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Introduction: Disease outbreaks (DO) result in unprecedented changes to the healthcare industry with far-reaching implications for medical education. The need to adapt to the fluidity during DO requires the delivery of the clinical medical curriculum to be flexible and effective. There is a lack of well-established guidelines on how medical education should be delivered during DO. This study aimed to explore the efficacy of teleconferencing-based platforms (TBP) as a teaching modality to overcome the challenges of clinical year medical education amidst a global pandemic and possibility of its use when there are no disease outbreaks (NDO). Methods: A cross-sectional survey amongst 144 undergraduate clinical year students from a medical school in Singapore was conducted from May to June 2020, to explore their perspectives on TBP compared to physical venue-based platforms (PVBP). The survey consisted 5-point Likert scale and open-ended questions. Statistical and thematic analyses were performed. Results: TBP provides greater convenience in travelling, note-taking and ability to overcome administrative challenges. Students strongly recommended its use in DO and NDO. However, students faced increased distractibility, decreased engagement and ease of raising questions, with a lower efficacy in content delivery. The above is dependent on the type of lessons delivered - clinical skills-based or didactic sessions. Conclusion: TBP is a promising teaching modality for DO with promising possibility of extending its use to NDO. We propose a tri-faceted approach to target improvement in content delivery on TBP, mainly with measures to target propensity for decreased engagement and increased distractibility and to address the technology-related concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Asia Pacific Scholar is the property of Centre for Medical Education (CenMed) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The recent need for social-distancing caused by COVID-19 resulted in working remotely, which can cause loneliness and disconnect from the organization. The pandemic stimulated people to look for novel ways to interact and, at the same time, socialize with each other. The change to home office increased the number of people using digital video calls; however, these impose restrictions on social bonding. In this commentary, we argue that the social bonding capacity of video calls can be increased by using games. Playing games can create a common object with shared goals, which can give players the feeling of being in the same environment, belonging to the same organization, working on joint objectives, and give an enjoyable experience. All work activities will unlikely return to the office after the pandemic is over, and preparing for remote working and socialization is needed. We recommend several avenues for research, including researching the concepts of online socialization and evaluating the effectiveness of gaming.

The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated the use of video-teleconferencing (VTC) for psychological treatments but VTC effectiveness studies are sparse. We examined treatment outcomes for a modified Buried in Treasures (BIT) group program for hoarding disorder (HD) delivered via VTC. Participants were 10 individuals with HD. Hoarding severity was evaluated at pre, mid, post, and six-month follow-up. Results showed significant decrease in hoarding symptoms over time (with an average decrease of 32%). The dropout rate was low (9%) and 30% of participants were fully recovered at follow-up. These results support the adaptation of in-person BIT for HD into a VTC format.

