top resources

"The Asian
Supplier Report"

GlobalAutoTV

"Doing Business in Korea"
Daniel P. Malone

asia resources

Global Sourcing Solutions
Sourcing automotive components globally

Need an office in Asia? Office suites, meeting rooms, virtual offices, network access

Need a cell phone for your trip to Asia?

free downloads

ASIA: "Adding value to your trade: Navigating the Asia-Pacific trade & customs environment" report

ASIA: "Adding value to your trade: Navigating the Asia-Pacific trade & customs environment" report

proceed to download

eJournals

backASIAtalk January, 2010

The Future of Videoconferencing Education in China

J. Richard Hackman, in his article “Why Teams Don’t Work”, Harvard Business Review (May 2009), makes the case that five key factors are needed to make a team work: realness, compelling direction, enabling structure, supportive organization, and expert coaching. I agree entirely, but then Hackman extends this theory to “virtual teams” and assumes that one must have a launch meeting, a midpoint check, and a live debriefing. In doing so, Hackman focuses especially on internet chat formats and questions (without data) whether teams are worthwhile.

Since the future of education in China (and the global community, for that matter) will not only be very much dependent on virtual teaming (and much more so than teleconferencing or internet chat), I shall describe my recent experience leading a live videoconferencing university class between China and America (across the Pacific Ocean) for a full semester. I am unaware of any other such attempt of this timeframe and distance.

The course I taught was Group Processes in Education (a Master’s and Doctoral level course in Classroom Management) for the University of Toledo, in Ohio. I have taught this course since 1979 when our team developed the course to address the need for integrated cognitive, affective, psychomotor elements as key for effective communication in education, medical services, and business management. Being doubtful about the internet E-learning versions of this course more recently, I elected to teach the course by videoconference with the main portion of the class in Ohio while I was working with Bangde College in Shanghai, China. I utilized a Polycom full television system in Ohio and a camera laptop with the Polycom software loaded in China. The course met weekly in this manner by videoconference from September through December 2009, with the first two classes live in Ohio and one live last class in Ohio for a total of 13 classes by videoconference.

The course successfully met all expectations for the instructor and the students, with only minor technology glitches regarding pixilation during times of high internet traffic and settings being matched in both locations. In one class, it was possible to have the American students (who were primarily classroom teachers) “meet” Chinese college teachers in Shanghai and discuss differences in teaching styles and methods in each country. One student in the American university class was a Chinese national, taking her first American university class. She taught some Chinese during the course at multiple times to reinforce the group depth.

There are some lessons to be learned from this experience: 1) the future of videoconferencing on a worldwide basis is secure (with technology available if not fully utilized) for a wide range of academic and business purposes including training, planning, and managing without the cost of travel; 2) group development is not retarded or misdirected due to the technology with the same five elements of Hackman being equally important as in any successful team; 3) participants tend to overlook the limiting elements of the interaction to focus on the excitement of the technology and the enabling of the group to thrive with considerable latitude to accomplish supportive communication; and 4) China especially will benefit from the use of videoconferencing not only domestically for the implementation of enhanced teaching of English by Chinese teachers using such softwares as Really English but also internationally for the management of relationships between customers, stakeholders, and suppliers.

China will be a prime opportunity for videoconferencing in education and business in the near future. This technology will improve communication, reduce cost, and increase efficiency in dramatic ways.

Dr. William R. Loeffler (University of Michigan) has 40 years of experience assisting companies and agencies with international business development on five continents. He is adjunct professor at the University of Toledo in Ohio, and Endowed Chair for Strategic Leadership Studies and Director of the Global Focus Training and Consulting Center at Bangde College in Shanghai.

Source: by Dr. William R. Loeffler (University of Michigan USA and Bangde College China) - GAI

To contact Dr. Loeffler, please click here.

previous page

go top

search our site