| Audio conferencing has been a useful communication | | | | session. |
| method for delivering information to other people, | | | | Aside from distance education, audio conferencing is |
| especially students who participate in distance | | | | also used in another type of education called |
| education. Audio conferencing gives students in remote | | | | professional development workshops. Professional |
| areas access to great instructors willing to reach out | | | | development workshops serve as a tool to improve |
| to those in need. | | | | the knowledge of employees about the job they are |
| Schools may choose to buy audio conferencing | | | | doing. This extra education is an investment in the |
| facilities or rent time through a service link provider, | | | | work force that keeps companies competitive. Audio |
| called a bridge. The bridge allows people in different | | | | conferencing in such workshops is applicable when the |
| locations to connect with each other at a cheaper | | | | topic for the workshop can be discussed without |
| price. | | | | visuals. |
| Among the advantages of using audio conferencing in | | | | In either case, audio conferencing should not be |
| implementing distance education are its interactive | | | | misconstrued as a simple telephone call in which a |
| nature, cheap cost, expandability and capability. Audio | | | | lecturer teaches distance education students or a |
| conferencing allows the learner and the lecturer to | | | | workshop facilitator discusses topics with company |
| discuss topics in real-time, even when the participants | | | | employees. |
| are in different places. Audio conferencing is also | | | | Because of the nature of audio conferencing, |
| relatively inexpensive compared to other means of | | | | organizers should plan well in advance to keep the |
| conducting distance education, such as | | | | attention of the participants. Since audio conferencing |
| teleconferencing. The technical design of audio | | | | does not involve any visual component, participants are |
| conferencing also works when combined with other | | | | more likely to lose focus in the middle of an audio |
| forms of media. These tools may include, but are not | | | | conference. The organizers should then make sure |
| limited to, computers and printers. Lastly, most audio | | | | that the discussion is conducted in a lively and |
| conferencing applications can handle many lines per | | | | interesting manner throughout the session. |