WEBINARS AS AN EDUCATIONAL TOOL

Transcription

1 EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY MINI-PROJECT Communication Software Laboratory WEBINARS AS AN EDUCATIONAL TOOL Telecommunications Engineering-UC3M June 2008 Blanca Galego Pascual Group 95

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION FORMATION IN THE WORK ENVIRONMENT CASE TO STUDY WEBINARS: MOST COMMON TOOLS... 4 MICROSOFT NETMEETING... 6 WEBEX... 6 GOTOMEETING... 6 COMPARATIVE PRACTICAL EXAMPLE CONCLUSIONS REFERENCES

3 1. INTRODUCTION When we think of educational technology, we automatically direct our thoughts to the numerous applications and tools developed by research groups, universities or schools in order to improve both the quality and the easiness of education in a wide array of fields. We don t even need to go to official institutions as the already mentioned schools and universities; we can count by the thousands the number of companies that base their business in providing formation at different levels and that base their competitive advantage in solving the handicap that constitutes having to attend in person to the courses. In a world where we have less and less time, where distances are greater, the fact that we can attend to a course without having to be physically present is a huge advantage, both for the companies that provide the service and for the students. What we don t immediately think about is the role the companies have in the formation both of their employees and of third parties. This study will focus on this last part, as the formation of their own employees is well-known due to its association to the continuation of a person s formation once he or she enters the working world. We will see an overview of how we can consider the companies carry on educational activities, we will see how they do it, and although we won t go into much detail, we will also see some of the tools used. Finally we will take the company Visure Solutions as an example, and we will see how they use these tools for educational ends, and a couple of real-life situations. 2. FORMATION IN THE WORK ENVIRONMENT As we have mentioned is very usual, especially in big corporations to have introductory courses for every new employee with the objective of form them in the specific knowledge they will need for their job and in the corporative objectives. The education of a worker is continuous, in the moment he stops learning, he becomes obsolete. This knowledge is so extended than most of the time it s a given that anywhere you work, at some point you expect to receive some formative courses. It s also an important investment for a company to have the best possible formation for its employees as theoretically, it will reflect on their performance at work. What we usually don t think about is how that formation is given. Someone has to do it, and in lots of cases, it s a third party who does it, in general, another company. So it stands to reason, that the other main function related to education that companies all over the world carry out will be this formation. It s not very intuitive, but it s basically what most consultants do: offer their expertise. This expertise may come in the form of collaboration in the development of some projects, or simply to form the members of a project on a specific topic. We are going to study one particular case, Visure Solutions S.L. to explain a phenomenon that s more and more extended among companies all over the world, especially those whose business is related in any way with software. 3

4 3. CASE TO STUDY As we have just said, we are going to focus on the case of Visure Solutions S.L [1]. Visure Solutions is a company specialized in Requirements Management & Engineering solutions, result of the spin-off of its Requirements Tool (IRQA) Business Unit of TCP SI. Visure Solutions offers solutions and services with the required specialization to help companies implement an efficient and appropriate requirement management process to guarantee the highest quality on their products, systems and services. Of course all of this is supported by the tool IRQA which is the base of the company. From the point of view of this study, it s very intuitive to understand how a software tool may need some formation in order to learn to use it. As many other companies do, Visure offers formation courses, both at the companies interested and at distance. This last part is what s going to concern us. Nowadays learning to work software tools is almost an every day experience, so we are already used to learn through tutorials and other on-line methods that allow the final user to familiarize himself with a tool and learn the most basic concepts needed to use it. In the case of a tool that s going to be basic for the development of the business process of a company, basic concepts are not enough. The final users need to have clear not only the basics but learn the advanced ones as they will help to implant successfully the tool in the company process. In a way, these are the more technically advanced equivalent to private classes, and as such, they have the same advantages as far as results are concerned. This private lessons are often carried out though what known as webinars [2] which we will explain in the next section. 4. WEBINARS: MOST COMMON TOOLS Traditionally, the term webinar has been used to define the presentations or conferences over the Internet. As we already know, in the last years these types of conferences have grown dramatically, both in the work environment and in the educational one. Even though originally they are based in webcasts, typically characterized by being one-way and with limited interaction among the participants, webinars have left aside this aspect to become much more collaborative, including questions and answers sessions, polling, etc. As we see, this change of characteristics is pretty similar to the one we can appreciate for example between classes at the university and a class received from a private teacher. 4

