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Volume 3 Issue 3March 1999

Effective Practices For Successful Videoconferences

Michael Bertsch
English Instructor, Butte College
Member, @ONE Project

Smart eCommunities use videoconferencing effectively. If educators expect to guide our clients in the uses of technology, we must use it effectively ourselves. We will always be able to improve our uses of technology as the technology itself continuously changes. This is the nature of telecommunications.

Videoconferencing by itself is not as effective as videoconferencing accompanied by e-mail, telephone, real time chat, web pages, and/or bulletin boards open for postings.

The following steps might be called windows of opportunity with respect to the workings of virtual organizations. If a window is missed, success will be compromised.

• Disseminate background materials between two and three weeks prior to the meeting. Encourage electronic discussion of these materials. Discussions may be encouraged by a moderator or by a chair by posting to an e-mailing list of open-ended questions geared to clarifying and generating problem statements. The moderator may then identify salient points generated during the electronic discussion, and either post them on a web page or to a listserv.
  
  
• Distribute the agenda between three and ten days before the meeting. Include all pertinent information, such as times, locations, phone numbers, length of meeting, and contact information.
  
  
• During the meeting, divert to a listserv (if available) extended discussions of points not on the agenda unless deemed to possess a high degree of saliency by the Chair.
  
  
• During the meeting, use web pages, synchronous communications, and/or e-mail to hold sidebar discussions; one advantage of this is the ability to record these communications.
  
  
• Between one and five days following the meeting, distribute an executive summary which enumerates any action items, decisions, and/or task allocations developed during the meeting.
  
  
• Between seven and 15 days after the meeting, distribute the meeting’s minutes for perusal.
  
  
• Between 15 and 30 days after the meeting, distribute any follow-up materials, reminding the receivers of the next meeting.
  
  
• Using the listserv, stay in contact with the entire group once a week.