Distance Learning Through Video Conferencing

By Simon Davis on November 19, 2014

By: Simon Davis


Video conferencing is one of the newest ways campuses across the world are turning to deliver classes and distance learning. Distance learning has been around for quite a while now and thanks to the internet, it has been made almost a standard of every university that has a web page.

Distance learning removes physical and geographical barriers to learning but at the same time, there has been something missing in the recreation of classes and the feel of the distance learning experience.

There are some notable producers of distance learning packages, among them Blue Jeans for Education, which takes the classroom back to the student. As a means of delivering lessons to a distributed user base, it is very effective and does its job most efficiently.

There are a number of reasons why someone would consider using video conferencing for their distance learning course. Some of these are:

Freedom of Location

Living in a place that is far from the geographical location of your campus can be quite hard. This can be exacerbated by the times at which lectures for distance learning are being delivered.

In order to ensure that you can catch a lecture live as it’s being done, video conferencing for distance learning allows you to see the delivery of these lectures in full detail and high definition anywhere you can get a connection for your device.

Because the requirements are usually device independent, it doesn’t matter what type of device you’re going to use to connect to the lecture. This means that you can be doing anything you want during the day while at the same time attending class live. These lectures are also usually recorded so they can be viewed at a later time, or snippets uploaded to the class in order to present a point.

The recorded video also allows for freedom of location because once you have a connection that allows you access to the internet, you can get these videos to stream or download as you see fit. Then you can learn at your own pace.

Faculty-Student Meetings

Sometimes, faculty needs to meet with a specific class on a one-by-one basis or needs to deliver a statement to the class before a particular event happens. When this situation arises, it is much easier to perform these face to face meetings over video conferencing than to schedule each student separately.

In creating a video conferencing precedent for this, the lecturer and the university demonstrate their willingness to embrace modern technology in carrying out their duties.

It also makes it a lot easier for students to attend these meetings because they have a standardized time that is communicated to them for the meeting and they don’t have to actually go anywhere, simply turn their computer or other device on and join the video conference. It removes the problem of students being late to the meeting or missing the appointment.

Real time streaming makes it seem as though the student is right there, and doesn’t take away anything from the physical meeting while being a lot easier to manage the schedule of meetings to be had.

Scheduling of Guest Speakers

Many universities around the country invite visiting scholars of standing to speak on certain matters in order to raise general knowledge of the campus about the issue at hand, and allow them to draw educated conclusions from the information presented.

These are very important to the intellectual life of college students and sadly, the demand for educated experts in many fields far outpace the availability of these distinguished guests.

Recently, universities have started including video conferencing as a means of having an expert visit “virtually.” Students can watch the visit in the comfort of their own homes or dorms and chime in with questions that can be answered in real time if the expert so wishes.

Having a video conferencing solution for education allows experts to free up more of their time to tour universities while at the same time allow them to appear at universities they cannot visit via the wonders of 21st century technology.

As time passes, it is more and more evident that video conferencing for education will be one of those game-changers for the face of tertiary education around the world.

Having a professionally supported system for video conferencing benefits both the university and the students. Distance learning students benefit from being able to virtually attend class both in real time and in a delayed fashion.

Having interesting video conferencing sessions will make students feel inclined to attend these virtual classes more. The same can be said of faculty-student meetings. Having video conferencing makes it much easier to schedule and plan these meetings so they don’t clash with any other scheduled activities or classes.

Probably the most promising use of video conferencing is by using it to encourage leaders in certain fields to lecture as a guest on certain topics or classes and adapting to the guest lecturer’s schedule by enabling him to lecture from the comfort of his own home university.

The possibilities are endless with video conferencing technology available today, and this march of technology will continue to make distance learning an attractive option to coming generations of students.

*Simon Davis*
*Gmail*:  simondavis2140@gmail.com
*Google Plus*: https://plus.google.com/100543708199350289891
*Twitter*: https://twitter.com/_Simondavis

“Simon Davis has been a full-time business writer since the last 4 years and has had the privilege of attending some of the most renowned business conclaves held across the world. When not on business he loves spending time with his girlfriend and a bit of adventure sports.”

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