Webcasting: June 4th, 2004
By Paul Stacey
I'm a huge fan of webcasting, though I find
everyone has their own mental concept of what webcasting means. So I thought I'd
explore the various forms webcasting can take and the role it can play in the
context of online learning.
The foundations of online learning have been
built largely on enabling asynchronous learning activities. Asynchronous
learning activities are initiated at a time convenient to the learner and
include things like reading and interacting with online learning resources,
participating in threaded discussion forums, and activity based learning using
things like simulations and other learning resources.
While these asynchronous learning activities
are powerful and compelling they need to be supplemented with real-time,
synchronous interaction to create truly engaging learning experiences. That's
where webcasts come in.
The term "webcasting" is used to
describe the ability to deliver live or delayed versions of audio or video
broadcasts over the web.
As we migrate to the Net our initial
inclination for use is to mimic traditional forms. Teachers moving online for
the first time often try to re-create a classroom experience. Similarly most
people think of webcasts as essentially a television like broadcast over the web
. Webcasting can be used this way but it can also be so much more.
Lets start with TV-like webcasts. Professional
webcast service providing companies, like Online Broadcasting Corporation http://www.onlinebroadcasting.com
locally here in Vancouver can be hired to do a webcast or TV like broadcast,
including video streaming, of an important event - a convocation, a President
address, an Annual General Meeting ... Communicast in Virginia is another
excellent example. http://www.communicast.com
These companies offer services related to recording your event, packaging it for
the web, and distribution or streaming of the event out live to a general or
targeted audience.
Other companies like INSINC http://www.insinc.ca
are focusing on providing services related to being a carrier, webcasting feeds
of things like horse racing live from the local racetrack, government
legislative proceedings, and even corporate and investment banking conference
webcasts.
Some webcasts are done as simulcasts where
audio or video feeds from radio or television programs are simultaneously "webcast"
over the net. Apple's iTunes http://www.apple.com/itunes/jukebox.html
has an eclectic set of web based radio stations continuously available. And many
FM radio stations have broadened their audience demographic by simultaneously
webcasting their radio signal. Check out one of my favourites playing world
music, The World 96.1 http://www.am1470.com/fm961/english/
One of my favourite uses of webcasts is as
online coverage from a live event. These webcasts can include live on the spot
reporters doing interviews, announcements, analysis, colour commentary, and
other coverage of the event - just like television only better. How is it
better? Well the E3 Insider site http://www.e3insider.com/floored.htm
is a good example. An archive that's always available, hyperlinks, and most of
all a forum where those interested but unable to attend can vote on polls and
request certain kinds of coverage. What I look for in a webcast is the extent to
which the web based audience can participate, contribute and influence.
Archives are an essential and key component of
webcasts. The idea is simple and akin to recording your favourite TV show on
videotape for watching later. Webcast applications can record an entire webcast
event and save it as a digital file. The digital file includes all aspects of
the webcast including audio, video (if used), graphics, participant text
messaging, discussion and all interactions that took place. This archive can
then be placed on the web and made available for subsequent viewing. I am
particularly intrigued by the potential for these archives to be utilized as learning
objects. An interesting collection of video archive snippets is available
at: www.nhm.ac.uk/darwincentre/live/archive.html.
For webcasts that are more TV-like a surging
area of archive adoption and use is in the form of mini webcast snippets of
movies, music, videos or television. Check out Destiny Media http://www.clipstream.com
to see how a collection of these mini archives can be aggregated around areas of
interest. Destiny itself provides products that support playerless streaming
audio or video. It is also interesting to see how certain TV shows, like
Canadian Idol try to leverage and heighten interest in the show with a web site
made of of these snippets. http://www.ctv.ca/idol/gen/Home.html.
Some even take the form of webisodes.
Lets shift now to the use of webcasting in
online learning.
Many educators initial interest in webcasting
for education centres around trying to video webcast a lecture. Starting out
this way is similar to initiatives that have sought to deliver education and
learning through the use of videoconferencing. This form of delivery has a place
but in my view is of limited educational value and lacks pedagogical richness. A
one way feed of a talking head or a person standing in a room giving a lecture
is marginally engaging and makes no use of the rich range of web based
interactive technologies that are available for use as part of a webcast.
In fact I believe there has been an over
emphasis on the use of video for webcasts. My experience is that talking head
videos are great for getting a sense of the speakers' personality but beyond
that are of limited value.
Video is a huge bandwidth hog, so much so that
many computers have trouble streaming and synchronizing the video and audio
feeds properly. It is very disconcerting when the audio you hear is out of synch
with the speakers lip movements, or the orchestra conductors baton is out of
synch with the music you are hearing. When that happens I tend to look away from
the video and just listen to the audio.
To overcome this synchronization challenge
webcast applications provide a feature for users to specify their bandwidth and
archives that use Windows Player or QuickTime are often encoded at different
bandwidths. Viewers can choose to watch the version optimized for their
bandwidth. But even so it is often clunky. When you think of the overhead and
hassle involved in sending video over the web it makes me question the value.
