Other applications such as email are used for private communication between learners and instructors. Groupware This is the term used to describe some emerging applications that allow an electronic work space for collaborative work, sharing of ideas, and group process. Starting with the conferencingconcept above, groupware is able to store, sort, and organize the inputs of participants and to support group processes such as idea generation, evaluation and consensus building. The combination of the telephone and the computer creates a distance learning application called audiographics. In this environment the telephone is used for voice interaction and the computer is used for sharing graphic materials and collaborative work.
Participants can interact with visual presentations and audioconference at the same time.
Applications using audiographics can range from one time training exercises to semester long academic course work. Each site is equipped with speakerphone, computer and software, modem, and optional peripheral devices like mouse, graphics tablet, scanner and camera. Some audiographics systems combine the voice and computer signals on a single phone line. Other systems use two phone lines, one for voice and one for the computer. Connections can be either point to point or bridged into multipoint sessions.