Experiences with the global laboratory between Africa and America

During the past two decades distance learning has progressed from basic television broadcasting into Web-based Internet telecasting. In the 1990s video techniques were combined with virtual reality software over local area networks and the Internet to improve the quality of distance learning. Cal Poly Pomona has implemented the next generation Global Laboratory Environment (GLEn) with support from the W. M. Keck Foundation. This environment allows users around the world to access and operate equipment over the Internet or Internet-2 in real time. Unlike the previous generation of remote access over the Internet, this environment allows users to see the equipment in the laboratory and, with proper authorization, to operate it without local intervention.