Indiana University (IU) teamed up with Pexip to understand how video conferencing could impact absenteeism. Research revealed that a blended learning approach reduced absenteeism by 50 percent by allowing students to attend classes remotely or in person.
The research has been gathering data over multiple semesters over several years. In this post, IU student Ryan London shares his perspective on using Pexip for distance learning.
I loathe online courses.
As a university student who fully understands the subject matter through dynamic interpersonal settings and thought-provoking dialogue with professors, online courses are often a woefully impersonal and unengaging experience.
A droll collection of slides, keystrokes, and readings that, for myself, resulting in little enjoyment and a mediocre level of knowledge retention. Despite these experiences, I reluctantly admit that taking online courses is incredibly convenient. Be it my kitchen, local café, or Mom and Dad’s house, my “not so trusty” (likes to crash) laptop can be at hand to connect me with the wonderful world of online learning.
An intuitive professor of mine caught wind of these online learning pitfalls and, through video conferencing, created an educational environment that provided a near-perfect hybrid of the engaging and collaborative experience I needed with the convenience of online accessibility.
Lectures were streamed live using Pexip video conferencing, and students could attend wherever they wished, be it in person, at home, or in the lounge just outside the classroom.
I no longer had to miss class if I felt ill, out of town with family, or simply lazy!
Convenience wasn’t the only benefit of my hybrid lecture experience. I noticed a trend emerging where, even though the professor who hosted the hybrid courses demanded a higher degree of performance and quality of work than my other teachers, my average scores in the hybrid courses exceeded my in-class-only and online-only course grades.
Thanks to remote attendance over the video, the class became less of a burden, and I could customize my attendance to my needs on that day. If I was feeling fresh and social, I could attend in person. If my day was cognitively taxing, I could attend from home, where I would feel less pressure to be engaging but could still have what was shared in class accessible.
I believe this personally crafted approach toward learning allowed me to excel in ways I had not previously been able to. If more than one of my professors had thought creatively and taken a pedagogical leap with video conferencing, I might have had a revolutionary educational experience.
To read more about the study, please download the full report here.
IU and Pexip will host a webinar on August 29 to discuss the findings and
share best practices for other universities.
Please register for the webinar here.
To see an example of how Pexip's technology was used, please check out the video below: