Possibilities - Education Reaches Out - The Winthrop College TBBS

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EDUCATION REACHES OUT - THE WINTHROP COLLEGE TBBS
-------------------------------------------------

*** From June 1991 Possibilities Newsletter ***
*** Copyright 1991 by eSoft, Inc.  All Rights Reserved ***

Education Reaches Out -- The Winthrop College TBBS
by Alan Bechtold

Telecommunications and education are a natural combination.  The 
communication of ideas over distance stretches the boundaries of education's 
reach and often allows the students themselves to participate in the 
teaching process.

Benny Coxton, a professor in Winthrop College's School Administration 
department, wanted to transfer files on the school's existing VAX-based 
telecommunications system.  He soon found it was a difficult task at best.  
Professor Coxton was familiar with the VAX, but he knew its prompt-based 
operation was difficult to master.  He wanted to make telecommunications 
more accessible to the students and faculty.

Sending normal e-mail on the VAX was complicated enough but VAX file 
transfers required quite a bit of training and patience.  To make 
telecommunications truly accessible to the Winthrop students and faculty, 
Coxton knew something else was needed -- an e-mail system that was menu-
driven and offered simple, straightforward file transfer capabilities.

That was nearly two years ago, when the idea of setting up a BBS for 
Winthrop College was born.

Professor Coxton enlisted the aid of Stokes Smith, a Winthrop graduate 
student who gladly tackled the task of setting up the school's first BBS.  
Smith was enthusiastic about the project from the beginning, Professor 
Coxton said.  It wasn't long before he had a BBS online, running RBBS 
software.

The BBS made e-mail easier than ever and file transfers were simplified so 
that an increasing number of students and faculty started using the system.

"RBBS was fine to start with," Coxton said.  "But we soon needed more 
incoming telephone lines than RBBS could easily handle and the software 
still didn't give us the kind of simple menu-driven interface we were 
looking for."

Coxton had heard about a school district in South Carolina that had 
automated its telecommunications with TBBS.  The district called the 
telecommunications program Pathways -- because it utilized a lot of pathways 
(telephone lines) -- to connect students and faculty.

It sounded like just the system Coxton was looking for.  "I sent Stokes down 
to look at it," Coxton said.  "He came back singing the praises of TBBS."

Smith went to work setting up TBBS on an IBM PC/AT with eight incoming 2400 
baud lines.  Coxton said, "It went online quickly, although Stokes continued 
to add to the system and modify the menus for the next couple of months."

Even through Stokes Smith almost continuously designed and built menus and 
file areas, the task was enjoyable.  "He was still singing the praises of 
TBBS after he got the system fully set up," Coxton said.

Smith designed the Winthrop College TBBS with simple menus, each with a 
limited number of options offering access to email and file transfer areas.  
In addition to a large array of files and message bases of interest to 
educators and students, an area was also established for access by the 
general public, for the exchange of popular public domain and shareware 
programs.

As expected, students and faculty who never used to exchange files on the 
VAX were soon using the school's TBBS for file transfers.  TBBS's simple, 
powerful e-mail capabilities resulted in an increase in traffic on the 
system as well.  But it also resulted in some unexpected pleasant surprises.

An Atlanta agency that works with the handicapped started using the system 
for its special program, SMART, dedicated to linking the physically impaired 
via telecommunications.  Smith and Professor Coxton set up a special area 
for SMART participants on the Winthrop College BBS.

This special SMART area continues to expand the world for a large number of 
physically impaired people who are otherwise home-bound or for whom normal 
communications are extremely difficult.

Another organization, dedicated to reaching high school students who are at 
high risk for college acceptance, also tapped into the Winthrop College BBS.  
The program, dubbed EQ (which stands for "Educational Quality"), was also 
given its own special area on the college TBBS system.

"The EQ program was involved in a number of activities aimed at stimulating 
kids with college potential," Coxton said.  "They felt they could stimulate 
a deeper interest in writing and reading via telecommunications through our 
BBS."

EQ participants regularly upload and download writing assignments on the 
Winthrop College BBS.  They pass unfinished stories back and forth and 
critique each others' work.  They also participate in round-robin stories, 
where each participant adds a little to a story then passes it on.

A "Pen Pals" EQ program also encourages participants to write and read via 
e-mail on the TBBS.

