Jim Gibbons: Tutored Video Instruction, Before and After Zoom

Stanford Emeriti/ae Council Autobiographical Reflections

James Gibbons, Stanford Professor of Electrical Engineering, Emeritus, spoke in the Abernethy Emeriti/ae Lecture Series. In his talk he traces the origins and uses of the Tutored Video Instruction (TVI) process, which he developed in 1972 while serving on President Nixon’s Science Advisory Council. Originally designed to teach Stanford electrical engineering graduate courses to Silicon Valley engineers at off-campus locations, Gibbons outlines the positive learning outcomes achieved through TVI and DTVI (Distributed TVI) as well as the elements contributing to that success, including the importance of tutor selection and training. He describes subsequent uses of TVI in very different settings: teaching computer literacy to children of migrant farm workers and teaching emotional skills to youth in a variety of school and juvenile justice settings across the country. Gibbons mentions that the TVI methodology was also used in a Stanford poetry course and adopted by faculty at the Autonomous University of Guadalajara.