We're going to be using video conferencing (instead of residencies) more in our agricultural communications diploma program starting this fall, and it looks like we're not alone. Catching up on some reading this rainy spring weekend, I see in the November/December edition of Backbone magazine that more and more companies are becoming interested in video conferencing. "Video conferencing is finally being pushed into the mainstream by fuel prices, border hassles and the greening of Canadian companies," it says. We're motivated mainly by fuel prices: No residencies in our program will make it much more accessible to a wider audience. Friday, I met with University of Guelph distance learning specialist Patrick Payne to begin transforming face-to-face modules — mainly involving student presentations — for teleconferences.
OWEN ROBERTS
Owen Roberts is a faculty member in the Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications program at the University of Illinois. As an agricultural journalist, he is the past president of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists and a lifetime achievement award recipient from the Canadian Farm Writers' Federation. His programs and research papers have been recognized nationally and internationally through awards from the Journal of Applied Communications, the National Agri-Marketing Association, the Association for Communications Excellence, and others.