4. Characteristics of Communication within a Video Conference Class and Anticipatory Strategies for its Limitation(Media in Higher Education and Instructional Skill Develoment : Various Aspects of Media Utilization and Faculty Support, Research and Development of Faculty Development Programs for Media Literacy and Instructional Skills)

Two research trials were executed to investigate differences of students\u27 communication between distance classrooms. One was managed as distance discussion of students through video conference system (VCS), and another was computer text based communication through the audio signal of VCS; Flexible Text Discussion (FTD). The latter system were developed by connecting computers to external audio input of VCS with Terminal Node Controller (TNC) codec, and it enabled students flexibly to communicate other students within a virtual space. As results, we could confirm that students exchanged more active communication strokes within FTD environment than VCS one, and could remark subsuming difficulties of communication via VCS