National Standards
During the years that teleconferencing has emerged as a viable educational method, efforts have been made to set teleconferencing standards. The scope of past efforts was not large enough to encompass a representative sample of the professional teleconferencing population. Because the field was still emerging and experimenting with methods, a consensus could not be gained about what elements were inherent in a teleconference for quality standards to be set. As the successful model of a quality teleconference emerged through trial and error, more producers entered the field and some produced bad teleconferences. Few refunds were made and teleconferencing professionals acted like consumers and avoided them. The problem still exists because new organizations are entering the field as receive sites. Because a few bad teleconferences can ruin teleconferencing for a campus or for a corporation, the need for quality standards has increased.
Teleconferencing professionals undertook this study to provide the field with quality standards that teleconferences should meet in order to minimally satisfy the market.
This research (Lane, 1990) ultimately led to the Program Standards adopted by the National University Teleconferencing Network (NUTN) which received the award from Teleconference Magazine for Most Significant Advance in Distance Learning Overall (1991).
Method
The study took place over a period of one year during which a survey was developed which consisted of about 200 preliminary statements. It was sent to 250 NUTN members. A Delphi two-round method was used as it allowed for group process and expert input. Approximately 50 statements did not meet the first round 50 percent retention figure. The second round retention figure was 84 percent which further reduced the number of statements to 81. The interquartile deviation showed that consensus had been reached and that further rounds would not be productive.
The population (n=100) consisted of NUTN teleconferencing professionals (receive site coordinators and administrators) and originators.
Conclusions
Based upon the results of the research, a teleconference provider would have to meet at least 85 percent of the criteria in each section to meet these quality standards.