Background The purpose of this study was to conduct a 20-week controlled trial of lovastatin (10 to 40 mg/day) in youth with fragile X syndrome (FXS) ages 10 to 17 years, combined with an open-label treatment of a parent-implemented language intervention (PILI), delivered via distance video teleconferencing to both treatment groups, lovastatin and placebo. Method A randomized, double-blind trial was conducted at one site in the Sacramento, California, metropolitan area. Fourteen participants were assigned to the lovastatin group; two participants terminated early from the study. Sixteen participants were assigned to the placebo group. Lovastatin or placebo was administered orally in a capsule form, starting at 10 mg and increasing weekly or as tolerated by 10 mg increments, up to a maximum dose of 40 mg daily. A PILI was delivered to both groups for 12 weeks, with 4 activities per week, through video teleconferencing by an American Speech-Language Association-certified Speech-Language Pathologist, in collaboration with a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst. Parents were taught to use a set of language facilitation strategies while interacting with their children during a shared storytelling activity. The main outcome measures included absolute change from baseline to final visit in the means for youth total number of story-related utterances, youth number of different word roots, and parent total number of story-related utterances. Results Significant increases in all primary outcome measures were observed in both treatment groups. Significant improvements were also observed in parent reports of the severity of spoken language and social impairments in both treatment groups. In all cases, the amount of change observed did not differ across the two treatment groups. Although gains in parental use of the PILI-targeted intervention strategies were observed in both treatment groups, parental use of the PILI strategies was correlated with youth gains in the placebo group and not in the lovastatin group. Conclusion Participants in both groups demonstrated significant changes in the primary outcome measures. The magnitude of change observed across the two groups was comparable, providing additional support for the efficacy of the use of PILI in youth with FXS. Trial registration US National Institutes of Health (ClinicalTrials.gov), NCT02642653. Registered 12/30/2015.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is perceived as the worst modern-times pandemic. This entirely new health situation entailed a new challenge to the education system. To our knowledge, the impact of alternative teaching methods derived from the social distancing imposed by COVID-19 on university student perception in teacher education has not been investigated. The aim of this study was to analyse an educative experience developed in a Faculty of Teaching from March 2020 to July 2020 in order to overcome the challenge imposed by COVID-19. A qualitative approach was used for data collection and analysis using four information sources: (a) The final written documents developed by the working groups (b) The online oral presentation of their work (c) The semi-structured interviews conducted through videoconferencing during the lockdown and, (d) The focus groups meetings. We have identified 8 major categories. Our results show that: (a) students find videoconferences are a tool that offsets the issues of social distancing; (b) intrinsic motivation is essential to overcome the perceived barriers; (c) the move to a virtual environment allowed students to deepen their methodological skills; (d) students now see themselves more competent regarding academic information research; e) the constant interaction among group members and the teacher is a key element to achieve a positive experience during social isolation; (f) new logistic and operational dynamics for cooperative working were constructed as a result of using videoconferences. We highlighted the barriers and facilitators perceived by students during the implementation of a tutorial action during the COVID-19 pandemic. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is perceived as the worst modern-times pandemic. This entirely new health situation entailed a new challenge to the education system. To our knowledge, the impact of alternative teaching methods derived from the social distancing imposed by COVID-19 on university student perception in teacher education has not been investigated. The aim of this study was to analyse an educative experience developed in a Faculty of Teaching from March 2020 to July 2020 in order to overcome the challenge imposed by COVID-19. A qualitative approach was used for data collection and analysis using four information sources: (a) The final written documents developed by the working groups (b) The online oral presentation of their work (c) The semi-structured interviews conducted through videoconferencing during the lockdown and, (d) The focus groups meetings. We have identified 8 major categories. Our results show that: (a) students find videoconferences are a tool that offsets the issues of social distancing; (b) intrinsic motivation is essential to overcome the perceived barriers; (c) the move to a virtual environment allowed students to deepen their methodological skills; (d) students now see themselves more competent regarding academic information research; e) the constant interaction among group members and the teacher is a key element to achieve a positive experience during social isolation; (f) new logistic and operational dynamics for cooperative working were constructed as a result of using videoconferences. We highlighted the barriers and facilitators perceived by students during the implementation of a tutorial action during the COVID-19 pandemic. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is perceived as the worst modern-times pandemic. This entirely new health situation entailed a new challenge to the education system. To our knowledge, the impact of alternative teaching methods derived from the social distancing imposed by COVID-19 on university student perception in teacher education has not been investigated. The aim of this study was to analyse an educative experience developed in a Faculty of Teaching from March 2020 to July 2020 in order to overcome the challenge imposed by COVID-19. A qualitative approach was used for data collection and analysis using four information sources: (a) The final written documents developed by the working groups (b) The online oral presentation of their work (c) The semi-structured interviews conducted through videoconferencing during the lockdown and, (d) The focus groups meetings. We have identified 8 major categories. Our results show that: (a) students find videoconferences are a tool that offsets the issues of social distancing; (b) intrinsic motivation is essential to overcome the perceived barriers; (c) the move to a virtual environment allowed students to deepen their methodological skills; (d) students now see themselves more competent regarding academic information research; e) the constant interaction among group members and the teacher is a key element to achieve a positive experience during social isolation; (f) new logistic and operational dynamics for cooperative working were constructed as a result of using videoconferences. We highlighted the barriers and facilitators perceived by students during the implementation of a tutorial action during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A small randomized group design (N=20) was used to examine a parent-implemented intervention designed to improve the spoken language skills of school-aged and adolescent boys with FXS, the leading cause of inherited intellectual disability. The intervention was implemented by speech-language pathologists who used distance video-teleconferencing to deliver the intervention. The intervention taught mothers to use a set of language facilitation strategies while interacting with their children in the context of shared story-telling. Treatment group mothers significantly improved their use of the targeted intervention strategies. Children in the treatment group increased the duration of engagement in the shared story-telling activity as well as use of utterances that maintained the topic of the story. Children also showed increases in lexical diversity, but not in grammatical complexity.

