Abstract: A system and method for offering to a large pool of students a loosely synchronous online course that facilitates student interactions and behavior to emulate a physical case-study classroom. The large pool of students is divided into cohorts of a smaller number of students. Course content is divided into lessons and lesson content is released according to a schedule so that an individual student may progress through a course relatively independently but which prohibits a student from progressing to a subsequent lesson until a defined release date. Content within a lesson is selected in response to an interaction by the student with the content and with other students, so that interactions of a cohort with the content in a lesson influences the selection of subsequent content for the lesson, and in which interactions of a student with the stored content becomes student derived content to be shared with the cohort.

Abstract: A telepresence method and system for mimicking a physical amphitheater classroom for a case-study course with remote students comprising a student wall shaped and arranged to define an amphitheater in an arc, an interior of the arc defining a teaching pit, the student wall including: a video display apparatus to present an array of images arranged in groups, a plurality of student speakers, and a plurality of student perspective cameras, each of the plurality of student perspective cameras associated with and located near a corresponding student image for capturing a unique perspective view of the telepresence classroom, wherein the dimensions of the student wall and of the images in relation to the teaching pit have a geometric relationship such that from the instructor's perspective the student images are approximately life-sized and the instructor can move anywhere within the pit and maintain a line of sight with the perspective student cameras.