Wainhouse Research White Papers

Critical Success Factors for Deploying Distance Education Technologies, Alan Greenberg,September 2009

Based on research conducted by CILC and sponsored by TANDBERG, this paper explores the ways in which organizations that adopt technologies like interactive whiteboards, lecture capture, streaming video, learning management systems, videoconferencing, and web conferencing can face barriers to success, and ways of overcoming those barriers.

Two factors are cited as the major obstacles to successful distance education: 1) lack of bandwidth and technology infrastructure or old equipment; and 2) staffing. These and other obstacles fortunately can be overcome through proactive methods described by WR; the white paper includes practical suggestions for vendors and service providers as well as end user organizations.


The 2009 Update: Taking the Wraps off Videoconferencing in the U.S. Classroom: A National and State-by-State Analysis
Wainhouse Research - Alan Greenberg

Not many people realize that almost 30,000 videoconferencing systems were located in U.S. schools, service centers, district offices, and departments of education as of April 2009. Almost 1.2% of classrooms have group systems -- not counting PC-based technologies. Penetration varies widely state by state, with California, Texas, New York, Florida, and MIchigan having the most systems, while Hawaii, Nebraska, Alaska, Maine, and New Hampshire have the most systems as a percentage of their total schools. Almost 80% (4 out of 5 of the individuals in 43 states who felt they could answer the question) indicate that classroom-based videoconferencing is helping their educators meet academic goals.



For almost 20 years videoconferencing in the U.S. classroom has been adopted in a number of growth stages, or waves. Wave I consisted of using videoconferencing to access remote resources. Wave II, which Wainhouse Research believes crested 2004-2007, consisted of the shift to IP technologies and an explosion of content providers delivering rich resources to the classroom. Wave III will consist of increased student collaborative projects and student creation and delivery of content, which will include a shift to desktop videoconferencing and other collaborative technologies over time.

Based on interviews with educators and administrators in almost all states and the District of Columbia, this white paper will be useful to policymakers, content providers, and educators wishing to understand the dynamics of successfully deploying videoconferencing in the classroom. This study was sponsored by Tandberg and the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC).