Denison-Kenyon Virtual Research Communities
Interim report, September, 2000:
As the summer research season wound down in mid-August on both the Kenyon and Denison campuses, our regularly scheduled weekly remote meetings also came to an end. One of our original goals for this project was to facilitate collaborative research between the Kenyon and Denison biology faculty by allowing us to become familiar with each other's strengths through these weekly, remote laboratory meetings. Although this goal has not yet been realized (as evidenced by untapped funds set aside for cross-campus research endeavors), our second goal, that of having our undergraduate researchers gain experience in presenting their research findings to a naive, yet educated audience, has certainly been met.
Over the six-week period of July 05 - August 09 ten weekly meetings were held (five by each of our communities). Sixteen undergraduate students, seven from Kenyon and nine from Denison, presented their original research findings at these remote lab meetings. There was substantial give and take during these presentations, with faculty from both campuses asking questions. At times the video facility was a bit awkward for these discussions; waiting for the camera to zoom in on a questioner would break up the flow of a discussion for example. However I think that all participants agree that the only way these weekly meetings could have possibly taken place is via the convenience offered by the video conference facility. Therefore, despite its limitations and the technical and scheduling problems we experienced with the facility, its existence allowed the Denison and Kenyon biology faculties to interact on a regular basis.