Video teleconferencing and web conferencing are two alternative methods of distance course delivery. This study addressed students’ attitude towards these methods of course delivery. A course of sterilization and disinfection was delivered to operation room technology students using different methods, including face-to-face learning, video teleconferencing and Web conferencing. At the end of the semester, students’ attitude towards each of these methods was obtained using a questionnaire. 88.5% of students preferred face to face learning. Comparing the two methods of virtual learning, 71.5% of students believed to more effective learning through web conferencing. In terms of being more attractive, 65.2% of student preferred web conferencing. Regarding ease of communication with the teacher, the satisfaction rate was 69.5% for web conferencing. 55.5% expressed that the teacher would have more control over the class through the Web conferencing. So, among the two methods of virtual course delivery, students significantly preferred Web conferencing.

We present results from research exploring the effect of sharing virtual gaze and pointing cues in a wearable interface for remote collaboration. A local worker wears a Head-mounted Camera, Eye-tracking camera and a Head-Mounted Display and shares video and virtual gaze information with a remote helper. The remote helper can provide feedback using a virtual pointer on the live video view. The prototype system was evaluated with a formal user study. Comparing four conditions, (1) NONE (no cue), (2) POINTER, (3) EYE-TRACKER and (4) BOTH (both pointer and eye-tracker cues), we observed that the task completion performance was best in the BOTH condition with a significant difference of POINTER and EYETRACKER individually. The use of eye-tracking and a pointer also significantly improved the co-presence felt between the users. We discuss the implications of this research and the limitations of the developed system that could be improved in further work. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Given their increasing popularity and novel requirements and characteristics, telco mashups deserve an analysis that goes beyond what's available for mashups in general. Here, the authors cluster telco services into different types, analyze their features, derive a telco mashup reference architecture, and survey how well existing mashup tools can respond to these mashups' novel needs.

This paper is based on an empirical study of teaching liaison interpreting – specifically, dialogue interpreting, consecutive interpreting and sight translation – by distance mode. In this research, two groups of students were recruited – the experimental group to be taught by distance mode and a control group trained face-to-face. The training program lasted for 13 weeks or 39 hours, with three contact hours per week. The training followed the principle that no face-to-face contact with distance students was made during the training process, including the final examination. The major media used in the research included sound-only teleconferencing, telephone and the Internet. Students’ interpreting skills including language transfer and paralinguistic skills were assessed in different tests including an independent national test. The results of the research indicate that students trained by distance mode can achieve a level similar or comparable to those trained in the face-to-face manner in terms of interpreting ability and skills. The research has generated pedagogical implications for future attempts to teach interpreting by distance mode., Cet article se fonde sur une étude empirique de l’enseignement à distance de l’interprétation de liaison, plus précisément l’interprétation de dialogue, l’interprétation consécutive et la traduction à vue. Pour cette recherche, nous avons recruté deux groupes d’étudiants : un groupe expérimental, qui devait être formé à distance, et un groupe contrôle, formé selon le mode face à face. Le stage de formation était d’une durée de 39 heures, c’est-à-dire de 13 semaines à raison de 3 heures de contact par semaine. La formation a suivi le principe selon lequel aucun contact face à face avec les étudiants à distance ne devait se produire pendant le stage, y compris à l’examen. Les principaux médias employés dans le cadre de la recherche étaient les téléconférences non visuelles, le téléphone et l’Internet. Les compétences des étudiants en interprétation, dont le transfert linguistique et les compétences paralinguistiques, ont été évaluées par des épreuves variées, y compris une épreuve indépendante de niveau national. Les résultats de cette recherche indiquent que les étudiants formés à distance sont capables d’atteindre un niveau de compétences et d’habiletés, pour l’interprétation, égal ou comparable à celui qui a été atteint par les étudiants formés selon le mode face à face. Cette recherche a des implications pédagogiques pour de futurs projets dans le domaine du téléenseignement de l’interprétation.

