Facilitator´s invisible expertise and supra-situational activities in a telelearning environment

The paper reports a study of a videoconference-based environment in decentralized university education and factors determining the success of teaching and learning in the environment. The focus of the paper is on the role of a person having the formal responsibilities of a technician. An ethnographic study conducted over the course of a year revealed that the contribution of this person far exceeded the scope of formal responsibilities. The person, who was acting in the setting as a facilitator, was found to possess expertise, which was critically important for supporting interaction between remote participants at several levels, such as attention management, time management, acquisition of setting-specific skills, and coordination within a larger institutional context. The findings suggest that "supra-situational" activities can be an important factor of successful functioning and development of emerging learning environments.