Video Teleconferencing as a Bridging Medium in Open and Distance Learning (ODL): Making it More Effective

This article presents the perception of various stakeholders regarding the effectiveness of teleconferencing Open and Distance Learning (ODL) practices to identify why the teleconferencing facility is not utilised optimally by producers, teachers/resource persons and students enrolled in various courses at Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). Many reasons like poor content selection, lack of multimedia applications in presentations, lack of proper training of experts/resource persons for video teleconferencing, the language of delivery, lack of proper information to study centres/students, no public assess of Gyandarshan-II and lack of orientation of study centres in charge/programmes in charge at study centres have been identified for ineffectiveness of teleconferencing sessions. The researcher suggests that measures, like the advanced scheduling of teleconferencing sessions required by courses, the use of an Short Message Service (SMS) alert service for students about the teleconferencing schedules of their courses, bilingual presentations and discussions, orientations for developing presentations for webcasts, selection of relevant, new and informative contents and promoting Gyandarshan-II through local media/popularising its availability through the Internet, will be helpful in utilising the strength of teleconferencing as a bridging media tool for distance learners.