A forum for supporting interactive presentations to distributed audiences

Computer technology is available to build video-based tools for supporting presentations to distributed audiences, but it is unclear how such an environment affects participants' ability to interact and to learn. We built and tested a tool called Forum that broadcasts live audio, video and slides from a speaker, and enables audiences to interact with the speaker and other audience members in a variety of ways. The challenge was to enable effective interactions while overcoming obstacles introduced by the distributed nature of the environment, the large size of the group, and the asymmetric roles of the participants. Forum was most successful in enabling effective presentations in cases when the topic sparked a great deal of audience participation or when the purpose of the talk was mostly informational and did not require a great deal of interaction. We are exploring ways to enhance Forum to expand the effectiveness of this technology.