There was a long list of advantages to videoconfeence lectures – there are also disadvantages:
• video quality was variable
• audio quality was variable
• connection was sometimes lost
• 1-3 technical support staff were needed
• difficult for students to prepare in advance of the lecture
• lectures were not directly related to course material
• students wre shy about talking to an expert
• students found it difficult to talk to the camera
• lectures were tiring if they did not involve interaction
• needed considerable planning and preparation by staff
• time delay

I’d add to the disadvantages they mention, the loss of a chance for informal discussion. Normally, if yo have a guest lecturer from anothe country, there’s probably a time for studetns to meet them informally, and there would certainly be opportunity for faculty to do this, and to build strong links by getting to know them as a friend, not just as a lecturer.
There’s probably also a problem of timing the lecture if students and lecturer are in very different time zones.

What does this have to say about the ‘innovative nature of…the technologies used for elearning’? Perhaps it says that work is needed to remove the focus from the technology and put it back on the teaching and learning.

It appears that innovative use of technology has the potential to excite students. When it’s there and it’s working, the innovation aspect makes them more enthusiastic about a learning activity than they might otherwise be. On the other hand, if the technology becomes obtrusive by not working, it has the potential to put them off an activity they would otherwise have enjoyed.

I wonder what this videoconferencing does tot he students’ sense of community? Are they so focused on the screen that they cease to engage with the people around them?