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Exploring the potential for Internet-based University of New England, Australia
University of New England, Australia
University of New England, Australia
Prior to the introduction of Internet-based videoconferencing technology, opportunities to use the richness of videoconferencing medium for teaching to Australian and international sites were limited by cost, poor technical quality and unreliability. Since UNE's adoption of broadband technology the potential of the videoconferencing medium to enhance quality teaching has increased because the technology now supports four key aspects of rich communication which were previously limited:
• audio-visual richness of synchronous communication not affected by obvious audio delay,
• increased variety of interactive teaching learning experiences that could be adapted from face-to-face situations,
• increased potential for student engagement in active learning and student control of learning,
• reliable teacher-to-student and student-to-student audio-visual communication.
The research project aims to use wisdom from relevant international literature and practice to save time and cost with the hope of making implementation timely, useful and satisfying. Previous work from related areas provided a starting point for investigation of
• staff attitudes towards using videoconferencing for teaching and learning
• appropriate staff development and student support strategies that minimise the negative effects of using the technology e.g avoiding frustration and technical malfunction
• appropriate strategies for teaching internationally and to remote campuses
• soft/hardware applications that have the potential to value-add on to the videoconferencing experience.
As this project aims to add new knowledge to existing knowledge of practice with a view to substantially improving outcomes for students learning and staff teaching via videoconferencing, we welcome critique and discussion from colleagues. | |||||