The rapid growth of telecontrol systems is one of the major trends in today's network-oriented community. The implementation of generic frameworks, consisting of reusable components that can form the basis for the development of such systems, is a necessity. There is a plethora of associated applications that can be developed in a distributed environment, such as audio/video teleconferencing, groupware and collaborative computing environments, remote controlled services, etc. In this paper we design and implement a generic framework of components that can be used for the realization of telecontrol applications. This category of applications focuses primarily on the issues of managing distributed units on remote end-systems. Such applications contain remote units and administrators that are connected and exchange data and control messages. We analyse the outlined architecture of our framework and the most important system operations. We also describe the communication protocol used in message exchanges between the constituent components. Finally, we illustrate the usefulness of our framework by presenting two applications that were created by extending the basic software infrastructure. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 37 10 1087 1132 Cited By :2

El avance generado por las Aulas Virtuales Síncronas (AVS) ofrece la oportunidad de trabajar en entornos virtuales de aprendizaje superando las limitaciones ya conocidas de las plataformas asíncronas (Learning Management Systems), lo que genera la necesidad de replantearse competencias y tareas docentes más adecuadas, relacionadas con el aprendizaje colaborativo, evaluación virtual de los aprendizajes y tutorización de trabajos. Los resultados de las experiencias desarrolladas, en el marco de un proyecto de investigación, ponen de manifiesto la existencia de aspectos comunes a las distintas metodologías empleadas: procesos de planificación de la enseñanza, gestión docente del aula y gestión técnica de la herramienta. The advancement of Synchronous Virtual Classrooms (SVC) offers teachers and students the opportunity of working in virtual learning environments and overcoming limitations generated by the Learning Management Systems. This lead us to reconsider teaching skills and tasks appropriate to these virtual spaces, related to collaborative learning, e-assessment and guidance using SVC. Within this scenario, we propose pedagogical and methodological criteria for teaching in SVC. Results coming from teaching experiences developed within a research project, express the following common topics to the different methodologies used: teaching and learning plan, and SVC's educational and technical management. Comunidad Autónoma de Extremadura PRI09A072 Fondos Europeos de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) PRI09A072

Various human factors experiments were carried out aiming at investigating to what extent assumed deficiencies of current videocommunications systems can be overcome by employing advanced image technologies. Deficiencies that are dealt with are the lack of spatial impression, limitations in the possibility of addressing the interlocutors individually by non-verbal signals, and difficulties in terms of interpersonal impression formation. Results showed that spatial impression can be enhanced significantly by stereoscopy, that reducing eye-contact angles can improve the recognisability of non-verbal signals, and that a natural-size representation of interlocutors leads to a high degree of ‘telepresence’ and facilitates impression formation. In trying to identify those human factors deficiencies of videoconferencing systems the reduction of which can be expected to increase the uptake of videoconferencing services, the lack of spatial impression and difficulties in impression formation are the most promising candidates.

This paper presents an AR videoconferencing approach merging two remote rooms into a shared workspace. Such bilateral AR telepresence inherently suffers from breaks in immersion stemming from the different physical layouts of participating spaces. As a remedy, we develop an automatic alignment scheme which ensures that participants share a maximum of common features in their physical surroundings. The system optimizes alignment with regard to initial user position, free shared floor space, camera positioning and other factors. Thus we can reduce discrepancies between different room and furniture layouts without actually modifying the rooms themselves. A description and discussion of our alignment scheme is given along with an exemplary implementation on real-world datasets.

Education and healthcare are basic needs for human development. Technological innovation has broadened the access to higher quality healthcare and education without regard to time, distance or geopolitical boundaries. Distance learning has gained popularity as a means of learning in recent years due to widely distributed learners, busy schedules and rising travel costs. Teleconferencing is also a very useful tool as a distance learning method.Teleconferencing is a real-time and live interactive programme in which one set of participants are at one or more locations and the other set of participants are at another. The teleconference allows for interaction, including audio and/or video, and possibly other modalities, between at least two sites. Various methods are available for setting up a teleconferencing unit. A detailed review of the trend in the use of teleconferencing in medical education was conducted using Medline and a literature search.Teleconferencing was found to be a very useful tool in continuing medical education (CME), postgraduate medical education, undergraduate medical education, telementoring and many other situations. The use of teleconferencing in medical education has many advantages including savings in terms of travel costs and time. It gives access to the best educational resources and experience without any limitations of boundaries of distance and time. It encourages two-way interactions and facilitates learning in adults. Despite having some pitfalls in its implementation it is now being seen as an important tool in facilitating learning in medicine and many medical schools and institutions are adapting this novel tool.

