Building a sense of community through online video

Globalisation and web technologies have created unprecedented opportunities for worldwide collaboration. This paper will discuss prospects and challenges for building capacity and sharing resources through virtual communities by examining a case study, namely the US-China Virtual Symposium. Planned by Drexel University School of Education, a leader in distance education in the USA and Wainhouse Research, recognised experts in rich media communications, the goal of the virtual symposium was to create opportunities to collaborate across borders, share best practices, and build professional networks without the costs and constraints of travel. The project team selected different modes of communication including real-time and asynchronous interaction, presentations and panel discussions, as well as community building through forums, blogs, and video posting, but early on decided to use multimedia communications extensively in an effort to enhance community building and assist in cross-cultural communication. This paper discusses the challenges and successes in using video to enhance a global online community in the context of an online symposium.