Managing Complexity in a
Networked Learning Environment

Jonathan Humfrey, Sami Rollins, Kevin Almeroth
Department of Computer Science       
University of California            
Santa Barbara, California 93016-5110
{jch, srollins, almeroth}@cs.ucsb.edu   

Bruce Bimber
Dept of Political Science
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
bimber@polsci.ucsb.edu

As more universities and research institutions develop digital 
classrooms, a common theme is arising: the need to manage complexity.  
As more technology is added to a classroom in order to facilitate the 
presentation, transmission and recording of digital media, the complexity 
of the environment increases dramatically. By planning the design and 
implementation of a digital classroom with a strong focus on managing 
complexity from the beginning, it should be possible to deploy a highly 
functional classroom environment that employs advanced technology while 
at the same time managing the inherent complexity in such a way as to 
reduce the barriers to use.  In this paper, we will examine how complexity 
arises within four specific areas: audio engineering, video production, 
encoding/decoding, and administration.  We then present a list of 
solutions and conclude with an overview of what we have learned in the 
deployment of our own digital classroom, the Collaborative Technology 
Laboratory (CTL).