Teaching using video-conferencing: approaches and challenges

Abstract

Video-conferencing teaching removed the barrier of distance learning, and reduced studying cost. This type of learning has boosted the number of graduates in a short time at a low cost. However, the quality of education has been criticized; the literature review showed that the Community of Inquiry framework (CoI) cognitive, social, and teaching presences must be followed in order to improve the learning and teaching quality. This paper investigates the pedagogic approaches and challenges of video-conference teaching in a multi-campus environment. Two methods are used in this study; namely, literature review and case study. The literature review shows the state-of-the-practice of video-conferencing teaching in order to know the challenges in this area and providing a base for conducting the study on the field. As a result, thoughts and experiences could lead course developers and designers to alleviate issues that are present in this type of teaching. In order to have real world experience, a case study is conducted on teleeducation learning center of University of Rwanda (UR). In this center, Indian universities offer courses at the college of education learning center in the UR and to other Universities across African countries simultaneously.The data is collected through unstructured interviews, and the analysis is done using the CoI coding template which embeds the key indicators of CoI. It was found that teacher centered learning method is improved by a synergy of students centered, project based, and inquiry based learning in order to engage students to think critically and creatively. This is referred as from "sage on the stage to guide on the side."

Video Conferencing in Higher Education: a Case Study of Indonesian Lecturers

“…Most of research studies [1, 2, 6 12, 13] experienced the issues. For example, [2] mentions that the most obvious challenge of video conferencing is the low participation and limited interaction of learners in discussion. Moreover, [13] argues that the learners look unmotivated to involve in the learning process.…”

“…It is because they found it beneficial in terms of development of their technological competence [5] and teaching creativity [1]. Although facing challenges; limited interaction [2] and internet connection [6], they have their own techniques to minimise those issues by implementing interesting and flexible learning.…”

“…Many research studies exploring the utilization of video conferencing in education context were conducted. For instance, [2] have done a research to find out challenges of video conferencing use in educational context in Africa. Also, [3] did a research study to investigate the students' voice regarding the use of video conferencing in Turkey's classroom.…”

Online Survey Tool for Multi-Cohort Courses

“…We chose a Community of Inquiry (CoI) surveying instrument to assess the student experience by examining their perceptions on teaching, social, and cognitive presence [18], [19]. The CoI framework, originally developed by Garrison et al [19], has been successfully used to assess student experience in many studies involving multi-campus instruction through interviews and focus groups [9], [17], [20]. As a short, validated survey tool with precedent for use in multi-campus studies, it fulfills many of the aforementioned requirements necessary for a standard tool useful in the evaluation of student experience during a course.…”

Multi-Campus Teaching in a Canadian Engineering Context: Assessing Presence Using the Coi Survey

“…We chose a Community of Inquiry (CoI) surveying tool to assess student experience by examining their perceptions on teaching, social, and cognitive presence at both campuses [15], [16]. The CoI framework, originally developed by Garrison et al [16], has been successfully used to assess student experience in other case studies [6], [14], [17] through interviews and focus groups.…”