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Telepresence and Videoconferencing in Education

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There was a recent story on Cleveland’s local NPR affiliate about the growth of online courses at colleges and universities. It states that Cleveland-based community colleges are experiencing record enrollments due to the down economy. And, to serve more students and lower costs, many are enhancing their online-learning capabilities.

In the report, Rob Evans, spokesperson for the Ohio Board of Regents, says that around the state, enrollment in online courses is up 25 percent since 2008, and community college students make up 60 percent of that enrollment.

As a result, there are growing opportunities for universities to enhance their distance-learning programs with telepresence and videoconferencing technologies.

But, it doesn’t stop there: videoconferencing can also benefit K-12 classrooms. In fact, according to Wainhouse Research, there are already almost 30,000 video conferencing systems in U.S. schools, service centers, district offices and departments of education as of April 2009.

Using these solutions, educators can connect with students via high-definition and fast connections. Live video improves the quality of distance learning through enhanced communication and collaboration, and opens the door to an array of innovative learning experiences that cannot be achieved in the traditional classroom. 

Benefits for the Classroom

In its whitepaper, Telepresence in Education, Cisco outlines some of the benefits that telepresence in particular can have on the learning process, including: 

• Increased access to students and experts, as collaboration can take place among geographically dispersed individuals. This results in the ability for distance learning, e-mentoring, remote access to AP classes for high school students, demonstrations, virtual field trips, guest lecturers and more.

• Reduced travel expenses and better use of time— Videoconferencing can be extremely beneficial during PhD-dissertation defenses when panel experts are needed, or for research teams that are globally dispersed but need to keep each other regularly updated.

• Maximized social contact — Students and instructors can capture nonverbal communication, such as gestures, tone of voice, posture and eye contact, enhancing the group’s coherence and collaboration.

• Genuine dialogue between all participants — With one central virtual location, students and educators can communicate with each other in real time. This includes collaboratively editing documents.

Videoconferencing and Telepresence in Action

So, how are schools implementing videoconferencing into their classrooms to improve education quality? Check out these innovative ideas below:

• Improving America’s teachers through video — The Gates Foundation is spending $45 million to videotape teachers across six school districts, then using the footage to identify effective teaching practices which can be passed along to other educators.

• Teachers using inverted learning — With the inverted learning teaching model, students become the focus of the class, not the teacher. Students watch a lecture at home and then apply what they learn with the teacher in the classroom. By absorbing the material via video the night before, students are more engaged and involved during class.

• Multimedia lecture halls to increase access — Duke University’s telepresence facility enables students to connect with professors, business leaders, other universities and guest lecturers around the world. This helps bridge the educational environment with the business world and offers students more real-world experience.

• Virtual field trips and innovative demonstrations — Virtual field trips let students “visit” places that travel and budget constraints usually would not allow. For example, the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) in Columbus regularly holds live knee replacement surgeries via videoconferencing for students, allowing them to view the surgery and ask medical personnel questions.

Your Thoughts?

How have you implemented videoconferencing and telepresence into your educational environment? What benefits have you seen as a result? How have you improved communication and collaboration among students and educators?

Bill L'Esperance is Regional Vice President of Sales for the Great Lakes and the leader of MCPc's State, Local Government and Education (SLED) vertical market. Connect with Bill on LinkedIn.

Image Credit: Virtual Learning Center