Kay Venteicher

OMDE 603, Section 9041

23 February 2014
Distance Education: Any Time/Anywhere and Live-Conferencing
831 words

Distance Education: Any Time/Anywhere and Live-Conferencing

Distance education provides students with a plethora of options unavailable to traditional
students. Though there are limitations with asynchronous courses, these can be mitigated with
the use of synchronous technology such as live-conferencing. There are those in distant
education (DE) who sees the DE students learning options encroached upon by altering the
meaning of any time/anywhere, asynchronous learning, to a structured environment where now
learning takes place at a specific time, synchronous learning. This does afford the DE student
the capability to meet with the teacher and other students but it denies the DE student flexibility.
The use of live-conferencing can enhance the experience and increase learning for the DE
student and affords them additional opportunities not available in a traditional asynchronous
environment.
Learning Project
Adobe Connect was used to support and enhance learning and instruction in English as a
Foreign Language (EFL) course with students in China and an education technology program in
an American university. Wang, Jaeger, Liu, Guo, and Xie (2013) organized the project to include
three goals for each group supported with synchronous technology that provided a centralized
capability to create meetings, define roles of attendees, creation of virtual meeting rooms, load
content, conduct meetings, record meetings, and share meetings (pp. 21-22). The Adobe
Connect provided multimedia tools that included verbal and visual presentations, videos, written
reports, classroom blogs, interactive lessons, and synchronous video conferencing. These tools
in synchronous learning of live-conferencing provided a means that enhanced the learning for
both student groups beyond the asynchronous levels.

Kay Venteicher
OMDE 603, Section 9041
23 February 2014
Distance Education: Any Time/Anywhere and Live-Conferencing
831 words

Strengths
Technology advancements and decreasing costs are providing video conferencing
capabilities to more of the worlds population, making it far easier for students who previously
had access to only asynchronous forms of distance education. The ability to connect and interact
with multiple sites simultaneously, allows those who previously experienced barriers, to
overcome and actively participate in live discussions and presentations, anytime and anywhere.
Schols (2009) discussed the benefits of video conferencing technology in multimedia and
multimedia learning, which can lead to and support improved learning levels. Cognitive
processing of verbal and visual information for distance education students can be enhanced
using video conferencing. Video conferencing allows the student to connect verbal and visual
information together with other learning materials provided in the course (pp. 30-31).
Synchronous DE can be supplemented with other online multimedia instruction tools such as
audio, video(s), and presentations. While various multimedia methods could be used to teach
distance education language classes, Schols (2009) addressed a first-year English language
course that was studied and finds that when appropriate levels of information were presented to
the students, they did not experience a cognitive learning overload; rather, the learning levels
increased (p. 33).
The geographic separation of teacher and student was no longer an insurmountable
hurdle. The accessibility to live-conferencing no longer required individual software downloads
and incorporated many of the online learning environments to allow access by teachers and
students to classrooms or smaller groups. This provided an environment to discuss and learn the

Kay Venteicher
OMDE 603, Section 9041
23 February 2014
Distance Education: Any Time/Anywhere and Live-Conferencing
831 words

current topics covered amongst the students as well as question-and-answer discussions with the
teacher (Skylar, 2009, p. 719).
Weaknesses
A drawback of live-conferencing is the perceived notion that it is the same as a traditional
brick-and-mortar classroom (Karal, Cebi, & Turgut, 2011, p. 277). Expectations and reality
often clash when the quality level of the live-conferencing technology services are less than
perfect. The video, sound, and transmission/connection problems require system checks prior to
use but may be unavoidable based on availability of technology (i.e., power loss, system failure).
Both the instructor and the students must have a general understanding of their own body
language and how their presence is portrayed and seen by others participating in the conference.
Technical difficulty such as delay or lag time in video/sound transmission or user inexperience
can add to the disruptive possibilities of the learning experience. For some, this may require
practice through such methods as videotaping and analyzing oneself. These reasons could lower
the overall involvement of the participants and lower the value of the learning experience (Karal
et al., 2011, pg. 277-278).
Conclusion
While live-conferencing does have both strengths and weaknesses, it does prove
beneficial especially when combined with other multimedia technologies, which will enhance the
learning experience for the participants. While there will always be risks involved with
technology such as delivery problems of audio or video, experience and practice are the best
teachers. Both the teacher and the student should invest time prior to participation in the liveconferencing to ensure a level of familiarity and comfort with the conferencing system.

Kay Venteicher
OMDE 603, Section 9041
23 February 2014
Distance Education: Any Time/Anywhere and Live-Conferencing
831 words

Preparation for the conference such as familiarization and reading of course material is a given
for the teacher and the student or the benefits that could be realized by the group will be lost. As
technology and global infrastructure improves, live-conferencing will also increase the global
availability. Distance education will continue to evolve and grow with teachers and students
alike reaping many benefits with live-conferencing.

Kay Venteicher
OMDE 603, Section 9041
23 February 2014
Distance Education: Any Time/Anywhere and Live-Conferencing
831 words

References
Karal, H., Cebi, A., & Turgut, Y. (2011). Perceptions of students who take synchronous courses
through video conferencing about distance education. Turkish Online Journal of
Educational Technology - TOJET, 10(4), 276-293. Retrieved from
http://www.eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=EJ946636
Schols, M. (2009). Potential pedagogical benefits and limitations of multimedia integrated
desktop video conferencing technology for synchronous learning. International Journal
of Advanced Corporate Learning, 2(4), 30-34. http://dx.doi.org/10.3991/ijac.v2i4.941
Skylar, A. (2009). A comparison of asynchronous online text-based lectures and synchronous
interactive web conferencing lectures. Issues in Teacher Education, 18(2), 69-84.
Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?
accno=EJ858506
Wang, C., Jaeger, D., Liu, J., Guo, X., & Xie, N. (2013). Using synchronous technology to enrich
student learning. Techtrends: Linking Research and Practice to Improve Learning, 57(1),
20-25. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11528-012-0626-9