Lecture and Tutorial via the Internet - Experiences From a Pilot Project Connecting Five Universities

During the summer semester 1997 five German universities participated in a telelearning pilot project where a telelecture and -tutorial was held via the internet. Within this pilot project, we evaluated the m-bone based video conferencing tool as well as the applied didactic concept. The video conferencing tool provided insufficient quality of transmission and was deficient regarding its functionality as well as its interface. Concerning the telelecture we found reduced attention of the remote participants, and a lower level of interactivity between lecturers and students. Positive feedback regarding the tutorials which tried to encourage interactivity among the participant and regarding newly didactic elements within the lecture indicate that telelearning requires new teaching and learning approaches to compensate for its obvious constraints.