3D video conferencing

Brings together a number of news items about 3D video conferencing.

George Siemens laments how video conferencing doesn’t provide you with all the visual cues you would like:
“It’s tough presenting to a conference when you, as the presenter, lack visual cues. Sure, you can see the people seated around tables, you can see the layout of the room, but if it’s a larger group, you miss the important communication signals of eye contact, raised eyebrows…or people falling asleep. Video conferencing with smaller groups does allow for transition of greater detail (a smile, confused look), but it doesn’t allow for eye contact. Contact is with the camera. Tracking eye movement is important for feeling connected with others.”
George points to this video about ‘HeadSPIN: A One-to-Many 3D Video Teleconferencing System’. According to the blurb, “This installation presents a 3D teleconferencing system that enables true eye contact between a three-dimensionally transmitted subject and multiple participants in an audience. The system is able to reproduce the effects of gaze, attention, and eye contact not available in traditional teleconferencing systems.”
This week’s Economist also picked up on the potential for applying new 3D imaging technologies to video conferencing. In 3D – It’s nearly there, the Economist reports how Accenture “has equipped two non-adjacent rooms at its research centre in Sophia Antipolis, France, with cameras so that a wall-mounted screen in each one serves as a window into the other. It is now using 3-D displays to allow people to ‘share’ objects and data between the two rooms.”
The article also describes the Eyeliner projection system devised by Musion, a company based in London. The system “projects high-definition video onto nearly transparent screens made of very thin foil, in a modern updating of the old ‘Pepper’s ghost’ stage illusion. The effect, for viewers a few metres away, is a lifelike, full-sized 3-D moving image of a person that appears to float in space, without any visible screen.” Apparently. the technology has been used by Al Gore, Bill Gates, Prince Charles and other celebrities to appear on stage at conferences without being physically present. See the video.
Sell those BA shares while you can.

How long does it take to develop one hour of training?

Examines the results of a US survey on the time taken to create an hour of live e-learning.

People often ask how long it takes to develop one hour of self-study e-learning. The answers vary wildly, from under 50 hours to more than 300, depending on the amount of research that is needed, the complexity of the interactions, the richness of the media, the capabilities of the authoring tool, and the experience of the designer. These figures nearly always surprise people, because they wouldn’t normally spend anywhere near this time developing for the classroom. However, because they have to stand alone, self-study materials are notoriously hard to develop and they can only therefore make economic sense when there’s a reasonably large audience of users. The estimates are also open to question on the basis that self-pacing is, by definition, variable – what’s one hour for one learner, is 20 minutes for a second, and 2 hours for a third.
However, with live online learning, the concept of ‘one hour of e-learning’ really does make sense. An hour is an hour is an hour. That’s why I was interested to read the analysis by Karl Kapp (see Time to Develop One Hour of Training):
“In 2003, the low estimate for developing one hour of instructor-led, web-based training delivery (using software such as Centra, Adobe Connect, or WebEx) was 30 hours and the high estimate was 80 hours. In 2009, the low estimate is 49 and the high estimate 89. Both higher. Is it taking us longer to develop e-learning than it did six years ago?”
These figures are low compared with self-paced e-learning but higher than I would have expected. I can’t quite see why it takes 1-2 working weeks to assemble a really good hour of training. Am I missing something here? What’s your experience?

Podcast: Clive Shepherd on synchronous online communications for learning

Links to a new podcast by Clive Shepherd.

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Xyleme Inc has just released this podcast in which I attempt to answer the following questions:

  • Why is real-time online communication so hot right now?
  • What does an organisation gain or lose when they switch from face-to-face to online communication?
  • Why communicate live when you have the option of self-pacing?
  • Is it possible for synchronous communication stand alone as an intervention?
  • How are we doing so far in our use of synchronous communications?
  • What does it take to facilitate a successful online event?

Thanks to Dawn Poulos for hosting the podcast so ably.

Cisco shows the way with TelePresence

Extract from The Economist showing Cisco’s use of its own Telepresence technology.


This week’s Economist contains an interesting feature on Cisco. In Reshaping Cisco: The world according to Chambers, the article reports on Cisco’s own prolific use of it’s top-end video conferencing tool TelePresence:
“The firm—to borrow a choice Silicon Valley expression—eats a lot of its own dog food: digital tools that allow cheap and efficient communication. These include wikis, social networking and web-based collaboration services, of course. But the most important tool is TelePresence, so that nuances such as body language and tone of voice, essential ingredients of face-to-face meetings, are no longer lost. The number of TelePresence meetings at Cisco averages 5,500 a week. This has also helped the firm to cut its annual travel budget by $290m, or more than half.”

