Teaching using video-conferencing: approaches and challenges

Abstract

Video-conferencing teaching removed the barrier of distance learning, and reduced studying cost. This type of learning has boosted the number of graduates in a short time at a low cost. However, the quality of education has been criticized; the literature review showed that the Community of Inquiry framework (CoI) cognitive, social, and teaching presences must be followed in order to improve the learning and teaching quality. This paper investigates the pedagogic approaches and challenges of video-conference teaching in a multi-campus environment. Two methods are used in this study; namely, literature review and case study. The literature review shows the state-of-the-practice of video-conferencing teaching in order to know the challenges in this area and providing a base for conducting the study on the field. As a result, thoughts and experiences could lead course developers and designers to alleviate issues that are present in this type of teaching. In order to have real world experience, a case study is conducted on tele-education learning center of University of Rwanda (UR). In this center, Indian universities offer courses at the college of education learning center in the UR and to other Universities across African countries simultaneously. The data is collected through unstructured interviews, and the analysis is done using the CoI coding template which embeds the key indicators of CoI. It was found that teacher centered learning method is improved by a synergy of students centered, project based, and inquiry based learning in order to engage students to think critically and creatively. This is referred as from “sage on the stage to guide on the side.”