Using Web Conferencing to Build a Persistent Virtual Campus Experience for Student Use
Abstract: Growing online populations in higher education make it more important than ever for schools to create engaging online experiences for students. Synchronous interaction using web conferencing software is one approach to creating engagement, allowing students and instructors to communicate and collaborate in real time. The Eagle Stream project involved the systemic use of meeting software to create a persistent virtual campus experience for online students, allowing them to have an interactive college experience similar to traditional students on campus. It is built on the premise that every part of the traditional campus should be available to online and remote students using synchronous technology. Adobe Connect web conference software was used to create virtual analogues of the four selected areas of Wake Tech’s college during the 2017/18 school year in order to demonstrate how a persistent virtual campus experience might be integrated into a traditional college. Overall student attendance data, as well as several indirect measures of impact, suggest that online students were engaged by these interactive activities occurring in the persistent virtual campus.
Presider: Amani Bin jwair, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia SIUC, USA