Audioconferencing in Distance Education

 A participant in an international audioconference recently asked me to discuss some of the advantages of audioconferencing as a medium for distance teaching. My response was based on my belief that audioconferencing is an undervalued method of communication in distance education. It is a method I have been practicing for more than twenty years in several countries and that I use continuously today. When asked to explain my enthusiasm for the medium, I offered the following comments: I define educational audioconferencing as using the telephone to link distant learners with each other and with an instructor. At each site microphones and loud speakers are used, and multiple sites are joined through a telephone bridge. Let me give you five reasons, illustrated by reference to my own practice, why I think audioconferencing should be considered for your educational and training purposes.

The five reasons can be condensed into one sentence: Audioconferencing is a learner-centered, relatively inexpensive, robust, and flexible medium that can be well integrated with other media in a distance education program. Let me address each of these characteristics of audioconferencing in turn.

First, audioconferencing is pedagogically learner centered. This is probably the most important characteristic of audioconferencing and, to people who have not experienced it, the most surprising thing about the medium. Because audioconferencing is learner centered, programs designed around an audioconference can be of better quality than conventional face-to-face programs. Audioconferencing is learner centered because it provides all learners with the opportunity to be active participants in the learning experience. As a teacher, my top priority is to teach students to be actively involved in the program. The fact that I am not in the room with them both encourages and compels them to be actively involved. One of my main roles is to plan and to conduct interaction among the participants. This element of learner centeredness and interactivity is particularly significant in teaching subjects of high conceptual content, and follows a basic principle of adult education: drawing on the experience of the adult arner.

 In teaching about education, for example, what I typically do in my audioconference classes (most of which last for at least three hours), is introduce a subject and then set a task, or a problem, or a question for distant groups to discuss or investigate, or in some other way to work on independently. Then I bring the groups together and conduct a period of comparing and contrasting the results of group activity, in this way leading the participants in a discovery of knowledge. My teaching is based on a series of carefully selected questions and a process of inter-student interaction and guided discovery. Of course, this approach is more appropriate with some subjects than with others. When the input of content experts is needed, they can be brought in from any place where there is a telephone. One is not dependent on the expertise that happens to lie within a particular geographic region.

One course I taught involved guest speakers from seven different countries. When teaching a course about training in industry, I invite the nations leading trainers to speak and answer questions from their offices. Wherever the real expert is located, he or she can be brought to the students. With some students, the presence at each site of a local facilitator to supervise activity might be necessary. Nevertheless, even where strict supervision and guidance is necessary, periods of input from the distant instructor can be alternated with periods of local activity. The students activities of exploring, testing, or practicing on their own, when integrated in a careful way with the instructors and experts inputs, is a major determinant of the quality of student learning.

Second, audioconferencing is relatively inexpensive. I teach my current class to nine cities and ninety students in four countries. Each institution that offers my course is relieved of the cost of having a specialist in my subject on its staff. My teaching by audio saves (in theory) eight annual salaries and the other expenses of full-time employment. (In reality no institution can afford to employ instructors in a wide range of specialized subjects, so that the choice is not between employing a local specialist or bringing a specialist by audioconference, but rather, in many fields, between having a specialist at a distance or no specialist. Consequently, distance teaching, by audio or other means, effectively broadens the curriculum of the institution.)

Each institution has to provide a part-time coordinator to assist me in making local arrangements, and each institution must supply audio equipment and pay telephone charges. Audio equipment will last for many thousands of student hours, and telephone charges, when divided by the approximately twenty people in a group, are inexpensive. Compared to virtually any other method of communication, audioconferencing is very inexpensive.

Third, audioconferencing is robust. A few weeks ago, when asked to give a presentation to Costa Rica by Picture-Tel, the picture phone, I agreed, and asked for tests of the equipment to be run. The equipment did not work, and technicians worked on the problem for several days. Eventually I gave the presentation successfullyby audioconference. More recently, I was in Johannesburg, South Africa. I have an obligation to teach a course with students in the United States, Mexico, Finland, and Estonia.

 At 1:00 a.m. I began, and ended at 4:00 a.m. The telephone from South Africa to the U.S., to Mexico, and to Europe worked without any problem. I conducted this course for three hours on Friday and three hours on Saturday, on two different weekends.

Please remember that, in these classes, I not only contribute content, but also conduct effective discussions among ninety people in nine cities. This is just one of many examples I can give of the dependability of telephones. Of course I use various procedures to ensure that the system works, including procedures to restore service in case of temporary failure. In the unlikely event that there is a problem with a line or piece of equipment, it is relatively simple to find a replacement. The main point, though, is that telephones work most of the time and are dependable.

Fourth, telephones are flexible. As I just indicated, I can teach a course from almost anywhere, to students anywhere, and I can bring in resources from anywhere to enhance this instruction.

Audio teaching needs no special technical support. I need no producers or technicians; I can deliver a teaching program anywhere there is a telephone outlet. I have had speakers for my U.S. classes from as far away as China and India; I have given classes from hotel rooms and offices around the world, and, when students have had to travel on business, they have been able to join the class from wherever they are located. Especially important, after the class they can immediately return to work, taking with them the learning from the class. A good instructor will encourage students to bring work problems from the workplace to the learning program. The medium is also flexible with regard to time. During a class session, I can be confident

in telling my distant groups to hang up the phone and disconnect for a period of discussion or other group activity and then to re-dial. I know the audio system will bring everyone back together with a minimum of fuss. This flexibility means I can be economical with phone charges because I dont have to maintain a connection when it is not pedagogically necessary.

Finally, audioconferencing integrates well with other media. In distance education, conducting all the instruction by any one medium is a big mistake. Media choice should always be based on analyses of content, teaching processes, and learner characteristics. Then decisions must be made about what content and what processes will be delivered by print, audio and video recordings, computer mediated instruction, interactive audioconference, computer conference and videoconference. It is always desirable to use at least one asynchronous and one interactive, synchronous medium. In my practice, I occasionally use two-way video conferencing, or sometimes one way video with two way audio. However, my most common method, and what I recommend that you consider carefully, is a combination of audioconference (synchronous, interactive), computer conference (asynchronous, interactive), and print and video recordings (asynchronous, non-interactive.) This combination of media gives the benefits of relatively low cost, flexility, robustness, and pedagogical effectiveness. It allows for almost any subject to be taught to almost any learner population in almost any location.

Successful use of such a media combination depends on four things: 1) dependable technology, 2) trained course designers, 3) trained instructors who are able to facilitate interaction, and 4) trained and effective local support services.

These are the four components of a successful, high quality distance education system. One can have an excellent system based on audioconferencing; however, the purchase of audioconference equipment in itself will not guarantee good distance education. To ensure high quality distance education, one must invest in course design and training. The time and money invested in course design and in training for design, delivery, and facilitation of courses by audioconferencing will be a much better investment than will spending the same money on more advanced communications technology or spending on face-to-face instruction. If courses are well designed and interaction is well–conducted, distance education based on an audioconference system will be cost effective and efficient.