Edufire – live video learning

Reviews the live online video site Edufire.

edufire
Edufire provides a very different take on synchronous online learning. This new site brings together teachers and students for webcam-based online classes. These could be on any subject imaginable, but right now the majority are for language learning.
As a teacher, you set your own price and EduFire takes 15% of the sales. Sounds like a good deal to me and the exact reverse of the usual royalties you’d expect from a book publisher.
In true Web 2.0 style, the teachers are rated, so demand for the good ones (and presumably the price) will increase, while the poor teachers will look in vain for somewhere to hide.

Pecha-kucha online

Proposes the Pecha-kucha format for webinar presentations.

In reading Garr Reynold’s excellent Presentation Zen, I came across a great idea for webinars called Pecha-kucha. Apparently, Pecha-kucha (Japanese for chatter) was started in 2003 by Tokyo expatriate architects Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein as an alternative presentation format. Each speaker has 20 slides, each of which must be shown for 20 seconds, with which to tell their story or make their point. The slides advance automatically and so after 6 minutes and 40 seconds you’re done.
According to Reynolds, Pecha-kucha nights are now being held in over 80 cities around the world. I reckon a Pecha-kucha hour would work just great as the basis for a webinar.
Now all I’ve got to work out is how to pronounce it.

Web meetings, webinars and virtual classrooms compared

A table comparing the three principle uses of real-time online communication.

Unless I’ve missed something important, there seem to be three distinct uses for real-time online commmunications. The following table represents a first attempt at clarifying the discriminating characteristics of these three:

  Web meetings Webinars Virtual classrooms
Primary purpose To solve problems and make decisions To share ideas and experiences To facilitate learning
Secondary purposes To provide updates To promote the speaker or organiser None
Face-to-face equivalent A short business meeting A session at a seminar or conference A classroom session
Who’s in charge? The chair of the meeting The host and/or presenter The teacher / trainer
Typical activities Presentation of situation updates and proposals; discussion of proposals; decision-making; action planning Presentation of ideas and experiences; demonstrations; polling of audience opinion; Q&A; discussion; participant-to-participant text chat (back channel) Ice  breakers; presentation of formal content; software demos (for IT training); group exercises and activities; discussion; formative and summative assessment
Visual focus Participant webcams; shared documents; slides Slides; presenter webcam; text chat; polls; website tours Slides; electronic whiteboard; questions/polls; shared applications; website tours; text chat
Auditory focus Participants’ vocal contributions Host / presenters’ voices; possibly also participants’ vocal contributions Teacher/trainer’s voice and participants’ vocal contributions
Most frequently used interactive devices Voice; text chat Voice; text chat; polls Voice; text chat; electronic whiteboard; questions/polls; application sharing; break-out rooms
Tangible outputs Agreed actions / minutes Recordings; participant feedback Recordings; participant feedback; assessment scores

If you believe there are other, distinct forms, or feel you could refine or add to this table, I’d love to hear from you.

A first time user's hints and tips

Extract from a Towards Maturity case study of Devon Countil Council.

I was interested in the experiences of web conferencing beginners Devon County Council as reported on the Towards Maturity site – see Devon County Council improves efficiency with web conferencing. In particular I thought I’d share their hints and tips:

  • If you are conducting a programme for over 16, you need to have 2 of you supporting learners, one leading the event and the other supporting individuals via the chat room.
  • We found that a half day workshop could be compressed into a 1 hour webinar.
  • If you are asking staff to interact with the content (through note taking, mind maps etc) then an hour on the end of a telephone is quite a lot – it’s better to make a small investment in headphones that can be loaned to staff on the programme which leaves their hands free.
  • Make sure you have a quiet venue to conduct the session from – an open plan office isn’t the best.
  • PC’s in the council are timed to shut down if inactive for a certain period – we had to be proactive in introducing time for ‘mouse wiggle’ into the programme – a bit of fun that kept both staff and their machines engaged!
  • Without the face-to-face contact, we found that we had to concentrate on varying style and content within the webinar to engage staff.

How people buy webinars

webinars

Lee Salz runs an interesting blog called Business Expert Webinars, which focuses on the business of selling webinars. Yes, you read that correctly, places at webinars can be sold – they don’t have to be freebies. In The Unique Buying Process in For-Fee Webinars, Lee describes how differently the buying process works when you’re offering free and paid-for events:

  • When the webinar’s for free, the majority of attendees register a month in advance, probably on the basis of the first promotion. However, as Lee explains, “only 25 – 35% will show up to the free webinar since they did not make a commitment to attend.”
  • With a paid-for event, the process is the exact opposite. The prospect makes a note of when the webinar is to be held, then waits right until the last moment to see whether they will be free to attend. Once they’ve made the payment, they’ll definitely turn up.

There’s no reason why someone shouldn’t pay for a place at a webinar, as long as the topic is sufficiently interesting and there is no hidden agenda, usually promotional. After all, they pay big bucks to see the same speakers at face-to-face events.