L’apprentissage coopératif à distance suppose de mettre en oeuvre deux types de médiation : une médiation humaine par la création d’un lien le plus tangible possible entre les apprenants et une médiation technique par une aide logicielle de l’activité et de l’environnement d’apprentissage. Cette médiation peut être définie comme le sentiment de co-présence rendu possible par les concepts de salle de classe virtuelle et d’espace commun de conversation, réalisés à travers la conférence temps réel du projet Co-Learn du laboratoire TRIGONE de l’Université de Lille 1., Clément Danièle. Quel type de médiation dans l’apprentissage coopératif à distance ?. In: Spirale. Revue de recherches en éducation, n°17, 1996. Les médiations éducatives, sous la direction de Francis Danvers. pp. 131-141.

We describe a mechanism for dynamic adjustment of the bandwidth requirements of multimedia applications. The sending application uses RTP receiver reports to compute packet loss. Based on this metric the congestion state seen by the receivers is determined and the bandwidth is adjusted by a linear regulator with deadzone. The suggested mechanism has been implemented and controls the bandwidth of the vic video conferencing system. We ran several experiments on the Internet and on our local ATM network to tune and evaluate the algorithm. The results indicate that the mechanism can be applied to both environments. Since an ATM network has a different loss characteristic than the Internet, different controller parameters must be set.

Videotelephony and videoconferencing functions are more and more frequently becoming part of CSCW (computer-supported co-operative work) and multimedia systems. Using standardized symbols for the controls of videocommunications functions potentially enhances the usability of such systems. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has published a European Telecommunications Standard which defines eight symbols for videotelephony functions, namely Telephone/videophone mode, Camera transmission on/off, Microphone transmission on/off, Selfview on/off, Still picture on/off, Document camera on/off, Handsfree on/off, and Loudspeaking on/off. These eight symbols are also recommended for use on graphical user interfaces.

In this paper an interaction framework for AR enhanced video conferencing is presented. The goal is to provide a cheap and portable system based on a combination of commodity Kinect cameras and regular computer screens. These conditions necessitate the use of contact free interaction methods. The interaction framework presented in this paper is specifically suited for remotely presenting, sharing and annotating visual data such as images, presentation slides and 3D objects. In the proposed system all data is represented by freely manipulable 3D objects which are augmented into the camera views. These representations are integrated into a differentiated ownership scheme, allowing for operations such as spatially managed data sharing. The suitability of different interaction paradigms with regards to this usage scenario is examined. Furthermore, occlusion and collision management between virtual objects and real obstacles is enabled by integrating basic models of the environment.

Summarization: In recent work we have introduced and evaluated a fair and dynamic joint Call Admission Control (CAC) and Multiple Access Control (MAC) framework, for Geostationary Orbit (GEO) Satellite Systems, named Fair Predictive Resource Reservation Access (FPRRA). The framework was based on accurate videoconference and data traffic prediction, made decisions after taking into account the provider's revenue, and was shown to be highly efficient. In this paper we enhance FPRRA by talking into account the users' satisfaction for making scheduling decisions and we focus on its evaluation in the absence of accurate MPEG-4 and H.264 video traffic modeling. In addition, we discuss the efficiency of our proposed scheme in comparison to other efficient schemes from the literature. Παρουσιάστηκε στο: IEEE International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks

Three-dimensional displays provide an unambiguous visual representation of the spatial structure of natural scenes and computer-generated virtual environments and thus have proven substantial advantages over conventional displays in remote guidance and inspection tasks and in application fields such as medical imagery and architectural and molecular modelling. Recent years have seen increasing efforts to extend 3D technologies into the domain of image communications. These efforts received support from human factors studies indicating that 3D displays are highly appreciated by prospective users of image communications systems for their enhanced psychological effects (telepresence and communicative presence). On the other hand, these studies have revealed heavy technological requirements that must be met in order to avoid visible image distortions and increased visual strain.

