How Can Smaller Faculties Use Video-Conferencing to Increase Teaching and Learning Opportunities for Students and Faculty?

About Sandra Schinnerl Sandra Schinnerl is an Associate Director in the Faculty of Forestry at UBC, where she is responsible for international education, strategic planning, new programs and special projects. She is the Faculty’s representative for learning technology and sits on UBC’s Faculty Alliance for Technology and Education committee. Sandra has a commerce degree and is finishing her M.Ed this spring.

How can you use video-conferencing to enhance learning while keeping costs and resources in check? And once you have the technology, how can you engage students and faculty to use it in teaching and learning? These are two key challenges that Sandra Schinnerl, Associate Director at UBC’s Faculty of Forestry and her team faced when they decided to use video-conferencing as a means of increasing course offerings and learning opportunities for graduate students. Find out about their approach, advice, and tips and resources on video-conferencing.

The First Challenge: How Can Smaller Faculties Use Video-Conferencing to Enhance Learning?

When Sandra Schinnerl considered using technology to expand course offerings for graduate students and connect them with a network of forestry experts and peers across the country, she needed to keep some constraints in mind.
Although UBC has one of the largest forestry schools in Canada, it is one of the smaller faculties at UBC.

“With 200 graduate students who specialize in 30 different areas, our problem is that many of our courses will have small class sizes, so in many cases we can’t justify huge development costs for learning technologies,” said Sandra. “How do small players still use technology to enhance learning?”

The Approach: Combine Existing Resources with New Partnerships and Funding

Photo credit: Martin Dee

Sandra and her team created a mobile in-house video-conferencing for the pilot project that can be easily used by any faculty, anywhere in the building. Now they can offer a larger range of seminars and courses by experts from across the country and around the world without incurring travel costs and still work within limited budgets and resources.

Video-conferencing isn’t a new concept, but until recently, the technology was too expensive for in-house use. The equipment is now more affordable. Sandra and her team received a Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund grant for $18,000 that allowed them to purchase the video-conferencing equipment they needed. They leveraged existing audio-visual equipment in the Faculty and UBC’s recently upgraded high-speed network, which is available all over campus. In addition, Sandra and her team are developing partnerships for the project with the seven other universities with forestry schools in Canada.

The first test for the project is a seminar series for graduate students that started in September 2004 and continues this term. UBC partnered with the University of Toronto (U.ofT.) and every other week students and faculty from the two cities come together for a seminar through video-conferencing.

The presentations are given alternately by faculty at U.of T. and UBC so that people at each site have the experience of being the host and participating in the seminar from a remote site. Alternating presenters give a range of faculty members experience with lecturing to people in the room and the group at the remote site through the technology.

The seminars were part of a full course at U of T, but UBC chose to run the presentations as a series of optional seminars to encourage students and faculty to become familiar with the new technology at their own pace. This has given them a chance to experiment with video-conferencing first-hand and see how it can best be used in a learning environment. Plans are currently in the works to offer a full course for next year.

A Second Challenge: Now That We Have It, How Do We Get People to Use It?

Finding the resources to buy the video-conferencing technology and equipment they needed was just the first step. They also faced another challenge: how to engage students and faculty so that they were comfortable using the new technology in teaching and learning in this project and on a continuing basis? Sandra’s main strategy has been to introduce change slowly so people can adjust and gain experience at their own pace and comfort level.

The Approach: Create Some Structure at First and Adjust Your Approach Based on Feedback

During the seminars in the first term, Sandra acted as the discussion moderator at the Vancouver site. There was a moderator at the Toronto site. This enabled the presenters to concentrate on lecturing with the new medium and interact with people at both sites without the extra pressure of facilitating the discussion. To help students feel comfortable participating in the discussions, Sandra structured the seminars so that both sites paused the video-conference for a few minutes after the presentation while the students and faculty broke into small groups to discuss key questions. Everyone then came back together to continue the discussion and exchange their ideas through the video-conference.

Based on feedback she received from the participants, Sandra said that although this was a good way to start, they adjusted the format for this term to have less structured discussions so that conversations flow more naturally. Sandra also thinks that having an extra person act as the moderator isn’t essential. “The more people get comfortable, the less there is a need for a moderator,” she said. “The presenter could take on that role.”

For Sandra, getting feedback – and implementing it – is an important part of the process.

“Both UBC and U. of T. have been getting feedback formally from students participating in the series and it has helped us to refine the technology use and understand how the technology can best be used to support graduate level learning,” she said.

Introduce New Technology Through an ‘Open Door Policy’ to Reduce Pressure

For curious faculty and students who aren’t ready to commit to the seminar but want to see what’s going on, Sandra encourages people to drop in and get a feel for communicating and presenting through video conferencing. She and her team set up a ‘viewing gallery’, which is a section of the room where people sit without being on camera or participate in the seminar and see how it works.

Because the equipment is on a mobile cart and can be used in any room, faculty can try it out for themselves in their own office or in a smaller setting. Faculty can simply sign it out and wheel it down the hall when they want to use it in the future.

“It’s a good way to engage a broad range of faculty and not have expensive equipment locked in a room that few people use,” Sandra said. “My prediction is that it will be as easy as using an LCD projector.”

Sandra and her team have created a small ‘self-help’ brochure with technical instructions and tips on how to interact with people through the video conference. For larger projects or events, there are people who can provide more technical support.