5 In these more collaborative cases, the presenter (or the teacher, if we continue with the analogy) may speak over a standard telephone line, pointing out information being presented on screen and the audience can respond over their own telephones. There are web conferencing technologies on the market that have incorporated the use of VoIP audio technology, to allow for a truly web-based communication. We will see some of them. The main features associated to webinars in the context we are studying, are the following: Slide presentations (also very common in any kind of conference) Voice over IP (VoIP), which allows real time audio via computer and which has evolved enormously in the last few years with boom of applications such as Skype. Screen sharing/desktop sharing/application sharing, where participants can view anything the presenter currently is showing on their screen. Some screen sharing applications allow for remote desktop control, allowing participants to manipulate the presenters screen. It s important to remark that these features are not the only ones but the ones more significant to the use of webinars as a formation tool in a company. Other features such as the use of whiteboards, webcams or recording for later viewing are very common in an academic context. An important capability of web conferencing software is the already mentioned application sharing. As we can guess, the ability for one party in the conference to share an application (such as a web browser, a tool, a presentation, etc.) from their desktop with every one else in the meeting and pass the control of the application to someone else in the meeting is something extremely useful. Precisely this is currently very common in the support departments of software tools as it allows the support team to see exactly the steps the client is using to reproduce the incidents instead of resorting to describe them, or even doing specific tests in the client s environment which would allow them to obtain more information on the bug. As in any applications where important data is going to be exchanged, security is a big issue for all these applications. If we add the need for interoperability between the different software and platforms, it s not surprising that in 2003 IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) put together a working group to develop what would become the web conference standard: Centralized Conferencing (xcon) [3]. Web conferencing is often sold as a service, hosted on a web server controlled by the vendor, either on a usage basis (cost per user per minute) or for a fixed fee (cost per "seat"). Most of the providers in the market separate the video from the audio, allowing the client to buy just the video, and establish the audio as a normal telephone call (or conference call if there are several people) using their usual phone service provider. We are going to talk about three tools used for webinars: Microsoft NetMeeting [4], GoToMeeting (of Citrix Systems) [6] and WebEx Communications (of Cisco Systems Inc) [5]. We will not go into much detail as it s not the objective of this study to analyse them in depth, but to see how they can be used in an educational context. 5

6 Microsoft NetMeeting NetMeeting is a VoIP videoconferencing client, included in Microsoft Windows O.S. as early as in Windows 95. It includes whiteboarding, application sharing, desktop and remote desktop sharing and file transfer. As we can imagine, being in the market back in 95 it had functions such as chatting or video conferences that nowadays with the exponential increase of the Instant Messaging applications are included in almost any of them. In fact, features such as desktop sharing, included in Windows Live Messenger, are based in the processes defined in Microsoft NetMeeting. With all these new applications taking over, Microsoft NetMeeting has its days counted, as new evolutions such Microsoft Office Live Meeting or Windows Meeting Space are included in the latest Windows editions (i.e. Windows Vista). The great advantage of NetMeeting is the fact that it s already included in the majority of the world s operative systems, and with just the adequate equipment (microphone and webcam are needed), it s very easy to establish a call and sharing applications with someone. WebEx WebEx is a Cisco Systems, Inc. company that includes different applications in order to provide on-demand collaboration, online meetings, web conferencing and video conferencing. WebEx was founded in 1995 but it wasn t until 2007 when it was bought by Cisco Systems. All the WebEx applications are built on the same platform (MediaTone) and supported by the global network WebEx MediaTone Network, intended to provide on-demand services. As we have said, WebEx is not just an applications but a suite of them, where each one of them provides determined functionalities for different business processes. The one more similar to the functionalities we would use in an educational context is WebEx Meeting Center which allows the users to recreate a face-to-face meeting, with real-time data and application, voice and video sharing capabilities. GoToMeeting GoToMeeting is a web-hosted service created by a division of Citrix Systems. It allows collaborative meetings over the web. It was created in 2004 and its main competitive advantage was it pricing model: charges could be done monthly or annually based on the authorized number of hosts. Back in the day it was unique as the rest of its competitors worked mostly with large corporations where that type of pricing wouldn t have made any sense. The basic features of GoToMeeting are the following: 6