Video is considered one of the main applications of modern day's Internet. Despite its importance, the interactivity available from current implementations is limited to pause and random access to a set of predetermined access points. In this work, we propose a novel and innovative approach which provides considerably better interactivity and we coin the term JPEG2000-Based Scalable Interactive Video (JSIV) for it. JSIV relies on three main concepts: storing the video sequence as independent JPEG2000 frames to provide for quality and spatial resolution scalability, as well as temporal and spatial accessibility; prediction and conditional replenishment of precincts to exploit inter-frame redundancy; and loosely-coupled server and client policies. The concept of loosely-coupled client and server policies is central to JSIV. With these policies, the server optimally selects the number of quality layers for each precinct it transmits and decides on any side-information that needs to be transmitted while the client attempts to make most of the received (distorted) frames. In particular, the client decides which precincts are predicted and which are decoded from received data (or possibly filled with zeros in the absence of received data). Thus, in JSIV, a predicted frame typically has some of its precincts predicted from nearby frames while others are decoded from received intra-coded precincts; JSIV never uses frame differences or prediction residues. The philosophy behind these policies is that neither the server nor the client drives the video streaming interaction, but rather the server dynamically selects and sends the pieces that, it thinks, best serve the client needs and, in turn, the client makes most of the pieces of information it has. The JSIV paradigm postulates that if both the client and the server policies are intelligent enough and make reasonable decisions, then the decisions made by the server are likely to have the expected impact on the client's decisions. We solve the general JSIV optimization problem by employing Lagrange-style rate-distortion optimization in a two pass iterative approach. We show that this approach converges under workable conditions, and we also show that the optimal solution for a given rate is not necessarily embedded in the optimal solution for a higher rate. The flexibility of the JSIV paradigm enables us to use it in a variety of frame prediction arrangements. In this work, we focus only on JSIV with sequential prediction arrangement (similar to IPPP\ldots) and hierarchical B-frames prediction arrangement. We show that JSIV can provide the sought-after quality and spatial scalability in addition to temporal and spatial accessibility. We also demonstrate a novel way in which a JSIV client can use its cache in improving the quality of reconstructed video. In general, JSIV can serve a wide range of usage scenarios, but we expect that real-time and interactive applications, such as teleconferencing and surveillance, would benefit most from it. Experimental results show that JSIV's performance is slightly inferior to that of existing predictive coding standards in conventional streaming applications; however, JSIV produces significant improvements when its scalability and accessibility features, such as the region of interest, are employed.

2nd International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications, People are an important part of many business processes. Current workflow-based implementations of business processes constrain users to the desktop environment; require them to periodically check for pending tasks; and do not support direct or synchronous people-to-people interaction. On the other hand, the wide spectrum of people collaboration tools ranging from telephones to instant messaging and to email have no provision for structured collaboration and are separate from business processes. We have designed and implemented a system, dubbed PerCollab, that integrates workflow and collaboration technologies. It allows people to participate in business processes from anywhere using a traditional collaboration mechanism. It proactively engages users in business processes by pushing interaction to a convenient device of the users. PerCollab uses an extended BPEL to formally define business processes with human partners and exploits dynamic user context to solve the personal mobility problem. Our prototype implementation integrates a variety of collaboration tools: instant messaging, email and e-meeting.

A study was conducted to determine the preferences for the design of distributed meeting rooms used for video enhanced electronic meeting systems (VEMS). Although there is a significant body of literature in the group communication domain, the research in this multidisciplinary area has paid minimal attention to users' environmental preferences in the design of a meeting space. A basic science approach through three studies was used to explore the variables that defined the design of a distributed meeting space from the user's perspective. Twenty-five inexperienced college-enrolled participants and twenty-five experienced Naval professionals used foam-core pieces to create a design of their ideal distributed meeting space. Thirty-seven variables were used to categorize qualitative attributes of the designs. Three types of designs emerged from the sample population: v-shaped, conference (u-shaped or oval), and theater (auditorium) style. A nonexperimental design was used to measure the impact of the heuristics on the users' physical design of their distributed meeting spaces. Post-meeting evaluation results were promising and indicated that the heuristics were usable and that participating in the design could have a positive impact on user's subjective rating of their meeting experience. Overall, inexperienced users did not believe that the heuristics were necessary to determine the best room design for their team's needs. In the third study, six experts conducted an expert evaluation of a distributed meeting room site. Most experts were not able to identify context-specific design issues such as camera angle and lighting with the static information that they were provided. The experts subjective ratings indicated that the heuristics were usable and were useful for room designers. The overall findings indicated that experience level had a significant impact on user's perception of important equipment in a distributed meeting room. Naïve users were more concerned with visual communication and assigned more importance to public displays (p=.035). Experienced users were more concerned with audio communication and assigned more importance to microphone control (p=.024). In addition, general findings from this research include a new methodology for generating participatory ergonomic tools. Ph. D.

