Utah Education Network
Encyclopedia
Consortium
A consortium is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal....
of higher and public education, libraries, state government and business. UEN’s high speed computer network
Computer network
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....
connects Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
colleges and universities as well as the state’s school districts and libraries. The Network facilitates interactive video conferencing, provides instructional support services, and operates a public television station (KUEN
KUEN
KUEN, also known as UEN-TV, is a full-service, educational television station in Ogden, Utah, operated by the Utah Education Network on behalf of higher education as well as public education...
) on behalf of the Utah State Board of Regents
Utah State Board of Regents
The Utah State Board of Regents was formed in 1969 as agoverning body for the Utah System of Higher Education.The Board consists of eighteen residents of the State; fifteen regents and one student regent are appointed by the Governor of Utah and two members of the State Board of Education,...
. UEN services benefit more 750,000 students and educators throughout the state of Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
. Network headquarters are in Salt Lake City at the Eccles Broadcast Center
Eccles Broadcast Center
The Eccles Broadcast Center, formally known as the Dolores Doré Eccles Broadcast Center, is headquarters of three broadcast stations and a statewide educational consortium. The center houses KUED, KUER, KUEN and the Utah Education Network. The facility sits on the southern edge of a nine hole golf...
on the University of Utah
University of Utah
The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...
campus.
History
The Utah State LegislatureUtah State Legislature
The Utah State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. It is a bicameral body, comprising the Utah House of Representatives, with 75 Representatives, and the Utah Senate, with 29 State Senators...
formally established UEN in 1989, but the statewide collaboration of public education and higher education started more than two decades earlier when KUED
KUED
KUED is full-service Public Broadcasting Service public television located in Salt Lake City, Utah, broadcasting locally in digital-only on UHF channel 42. It is one of two PBS member stations serving the Salt Lake City, Utah metropolitan area...
-Channel 7 signed on the air in 1958. The station built translator towers to beam its signal to remote communities, and later engineers placed microwave link equipment on some of those towers enabling two-way teleconferencing for education and government. In 1987, KULC-Channel 9 (now UEN-TV) started broadcasting as Utah’s Learning Channel, and in 1994 UEN started UtahLINK, the Internet component of the Network. Today all three delivery systems (broadcasting
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
, teleconferencing and Internet data communications) operate under the UEN name.
Key services
- High speed, statewide data network for K-12 schools, colleges and libraries
- Pioneer, Utah’s Online Library, accessible from school, work and home computers
- High school and college courses via live Interactive Video Conferencing (EDNET) and the Utah Electronic High School
- Blackboard Vista hosting for all Utah higher education institutions
- College telecourses, GEDGEDGeneral Educational Development tests are a group of five subject tests which, when passed, certify that the taker has American or Canadian high school-level academic skills...
, Workplace Essential Skills and Instructional TelevisionInstructional televisionInstructional television is the use of television programs in the field of distance education. Educational television programs on instructional television may be less than one half hour long to help their integration into the classroom setting...
on UEN-TV - Online resources for educators at www.uen.org and my.uen.org
- Free professional development workshops for educators are provided at UEN facilities, on-site at schools, and at the annual UCET and Utah Rural Schools conferences.
- Statewide planning and coordination of educational technologyEducational technologyEducational technology is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological processes and resources." The term educational technology is often associated with, and encompasses, instructional theory and...
- Lifelong learning resources for everyone from pre-schoolers to senior citizens
EDNET
EDNET is a distance education program provided through the UEN network, making use of their network backbone, facilities and support. Until 2005 this was mainly accomplished through the use of a Broadcast Television Network, with a few outlying rural areas connecting through IP-based Interactive Video Conferencing means; however, over the summer of 2005 this was converted to a state-wide IP-based IVC system. The current standards make use of Tandberg Management Systems to control events, which are broadcast to multiple classrooms state-wide. Each classroom consists of a Tandberg teleconferencing unit, camera and a monitor of some sort. In addition, some rooms have: document cameras, pc connections, large format screens, microphone mixers, Crestron media control touch-screens and controllers and various other hardware. This allows for a richer experience and is done to increase effectiveness of delivered material and student learning. EDNET is seeking to continue to improve the system, including the expansion into newer technologies as they evolve.Selected statistics
- Over 800 locations for Interactive Video Conferencing.
- 2,951 conferencing events per week, averaging 421 per day in 2004.
- 33,100 students taking 9,993 full-time creditsCredit (education)A course credit is a unit that gives weighting to the value, level or time requirements of an academic course taken at a school or other educational institution.- United States :...
in 2003-2004 High School and College Credit (through Concurrent Enrollment).- 153,737 semester credit hours of concurrent enrollment courses in 2004.
- 60,000 students taking courses online via the Utah Electronic High School.
- 11,461 educators trained (2005–2006).
- 31% increase in class sessions offered (2005–2006).
- 671 class sessions offered (2005–2006).
- 96,496 higher-ed students and 4,552 instructors used Blackboard Vista in 2010 Q1.
External links
- Utah Education Network
- UEN-TV
- voteutah.org - KUED's Utah Election Information
- Utah Coalition for Educational Technology