1. Introduction
Since 2002, there has been an evolution and rising trend in conducting workshops and tutorials using live streaming Singapore. The utility of using web-based technologies was initially identified as a solution to cater to a small, specific needs group of learners. However, over time, with increasing pedagogical interest and huge advancements in web-based technologies, live streaming has risen as a mode of delivery for instructional content with the same benefits as traditional workshops and tutorials. It offers interactive possibilities and responds to challenges faced in educational training. Performance-based education training is delivered to students, in particular nurses who are dispersed in clinical care areas. While students are in the clinical setting, the live webcast from the school campus simulates a delivery scenario. The teaching school team is also observed during performance and receives feedback from the teacher based on real-time monitoring of their classroom performance.
1.1. Background and Significance
In this work, we would like to present the evolution of Live Stream Service Business Workshops and Tutorials in Singapore, mainly in the physical and real-world business sectors such as professional, traditional, and local businesses during the period of March 2019 to August 2021. We discussed the positive and negative impacts brought about by the respective evolutions. We provided statistics and analysis of business workshops and tutorials that we had attended. Furthermore, the significance of live streaming business workshops and tutorials as a sub-category of live streaming in modern society was reviewed. With increasing complications in world politics, economics, society, security, health, ethical reviews in artificial intelligence (AI), intellectual property, privacy, and data security fields, a benchmark for the future development of Live Streaming Business Workshops and Tutorials was proposed for advancing society in the right direction.
Introduction Live streaming refers to the real-time broadcast of audio or video content to millions of viewers over the internet. In the last 4 to 5 years, live streaming has impacted multiple sectors and users’ lives, especially millennials and Gen Z. Due to its real-time characteristic, live streaming is extremely popular for entertainment, such as gaming, live broadcasting, sales events, virtual concerts, eSports (online competitive gaming), virtual dining, etc. Viewers can take part in conversations, receive immediate feedback and responses from viewers and broadcasters, and feel a strong sense of interaction or connection during the live broadcast. This live interaction leads to immediate and direct influence or impact on the viewers. The concept of remote business operation is not new and is commonly found in various technology-driven businesses. As a result of the outbreak of COVID-19, live streaming technology was quickly picked up by small and micro-enterprises, large organizations, professional workers, traditional businesses, and even governments from all over the world as a tool for operation and communication.
1.2. Purpose and Scope of the Study
The aim of this scoping research is, under a set of parameters, to fully examine the widely accepted potential for lifelong learning and the closely associated demand for continuing education and employment opportunities coming to maturity, employment, raising a family, and aged groups who are all now benefiting from recent live streaming training developments to upscale, or at a minimum, refresh their reasoning about the continuing raise learning and work capabilities. With matured reasoning, a participant in a live streaming workshop and tutorial would then be more informed, while it is hoped having some of those assumptions tested amongst their peers.
This research seeks to paint a bold picture in high opacity on a low clarity subject by canvassing the participants in current free public community sharing events in Singapore as a case study to ascertain how live streaming workshops and tutorials such as those in co-working spaces have evolved and the impact as perceived by the participant instructors/trainers/speakers/facilitators, and participant learners/consumers of the workshop or tutorial. The research is designed to elicit case studies and examples from the participants to build the model of Singapore live streaming workshops and tutorials expanded to Asia, and a secondary objective is to explore best practices for social, collaborative, and other participation marketing.
2. Historical Development of Live Streaming Platforms
For many faculties in Singapore, live streaming workshops and tutorial sessions are a natural development in advancing pedagogy. However, additional facilitation may be required to ensure that it is used effectively. Moreover, we must be aware that for every 20 workshops that are live streamed, there may only be one or just a few that are of top quality in terms of content and delivery. Even if every workshop is of top quality, will the learning outcomes be achieved? There are many questions yet to answer regarding live streaming workshops and tutorial sessions as a tried and tested methodology. Support for live streaming for educators in Singapore is still limited. It would seem as if the jury was still out. This chapter explores the evolution and challenges behind live streaming educational content in Singapore. It begins with a general introduction and analysis of the historical development of live streaming.