This study on the effects of scaffolding electronic case-based learning on preservice teacher education explored the use of an asynchronous computer conferencing tool called COW (Conferencing on the Web) to determine whether open-ended learning environments that encouraged critical thinking could foster a greater degree of course connections and higher quality discourse. (LRW) 15 8 Accession Number: EJ641493; Acquisition Information: Available electronically: http://www.usdla.org/html/journal/AUG01 Issue/index.html.; Level of Availability: Not available from ERIC; Publication Type: Journal Articles; Publication Type: Reports - Research; Entry Date: 2002

The goal of this research was to investigate communication media and feedback learning cues for tutoring. A macroergonomic perspective was used to identify three sociotechnical variables associated with tutoring assistance: problem analyzability, communication media, and learning feedback cues. A four-phase problem solving approach was used in all trials. The communication media consisted of collocated communication, email, a chatroom, and video teleconferencing. The learning feedback cue was a non-verbal mechanism for subjects to provide the tutor with immediate information about their understanding throughout the problem. Subjects participated in a total of eight trials over a four-week time period. The analysis accuracy, process time, and user satisfaction indicated that the four-phase problem solving approach was not important in the interpretation of the results. In each problem-solving phase and for the overall tutoring process, technical performance (e.g., accuracy and speed of problem solving) and user satisfaction were measured to determine the most effective communication technology (or technologies) for tutoring students. The results of this study indicated that the accuracy was similar for all experimental conditions. However, the speed of problem solving was generally faster for audio-visual communication than text-based communication. In all phases, subjects were significantly more satisfied in conditions without feedback cues. And in general, satisfaction was higher in collocated communication and the chatroom compared to email; satisfaction was generally higher in collocated communication compared to video teleconferencing. There was no evidence that computer-mediated communication improved the tutoring process. However, important design implications existed for tutoring systems with limited resources. Through computer-mediated communication, a single tutor could assist many students at one time. The chatroom appeared to be a condition that would be an effective communication medium for spatially dispersed tutoring. Although the tutoring process required significantly more time to complete using the chatroom compared to collocated communication, accuracy and satisfaction measures were similar between collocated communication and the chatroom. Master of Science

This study took place within a teacher education program at a large Midwestern university with vast field observation placements around the state and the world. The purpose was to discover whether preservice teacher electronic conferencing on the World Wide Web about early field experiences can have an impact on the learning of educational psychology and general apprenticeship within the teacher education program. The power of asynchronous conferencing was combined with case-based reasoning and peer and mentor collaboration to electronically apprentice student learning. Research questions in five areas were examined: (1) dialogue; (2) requests for help/learning assistance; (3) scaffolding and apprenticeship; (4) attitudes; and (5) teaching philosophy. During 1996-1997, 146 undergraduate educational psychology students were randomly assigned to two different electronic conferencing groups; one group was heavily scaffolded (i.e., students received more task structuring, instructor guidance and feedback, moderator queries, and cooperative teacher recommendations) and the other was not (i.e., students received feedback from their peers, and when they requested it, help from the instructor). While students found the conferencing tool, Conferencing on the Web (COW) to be easy to use, many looked at this as an additional task burden of the class, not as an opportunity to interact with peers. (Contains 19 references.) (AEF) Accession Number: ED421156; Notes: In: "SITE 98: Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (9th, Washington, DC, March 10-14, 1998). Proceedings"; see IR 018 794.; Journal Code: RIEDEC1998; Level of Availability: Available online; Publication Type: Reports - Research; Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers; Entry Date: 1998

Videoteleducation is a method of education and training that is occurring more frequently in corporate, military, and educational environments. VTE provides education and training to people who cannot or who prefer not to attend traditional educational institutions, to employees or companies who need timely information, and to those who seek cost savings for training widely dispersed groups of people. This study uses personal interviews of professors and trainers in both the military and civilian sector and reviews the VTE literature to determine lessons learned from VTE. Results show that VTE causes changes in instructional design, physical, administrative and technological support, production facilities, and student/teacher preparation. The transition from a live classroom to VTE requires teachers to develop new skills and behaviors. Additionally, VTE saves costs and effectively delivers training as shown in studies of private corporations, federal agencies, educational institutions, and the military. However, VTE is not applicable to all courses and teaching methodologies. While researchers claim that VTE is effective, they often have not applied appropriate evaluation measures to their claims of VTE efficiency and effectiveness. Decision-makers should conduct thorough analyses and exercise caution before committing to a VTE program based on the claims in the literature http://archive.org/details/videoteleducatio109459144 Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

