Abstract:

The educational use of technologies and networked resources has come to the forefront of pedagogy techniques over the last few years under the pressure of an unprecedented health emergency that has led schools and universities to move teaching into the digital dimension, highlighting the unpreparedness of both contexts for the adoption of pedagogical approaches appropriate to the medium. The teaching structure in physical classrooms does not translate directly into the digital realm. Therefore, it is interesting to investigate to what extent one can find best practices for using video conferencing for educational purposes.

The research presented in this paper revolves around an Erasmus+ project, co-funded by the European Commission, named Portable Video Conferencing Toolkits and Online Applications for Engaging Higher Education Classrooms (EdViCon). The project runs for 36 months throughout 2024. It aims at improving synchronous online and blended teaching, facilitating capacity building among educators to become professional online and blended tutors or teachers’ trainers, and improving the quality and efficiency of education across the globe by producing comprehensive materials on educational video conferencing as open educational resources.

This paper focuses on best practices found in a Norwegian context when delivering online education. Through a targeted and structured literature review of recent articles produced in, about, and of Norwegian academics and researchers, the paper tries to identify preferred technologies, competencies needed, which factors create engagement, and which learning scenarios are most appreciated when using video conferencing. The review identifies and presents 12 papers, and the relevant findings are systemized and presented.

Based on this review, the paper tries to answer the research question: “What are the best practices for using Video Conferencing to activate students and achieve the defined learning objectives?”. Results show some diversity, but at the same time, some standard features are evident in most practices, such as using response technology to engage students.

Keywords:

Video Conference, literature review, Norway, pandemic, emergency remote teaching.