Live streaming may be something that we consider as a relatively recent phenomenon, but in fact, the very first live stream was that of the American radio show, W9XAP, in 1929. Others include NASA’s Apollo 11 mission in 1969 and, of course, the International Telecommunications Expo in Las Vegas in 1993. The live stream that most of us are familiar with is, of course, the internet live stream, whereby television and audio/visual media are broadcast live via the internet. This brings with it the concept of immediate interaction and global reach. Live streaming also creates the concept of social broadcasting. Here, the host does not require much enabling equipment (a smartphone suffices), he is independent of any programming obligations (determination of playlist, commercial or less premium content, the timing of broadcasting, etc.) and, best of all, is directly connected to the audience. This creates an unadulterated pedagogy/a different pedagogy. The technological potential is overwhelming and multiplying.
2.1. Key Milestones and Innovations
The first phase, which lasted for 2 years from October 1989 to September 1991, resulted from a first grant under the Discovery Project Scheme (DPS, 1989). It established the idea of a live studio lesson (LSLS) that is comparable in quality to existing SALS, offering the full interactivity of an in-residence lesson including the ability to preview and review prototypes. By choosing NetTasking for the first ever undergraduate non-programming LSLS, NetTasking also had the honor of being the first to develop a remotely controllable tutor station in what was then a brand-new Computer-Interfaced Learning Studio (CILS). By studying how this non-programming LSLS compared with the set of tutorials for the entire level, the grant uncovered additional demands for programming style and strategy knowledge. And this set the stage for the second grant.
So, let us dive deeper into the evolution of LSWT. Figure 2 summarizes the key milestones, challenges faced, and accompanying LSLS and SALS innovations that began with iTutoring. These are organized into 3 main phases corresponding to the 3 largest research grants that feature the iNTU LSLS in the title of the grant. We believe that iNTU is short form for instruction at National Technological University and is a video-streaming facility that offers a wide range of live and on-demand videos.
2.2. Popular Platforms in Singapore
There are many popular online/offline platforms in Singapore allowing young people who want to learn from it. Naiise is the first to establish a market and has the most extensive market share among online retailers. This brand aims to become a creative lifestyle marketing platform, through e-commerce, physical stores and patronizing flow design to meet the connection between consumers and designers. Another notable platform is Antheads, which provides multiple (experiential) art courses. Hence, the most important thing to decide on the curriculum before choosing a professional learning course. The article will introduce the popular courses of Udemy when using (live workshops) to provide a reference for new technology talents to enter a different field and have their value.
3. The Benefits and Challenges of Live Streaming Workshops and Tutorials
However, live streaming of workshops/tutorials poses many challenges, especially in the early phase. In the context of games creation, most workshops/tutorials in schools have trainer-students physically present to perform teaching/training, as novice students need additional supervision and micro-feedback that are impractical to provide without direct interaction. The workshops/tutorials often require hands-on practice, teamwork, and collaboration in physical interaction between trainer and student. Even with real-time live streaming and a good set of equipment, interaction is not the same as face-to-face confrontation, and direct control is affected by computer delay. In this paper, we introduce an educational live-stream program, discuss some of the early challenges faced, and possible techniques and solutions to overcome the issues.
There are several potential benefits of offering live streaming alongside traditional physical teaching. First, it supports the differentiation of Singapore as a global education hub, allowing the release of quality educational content from Singapore to the world. Second, it allows meaningful collaboration among workshop/tutorial trainers from participating schools to work together on joint content. This allows students to benefit from the collective wisdom of trainers from multiple schools, encourages trainers to network and share with one another, and further solidifies the global education hub identity. Third, it is a platform where a student-talented trainer or even non-students can set up an online class/portfolio business after graduation, without the pressure, stress, and liability of teaching an entire class.
