Abstract

VIDAL MARTINEZ, Ana Aurora  and  AGUILAR VALENZUELA, F. Alfonso. Desktop videoconferencing as a development and remote collaboration tool. Rev. Actual. Investig. Educ [online]. 2014, vol.14, n.2, pp.658-680. ISSN 1409-4703.

This essay proposes an interaction tool between teachers and students of the Coordination of Academic Programs (CPA) Center for Food Research and Development, AC (CIAD, AC), located in different geographical locations, to share ideas, knowledge, solve problems and plan research strategies. The project was divided into two stages. In the first stage the CPA coordinator was interviewed, for the purpose of knowing the specific needs of interaction between teachers and students, in order to establish the minimum requirements that the proposed tool should include. For the different alternatives analysis, several aspects were considered: the author’s experience in salon videoconferencing, supplier’s suggestions and proposals, the opinions of colleagues from other educational institutions expert in videoconferencing area and the specialized journals review. The stakeholders agreed that desktop videoconferencing is the tool that best fits the requirements exposed, considering it a budget, ubiquitous and simplified usage tool for the video, voice and data transmission and reception. In the second stage, after using the tool for a semester, interviews and user surveys were conducted in order to assess the satisfaction degree, teachers and student’s behavior and the material’s quality used during desktop videoconferencing sessions. The evaluation results support the conclusion that desktop videoconferencing is the right tool to achieve the stated objective.

Keywords : distance learning; videoconferencing; educational technology; Mexico.

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