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SECTION II: SURVEY REPORT

4.0 ANALYSIS OF QUESTIONNAIRE RETURNS

4.1 User Experience & Training

Welshnet users appear to be very confident in using the service. 76% indicated being very confident or confident in using the system, and none indicated any lack of confidence. In terms of initial induction, 21% of users had no experience of sitting-in and observing a session before taking part themselves, but did indicate that they had been given some advice on holding a video-conference meeting beforehand.

Almost half (46 %) were shown the basic controls as indicated in the BT Quick Reference Guide, but less than 40% were given additional advice on the operation of other AV equipment. (e.g. auxiliary camera, white board/flip chart, video recorder, screen based graphics from a PC)

A summary of the significant views held by users concerning general training needs is provided below in Table 4:-

Training Elements	Views         Proportion (%)

Admin./Operational	Essential	57
Procedures		
Studio arrangements	Essential	50
Background Technology	Useful	        58
Audio System	        Useful	        56
Personal Interaction	Useful	        40
Document Camera	        Useful	        49
Clothing advice	        Not needed	46
Common Problems	        Useful	        51
Regular Support	        Useful	        50

Table 4.

User views concerning training needs

Videoconferencing system are generally susceptible to distortion of the image caused by movement. This distortion is greatly emphasised when individuals are wearing bright jewellery, or heavily patterned clothing. It was therefore surprising that few users felt advice in this area to be necessary.

4.2 Committee & Meeting Use

Users are quite clear that preparation is very important. Most users (75-96%) favour a formal structure, a designated chair, a designated secretary with an agenda and other papers . Many users also commented that although video meetings should be largely treated just like any other meeting, in many cases much greater preparation is required in practice. 61% of participants also meet face-to-face; a point reinforced by individual comments.

Little use appears to being made of the additional AV facilities available in the studios (Table 5). Perhaps the time needed to prepare for a meeting, the facilities not being appropriate, or a lack of familiarity may account for this.

Studio AV facilities	Used	         Proportion (%)

Document Camera	     Never/Occasional	      72
OHP's	             Never	              63
Slides	             Never	              82
Additional Monitors  Never	              71
White Board	     Never	              73

Table 5.

Facilities used at committee/meeting sessions

Opinions on actual use are summarised in Table 6. There is an overwhelming view that video-conferencing provides savings in time and travel. The importance of the organisational side of a video meeting is also emphasised. A clear view emerged that carefully rehearsed meetings, strong leadership by the chair, prior introductions, and face-to-face at some stage are necessary. Some users expressed the view (in their comments) that small informal meetings can however be successful.

Views on Use	                        Opinion	 Proportion                                                      (%)

Video conference meetings lack a 	Agree	      57
personal feel
Prior introductions are necessary	Agree	      75
It is important to formally close 	Agree	      83
meeting
Face-to-face meetings are also needed	Agree	      76
It is easy for some studio groups to 	Uncertain     50
be overlooked
Firm chairing & leadership are 	        Agree	      84
important
Saving in travel  appreciated	        Agree	      84
Saving in time appreciated	        Agree	      88
Hospitality (food/drink) provided at a 	Disagree      52
session

Table 6.

Significant views on videoconferencing use

4.3 Teaching & Learning Use

16 subject areas were represented in the survey by the 21 respondents who indicated that they were using the network for course delivery. The schools or departments involved are listed in Table 7. The courses or modules delivered were for the most part at post-graduate level, and a typical teaching session involved 6 to 25 students at a time, with sessions lasting up to 1 hour, mostly involving 1 tutor, but sometimes 2.

College	      Departments or Schools Involved in the Survey

Aberystwyth   Agricultural Science, International Politics,
		Physics.

Bangor	      Mathematics, Education, Radiography.

Swansea	      Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics, 
		Classical & Ancient History.

Cardiff	      European Studies, Physics, History & 
                Archaeology Ancient History.

Lampeter      Theology & Religious Studies, Modern 
                 Languages.

Table 7.

Subject area responses to the survey

For the most part conference users indicated that their sessions were lecture or seminar based with some time devoted to feedback on coursework. A high (78%) proportion indicated that the network made it possible to run a course which would not be otherwise possible. Interestingly none of the respondents indicated use of the network for research supervision purposes (Table 8).

Mode of Delivery	No.	% (out of 21)

Video lectures	        12	57
Workshops	         1
Seminars	        10	48
Teamwork	         1
Research 	         0
Supervision
Workshops	         1
One-to-One 	         1
Tutorials
Student Feedback	 3	14

Table 8.

Significant modes of delivery

50% of the respondents used the document camera and OHP projector on a regular basis, although little use appears to be made of any other complementary media (Table 9).

Media Usage	     No.	% ( out of 21)

Document delivery    10	         48
OHPs	              7	         33
Slides	              2	         10
Pre-recorded Video    2	         10
Graphics	      4	         20
White Board	      5	         23
Flip Chart	      2	         10
Computer Based 	      1	          5
Media

Table 9.

Use of Complementary media

A high proportion of users adopt the view that non-video sessions are important in addition to the video-conference sessions (Table 10).

Running a Session	                 View	Proportion (%)

Importance of non-video sessions in 	Important	82
	addition
The role of 'ice'-breaking sessions	Important	59

Importance of training/warm-up 	        Important	69
sessions
Importance of providing an agenda 	Important	87

Importance site names and 	        Not Important	56
identifiers
Importance of having participant 	Not Important	75
name tags 
Importance of having pre-written 	Important	80
questions
Importance of evaluation data on a 	Not Important	50
session

Table 10.

User views on running a session

4.4 Staff Reactions and Opinions

The video conference sessions appear to be successful in terms of meeting teaching objectives (Table 11).

Opinions	                        View	Proportion
			                          (%)

I use more visual aids when via the 	Agree	     27
	network
I use better quality materials 	        Disagree     53
Can be better than a face-to-face 	Disagree     59
session
Can promote group cohesiveness	        Agree	     25
Can promote group independence	        Uncertain    71
Can promote better course management	Uncertain    60
Discourages feedback	                Agree	     47
Difficult to balance needs of 	        Disagree     40
local students
My teaching objectives were met	        Agree	     87

Table 11.

Views on videoconferencing for teaching purposes

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