Abstract:

Videoconferencing has recently become an integral part of education not only allowing to study through audio and video but also imposing sufficient difficulties for both teachers and students. The aim of the given study is to analyze the way videoconferencing is utilized by university students and teachers in the context of its benefits and downsides. It views the issue not only in frames of the educational process but also looks into the roots of communication failure.

The study applies quantitative and qualitative methods of research and includes 61 university students of English of different years and programs and 3 teachers. As a method of data gaining the authors choose discussions in focus groups, an e-questionnaire, and an interview with the students and the teachers at the beginning of the period of the lockdown and 6 months later. The data have been analyzed and classified so that any redundancies are removed.

The given research enables the authors to present a number of reasons for an orator to be faced with a communication failure or misinterpretation of their message during a videoconference which may explain the cases when an audience is left without any idea or with an incorrect one, which is even worse. Consequently, the findings of the research demonstrate that implying a lack of face-to-face communication in the present situation entails a much stronger necessity to care about on-line lessons design and the way one’s word is perceived.

Keywords:

Videoconferencing, on-line learning, communication success, communication failure, miscommunication.