JISC

This case study describes a telematics project called 'Alps' (Adult Learner Partnerships) which featured the use of PC-based videoconferencing systems. It was located at community centres in the Rhondda, Cynon and Merthyr areas of South Wales, hence our title 'Videoconferencing in the Valleys'.

Executive Summary

The Alps project was funded by British Telecom and involved the piloting of open learning, self-paced materials for basic maths study, to be used at community centres and combined with interactive 'distance' tutorials between the centres and the University.

Sections 1 to 5 of the case study describe the context of the project, its operation, the learning experiences, our reflective as well as external evaluation and recommendations. The ISDN lines commissioned for the partners in the Alps project were often the first to be installed at the exchanges in these regions. From such absolute beginnings, a local telematics network was created. Together with the organisational and interpersonal links which this set up, the project became part of a greater co-operation between educational and community centres, and which resulted in other related initiatives in South Wales, UK and Europe (detailed in Section 6).

The main objective of the Alps project was to build on the University's track record of developing public educational opportunities for residents of the Valleys, and to do so using 'frontline' resources.  A key finding was that younger age groups found the medium more attractive to use than adults (see why in Section 4), that the PC and office-based system for videoconferencing provided greater flexibility in scheduling and initiating communication than more expensive or room-based systems, and that community partners needed considerable ongoing support in order to maintain skill levels and usability of the equipment. From a teaching point of view, the ability to share data was invaluable, and allowed us to target help to individual learners in a very positive way.

Perhaps the key success of the Alps project was to create and demonstrate Glamorgan as the 'friendly university at a distance' through the informality of contact which was facilitated by the desktop systems. We found PC-based videoconferencing inexpensive and easy to use, and it helped  us to explore the potential of technology in improving educational access.