Building Bridges - E-Infrastructures and Technologies for Lifelong Learning - page 236

Chapter 9
Building Bridges:
Combining Webcasting and
Videoconferencing in a Multi-
Campus University Course
Jeremy Birnholtz
Cornell University, USA & University of Toronto, Canada
Ron Baecker
University of Toronto, Canada
Simone Laughton
University of Toronto at Mississauga, Canada
Clarissa Mak
University of Toronto, Canada
Rhys Causey
University of Toronto, Canada
Kelly Rankin
University of Toronto, Canada
ABSTRACT
Supporting lifelong learning can be challenging in that participants are often geographically distributed,
have significant time constraints, and widely varied skills and preferences with regard to technology.
This creates the need for designers to support flexible configurations of systems for delivering content,
in ways that still allow for meaningful learning and instruction to take place. In this chapter, the authors
present a case study of experience in offering a university course using a novel system that bridges vid-
eoconferencing and webcasting technologies. These have historically been separate. Webcasting scales
easily to accommodate large audiences, but only supports one-way transmission of audio and video.
Videoconferencing allows for two-way interaction in real time, but uses more bandwidth, and does not
scale as easily. Our system allowed for increased participation in webcasts, which had benefits for both