If video was used in a more cinematic way to
support learning then I think there is some wonderful potential. So if you plan
to use video in your webcasts give some thought to what constitutes interesting
camera work. If someone is demonstrating consider showing their hands not their
head. Think about how camera work in film and television adds drama, context and
meaning. If you go for video, factor in the resources you need to make it
successful - hire a director and camera person. You may even want to pre-shoot
some segments and intercut them with your live webcast.
Webcasting's role in online learning can be
quite powerful. I like to think of it as having a three tier model. In all three
tiers the webcast is conducted in a virtual environment where participants from
around the world, meet "live" and communicate via a combination of
text chat, audio, and/or video often supported with electronic white board,
slides, brainstorming, polling and other online tools. The use of these
complementary tools is absolutely key to creating an engaging webcast, in my
view making the webcast better than TV by making it an active rather than
passive experience.
Tier one webcasting is what I call the informal
"drop-in session". A topic is set, the virtual webcasting environment
scheduled for a certain date and time and a moderator for the session assigned.
On the given date and time those who are interested drop in to the session and
engage in discussion, question & answer, show and tell and other activities
as they explore the drop-in session topic. Drop-in sessions can work for
everything from office hours, to advising, to study groups, meetings, informal
training sessions and special interest groups. Tier one webcasting requires
minimal preparation and production effort and typically lasts for anything from
a few minutes to an hour.
Tier two webcasting is the classic
"featured speaker". These sessions are usually scheduled and marketed
in advance and feature a teacher, guest expert or even a panel discussing,
debating and exploring a set topic. Frequently these sessions are organized and
produced by a facilitator who may interview the featured speaker, moderate the
panel/debate and ensure questions from live audience participants online are
handled. This can create a kind of "talk show" format which I think
works especially well. The more the facilitator can work with the featured
speaker, in advance, to script in to their presentation planned interactions
with the live online participants the more effective the webcast will be. The
application sharing features of some webcasting environments can be utilized in
a particularly powerful way to literally show how an application works or as a
way of providing a guided walk through a series of web sites. Tier two webcasts
require more planning, marketing and support. A duration of one hour is typical
though some webinars and workshops try to go a bit longer.
Tier three webcasting is what I like to call
the "showcase event". Tier three webcasts have the highest production
values, require the most planning and typically are the most expensive. I'd be
more inclined to think about using video in tier three webcasts. A showcase
event could in fact last for several days like an online conference.
From a instructional design perspective its
helpful to plan and schedule the use of tier one, two, and three webcasts at
strategic points in your course or program.
If you're starting to think you'd like to
experience webcasting and investigate some webcasting applications a good place
to start is by checking out webcast products Macromedia Breeze http://www.macromedia.com/software/breeze
and Elluminate's VClass http://www.elluminate.com.
You can sign up and register for scheduled webcasts from these sites or
alternatively archive examples of educational webcasts produced using these
products can be found at:
http://macromedia.marketing.pr.breezecentral
http://www.elluminate.com/site/external/event/
You're not going to be webcasting every day so
a key strategy is to carefully plan for effective placement of webcasting events
in the flow of your online course or program to achieve maximal effect. I like
to think of the design and development of online learning as akin to writing a
musical score. Music has moments of quiet pianissimo, emergent melody, harmony
and loud forte moments of drama created with brass and percussion. I believe
online learning should be crafted to also have a rhythm, a flow, moments of
reflection and thinking followed by times of activity and application, solo
periods of individual study followed by structured group work. As a teacher
developing an online course one of my jobs is to pace the flow of the course to
create an overall orchestral like arrangement. Live webcasting events pique
interest and motivation and can be strategically placed in the overall schedule
of a course or program to sustain and build interest, bridge units, trigger
projects or bring everyone back together.
Here in Vancouver if you're looking for a
couple of firms to help you organize and host online learning webcasts consider Bridge
LTI who supports live webcasts using VClass and/or TM
New Media who does the same using LearnLinc.
There are some online learning organizations
using regularly scheduled listings of webcasts to build up a following and
regular audience. The eLearning Guild has a regularly schedule set of webcasts
they call the Online Forum Series at http://www.elearningguild.com.
The folks at LearningTimes http://www.learningtimes.net
are in my view a best of breed provider of webcasting for education. A unique
aspect of LearningTimes webcasts is the way they are used and archived within an
online community. Much of my own first-hand experience with webcasting has been
done in collaboration with LearningTimes and I am grateful for the support they
have provided in helping me host and produce webcasts on an ongoing basis.
An aspect of webcasting I'm keenly interested
in pursuing in the webcast work I do is the possibility of syndicating webcast
feeds. Just as television networks like CBC, ABC, CBS and others syndicate feeds
of television programs out to regional and local television stations, so too can
webcasts be syndicated across multiple courses, programs, schools and online
communities. I anticipate a dramatic growth of webcasting over the coming years
and expect webcast networks to develop in a similar fashion to television
networks.
Paul
Stacey, is Director of Development for BCcampus, a collaboration of
post-secondary institutions in British Columbia providing a central portal for
online access to post-secondary online learning courses, programs and resources.
Paul also helps host & produce LearningTimes
an online community for education professionals. Contact: Paul
Stacey
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Stacey
E-Learning: An
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