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Preface Commonwealth of Learning Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia Teleconferencing A Training Kit New Delhi, India JUNE, 2004 1 Preface 2 Preface Contents PREFACE............................................................................................................5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................8 Section 1 : Teleconferencing : Technology for Education and Training ...................9 Section 2 : The Technology of Teleconferencing .................................................19 Section 3 : Lesson and Session Planning.............................................................30 Section 4 : Development of Programme Materials, Audio-Visual Aids and Presentation ....................................................................................45 Section 5 : Teleconference : Preparation and Management .................................62 Section 6 : Guidelines for Orientation of Personnel..............................................73 Section 7 : Monitoring and Evaluation of Teleconferencing ..................................79 Case Study – I ..............................................................................................90 Case Study – II.............................................................................................95 Case Study – III............................................................................................98 Case Study – IV ..........................................................................................102 Case Study – V ...........................................................................................111 Glossary of Technical Terms............................................................................119 Annexure-I .................................................................................................131 Annexure-II ................................................................................................135 Annexure-III...............................................................................................141 Annexure - IV .............................................................................................143 3 Preface 4 Preface PREFACE A knowledge-based workforce requires opportunities to continuously expand their academic and professional competencies and skills to meet the challenges of a changing work environment. Many people, who need to upgrade their academic and professional qualifications, are unable to leave their places of residence and work for social, economic and other reasons, and need to have access to training at the work place or at home. Whether it is the educational, corporate, or governance sector there is a need for information, communication and education. Innovative technologies and delivery strategies are increasingly being used in order to meet the challenges of up-grading and up-dating knowledge and providing accessible learning opportunities through communications. The growth of telecommunications has made it possible for institutions to use a variety of delivery strategies to reach their learners/participants. Teleconferencing is one such strategy that has great potential for distance education and training, capacity building, decision- making and monitoring. A flexible technology, it can be used equally well for varied participant groups in different settings, situations and purposes. Teleconferencing makes it possible to connect the resource persons at one end and the learners/participants gathered at dispersed centers, and to engage them in dialogue, discussions and doing activities with effective learning outcomes. The medium brings in interactivity as is possible in a face-to-face group situation. In the field of education and training, which is the domain of this manual, early experimentation with teleconferencing dates back to the 1980s, when Instructional Television Fixed Service (ITFS) in the United States and Canada enabled students to interact in a live television classroom with their teachers. Students could watch the lesson on their home television sets, and then use their telephone to connect to the studio where they could ask for clarifications on both content and activities. Pilot projects in other parts of the world also showed the potential of this delivery strategy, and Australia was among the first countries to use teleconferencing in distance education. Using teleconferencing for education in the developing countries took much longer. In some parts of the world, such as in India, it has been in use since the early 1990s. It is a more recent phenomenon in other countries. But irrespective of where experimentation has taken place, evaluation has revealed the importance of attention not only to the technology, but also to the content, presentation and interaction techniques and evaluation. 5 Preface A large number of manuals and how to do kits focus on the technical aspects. Few address the planner, the resource person or other personnel, who have key roles to play. Our experience showed that it was necessary to focus on assessment of information needs, instructional design, preparation and presentation in a teleconference and on the inter- relationship between the medium and the delivery of content. We have tried to address precisely these issues in developing this manual for use by individuals and institutions in the planning, design, management, and evaluation of teleconferencing as an educational strategy. The manual is structured in such a way so as to help the academic, the trainer and the planner in working out the teleconference activities systematically through the entire process, which though given in a sequence, may run parallel for different members of a teleconferencing team. The manual can be used either sequentially or in a modular fashion. The manual has been divided into seven sections, each section dealing with a particular aspect of teleconferencing. The first section of the manual provides basic information on teleconferencing, its strengths and limitations, and broad areas of its application. Depending upon the availability of technological configurations and nature of learner groups, teleconferencing can be done through audio only, audio along with graphics or audio and video signals. Section two describes different types of teleconferencing and hardware requirements that are commonly practiced these days. Section three discusses the type of effort that should go in determining the topics, structuring the lesson plan, and designing activities before, during and after teleconferencing sessions to achieve the teaching/learning objectives. Since the resource person in a one-way videoconference cannot physically see the learners/participants, s/he must use teleconferencing as a vehicle to motivate and stimulate the learners, provide interactivity and give the learners a significant and challenging learning experience. Section four discusses that the potential of the medium lies in making it a truly engaging and interactive experience for the learners/participants. This calls for mastering the presentation techniques, and developing an understanding about suitable programme formats. The use and preparation of suitable graphics at appropriate junctures helps to make the presentation more lucid and alive. The use of graphics can range from simple cards and pictures to computer presentations. Effective planning and designing for teleconferencing is an essential part of the process. Equally important is providing production resources at the teaching end, and proper learning environment and facilities at the user end. Section five spells out the preparations, organization and management issues required at the teaching end and the user end/learner centres. While the resource person is in control of most activities in the conventional teaching, success of teleconferencing depends upon co-operation and co-ordination among several players. Section six describes the scope and nature of orientation of the various teleconference personnel at the teaching end and user end/learner centres to enable them perform their tasks and roles effectively. Section seven, the concluding section, focuses on monitoring and evaluation. Like any other technology, teleconferencing needs to be constantly monitored and evaluated to use it in an effective and cost-efficient manner. The feedback information should be helpful in 6 Preface making right decisions at the right times. The section provides useful hints on what information may be collected, at what stage, through what methods and tools, and how. Each section ends with sample transparencies. The trainers can adopt/adapt these with food results in their training programmes. Video segments at important junctures accompany the text. The video segments have been designed to clarify certain ideas, concepts and situations contained in the text. It is, however, conceded that the video illustrations are not comprehensive so as to cover all sections of the manual, and trainers can add materials suitable for their topics. Also, all the video examples are from India due to constraints of time and funding. The effort is mainly to demonstrate the effectiveness of video along with the text in enhancing the teaching-learning process. The manual not only addresses some of the queries that users face to determine whether or not this is the most effective delivery strategy in reaching the target groups but, at the same time, it also assists with the

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