Identifying Issues of Video Conferencing Tools for Teaching and Learning Using the PACT Framework

Abstract

The usage of video conferencing tools in teaching and learning has become a norm in today's higher educational institutions, recognized across various academic settings. The experience gained by most educators in using video conferencing tools for teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic could be leveraged to enhance these tools. The study aims to capture the current practices and explore the issues of using video conferencing for teaching and learning in Malaysian higher educational institutions. It focuses on three target groups with hands-on experience: academicians, students, and e-learning consultants or information technology (IT) support staff. Interview and focus group protocols were developed based on the four elements of the PACT framework: People (P), Activities (A), Contexts (C), and Technologies (T). Data were gathered through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with the target groups. There were 24 participants involved in three focus group discussions and 28 participants in individual in-depth interviews. The PACT framework was employed to analyze the data, aiding in understanding the current situation, identifying areas for improvement, and envisioning future scenarios. Qualitative data were transcribed and categorized based on the four PACT elements. The study identified differences in the People element with four scenarios/practices on physical differences, six on psychological differences, three on mental models, and five on social differences.  A total of twenty differences were identified under the Activities element, with six on temporal aspects, four each on cooperation, complexity, and safety-critical aspects, and two on the nature of the content. Under the Context element, one scenario/practice was identified for organizational circumstances, five for social circumstances, and three for physical circumstances. In the Technology element, five scenarios/practices were identified: two related to the input part of technologies and one each for the output, communication, and content parts of technologies. From the scenarios/practices of the responses, a total of fifty-two issues related to using video conferencing for teaching and learning were identified. These findings will serve as the basis for ideation in developing innovative video conferencing toolkits for teaching and learning.