Synchronous audio/video Internet Protocol (IP) holds great promise
for courses/programs that need to add the face-to-face aspect of interactive sharing
to the more textual online experience. But - we aren't quite there yet. As Stewart
Kowalski states in this month's FOCUS article, "delays and jitter" problems are
still part of the picture and when the course is international, time zones can also be
problematic.

The growth of Internet2 with its increased bandwidth holds great promise for
decreasing the "delays and jitter" as does "selective retransmission" (see ED
section of DESIEN "Internet2 Demos Streaming Without Interruptions") and,
according to this month's FOCUS author, designing meaningful interaction and
sharing into courses/programs on a consistent basis can help decrease the time
zone problematic. These technological and design advances along with the cost
savings, in lieu of travel, will see the increased growth of IP for full courses/programs
or as a component of online learning. (Rosemary Lehman)