Online teaching is often synonymous with the asynchronous modality where students learn at their own pace and in their own space. With the expansion of cloud computing and the increased broadband capacities, however, synchronous online teaching is now more than a possibility but an effective way to serve those students who do better in a face to face learning environment over a self-paced online course. At ESC, we created the Immersive Cloud Learning (ICL) modality as an option for our students to take advantage of a small "face-to-face" classroom, while also connecting with expert faculty and students from other regions around the State. Using active learning principles and best models such as the blended model, the ICL modality is an effective practice that many schools can implement usi

One of the great benefits of SUNY Empire State College is its state-wide footprint. We not only serve students across the State of New York but, in addition to the traditional face-to-face and online courses, we also provide students the opportunity to study in unique modalities such as independent studies and residencies. With the 34 locations scattered throughout the State, however, the issue arises when the demand for high need areas and/or faculty expertise exceed what is available in certain locations and the students are left with online courses as their only choice. Although effective and convenient for many, traditional online courses are not right for some students and we have looked into an innovative solution to connect faculty and students from across the county lines-- from the Andirondack mountains to the Brooklyn Bridge-- under the banner of "one college."
The solution was the Immersive Cloud Learning (ICL) platform. At ESC, we created the ICL modality as another option for our students to take advantage of a small "face-to-face" classroom, while also connecting with expert faculty and students from other regions around the State. We looked at cloud technology as the facilitator of this modality, and paired it with the Polycom telepresence conferencing system to give the students the sense of being immersed in a virtual yet live and real-time classroom called the "Destination" classroom. Using active learning principles and best models such as the blended model, our ICL modality is rooted in a few but very important principles and modification:
Instructors teach out of a studio-like classroom to standardize every destination's experience;
Class content and the (virtual) whiteboard is projected directly from the instructor's computer;
"Destination classrooms" are small and intimate;
This modality is used as a vehicle to teach and enhance digital literacy;
The cloud technology allows for access and recordings to be available anywhere, and on demand.