Dr Margot Nothey
Dean, Queen's School of Business, Queen's University, Ontario, Canada.

BUSINESS EDUCATION VIA VIDEOCONFERENCE TECHNOLOGY

In today's lively debate regarding distance education, the argument often arises that remote learning is not as effective because of the lack of interaction both among students and between students and professors. Videoconferencing technology puts an end to this debate. Deployed properly, it allows students to receive all the benefits of a classroom environment from anywhere in the world – making education as global as today's marketplace.

Videoconferencing is the most sophisticated and expensive medium for distance education. However, investing in the technology does not automatically create a stimulating learning environment. In order to create a successful program, many different features must be in place. For example, a program needs to provide substantial backup support extending beyond the normal teaching roster. A team of technical experts to ensure reliability, technology tutors for faculty and students, and course curriculum advisors all need to be in place before a program is even launched.

Why bother with expensive videoconferencing technology and the costs that go with it when cost-effective online MBAs are available via a simple computer hooked up to the Internet?

The answer is that videoconferencing, if well managed, permits a degree of immediacy and quality interactivity that is greater than is permitted with computers. A student can see in real time the face-to-face expressions and body language of speakers and the audience. As communications experts know, this kind of unconscious, spontaneous information is a major influence on the understanding and credibility of what a person hears – and learns. Participants in videoconferencing can get to know and value each other in a way that's difficult through a face-less medium.

Perhaps surprisingly, a video-screen can, in some ways, provide a greater sense of intimacy than is possible in most "live" classrooms, where a professor stands some fifteen to thirty feet away from students. When one can see the "whites of the eyes"—or in some cases the red—the sense of personal interaction is heightened.

Even so, the sense of personal trust among distant videoconferencing participants is easiest to build when they get to know each other beforehand. That's why most programs utilizing this technology have a brief in-residence period before the students disperse to their distant locations. This parallels the most successful uses of videoconferencing within businesses, which usually occurs when the participants already know each other.

Since interaction is an important part of learning through videoconference, such things as classroom design, which is often not an issue in standard MBA programs, becomes a very important consideration.

At the start, it is important to recognize that different levels and kinds of students may benefit from the technology in different ways. Most executives learn best, for example, when they work collaboratively in a team environment. Videoconference classrooms for this group should be designed to encourage a high level of interaction amongst themselves.

Having participants face each other around a boardroom table, rather than sitting in a row facing a professor, encourages a team-based approach to learning and helps develop management skills in a way that reflects the real business world. From the boardroom table, participants can constantly discuss concepts with each other, or help clear up confusion on the spot.

Mute buttons, which allow participants in a room to talk to each other without disturbing others in the program, are a huge benefit that permits spontaneous interaction in a way that is impossible in a traditional classroom.

The technology also allows a professor to revolutionize the way he communicates with the students. For example, one-touch electronic response systems can allow the professor to get an instant reading on students' views and comprehension. If the professor asks a question, he can get an immediate yes-or-no response through the one-touch button, and immediately show a bar chart on the screen that reveals the response distribution. It's an electronic advance on the classroom show of hands.

Additionally, the ability to talk readily with a professor and with other participants in learning centers across the country, and in some cases across borders, provides a broadened perspective and breadth of cultural understanding that increases the opportunity for success in today's increasingly global markets. A national or international videoconferencing network is a powerful network of mutual interest and support.

The videoconferencing experience can be enhanced by integrating this process with computer links to an Intranet. This method requires a standard laptop with standard software, and allows for between-class exchanges, the downloading of professors' notes and assignments, electronic submission of students' reports and projects, and the informal back-and-forth communication among students and between students and professors. This is often used in conjunction with standard Internet access to university information and on-line libraries, as well as to other business resources. This is extremely useful and cost-efficient, especially compared to the older conventional treks to the corner library to search for materials—if they are available.

Although videoconferencing is the most effective form of distance education, it is also the most costly. Because the system relies on satellite transmission and ISDN telephone lines, establishing and maintaining the technology is expensive. On the flip side, it is the most stimulating and rewarding for participants. And it's arguable -- if used in a way that exploits its potential -- that videoconferencing may even be superior to the typical classroom, where the students are often not free to engage in useful exchanges with others while the professor is lecturing.

Is videoconferencing the wave of the future for education? Only time and trial will tell how widely it will be adopted. However, among the experienced users -- both professors and students alike -- many skeptics have now become proponents.