivery for both reception and transmission.This system incorporated HTML based communications and presentations systems.Kurtz (1999) reported on the 1998 evaluation of this Gilat system with a group of 20 participants, including 14 students and 6 staff from the Centre for Information Technology in Distance Education at the Open University of Israel.Her findings revealed that the participants found the lessons more interesting as they integrated both lecturer presentation and audio visual aids, and that the asynchronous access to lesson material was valued.However there were concerns at the lack of social interaction between participants, and aperception that the learning environment was less concentrated than was the case within the face to face classroom.For the teacher, the preparation of web based materials and the management of the course demanded.significantly more time and effort.Overall, Kurtz (1999) concluded: The [learning] environment is user-friendly and is suited to distance education.This new environmenthas clear advantages, [as] it allowsstudents to study independently and to be active learners(p.6).
During 1998 the Gilat system was trialed by the Western Australian Department of Education through the School of Isolated and Distance Education (SIDE).In this trial, the purpose of the educational component was to support those isolated students studying traditional distance education subjects who would benefit from as greater level of interaction.The teacher was located in a high quality television studio contained within the SIDE complex at Leederville in Perth.The lesson transmission was delivered to two schools in the far north west region of Western Australia, one school was based in the very small remote community, while the other wasa District High School in a large country town.
ill the evaluation report on the Western Australian trial of the Gilat system (Education Department of Western Australia, 1998), the authors focussed on three areas.These areas and their conclusion based in the trial are presented below: Adequacy of teacher training.i) the short time line before the start of the trial impacted negatively on its effectiveness; ii) the one day teacher training session provided by Gilatwas inadequate; Hi) the teachers needed time to 'play' with the system to become familiar with its operation; and, iv) additional training on the production ofHTML format support materials was needed.
Ease of operation of the system.i) all teachers found the system easy to use; ii) students found the system ease to use; and, ill) the system was an effective way to deliver professional development to teachers in remote locations.
Suitability ofthe technology.i) the teachers identified the visual aspect as beneficial; ii) teacher preparation time was significantly greater; ill) teachers started off in a 'lecture' mode of delivery and as they became more comfortable with the technology they used the technology to include more interaction with their students; iv) students and teachers in the remote locations had good access to the Internet; and, Education in Rural Australia, Vol. 10 (1) ... 8 v) there were technical support requirements at both the studio and school end which wouldrequiresystem level support.Operation of the Gi/at software All sites 'lock' on to the satellite and stay connected permanently (24 hours a day).This allowedsatellite access to the lesson material and to the Internet during and between lessons.
The studentscreenhad the following features:
Trial came initially from the Open Training and Education Network (OTEN • Distance Education) group, who then managed the implementation of the project.OTENprovidesa number of distanceeducation services, which include: i) the management and staffing of theprimary and secondary DistanceEducationCentres,' (DECs) locatedaround the state; H) the training and development needs for distance education teachers; Hi) the development of print and audio based materials for students and teachers occurs (throughthe LearningMaterials Production Centre(LMPC); iv) the selection and maintenance of distance education delivery systems used by individualDECs;and, v) the evaluationof new formsof distance education delivery systems.

Figure
Figure 1: Students Engaged in the NSW OutbackSatellite Education Trial Luke -------, Tom Mark Nick James & Jake Jessica Broken Hill School of the Scott Alicia Brett Sara Mathew Equipment used in the Trial