Synchronous Communication

For the purpose of virtually joining two remote classrooms during synchronous lectures, a Polycom V4000 system was used. The speed of connection varied during the lectures, but was usually around or above 700 Kbps. Both sides had two screens, one showing the video feed of the other classroom, creating the sense of a joined learning environment and other, used primarily for application sharing. When lecturer from one classroom ran a presentation or live software demonstration, his/hers screen was seen on both sides simultaneously. As an application sharing software tool, Microsoft NetMeeting was used, as an affordable and widely spread product.

Apart from synchronous communication in Faculty buildings, students were also using other synchronous communication methods by themselves, which enables a quick idea and information exchange, if the users are currently connected to Internet and specific communication system.

The most used synchronous communication methods were:

• Chat
• Teleconferencing
• Videoconferencing

The following popular applications were used for communicating:

• ICQ 
• Skype 
• Microsoft Netmeeting
• MSN Messenger 
• Marratech

Those applications enable multiuser communication at the same time, most of them support the Application and Whiteboard Sharing options, which was extremely useful in common work and discussion about some segments of the project.

The special convenience in using those applications is archiving the text chat, which enables the team members who were not present at the meeting to acces the new informations and conclusions agreed upon at the missed meeting.