The group also used TBBS' file transfer capabilities to gather news and 
feature articles for its own newsletter.  The newsletter staff would upload 
their stories to the BBS and the editors would download them and put 
together each issue.

Until about six months ago, Professor Coxton was happily involved as 
assistant system operator.  Stokes Smith was so enthralled with the system 
he was more than happy to handle most of the day-to-day operations and 
maintenance necessary to keep everything online and growing.  Then, as 
Professor Coxton put it, Smith "moved on to greener pastures."

This left Coxton in charge of the Winthrop College TBBS.  He was familiar 
with TBBS, but not with some of the finer points of its operation.

"If something catastrophic were to happen to the BBS I probably wouldn't 
know how to bring it back online," he said.  "I'd have to call Stokes Smith 
and ask for some help."

But, during the past six months, the Winthrop College TBBS has been running 
continuously.  Professor Coxton, despite his own doubts, hasn't been 
presented with any problems he couldn't handle himself.  This, he says, is 
solid proof of TBBS' unique ease of operation.

Coxton relies heavily on SysOm, the Multi-Line TBBS Option Module that 
offers remote access to most common DOS commands and TBBS maintenance 
programs without bringing the system's other lines down.  Coxton performs 
most system maintenance, including setting up new users and moving files, 
with SysOm.

Now it's summer.  The college is running at low ebb and activity on the 
school's TBBS is down as well.  But this lull in activity hasn't slowed 
Professor Coxton's plans for the future.



"There is a group of some 70 schools currently investigating and researching 
the restructuring of our schools that could be added to the BBS," Coxton 
said.  Currently, this group is using a VAX-based network that was already 
in place, but Coxton feels strongly that TBBS' simple menu-driven interface 
and extensive file transfer capabilities could eventually win them over.

"There's a good chance they'll be on the BBS before much longer," he said.  
"The nice thing about it is the fact that everything's already in place when 
and if they decide the power of TBBS is needed for the project."

Coxton also expects the EQ program to pick up steam in the Fall.  "Right now 
the program's director is on sabbatical but she is due to return for the 
fall semester," he said.  "That's the only thing that's been slowing that 
program down at this time."

Coxton is also considering the addition of TDBS, the xBASE language (dBase 
III Plus) compatible TBBS option module.  "I can see a lot of possibilities 
for TDBS in our application," he said.  "We'll most likely be adding it to 
our system in the next year."

Coxton also sees future application for TIMS, eSoft's Integrated Mail 
System.  "When Stokes Smith was in charge of the system, he experimented 
with SEAdog, picking up a number of FidoNet echo conferences," Coxton said.  
"We brought in the Educators' echo and several others, including Star Trek.  
Unfortunately, the long-distance charges involved in participating in these 
echoes forced us to drop them after a while, due to the limited budget we 
have to work with."

Coxton said the FidoNet echoes and netmail in general were popular enough 
with the users, however, that the search is on for the funds to continue.  
"We got a lot of loud complaints from the users when we dropped them," he 
said.

In fact, it is that constant struggle for funds and manpower that makes TBBS 
a logical choice for educational institutions.  Winthrop's system 
illustrates TBBS' cost-effectiveness and its ability to run continuously, 
with a minimum of operator intervention.

That's why Professor Coxton recommends TBBS for educational institutions in 
need of powerful telecommunications with an interface that is easy to 
master.

"For e-mail, it's certainly easier than the VAX and for file transfers, it's 
MUCH easier," Coxton said.  "Whenever you have the need to bring people -- 
or schools -- together, I recommend TBBS as a way to do it.  We've already 
recommended it to two other universities."

As Professor Coxton has found, TBBS, with its configurable menu templates 
and simple, powerful e-mail and file transfer capabilities, meets the 
challenges posed by virtually any educational institution.

Limited budgets are a fact of life in almost all educational arenas.  
Despite both their limited budget and minimal human resources, the Winthrop 
College TBBS continues to bring students and faculty together while it 
serves the public.

If you have an interest in an educational TBBS application you may view the 
Winthrop College TBBS yourself.  Call the system's public access lines by 
dialing 803-328-0762, by 300/1200/2400 baud modem.

- END -
PS0691-3
Rev. 6/91

Copyright (C) 1994 eSoft, Inc., All Rights Reserved.  Permission granted
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