Saturday, April 27, 1968
THE INAUGURAL ECHO
Page Five
The Audio-Visnal Center presents many challenging oppor
tunities in andio-Tisaal methods. The operation of the television
camera and the direction of closed circuit television classes are
everyday experiences for student aids and interns.
Honors Program Accents Breadth
Closed Circuit TV Offers Instruction^ Training
The Audiovisual-Television
By DR. CECIL PATTERSON
Director of Honors Program
The North Carolina College
Honors Program was begun in
September, 1961 as an experi
ment to test the response of su
perior students to advanced
teaching methods and special
ized curricula. It was realized
that even our honor graduates
often lacked acquaintance with
the “canon” of literary works
and were weak in the techniques
and information normally meas
ured by common standardized
tests.
The Honors Program was de
signed to ascertain whether by
avoiding taking up class time
with information these students
showed by their entrance tests
they already knew, and by utiliz
ing media and technology to in
crease their exposure to other
material, we could gain the time
to teach them the skills and in
formation they appeared to lack.
The program was devised by
Dr. Charles Ray, Chairman, De
partment of English; Dr. George
T. Kyle, Professor of Psychol
ogy, then Dean of the Under
graduate School; and the late
Dr. William H. Brown, Professor
of Education, then Dean of the
Graduate School in collabora
tion with Dr. C. L. Patterson,
who became the Director of the
Program.
Original Plan Given
Originally, 25 of the top 50
entering freshmen on the basis
of their placement test scores
were invited to the program.
These students took in addition
to their regular courses an Hon
ors section of English and a
special Honors class.
The Honors English section
was an advanced course cover
ing in one semester approxi
mately the material covered in
both semesters of the regular
freshman course. The Honors
course was a special course in
study skills designed to teach
such elements as research meth
ods, critical thinking and prob
lem solving. These courses con
tinued throughout the freshman
and sophomore years.
At the end of the first y^ar
the program was expanded by
the provision for an additional
25 freshmen each year and by
providing opportunities for in
dividual independent study dur
ing the junior and senior years.
The program has continued in
that format.
Indications are that the pro-
See HONORS, Page 7
By MR. JAMES E. PARKER
Director of Audio-Visual Center
A closed-circuit television fa
cility was installed at North
Carolina College at Durham in
the fall of 1964. The first tele
vision course at the college was
taught during the Spring Semes
ter of the 1964-65 school year.
This course was a second semes
ter freshman English course.
Nearly 300 students were in
volved. Two courses are cur
rently being taught by televisi
on, second semester freshman
English and Photography.
The closed-circuit television
studio is housed in the Com
merce Buiding. Receiving rooms
are located in the Science Build
ing, the Biology Building, the
Classroom Building and in the
Education Building. An inter
communication system is incor
porated in the television facility
by means of which students in
the receiving rooms may direct
questions to the television studio
teacher. Student questions and
the answers given by the studio
teacher can be heard by students
in all of the receiving rsoms.
The receiving rooms can ac
commodate over three hundred
students.
Facility Described
The closed-circuit television
facility includes a teaching stu
dio, a control room, a mainte
nance room, a materials prepa
ration room and a storage area.
The control room houses the
control console with a switch-
fading system and monitors for
each of two live cameras and the
film chain.
The film chain, also in the
control room, contains a multi
plexer—a mirror systems that
directs images from a set of
projectors to a pedestal-mounted
fixed TV camera—two 2x2 slide
projectors and a 16mm motion
picture projector. The film chain
components are controlled at the
control console. Additionally,
the control room contains an
on-the-line monitor, and a video
tape recorder.
The studio contains a variety
of instructional devices that are
useful in studio teaching.
The closed-circuit television
facility, rated as the most so
phisticated to the state, pro
vides an effective means for
large-group instruction, making
the most extensive use of the
specialities of the faculty of the
various academic departments
by extending their expertise to
a much larger group of students
in the respective departments.
It provides a means of encour
aging better teaching.
Television Aids Teaching
Experiences at a number of
colleges and universities have
shown that teachers agree that
after teaching a television
course, even though against their
wishes at first, they became bet
ter teachers. Television tends to
demand more careful planning
and preparation, extensive use
of illustrative materials, more
attention to timing and to the
elimination of extraneous mate
rials. Teachers are thus able to
cover more ground and to do so
in a more effective manner.
Research studies continue to
show that even though student
attitudes toward instructional
television are frequently nega
tive, that they nevertheless per
form at as high a level as they
do in traditional courses while
at the same time experiencing
more extensive coverage. Eng
lish 120 TV at North Carolina
College covers considerably
more content than the tradition
al courses and students do just
as well in grades as students in
the traditional course.