3.1. Advantages for Participants and Organizers
While producing a quality tutorial or workshop on TV takes a long while to prepare and publish, live streaming basically allows much faster access to this knowledge. A recording of the OTA production would be a very high-quality tutorial or workshop that can still be maintained in the future for instant replay. It also has the environment to accommodate software-only teaching and presentation, such as lectures, software-use training, software examination, or software talk, content analysis, and source code analysis of software. For training, a slow capture rate and high compression ratio would be used with channel merging by combining different source datasets.
Workshops and tutorials can be produced with excellent quality without camera crews, live switching, and other expensive production facilities. In most cases, they can still enjoy quality sound, good picture, and close-up shots for attendees’ viewing. By using this type of quick setup, it encourages more and more experts to share their own experiences in a way that full-scale TV production would shun. Discussion could be exchanged through either SMS, phone call, asynchronous questions/answers through an organized web page. OTA facilities allow quick changes to the program that could respond to real-time feedback. Hence, even if it tries to replace TV events, live streaming workshops have characteristics that are better than both TV and online tutorials.
3.2. Technical and Logistical Challenges
There are technical and logistical challenges that need to be overcome for organizing a live streaming event. Ideally, a high-quality video should capture the movement and the materials on the projector screen. Additionally, a good audio system should capture the speaker clearly. An on-site moderator should monitor the online audience and ensure that questions from the online audience are relayed to the lecturer. A good moderation system is also desirable. Besides these, a proper video recording and archiving system is often required. The following paragraphs discuss these technical and logistical concerns in a live-streamed workshop and tutorial, through the lens of experience sharing.
Typical live streaming workshops and tutorials involve three main components: the lecturer, the lecture, and the audience. In a traditional learning environment, students and lecturers can see, hear, and interact with one another. In a live streaming event, the lecturer and the visual aids are located in a place that is then viewed and heard by the audience in a different location. The audience may also include people who are participating from yet another location, the online audience. The live interaction between the audience at the event and the lecturer should ideally be retained. Closed-circuit television (CCTV) is one common live streaming tool, permanently installed in lecture theaters to broadcast a lecturing event happening inside to the outside audience. Another example of broadcasting a live event to the outside is the live viewing of a football match in shopping centers.
4. Case Studies and Success Stories
The reasons for such high impact for workshops offered free of charge are numerous. For example, the completeness of a live-streamed tutorial or workshop is always 100%, as intending participants who keep their weekend booking but decide to skip the workshop miss everything. As such workshops are live events, they are best attended live, as no prepared video can replace the spontaneity of live interaction with the lecturer or demonstrators triggered by the lecture content. As good live-streamed events contain both visual and aural stimuli, they are effectively absorbed by participants whose preferences are mainly visual or aural and are well-suited for keeping the attention-challenged engaged. As good live-streamed events possess a natural timetable, they bind participants and induce discipline so as to keep to the schedule. Good lecturers will be able to include interactive segments, such as a live quiz or a simple demonstration, or conduct surveys that are relevant and can provide feedback to the class interested in appearing live. Finally, the inclusion of a Q&A segment within the lecture duration satisfies those students who question better on-the-fly rather than after the lecture. Over ninety percent of 1,600 respondents from eight out of sixteen full days of live-streamed Hands-On Workshops in May 2014 at The Academy considered excellent for both the live tutorial compressed into a half-day workshop as well as the live-streamed lecture compressed into a two-hour tutorial.
Tutorials and workshops have evolved with technology, and entire books have been written to cater to the ever-increasing complexity and capability of tutorials and workshops for large hardware and software systems. The days of solely presenting ubiquitous simple circuits have long gone. As the tool for the knowledge worker, the use of digital presentations, hypertext-enabled slides, and extensive supporting teaching material such as coding examples with real applications extend the impact of each lecture. This increased capability, coupled with the proliferation of video streaming as the dominant means of online information sharing, has come together to bring about live streaming as the most immediate form of content delivery. For example, The Academy’s Saturday Workshops and Student Design Projects are now live-streamed to reach ninety thousand ITE students.
