7 - Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research

5.4 Instructional Strategies
Reed and Woodruff, 1995 opined the following instructional strategies while establishing
Videoconferencing in academic institutions.
Establish Class Expectations: Some students may adopt the “TV attitude”, expecting the
lecture to be entertaining, not educational. This can be overcome by well-planned and
focused presentations on teacher-student interaction.
Reduce Distractions: Students can also be informed to be minimise extraneous noise and
activity.
Encourage Dialogue: It is better to have an interactive session rather than one-way.
Avoid using small fonts and light colours while preparing class visuals. A variety of
formatting will also assist in maintaining student interest and attention. When formatting
visuals, be sure that they will fit on the TV monitor.
5.5 Role of Librarians
The cost of books and journals are escalating every year, but the annual budget remains
the same. It is the primary function of the librarian to serve the needs of their users in the
present day scenario. So, the librarian of a Member institute can perform the role of
moderator in establishing and delivery of lectures through videoconferencing in their
respective institute.
Moreover he can perform the following duties to make use of the videoconference facility
to its fullest maximum for their respective institute.
Orienting the students and technicians about the features of all equipments.
To provide the users (refer to students and instructors) with a reference sheet outlining
major functions.
It is better to have a technician for assisting in setting up and monitoring exclusively for
videoconference.
Training shall be given to the instructors in performing all the necessary functions for the
proper operation and utilization of the videoconference facility and observing all the
precautions needed to keep the system safe and working.
5.6. Limitations of Videoconferencing
In spite of the advantages, the videoconferencing to be offered by libraries as a pedagogic
service has certain limitations in its implementation. The initial cost of the equipment and
leasing the lines to transmit conferences may be prohibitive.
Companies which produce codec (Coder/Decoder) have developed unique methods of
compression that are incompatible, although protocols have been established to allow
communication among brand names. However, this “universal standard” compromises
resolution and quality to a certain degree.
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