When environmental scientist Chris Shuler teaches his lecture on environmental pollution in the Samoa at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, students can also listen to the archipelago, which is almost 4000 kilometers away. Because Shuler appears in the Community College of American Samoa as a three-dimensional hologram - a new concept of the university to virtualize teaching content.
The first official lecture on the so-called HoloCampus took place this week - including a welcome by the Hawaiian university president David Lassner. "The work we have done since January has today borne fruit," Lassner told media reports.
DIGITAL REMOTE LEARNING University of Hawaii President David Lassner https://t.co/l6p0dS7z2x @GovHawaii @UHawaiiNews @fcc #UHawaiiNews #hawaiki #education #americansamoa #digitaldivide #holograms pic.twitter .com / ZnXMStCdrt
- HAWAIKI (@HawaikiCable) August 22, 2019The program at the HoloCampus is designed to give students in American Samoa the opportunity to earn credit at the University of Hawaii without being there in person.
University President Lassner hopes the project will identify new ways to collaborate across universities - not just in the Pacific, but on a global scale.
Video report of the "Honolulu Star Advertiser"
In order to realize the project, however, considerable technical effort was necessary: In advance, a submarine cable of nearly 15,000 kilometers was laid.