Key Benefits for Students and Faculty

As an interactive communication medium, one of the key benefits of videoconferencing is that it’s almost like being there. The visual connection and interaction among participants enhances understanding and helps participants feel connected to each other, supporting collaboration among traditionally isolated institutions. Also, videoconferencing can improve retention and appeal to a variety of student learning styles by including diverse media such as video or audio clips, graphics, animations, computer applications and break-out discussions.

One of the benefits of the Forestry pilot video conferencing seminars is that UBC students have a chance to meet peers across the country who share their specific research interests. They can also attend presentations on a range of topics related to Forestry they might not otherwise engage with.

For Sandra, one of the most valuable outcomes of the pilot seminars is that students have a chance to discuss forestry issues from different perspectives, which helps breakdown assumptions about related forestry fields they may not realize they had. The video-conferences enable students to exchange information and ideas in real-time at a distance.

“These moments come up in face to face learning but video conferencing enables more meaningful relations between two sites at a distance,” she said.

One of the key benefits of the pilot project for faculty is the opportunity to develop new teaching skills, learn how to adapt the technology into their classrooms, research and other professional endeavours. Having the video-conferencing equipment on-site and in a portable format enables them to engage in national and international projects and other opportunities they might not otherwise have had access to.

There are also several other positive spin-offs that have resulted from the pilot, including strong collaboration and teaching between UBC and UBC Okanagan faculty, the creation of a new graduate level course using video-conferencing, and the signing of two Memos of Understanding with leading institutions in China who will be joint-teaching with UBC faculty on Forestry education later this year.

Sandra’s Advice for Engaging People to Use Technology in Teaching

Sandra has some suggestions for other faculties who are interested in trying something similar with video-conferencing. Her advice could also apply to introducing students and faculty to other new forms of technology.

• Make it accessible: don’t have expensive equipment locked up in a room, make it available so people can get to it when they want it.
• Keep it self-serve: make it as easy to use as plugging in an LCD projector. Include a booklet on how to use it and have people-support available in case it’s needed.
• No restrictions: don’t tell faculty they can only use it for teaching. Let them use it for purposes other than teaching, such as conferences, their own research meetings, and other academic work. Using it frequently and on their own terms will help them learn how to use it, and grow comfortable with the format and technology . When they do use it for teaching, they’ll be ready to go.

Video Conferencing Tips and Resources

Compiled by Susan Stitt, Office of Learning Technology, MA (Distributed Learning) and senior undergraduate student, Department of History, UBC

UBC Telestudios – Video Conferencing Services at UBC
Professional video conferencing services are available at UBC through Telestudios for the UBC community. Telestudios offers excellent services and a creative environment for the development of cutting edge media projects including video-conferencing. Telestudios provides expertise and facilities for people who don’t want to invest in in-house video-conferencing equipment, but still want to use it to enhance the teaching and learning experiences for faculty and students.

Source: UBC Telestudios

JANET – Brief of Video Conferencing
This brief fact sheet covers the basics about uses, components and the technology for video conferencing.

Source: JANET: the UK’s Education and Research Network Website

JANET – Detailed Overview of Video Conferencing
For a more in-depth overview, check out this introduction to video conferencing, learn about the basics and learn what video conferencing is used for at JANET, the UK’s education and research network website. This site uses diagrams to provide suggestions for setting up the room for the video conference. It also gives a straightforward overview of the different networking options involved with Video conferencing.

Source: JANET, the UK’s Education and Research Network Website

Video Conferencing Cookbook – IP Video Conferencing and Technology
For reference material on the implementation of IP video conferencing check out the Video Conferencing Cookbook. This site provides a comprehensive overview of video conferencing, including uses of video conferencing; popular collaborative technologies and emerging collaborative technologies such as satellite video conferencing and data collaboration; basic requirements (PC) for successful video conferencing; best practices and etiquette, practical examples and a glossary of video conferencing-related terms.

Source: Video Conferencing Cookbook

University of Ulster Video Conferencing Manual
The University of Ulster has developed an excellent manual with practical information about the ins and outs of video conferencing, including the benefits of using video conferencing; and diagrams of different possible configurations, such as classroom-based conferencing, point to point, multipoint and so on. It offers ideas on: how to set up your classroom; training people in video conferencing; how to incorporate media such as PowerPoint presentations; and some dos and don’ts for teaching and meeting scenarios.

Source: University of Ulster Video Conferencing Manual

Knowledge Network Explorer – Introduction to Video conferencing and Ideas
A great introduction to video conferencing is provided by Knowledge Network Explorer. This site was developed for administrators, colleges and k-12 instructors. It also provides examples on how some schools, libraries and colleges are using video conferencing.

Source: Knowledge Network Explorer – Introduction (link to http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/vidconf/intro.html)
Knowledge Network Explorer – Ideas

Northwestern University – Understanding Video conferencing
Northwestern University has a great site called Understanding Video Conferencing which describes the technology of video conferencing in simple terms. Read through the ‘Additional Information’ section to learn about the technical aspects of Video conferencing including point-to-point calling, multi-point calling, H.323 and gateways. This site also provides some examples of how Northwestern has used Video conferencing and some tips on etiquette.

Source: Northwestern University Information Technology

University of Illinois – Ideas, Uses, Planning and Links
The University of Illinois’ Educator’s Knowledge Centre offers college, university and k-12 educators an introduction to video conferencing, along with idea and uses, planning and preparation information and a host of links of video conferencing resources.

Source: University of Illinois’ Educator’s Knowledge Centre

Article courtesy of UBC’s e-Strategy Update