High quality teleteaching in Germany based on broadband ATM networks

At the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, pilot applications of distance education have been run since 1996. Now, teleteaching is in routine operation. Powerful and stable audio and video communication is crucial to realize a teleteaching environment which is accepted by teachers and students. Evaluation projects to achieve a sophisticated technical environment for synchronous distance education revealed that best quality is very important for video streams and even more important for audio streams. Shortages in the quality lead to dropping motivation and decreasing acceptance. The overall result from the survey conducted at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg is that teleteaching/telelearning applications are highly accepted. Experiences made at the University are similar to those of much earlier projects dealing with distance learning in virtual classrooms. Several empirical studies have been completed. Different groups of students have been observed and questioned. The characteristics gathered are presented.