Oh, the Places You Can Go with Web Conferencing!

Now that we've institutionalized Web conferencing, it's beginning to become apparent that this kind of collaboration can support many more kinds of learning and support than the traditional teacher-to-student interactions we originally envisioned. Even in the latter, of course, I've been constantly (and pleasantly) surprized by how innovative educators adapt the tools and their own approaches to instruction in order to create learning environments that make full use of the rich tools of the Confer classroom. But here are some examples that transcend the classroom and potentially open doors for students who might not otherwise be served.

Psychiatric Care. At the University of Rochester (NY) Strong Ties Community Support Program, members of the inpatient and outpatient teams have been meeting since 2010 using Web conferencing. Leslie Tomek and J. Stephen Lamberti, two of the psychiatrists, describe the use of this technology: "Initially it was peculiar speaking to a video monitor instead of face to face, but the monitor quickly seemed to disappear and we became one large team of clinicians working collectively to provide effective care for our most acute patients." Among the benefits they report from adopting this technology: better discussions of patients' progress; streamlined planning for discharges; enhanced follow-up decision-making. Web conferencing "allows large groups of people to communicate concurrently. We have also found that patients and their families are pleased to hear about our new form of communication." In higher education, one can imagine that regular Web conferences between physicians, counselors, nurses, and other health care providers would have similar benefits.

Psychotherapy Training. Allan Abbass et. al., in Web-conference supervision for advanced psychotherapy training: A practical guide, report that the "advent of readily accessible, inexpensive Web-conferencing applications has opened the door for distance psychotherapy supervision, using video recordings of treated clients. Although relatively new, this method of supervision is advantageous given the ease of use and low cost of various Internet applications. This method allows periodic supervision from point to point around the world, with no travel costs and no long gaps between direct training contacts. Web-conferencing permits face-to-face training so that the learner and supervisor can read each other's emotional responses while reviewing case material. It allows group learning from direct supervision to complement local peer-to-peer learning methods."

Language Instruction. Sng Bee Bee and David Gardner report in the International Journal of Web Based Communities on research they conducted to determine the viability of Web conferencing for language instruction. (I have reported elsewhere in this blog about California Community College instructors who have successfully taught Spanish and other languages using CCC Confer.) Two groups of learners, one Thai and one Vietnamese, were located in two different countries: Thailand and Singapore. They met by means of Web conferencing and - based on participants' feedback - concluded that this technology was effective in helping to accomplish the learning objectives.

Library Research Skills Instruction. Sheila Bonnard and Mary Anne Hansen of Montana State University report that they have successfully taught library research skills to online students in real time for the last two and a half years. Their article, "From Two Dot to Turkey", provides tips and lessons learned, along with amusing anecdotes about the rural communities (including Two Dot) served.

Tutoring. Karen Kear et. al.from the Open University describe a Web tutoring pilot that involved about 140 tutor groups and report that "tutors and students reacted positively to the opportunities Web conferencing provides for interactive learning and teaching." They also stress the need for prior preparation and "real-time improvisation" in this environment, along with the challenges of establishing social presence and avoiding cognitive overload. (As with language instruction, I have written elsewhere in this blog about successful tutoring efforts using CCC Confer).

Research and Data Collection. David M. Glassmeyer and Rebecca-Anne Dibbs describe in "Researching from a Distance" how geographically separated learners can use Web conferencing software to collect qualitative interview data by conducting interviews in an online graduate education course. And Yang et. al. describe "Use of Webinar and Web Meeting to Support Research Collaboration Between Italy and China" in the 2012 Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications.





Does Web Conferencing Work in Education? (Research Results)

"Basic research is like shooting an arrow into the air and, where it lands,
painting a target."  -- Homer Burton Adkins

 

I've done a little digging to see what educational researchers and writers have been finding about the use of Web conferencing for instruction. Here's a sampling:

 

Best Practices to Promote Learning Through Web Conferencing: Resources, Tools and Teaching Methods. Eastern Kentucky University educators Paula Jones, MaryAnn Kolloff, and Fred Kolloff summarize five best practices associated with best teaching practices using Web conferencing: (1) Prepare content beforehand; (2) Plan a practice session; (3) Have an assistant on hand; (4) Before the first meeting, plan for accessibility, record the session, prepare participants, have a plan for emergencies, take care of audio problems, greet participants; (5) During the session, interact with students, prepare for delayed reactions, plan for scheduled breaks, reduce visual clutter.

 

Georgetown University: Web Conferencing—A Critical Skill for the Connected World. Pablo Molina shares that Georgetown University undertook a campus-wide adoption of Web conferencing services "as part of its planning for the possible consequences of a swine flu epidemic." Although the flu didn't end up disrupting classes as expected, it gained some converts, and the author was among them. He describes how he used the technology to teach his classes and the successful results he observed, and concludes: "The pedagogical use of web conferencing technologies also targets the ability to make informative and convincing presentations online. For this to happen, web conferencing must be pervasively built into the curriculum. Presently, student web conferencing is only built into a few core courses (in addition to the capstone course required of students to complete their Master of Professional Studies in Technology Management degree). Beyond this program and this institution, there is great potential for extending this practice to other programs and to other educational institutions."

 

An Institutional Evaluation of Web-Conferencing and its Impact on Learning and Teaching Processes. Researchers at the University of Aveiro in Portugal evaluated the use of Web-conferencing for several courses. "The overwhelming majority of students and teachers agreed that Web-conferencing was able to improve access to learning and increase the level of interactivity experienced... Teachers found the workload associated with teaching using Web-conferencing was manageable, and nearly 80% of students indicated that they would be more likely to choose subjects that used Web conferencing."

 

Reflections in Cyberspace: Web-Conferencing for Language Teacher Education. New Zealand researchers report on an in-depth evaluation of an Applied Linguistics course which utilized Web-conferencing for instruction and delivery. They determined that "inclusion of students' voices enriched what could be learned."

 

Taking the Classical Large Audience University Lecture Online Using Tablet Computer and Webconferencing Facilities. At Technical University of Denmark, the author took lectures for "Introduction to Statistics for Engineering Students" (which average 250+ students) online using Web conferencing. "A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the course evaluations are given that documents that students reacted positive [sic] to the initative."

 

Web-Conferencing Based Education: An Empirical Comparison with Face-to-Face Education. University of Nebraska researchers concluded that, for interactive instructional strategy, "students in a Web-conferencing based learning environment experienced a higher level of classroom interactivity than those in a face-to-face classroom environment. Also, in the interactive instructional sessions, students in the Web-conferencing based learning environment experienced higher perceived learning and satisfaction than those in the face-to-face learning environment." They conclude that "educators need to focus on designing interactive education that can leverage the new technologies supported by Web-conferencing" and "maximize the use of video/audio/instant messaging and other visual tools" in their use of the technology.