7 SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption and authentication security with end-toend 128- bit AES encryption and optional passwords. Application sharing where only the selected programs are shared. 24-bit color when the host PC supports this display mode. Multi-monitor support for a client PC. The software needed to either host or attend to a meeting is installed by logging onto the GoToMeeting website which makes using the tool much easier. Comparative We are now going to see a comparative of the main characteristics of the three tools we have described [7]. All the marks are over a maximum of five. Table 1: Web Conference Tools Comparative. Parameters GoToMeeting WebEx Microsoft Office Live Meeting * Free trial period 14 days 14 days 60 days Number and scope of features User friendliness Meeting setup effort SW installation effort Pricing Security System Requirements (*) We can see that the comparative is not done with the same Microsoft tool we have described before. As we have said in the section referred to Microsoft NetMeeting, this tool is going to be substituted by its evolutions in no time, so it stands to reason that the study has been done with one of these evolutions. As we have said in the description of each of the tools, GoToMeeting marks the difference with its easy use, its pricing and the security it offers. One of the key points so that GoToMeeting obtains a better punctuation in the final results of the original study is the fact that WebEx only runs on Windows. 5. PRACTICAL EXAMPLE Now that we have seen some of the different tools we have in the market, we have to think how we apply them in an educational context. As we have mentioned, we will use as an example any of the actual webinars that take place in Visure Solutions. In the day to day there are two main types of presentations: 7

8 The ones directed to people that are not familiar with requirements engineering and future clients. The ones to new clients, or future clients already familiarized with requirements engineering or any of the tools in the market. If we follow the analogy we ve used through all the report, this is where the teacher determines the level of the student so he is able to adjust the class to the more appropriate level. The settings for the class are going to be common for the two types of presentations. In the case of Visure Solutions, the tool used for the webinars, is GoToMeeting. In order to host a conference, it s necessary to buy at least one month of GoToMeeting or download the tool for an evaluation period, as the possibility of having the service available just for a specific occasion is not possible. Both the host and the clients will have to install some software, but in both cases very light. In fact, the one the clients need is installed just by logging onto the GoToMeeting site. As we mentioned before, audio and video can go separately, and as such, the establishment of each one of them is different. The video connection is done using invitations. The host will send, either at the time of the meeting or beforehand the details of the meeting which will include a link to access the meeting, a password and if it applies, the phone number for the audio. Once the video is connected, the different applications (remote desktop, etc) will be activated by either of the participants depending on what the objective is. In our case, the consultant from Visure will share either a presentation or the IRQA application he s going to be working with. The most common way to establish the audio is by phone. All the calls will be local independently of the country each participant is from. Each one will call to a given number in their country and will be connected to the conference through the server of GoToMeeting. Let s see how the first type of presentation would be. A likely scenario would be the following: The presenter (or teacher) will be the consultant from Visure who will do the presentation from his workstation. The rest of the attendants will be in a meeting room, in an optimal case with a big screen were all of them can follow without any problems the presentation and a phone with speaker to provide audio for everyone. In this case we are considering that the presentation is for more than one person. We recall that in this model of webinars are usually directed to people who don t know neither the tool nor requirements engineering in depth, and thus the scenario where the presentation is for the group of decision makers of a company that s thinking about implanting this in their business process is very common. As we see this use of the webinars is basically the same as if the consultant of the company went to the offices of the company interested. The level of interaction is exactly the same, as any of the attendants can interrupt at any given moment the same way they could if the presenter were there in person. Or if we will, the same way a student can ask something in class. 8