4.1. Notable Examples in the Singapore Context
Kaiser, the lecturer running Show Caelum, reflected, “Workshops that are live and in person are very, very effective. We always prefer physical classes over webinars, but that’s not going to be possible for a long time.” Another data subject, collaborator Jerramy Pollock, recounted a teenage fan who, after witnessing the magic duo The Strix’s live performance in Singapore while on holiday, begged his mother to enroll him in magic school. Upon the mother’s inquiry, Jamie had to explain to her the impracticality of this request given that The Strix were based in Las Vegas and that Jim Sisti’s The Magic Workshop was also based in that city, making the enormous cost of tuition the family’s biggest hassle. After graduation, Ben then managed to impress his fellow students with several of magic’s forerunners and contemporary artists at his future college in the United Kingdom.
Singapore has several circus and magic organizations that offer classes. The School of Thought by Cirq Pandemonium, the 3Ds by The Ringmaster and Show Caelum by Gaspar Kaiser are some of the longest standing in Singapore, lasting 6, 16, and 16 years, respectively. These examples teach an array of students located in Singapore and worldwide. Local puppet production classes and courses in writing and performing musicals also attract both local and international students, with various tiers designed to suit all levels of experience. While these classes are designed to be taught either in person during physical workshops or virtually via webinars tailored to individual students’ learning pace, many have found workshops, especially live ones, to be more effective and engaging.
5. Future Trends and Innovations
A distinct advantage of Singapore completing the first phase of achieving a digitally literate and westernized economy is the potential increase in Singapore’s attractiveness as an economy to provide a platform for multinational corporations to set up and/or extend their regional offices in Singapore to market and support their products and services across the remaining Southeast Asian countries.
Lastly, the gathering and continual refinement of analytics to support a system of lifelong learning.
Fifth, in some training, the use of advances in artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and machine learning solutions.
Fourth, the introduction of voice-activated virtual tutors to guide learners in their learning journey.
Third, the introduction of game-based learning and teaching to make learning and training tools more interesting and interactive.
Second, the increasing use of simulations to see how learning and training tools could be translated from workplace to classroom.
First, conducting examinations online and moving away from the traditional pen and paper format examinations.
With Singapore embarking on the next phase of our economic development towards an innovation-driven economy and with advances in educational technology, what future trends and innovations are we likely to see in the provision of training to increase a digitally literate and westernized ICT-savvy workforce?
5.1. Emerging Technologies and Features
1) Existing and emerging availability of hosting and participating platforms; 2) Market penetration and popularity of the applicable technologies; 3) Possible observed effects; 4) Empirical results of the participation tool functions; 5) Suggestion on creative design and the roadmap.
Eye-catching education workshops may adopt modern technologies and features in these two provisioning applications, namely, video sharing and live streaming, to promote meaningfully engaging discussions and attendance. Management and moderation follow with an important aspect of evaluation and review. Besides identifying and categorizing the ways used to stimulate workshop attendance and discussions, the performance of the crowdsourced participation tools can be quantified by the following:
Always-connected mobile phones, advances in wireless technologies (cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) have accelerated the trend of seamless user-generated live streaming, short video, and photo sharing. One important example of user-generated video for learning is found in tutorial recording of game plays, creating a fan base or mimicking exciting game moments. The information propagation through live streaming, short video, and photos allows the audience a more interactive and reactive involvement with the content, especially in the education sector such as workshops and tutorials.
16.1. Emerging Technologies and Features
Muneesh K P, Changyong Y, and Yao Zhang Department of CAMTech, NUS School of Design and Environment, Singapore, 117566
The Evolution and Impact of Live Streaming Workshops and Tutorials in Singapore
