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Contents

Chapter 1 Videoconferencing in Higher Education - How to get it right

This guide is based on a short project investigating videoconferencing within one specific application area — higher education. It refers to both the other chapters in this report and also draws on the experience of the HUSAT Research Institute in undertaking both research and consultancy work in the area of videoconferencing (largely in the commercial sector).

Structure Of This Chapter

The guide is designed to be useful and relevant for anyone wanting to succeed with videoconferencing in higher education. In order to address individual needs as closely as possible, it is important to differentiate between those who actually use or want to use videoconferencing in order to facilitate their work and those who provide a videoconferencing service for others to use (of course it is possible to be both a user and a provider of the service).

The intended readership of this report is those who would like to learn more about using videoconferencing in higher education. The reasons why you want to know more may be diverse and how you approach the subject will depend on where you are with it now.

The chapter is therefore written in two main parts:
The first provides information relating to videoconferencing that is divided into subject sections:

Uses of videoconferencing
Videoconferencing systems and methods of signal transmission (including networks)
The videoconferencing environment (physical and social)
Funding of videoconferencing
Management of videoconferencing services.

The second part of the chapter attempts to provide guidance to individual readers which is dependent on where they are in the process now. This means that readers may want to go back to the chapter at a later date when their circumstances have changed. Each section of the second part of the chapter will refer the reader back to relevant sections of the first part. In addition, it will provide a perspective that is appropriate for individuals in each of the different situations described.

Contents

Graphics Multimedia Virtual Environments Visualisation Contents