Keeping Pace with Fast-breaking Current Events

Public Policy Professor Reid Cushman used technology to keep Public Policy 172 / Health Policy current as events and policy related to the terrorist attacks on September 11th unfolded. Mid-semester (Fall 2001) he sent an email to the 144 students in his course with new URLS for both written and audio materials pertaining to a revised lecture he was giving in two days on the public health infrastructure and public health issues related to anthrax. He also planned to cover the problem of antibiotic abuse, focusing on the case of Cipro. As Professor Cushman put it, "That sort of quick change, using top-flight materials, wouldn’t be possible in a course that relied on dead trees."

Although Cushman has been posting basic course information to a course website for five years, he began doing more with technology in Fall 2001. Beyond posting the class syllabus and schedule, Cushman’s course website contains links to all the course readings, class lectures and supplementary materials via streaming audio, a quiz study guide, archives of previous class materials, links to Web resources, all lecture visuals (mostly HTML, some slides), and e-communication links.

"That sort of quick change,
using top-flight materials,
wouldn’t be possible in a course
that relied on dead trees."

Technology Facilitates Distance Education
Cushman is a visiting professor from the University of Miami who must sometimes remain in Florida where he is doing public policy work for the state. Thanks to H.323 Internet video protocol and NetMeeting, Cushman can teleconference live from Florida and conduct class remotely. With NetMeeting, students can view websites or documents from their professor's laptop on a large screen display, while their instructor's head occupies a small corner of the screen. Conversely, Cushman can see his students in their Berkeley classroom.

H.323 capability also allows nationwide access to guest speakers. The technology facilitated Cushman hosting the former Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and University of Miami's new President, Donna Shalala.

Maintaining a Personal Connection as the Class Grows
Most of Cushman's students appreciate that the Web-based class allows their instructor to respond to public policy news as it happens. As a former programmer who loves toys, it was no great leap for Cushman to see technology as a way to "teach a large number of students in a compelling way and to react to current events with continuously updated materials." As he succinctly said, "Just consider what it is like to teach about public health issues since September 11th."

Over the course of three semesters, Public Policy 172 has grown from 40 to 140 students. Although Cushman would prefer a smaller class, he acknowledges that "that isn't the current reality and I think the technology allows the course to remain high-quality in ways that compensate for the large numbers." To ensure that this is the case, Cushman exchanges about 20 emails a day with students. The result, according to the instructor, is "that interaction makes it much more personal – something that is often lost in a big class."

Technologies Used