Web conferencing is used to conduct live meetings, training, or presentations via the Internet. In a web conference, each participant sits at his or her own computer and is connected to other participants via the internet.

Finding a common time for “class discussions”, particularly if students are spread over multiple time zones.

Ensuring the availability of faculty and student hardware requirements, including video cams and headsets. 

Coordination as the number of participants rise.  Conferencing with 15 is a different experience to conferencing with 150.

Engage in two-way audio (students can use a headset (recommended) or a phone).

Deliver presentation in PowerPoint and a range of other graphic formats .

Engage in public / private text chat. Share desktop applications for demonstration and

instructional purposes .

Push web pages to participants. Use a live whiteboard for drawing and

annotation. Conduct real time polls and surveys .Build lessons to be accessed and delivered

directly from Blackboard Archive sessions for later review by both those

who were present and those absent .

Eliminate the hassle and cost of travelling to face-to-face meetings

Create your own virtual meeting room . Polling facilities, instant chat and option for multiple

presenters. Save your time. adding the richness of vocal inflections and even body

language to the discussion.  It is an excellent way to brainstorm or hold group activities . Allows learners to share slides and other electronic data.

Bandwidth and appropriate content Highly technical content is more difficult to present

during Web conferencing sessions. users download and install Web conferencing

software on their computers. This can be time consuming and also requires that users track and eventually remove the programs once a session is through.

Web conferencing is now a critical tool for online distance learning classes--both through real-time meetings and recorded sessions for students unable to attend regularly scheduled hours.

During real-time meetings, students can interact directly with faculty by voice or text online, asking questions and sharing their computer screens with professors to go over specific problems.

Webex is a Web-based Web conferencing service. It combines real-time desktop sharing with phone conferencing. It has comparable features to NetMeeting but is an externally managed service. It works for individual or small-scale implementations, as well as large corporate implementations.

Webex can be used on multiple platforms (e.g., Windows, Macintosh) as long as users have an appropriate Web browser, such as Navigator or Internet Explorer.

Get more done without leaving your office. Improve collaboration. Make meetings more efficient. Train more people. Record meetings for those who missed the

session. Resolve support issues faster to better serve

your customers.

McMaster University Faculty of Health Sciences trialed Wimba's Live Classroom Web conferencing technology to support education and curriculum activities with students and faculty.

Explore faculty, staff, and student perceptions of Web conferencing as a support for teaching and learning in health sciences.

Q-methodology was used to identify unique and common viewpoints of participants who had exposure to Web conferencing to support educational applications during the trial evaluation period.

This methodology is particularly useful for research on human perceptions and interpersonal relationships to identify groups of participants with different perceptions. It mixes qualitative and quantitative methods. In a Q-methodology study, the goal is to uncover different patterns of thought rather than their numerical distribution among the larger population.

A total of 36 people participated in the study, including medical residents (14), nursing graduate students (11), health sciences faculty (9), and health sciences staff (2). Three unique viewpoints were identified:

The majority of respondents were pragmatists who endorsed the value of Web conferencing yet identified that technical and ease-of-use problems could jeopardize its use.Positive communicators (28%) enjoyed technology and felt that Web conferencing could facilitate communication in a variety of contexts.

Shy enthusiasts (11% ) were also positive = and comfortable with the technology but differed in that they preferred communicating from a distance rather than face-to-face.

Common viewpoints were held by all groups: they found Web conferencing to be superior to audio conferencing alone, felt more training would be useful, and had no concerns that Web conferencing would hamper their interactivity with remote participants or that students accustomed to face-to-face learning would not enjoy Web conferencing.

Overall, all participants, including pragmatists who were more cautious about the technology, viewed Web conferencing as an enabler, especially when face-to-face meetings were not possible. Adequate technical support and training need to be provided for successful ongoing implementation of Web conferencing.

The Definition and objectives:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_conferencing

Features:http://www.metaswitch.com/conferencing/feature-list.aspx

Advantages and limitations:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_conferencing

Webex:http://www.webex.com/

The study:http://www.cios.org/mailboxes/Q-method%5C01038030.934