Online video communications does more than just break down barriers for global communications; it enhances and expands existing industries, such as retail, customer service, healthcare and education. While online education has grown over the past few years (more than two million students have registered for online courses since 2011), it’s not the same as being in an actual lecture or classroom, face-to-face with a professor and classmates. Thanks to WebRTC, however, the online learning experience can become more realistic.
The problem with the video and audio conferencing systems available to educators and students today is that they are proprietary and often require additional software and a standalone app to install, which may require a licensing fee or setup cost. WebRTC eliminates these hurdles, seamlessly adding video conferencing, screen sharing and other real-time interaction options to existing Web tools for students and educators.
A book by Rob Manson, “Getting Started with WebRTC,” covers how WebRTC can be used as an advantage for education and e-learning. In addition to this resource, there are many examples of WebRTC in action for educational purposes.
One of the most popular is Google’s Hangouts feature, which coincides with its recent initiative for Helpouts. Google Helpouts is a means of getting in touch with experts in a certain topic, whether it’s learning yoga, guitar, cooking or more, without having to leave your computer. Users can select different Helpouts based on qualifications of the expert/provider, availability, price, ratings and reviews, and have the option to connect instantly or book in advance. So far, Google has invited 1,000 companies to participate, such as Sephora, One Medical and Rosetta Stone, which can offer their services through Helpouts in real-time.
Another company working to improve education with real-time online capabilities is TokBox. The company powers live, face-to-face video tutoring services and applications while integrating tools like digital whiteboards and interactive lab experiments to improve the student experience. It works with UCLA to offer live group video chat sessions with a professor on UCLA’s virtual campus. TokBox also powers Zoen (Zenph Online Education Network), which connects music teachers to students through live video communications, and EngineHere, a provider of live coding and programming classes.
Vidyo is a provider of telepresence and video communications solutions and offers a solution to use telepresence to enhance educational programs: Vidyo for Education. The solution enables schools – from early childhood all the way through higher education – to enable multipoint video conferencing for a fraction of the cost of conventional video systems. The program offers HD-quality video conferencing, recording and webcasting, collaborative tools, mobility features and information services as a resource for projects.
These are just a few of the companies working to use WebRTC technology to transform industries and improve existing methodologies. Education is only one of the areas seeing the impacts of WebRTC and will continue to see improvements over the next few years.
Edited by
Blaise McNamee
