A Logitech webcam attached to a laptop. Photo courtesy of
Mofetos.
For
prospective college students, the interview has long been one of the
most nerve-wracking parts of the admissions process. Now, according to
a recent Associated Press story, colleges are beginning to bring the
admissions interview into the 21st century by conducting them online
via webcams. As the story explains:
Wake Forest
uses a webcam version of Skype for their online interviews. The
technology allowed [Avery] Cullinan and about 30 other hopefuls to use
a computer-mounted video camera and microphone to speak with an
admissions officer through the Internet, "face to face" on a computer
screen.
After a successful round of Web-based interviews
in the early admission process, Wake Forest offered the program to its
entire undergraduate applicant pool--a decision that doubled the number
of requests for such interviews.
"We decided this would be a wonderful alternative to the face-to-face interview," [Wake Forest admissions director Martha] Allman said. "We have to stay attuned to how students receive information and how they communicate."
While
this is a new development at the undergraduate level, the story says
that a dozen or so graduate programs have already been using webcams to
interview prospective students for years. With cameras increasingly
becoming a standard component on laptops--to say nothing of how popular
online video is among teens--I predict that this practice will become
standard within ten years.
