A prototype distance learning laboratory for image processing education

The results of the first year of an NSF-funded image processing distance learning project are described. The project addresses methods to deliver courses over boundaries of time and space where at least one laboratory component required for the project is too costly for an individual student. Hence, the challenge is to deliver distance learning in a fashion that does not financially disenfranchise students and simultaneously does not give distant students a less complete educational experience. To meet this challenge, we have developed new media-rich communication tools (which are accessible via the Internet and the WWW, allowing students to easily exchange media-rich documents), a client-server based interface (which we call WebKHOROS) to KHOROS (a powerful image processing system), and several other components.