Many educational institutes and training companies have already started using video conferencing to provide qualified knowledge and training to students. Since education is a huge market and with video conferencing gaining popularity, vendors are coming up with products meant specifically for students as well as teachers. These devices are largely desktop video conferencing solutions so that users can use it from any location at anytime.

Many educational institutes and training companies have already started using video conferencing to provide qualified knowledge and training to students. Since education is a huge market and with video conferencing gaining popularity, vendors are coming up with products meant specifically for students as well as teachers. These devices are largely desktop video conferencing solutions so that users can use it from any location at anytime.

From an end user perspective, distance learning through video conferencing gives students a chance to receive training from subject matter experts, whereas in the traditional educational model it’s just the local teachers who provide training. As students get to interact with different experts, this also gives them the opportunity to get in touch with them later through email. This opens a whole range of new opportunities for students, especially for those in rural areas which otherwise was not possible in the traditional form of distance education.

This innovative web conferencing technology can now be used to deliver inexpensive, on-demand and interactive teaching materials. Streaming video and audio can be used to increase the richness of information transferred over the web. Captioned video can be created for those who are deaf. Descriptive audio can be used to provide an unobtrusive narration of video for persons who are blind, and text transcripts of video or audio clips can help anyone using a Braille display.

Real time web based videoconferencing, white board, annotations, collaborative work areas, chat rooms, and email can all be used for creating interactive learning environments. Using video conferencing, unnecessary travel time, money and expensive STD calls can be reduced.

RHUB’s TurboMeeting appliance is one such appliance that offers scores of advantages to its users. Further, TurboMeeting is a 4-in-1 appliance that serves multiple purposes such as secure web conferencing, remote access, remote support, and webinar – which is of great value.

One of the major goals of any web-based distance education infrastructure is to increase learning communities and to expand the regular confines of traditional classrooms. By linking together several special education classrooms with web-based telecommunications and multi-user environments, students and teachers from different schools and even rural educators will be able to share resources, collaborate towards goals and communicate with others who share common interests and concerns.