El avance generado por las Aulas Virtuales Síncronas (AVS) ofrece la oportunidad de trabajar en entornos virtuales de aprendizaje superando las limitaciones ya conocidas de las plataformas asíncronas (Learning Management Systems), lo que genera la necesidad de replantearse competencias y tareas docentes más adecuadas, relacionadas con el aprendizaje colaborativo, evaluación virtual de los aprendizajes y tutorización de trabajos. Los resultados de las experiencias desarrolladas, en el marco de un proyecto de investigación, ponen de manifiesto la existencia de aspectos comunes a las distintas metodologías empleadas: procesos de planificación de la enseñanza, gestión docente del aula y gestión técnica de la herramienta. The advancement of Synchronous Virtual Classrooms (SVC) offers teachers and students the opportunity of working in virtual learning environments and overcoming limitations generated by the Learning Management Systems. This lead us to reconsider teaching skills and tasks appropriate to these virtual spaces, related to collaborative learning, e-assessment and guidance using SVC. Within this scenario, we propose pedagogical and methodological criteria for teaching in SVC. Results coming from teaching experiences developed within a research project, express the following common topics to the different methodologies used: teaching and learning plan, and SVC's educational and technical management. Comunidad Autónoma de Extremadura PRI09A072 Fondos Europeos de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) PRI09A072

This project was funded by the EU 6th Framework Program (FP6) project TWISTER., The effect of propagation impairments phenomena is quite significant for systems operating in the Ka-band frequency range, resulting in a reduction in the end-to-end quality of a videoconferencing session. These systems generally utilize complex coding architectures, like the digital video broadcasting (DVB) standard, in order to maintain an acceptable quality of service (QoS) at low signal-to-noise ratios. Although these systems are finding more and more applications, the literature is still relatively poor in the description of models capable of representing such complex architectures. This paper proposes a videoconferencing channel model, developed in software, which can accurately model a complex videoconferencing system according to the DVB standard at the required quality and availability., peer-reviewed

There is an on-going debate on the use of technology as an alternative to business travel, with industry and academia differing in their views on such substitution. This study investigates the trend towards substitution and identifies the factors and barriers that play a role in either supporting or limiting such substitution. The results provide management with an evaluation of the benefits of replacing business trips with videoconferencing and other alternatives, against the potential disadvantages of using these alternatives.

International audience; Quality of Experience (QoE) is a human centric quality evaluation method which provides the blue print of human needs, perceptions, feelings and experiences with respect to a multimedia service. In a communications ecosystem, human interaction takes place alongside technological, contextual, and business domains, thus producing a holistic view on QoE formation. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between human perceived QoE and "context" for burgeoning 3-dimensional (3D) audio teleconferencing services. 3D audio teleconferencing applications are customizable by generating different virtual acoustic environments (VAE), where parameters such as virtual room size and competing talker conditions can be adjusted for a particular application. The impact of different VAE characteristics on perceived QoE, however, is still unknown. In this study, four QoE factors were investigated across different VAE scenarios. It was found that a) medium-size virtual rooms produce optimal perceived QoE, b) competing talkers of mixed gender could be easily located in the virtual space, and c) competing speaker gender had no significant effect on perceived audio quality

The project was funded by the EU 6th Framework Programme (FP6) project TWISTER., Multimedia and Videoconferencing applications transmitted over satellite links are being pushed towards higher frequency bands where more usable bandwidth is present. The service availability of Ka-band satellite links is subject to considerable uncertainty, relying on channel phenomena such as interference and the unpredictability of local weather. This paper presents a model of the interference and the propagation impairments in Ka-band satellite communication systems. Moreover, a description of a simple method which may be used to derive quality of service (QoS) parameters is given., peer-reviewed

Part 5: Mixed Reality and 3D Worlds; International audience; Globalization and increasing collaboration between remote teams drive the need for teleconference systems. However, currently no videoconferencing system matches the face-to-face experience for a business meeting with many participants in a flexible and affordable manner. In search for a better solution, we created a Virtual Meeting Room (VMR) application that visualizes key events detected using computer vision (e.g., participant entering the meeting room, talking, presenting) in a 3D virtual environment. The goal was to provide a good sense of overview to users when many meeting participants - represented by 3D avatars - from remote locations join a teleconference. In this paper, a technical overview of the working prototype - built using 3D game technology - is presented. Also, feedback from multiple user tests performed during the development of the prototype is discussed and presented as a set of recommendations. From the technical perspective, we found that existing 3D game technology is mature, affordable and contains the features needed to build the VMR application. From the users’ and experts’ feedback, we conclude that the VMR has merits as a teleconferencing support tool accompanying a video stream that conveys more detailed non-verbal communication of the active speaker.