# Designing a Collaborative Virtual Conference Application: Challenges, Requirements and Guidelines
## 5 Discussion
### Connectivity and Other Technical Issues  
Another issue discovered during the study was related to connectivity and other technical issues, such as poor quality of internet connection. Unstable and slow internetconnection results in the users' disconnection from the group. Moreover, disconnection can result in the loss of any collaborative work that the group has already completed:  
**G3F7:**: _Wait, is Windows not responding?_
**G3F8:**: _Okay, can you erase?_
**G3F7:**: _Oh, not responding._
**G3F8:**: _Oh, it's loading. Do we need to change color?_
**G3M9:**: _Where is it? Oh, let's change the color._
**G3F7:**: _Yes, I think it is loading, isn't it? Why is it so lagging?_
**G3M9:**: _I think so, G3F7 disconnected just now._  
_(A notification message to confirm disconnection appeared on the screen and all the whiteboard content disappeared)_  
Previous work also demonstrated that the participants encountered the freezing problem due to an unstable internet connection [59]. During an interview session with the participants in the usability study, they mentioned that, since their internet was not stable, they turned off their cameras while interacting to reduce the bandwidth consumption in order to maintain a more stable connection:  
**G3F7:**: _Because when we do the usual class, if all students switched on their cameras, the internet will be slower, it would freeze or lag a lot._
**G3F8:**: _Sometimes, Zoom takes a lot of internet bandwidth if we switched on the camera and it will always cause disconnection._
**G5M16:**: _The biggest reason is that I'm not sure when will I be (accidentally) disconnected so I'm trying to reduce the numbers, uh, data that transfer in between. Yeah so that's the biggest reason I decide not to show myself to others._  
Some participants also expressed their frustration with technical issues, such as action delay. For instance, it took a few seconds for their drawing to appear on the screens of others due to poor internet connection. This could be because the virtual conference application was not completely in real time:  
**G3M9:**: _Yes, because of the internet connection, we cannot all talk at the same time. So, there is going to be lag issues. Sometimes, I'd thought that they could not hear me because of the internet._
**G3F7:**: _Same... it is difficult because of the unstable network connection._
**G3F8:**: _And, sometimes it's not real time. They're talking about something else, and then suddenly we interact about something else. So, it's a bit difficult._  
Some participants mentioned that virtual conference applications for collaborative activities consume a lot of data. The participants admitted that the more fun an activity is, the more data it consumes. This situation was not ideal because most participants had limited data plans from their internet service provider:  
**G1F1:**: _For me it's fun to do this activity, but if we are using Zoom platform, it uses a lot of data yeah so, I don't really like._
**G1F2:**: _Because if we are using Zoom, it actually needs a lot of Internet (data) consumption._  
Based on a previous survey, data usage via virtual conference applications can be very expensive [60]. The reason for this is the high bandwidth consumption required by video conferences to transmit video and audio data across the internet. A previous study using video conferencing also encountered technical and connectivity issues such as having no audio or video feed, software incompatibility, and sometimes being unable to connect to the internet [61]. Previous research showed that disabling video feed and using only audio in rural areas with high internet latency can greatly improve the user experience [62].