Television is not used for
total teaching at NCC. Class
time is divided between the
studio teacher and the receiving
room teacher. Television is used
for the telling and the showing,
the demonstration part of teach-
i n g. Areas of subject-matter
which lend themselves more ef
fectively to interaction between
students and teacher are han
dled by the receiving room
teachers.
Team Teaching Evolves
As more departments become
involved in television, one will
observe more of a type of team
teaching evolving, particularly
in core curriculum courses.
Each professor in a department
will contribute his expertise in
a given course at an appropriate
time, yielding to another spe
cialist to handle that part of the
course for which he has spe
cialized. Thus students will be
exposed to the most qualified
teacher for each part of the
course. In addition, students
will be exposed to a cross-fire
of ideas and to more of a va
riety of styles of thinking.
By DR. JONES JEFFRIES
Associate Director of Research
and Evaluation
The Office of Research and
Evaluation was established at
North Carolina College in July,
1967. The Office absorbed the
former Bureau of Educational
Research which functioned in
somewhat restricted areas of in
vestigations. President Albert N.
Whiting envisioned the demand
ing need for such an agency
which could devote its entire
time to the examination of any
and all phases of the College’s
endeavors.
The late Dr. William H. Brown
was appointed Director of the
Office and Dr. Jones E. Jeffries
as Associate Director. The office
is located in the Education Build
ing.
When the Office was estab
lished, President Whiting made
the following statement regard
ing its scope and purpose: “The
Office of Research and Evalua
tion was established to study the
operations and practices of the
institutions, the effectiveness of
its instructional program, admis
sion poli.cies and other pertinent
matters relating to the academic
structure of the institution.
Studies To Be Made
The Office will direct the re
search studies concerned with
providing data useful in the
making of informed administra
tive decision for the successful
operation, maintenance, and im
provement of the institution.
This includes, among other
things, the responsibility for the
collection and analysis of data
used in the appraisal of the en
vironment in which the institu
tion operates, in preparing bud
getary requests, in careful study
of space utilization, in determin
ing faculty loads, in admitting
students, and in planning the
overall educational program. The
Office is needed to facilitate ef
ficient management as well as to
promote qualitative improve
ment.”
Function Cited
The basic function of the Of
fice of Research and Evaluation
is to produce systematic studies
Center assumes the responsibil
ity for the technical aspects of
television and for the prepara
tion of effective audiovisual
materials. Each television course
has a director who works with
the studio teacher, thus blend
ing technical and presentation
know-how with the subject-mat
ter expertise of the teacher.
Outlook Viewed
The future of television at
North Carolina College will de
pend, for the most part, upon
the extent to which the academic
departments seek the vise of the
television medium as an inno
vative approach to handling
large groups of students and to
the extent to which teachers
seek ways to devote their teach
ing energies to the areas of
general education subjects in
which they feel most at home.
Of course, it will depend in part
on the extent to which depart
ments and individual teachers
become more amenable to
change. It will depend too upon
the availability of financial re
sources, and upon the kind and
the quality of professional lead
ership.
of institutional problems for use
by administrative offices in the
process of decision-making. The
Director of the Office is respon
sible to the President of the In
stitution who approves designs
for general institutional studies.
The graduate and undergraduate
deans may request and must ap
prove the designs for specific
studies of academic programs.
A second function of the Office
of Research and Evaluation is to
cooperate with the Board of
Higher Education in the genera
tion of data on North Carolina
College needed by the Board and
in the production of reports re
quested by the Board.
A third function of this unit is
to cooperate with other offices in
the development of a data bank
on various aspects of the North
Carolina College program.
Research Accented
In other words, the Office is
responsible for the ongoing in
stitutional research program of
the College.
Since the establishment of the
Office, major studies completed
include a long-range plan of the
College for the State Board of
Higher Education and an analysis
of space utilization. The Office is
now in the process of making an
evaluative study of the Core Cur-
riculimi, or general education
program, of the College.
Foundations
Give To Fund
Six foundations contributed
generously to the NCC Scholar
ship Fund Drive during the
1965-67 phase of the activity.
Of the six, three were located
in North Carolina: Burlington
Industries Foundation; the Dick
son Foimdation, Inc.; and the
Myers-Textile Foundation, Inc.
The three foundations outside
North Carolina supporting the
drive were: The Mary Duke
Biddle Foundation; Pittsburgh
Plate Glass Foundation; and the
Winn-Dixie Stores Foundation.
The total amount contributed by
these six foundations was ap
proximately $16,000.
Office Looks To Study, Evaluation