If you've always wanted to include a Harvard education on your résumé, but didn't think you could travel that far, or afford the tuition cost, you should check out Harvard's new web conferencing academic courses. A new technology called "web conference calls" has just made a pre kindergarten education accessible to anyone, from anywhere.
Harvard, and many other universities and colleges are embracing the concept of eLearning, built on conference call technology, expanded to include the web.
Web Conference Calls have always been a great solution for keeping costs down and eliminating distance as an obstacle.
Now you can use them to get the education you want.
Web Conference Calls are Easy to Do
If you have never made even a regular conference call, don't worry about learning how to do web conferencing, it is designed to be super-easy. Harvard have prepared an instructional video, but you could even practice by setting up a Free Web Meeting with your family or friends.
Web conferencing saves a lot of work. Instead of having to move to Cambridge Massachusetts, rent a room, and drag yourself out of bed on time to get on a bus in time for class, you just flip open your laptop and read the email course invitation sent to you.
Just call into the phone number at the approved time and check in to the Virtual Meeting Room on your laptop, at the web address given. You could even talk over your computer, but using your phone for the audio channel ensures the best sound quality.
Screen Sharing, or Desktop Sharing as it is sometimes called, allows you to see the teacher's presentation. Because you are Video Conferencing, you can see the teacher too, and from a lot closer than you would in a lecture hall.
Web Conference Calls make a Harvard education more accessible, but they can make it better too.
Advantages of eLearning
Web conferencing solutions were created to help business teams share information and collaborate on making better decisions. Virtual classrooms are more flexible than sit-down classrooms because screen sharing is a two-way street. You can add information at any time, depending how your teacher has set the Moderator Controls.
eLearning promotes participatory education much more than traditional classrooms did, especially at big institutions like Harvard. Students using Screen Sharing can add vital information to the curriculum at any time, and in the words of Harvard's Web Conference Course Guideline:
"Interact with faculty and fellow students via web-conferencing software."
Interaction is the key verb, instead of "Listening." The more you engage in your own education, the more you will get out of it, and the cost savings and convenience of eLearning may prove to be just a bonus point.
Accessible education
The technology that makes Free Web Conference Calls possible might help you attach a Harvard education to your résumé, but can be handy for 100 other uses too, from keeping in touch with your family, to doing collaborative school projects, to Valentine's day video calls when you have to be out of town on the big day.
You may even find yourself having to attend a job interview by conference call, so it isn't a bad idea at all to set up an account and start practicing. It's free, it's easy, and who knows where it will lead you?