9 Of course, this has the incredible advantage of not having to go wherever the company is based to do the presentation. If for example we take Visure, and the fact that a big part of its clients are in Germany while its headquarters are based in Madrid, not having to go there is extremely efficient in terms of costs of both time and money. And as we have seen the result are the same. The second type of presentations are, as we have mentioned, the ones directed to people that are going to be using the tool and need to learn the basics of how to use it. Every tool has tutorials, and demos available for the clients, but in environments where the success of the implementation of the requirements process is going to depend directly on how efficiently the tool is used, it s important to have the basics clear. This is the reason why these webinars usually consist on the presenter and just one attendant, as if it were a private lesson between the teacher and the student. We have already explained that the initialization of the webinar is common for every type of presentation so we won t waste any more time on that. In this case, a likely scenario consists on the Visure consultant, again in his workstation, and the client in his own. Instead of sharing just a presentation, he will share at the very least the application the presentation is about, although in the case of IRQA, it will be easier and much more useful to share the whole desktop. The reason behind this, is the fact that we will be able to change applications very easily (IRQA is a suite with several applications, all dedicated to the management of requirements), something very useful if we want to show how the tools interact among them or how IRQA integrates with other tools. The general structure of these webinars is similar to the interactive tours some applications offer, but with the advantage of being tailored to the client and thus much more flexible and the fact that at any given moment the client will be able to ask anything about what the consultant is showing him on screen make them much more efficient. 6. CONCLUSIONS As we explained at the beginning, even though education in the working environment is not the first thing we think about when we think about education and the educational technologies available, once the idea is in our head, it seems almost obvious how related both are. We have seen that a concept as extended as the videoconferences, has a bigger scope that what we initially thought. We ve seen how desktop sharing and application sharing is becoming more and more common, and how one of the fields where they are beginning to stand out is education. In the case we ve seen, Visure Solutions (chosen by the author because of her first hand experience), we ve seen how using webinars for their courses and seminars, is extremely useful and already a reality. It s easy, it s cheaper, and the results are as good as face-to-face meetings. 9

10 If we take into account that Visure is a very small company with clients all over the world, the possibility to provide first hand formation to the clients like this opens a world of possibilities. We only have to ponder the limitations we d find if these technologies weren t available. We have to think that these courses are not only imparted for new clients. Every time a brand new feature is implemented, these courses are necessary to explain to the users that are already clients how the behaviour has changed and how it will affect to their use of the tool. Which is just further evidence of how flexible and adaptable are the webinars as an educational tool. And we already know that flexibility and adaptability are those of the main characteristics of any educational technology. To illustrate this, it s as easy as taking the current situation at Visure Solutions. Visure has released a couple of months ago a new version of the suite in which there are some changes in the philosophy of the tool. It stands to reason that the objective is to have as many clients as possible working with this latest version. In order to ensure that this transition is done as smoothly as possible, multiple clients have participated in educational webinars in order to learn about these changes and what they imply. Finally, we can conclude, that practically every new technology can be applied to learning, and that to do so it doesn t need to be in the classical environments such as the universities, etc. 7. REFERENCES [1]. Visure Solutions S.L. [2]. Webinar definition and basics in Wikipedia. [3]. Web Conference Standard: Centralized Conferencing (xcon). [4]. Microsoft NetMeeting: a. Microsoft Download Page. b. Microsoft NetMeeting in Wikipedia. [5]. WebEx Communications : a. WebEx Communications Site. b. WebEx General Description in Wikipedia. [6]. GoToMeeting: a. GoToMeeting Site. b. GoToMeeting in Wikipedia. [7]. Publicare survey of on-line meeting tools (May 2007). 10