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Education
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Distance learning helps students weather meteorology program
Jan 2, 2007
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by Nancy Caronia
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Twenty years ago, on-air weathercasters weren’t necessarily meteorologically savvy. Most had degrees in communications and the ability to deliver weathercasts with panache, but few actually understood the science.
Shift to the South, where Mississippi State University hired Mark Binkley, Ph.D., director, academic outreach and continuing education, to create a meteorology department. Binkley saw a niche for a broadcast meteorology program (BMP) that would enable on-air weathercasters to gain valuable knowledge about meteorology without leaving their jobs. BMP wouldn’t need to offer broadcasting courses -- most of the projected student base had on-air jobs -- but in order to make it work, Binkley knew the program would need to be available off-campus and the curriculum would need to have a practical approach.
Times Have Changed
In 1986, there weren’t a whole lot of distance learning programs to model, and the Internet was a glint in the eye of the future. That didn’t deter Binkley, but when the first course of the 10-course, two-year program was delivered in 1987, it was decidedly without frills. “There was little in terms of technology back then,” he recalled, “but my wife used a camcorder to film me in front of a mural of the earth giving the lectures.”
After taping each hour-long lecture -- there were 12 lectures per course developed with the assistance of the National Weather Association -- Binkley rented a dozen VCRs and stayed in his office through the night to dub tapes for the program’s first 30 students. An alarm clock went off every two hours, and he’d take the dubbed tapes out of the VCRs and pop in blanks. After the tapes were dubbed, he’d mail them to the students, who communicated with him via telephone and mail.
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| In addition to its distance learning program, MSU maintains on-campus programs in meteorology, complete with studios and professional weather graphics systems. |
Fast forward to 2006. Almost one-third of all on-air weathercasters have received a certificate in meteorology through the now three-year BMP program, which boasts 1,600 graduates in its 20-year history. DVD lectures are delivered by a variety of professors and employ a multitude of shots and techniques to make lessons more visually appealing.
Since 1997, the courses have been posted on the Internet through WebCT and interactivity occurs through e-mail, whiteboards, and bulletin board discussion threads. Instructors answer students’ questions via the bulletin boards within 24 hours, but many times students jump on a thread and the instructor only needs to point toward the most salient responses.
In addition to the BMP Certificate program, MSU has on-campus undergraduate and graduate programs in meteorology as well as Teachers in Geoscience (TIG), a distance learning program that offers educators a master’s degree in geoscience. Between BMP and TIG, there are approximately 600 distance learning students and another 150 students in the on-campus degree programs.
“We are the only distance learning programs in the country doing what we’re doing. You could argue that we’re the only on-campus programs doing what we’re doing as well. There are a lot of good broadcast programs out there, but they don’t teach meteorology,” said Doug Gillham, director of distance learning, department of geosciences, MSU. “We are unique in our on-campus setting. Penn State has developed a certificate program that provides the same kind of training, but they don’t go to the same depth or extent that we do.”
Steps Toward Certification
The on-campus program boasts its own studios and equipment and a strong connection with MSU’s Department of Communication, which the meteorology department depends on to teach news reporting. “We teach working with the greenscreen and how to build graphics in WSI’s Weather Producer, nvidia’s Weather Central, and AccuWeather’s Galileo Weather System,” said Gillham. “Ninety percent of the stations in the country use one of those three systems. So when they go to a station, not only do they know how to put up the icons, they also can work with the background graphics to improve the professional look of the station. That’s where we’re unique in providing the theoretical and practicum.”
Employed weathercasters choose to go through the rigor of a program like BMP for a variety of reasons, including seals of approval from the NWA and the American Meteorological Society. The NWA’s seal of approval requires a written test in meteorology and the evaluation of an on-air videotape. Applicants must also be full members in good standing with the NWA, be currently employed as commercial on-air weathercasters, and have two years of full-time or three years of part-time experience.
The AMS is in the process of making changes to its seal of approval program and applicants will now need to pass a written test and have a degree in meteorology. According to Gillham, the AMS is “also requiring that applicants complete four semesters of calculus, two semesters of calculus-based physics, and numerous calculus-based meteorology courses. These requirements to be a ‘Certified Broadcast Meteorologist’ are more rigorous than what are required to work for the National Weather Service.”
While MSU meteorology programs do present a “great deal” of calculus, Gillham noted that “where many other universities do calculations to prove calculations, our focus is on the ‘will it rain this weekend or not’ applied process. The TV station needs to have someone who can communicate to the public in layman’s terms what the weather is going to be like.”
From E-mail To The Field
Recent BMP graduate Jeff Mielcarz, host of the Weather Channel’s Road Crew, noted that while some have said the BMP coursework was easy, there were still required courses like thermodynamics that would be challenging to any student. “The thing about distant learning is that it is more difficult, you have to be dedicated to it because you will get behind,” he said. “There is no pleading with the teacher that you didn’t get the assignment done. There are exams every three weeks -- no excuses.”
According to Mielcarz, the DL component actually helped the learning process because instructors were available to answer questions even on the weekend, and students created a camaraderie online through the chat rooms. “You get out as much as you put into it,” he added.
Dr. Kathy Sherman-Morris, MSU Department of Geosciences, has taught on-campus and through the BMP program, and the biggest difference between the two she sees is the time element. “In class you interact with the students all at once. The distance learning classes are asynchronous and students work at their own pace,” she explained. “They ask questions at their own time. There are advantages to both, but, in the DL environment, it can sometimes be more difficult to get a concept across. “At the same time, when you’re in a face-to-face setting, if a student is working through a problem the immediacy of it can be overwhelming … but in distance learning, a student has time to formulate the whole answer and go back again.”
Students from all 50 states and around the world have gone through TIG, which was founded in 1998, and 650 have graduated from the program. “This program provides teachers with the ability to create a master’s in a content area at their convenience,” continued Sherman-Morris. “We provide the content and the content hours, which varies from state to state.”
Keith Thompson, a retired high school teacher, part-time geology instructor at Cal State, and 2000 TIG graduate, has said that the program opened up new vistas for him, including early retirement. In addition, Thompson has become a field mentor for TIG.
“We take nine to 15 teachers in the program out,” he explained. “It gives us as instructors a chance to verify what they’ve been studying for the last two years and make sure they can apply it.
“Geoscience is hands-on oriented and it’s difficult to show them how to use the tools on a DVD. The TIG program is a great way to give teachers the opportunity to a depth of knowledge that they can turn around and convey to their students. It’s all about passing the information along to the next generation of students.”
MORE INFO
AccuWeather accuweather.com
AMS ametsoc.org/ams
MSU msstate.edu
nvidia nvidia.com
NWA nwas.org
Weather Channel weather.com/roadcrew
WSI wsi.com
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