ALT-Members list thread - Use of Skype

Does anybody know of any reasons not to use this approach?

Mark Gamble
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We use it all the time and especially with overseas students.

Dr Lesley Diack

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If you are using Skype on JANET you will need to prevent yourself from becoming a supernode.  To do this I would suggest having a look at this reg fix:

https://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/twiki/view/CF/SkypeConfiguration

If you become a supernode you might find the level of traffic passed via your computer causes you to be booted off the network.

Tim Smale

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Depending on location of student, the need to install Skype may cause a problem - for example, we have students out on placement who staff want to suppprt virtually but the student is not allowed to install software at the company or business they're located.  (This is where we use Adobe Connect instead.)

Vicki Simpson

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Hi, I think it would be a real possibility however as always it’s thinking about in what context it would be used. If it is for a one to one session with a student then clear agendas need to be agreed and communicated in advance of the session so expectations are managed. Other considerations that we certainly need to factor in is where and when the student would be accessing this. For example all of our students are working in organisations and in most instances corporate IT departments will block the use of Skype. Does both parties have headsets with microphone to make use of VOIP?

Karen Ver 

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Not as such, but it would probably be good practice to maintain a separate account (i.e. not one that you use for personal use and connect to from a home computer) or you have to consider that any chat history may be replicated to any computer where you use the account.  Whilst this may not be of much concern generally, it would mean that you have to consider the DPA with regard to the information being on your home PC, as well as any potential requests for information under the FOI meaning that you may have to examine your home machine (although, as it will be replicated on work machines too, this should be less of an issue - take proper legal advice!)

Pat Parslow

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As well as being blocked by some employers there are also international censorship considerations.  In the United Arab Emirates for example all Voip is technically illegal (not just Skype) and although there are ‘work arounds’ these do involve some risk – so an overseas student may face problems.  The ME unrest is likely to result in an increase in this kind of censorship IMHO.

Mark Churcher 

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We don’t allow skype for two official and one less formal reasons.

According to past research the licence is debatable in that it allows skype permission to use the client for their purposes (ie supernode/relay etc). The supernode is something that in theory can get out of hand with a large scale deployment on JANET connected machines. As we have lots of bandwidth we could easily end up relaying skype calls that aren’t anything to do with the university. This may be in breach of JANET terms too.

Auditing – skype conversations are not centrally auditable giving an issue if staff are using it to speak with students. If a member of staff leaves the University they take their skype and contacts with them (and may continue to appear as part of the university to some).

The less formal reason is that most users we have who request this facility are actually using it to speak to their friends outside the normal controls. We are implementing Microsoft OCS as a more formal response to chat/video conferencing.

We DO allow skype to be set up on a per-session basis when on a few occasions guest speakers have joined via skype but it is removes afterward.

Peter Hurst

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Given the potential value of a 'free' desktop conferencing system - and we have some positive experience with Skype for individual tutorials - can we clarify these issues? For example, can the licence issues be resolved? And what do we mean by auditing in this context - from the point of record-keeping, are we applying the same standards to physical and virtual interactions?

Peter Hartley

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Whilst I can appreciate there may be issues, my adult students actually ask
me to use Skype to have on-to-one and small group tutorials and in a
climate where we are being encouraged to work with the technologies used by
students I think we should listen and respond appropriately! I also find it
a very useful and cheap way of communicating with colleagues from across
the globe at a variety of levels. Speaking of monitoring, is there a hint
of big brother here!?

Malcolm Ryan

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“Free” is the question. The client is free and an account is free. The licensing is as usual unclear but the main issue is that in the terms the user signs up to in theory allow skype permission to route traffic via clients. As the traffic is unknown, not necessarily bound for the University and utilises bandwidth it’s very debateable whether it’s inside or outside the AUP.

Here’s an old thread.. http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=12959 which gives the gist – Cambridge did a paper on this and the risks of the protocol back around this time which I don’t have to hand. There are registry settings which can be rolled out as of 2006 which prevent skype becoming a supernode. Again it’s debateable if you would be breaking the terms by using these but I would recommend using them if you do plan a large scale deployment.

Auditing is about allowing staff to capture the conversation – OCS allows their conversations to be captured in outlook so they have a record of the conversation in case of dispute. It can be extended to full logging if required for investigations via HR. The similarity with other communications you mention is striking here. If skype is used there’s nothing to stop users registering any username eg (fred@myuniversity). Once they leave, unlike their email address and telephone number, that goes with them and any associated people have no knowledge of the change of status. This can be a problem, not just in student interaction but for service staff who leave and gather information before their colleagues realise they’ve gone.

Hope this helps – as I say we have taken the decision not to allow but it isn’t clear cut.

Peter Hurst
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At the University of Nottingham, Skype access is permitted and we regularly use it for tutorials and supervision sessions. As I understand it, we are provided with a corporate version of Skype, with a modified client that does not set up supernodes, and that also allows network ports to be specified so that traffic can be routed and monitored.

Mike Sharples

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Can I just ask do you record the face to face tutorials you have with students?  If no why would you need to do so when using skype?

Just thought it was worth asking

Tim Smale

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Hi Everyone, I find this so sad.  There are people here who are trying to provide good support for students and they are worried about some protocol that results in a draconian measure that prevents all VoIP.  Do people follow lecturers around with a microphone all the time so that every interaction they have with students is recorded?  Are all lectures, tutorials, field trips, etc, recorded and censored?  Please move into the 21st century.  I know there are real problems we have to face in using some modern technologies - universities weren't built/managed to use them.  Find out what the potential problems are and fix it so they are no longer problems - I always understood we were here to facilitate learning and teaching not to prevent it.

Tim Johnson

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I am interested to learn if others have used Skype at all for short-tutorials with students on Sandwich Placements ie; 1 year industrial placements? 
 
In this scenario the student could be contacted by the Tutor using Skype to the organisation where they are working and a short up-date meeting and tutorial on the assessed work could be completed.  Equally the Tutor could discuss any details with the Work Placement Mentor at the same time.
 
I am asking as there is a potential for students to internationalise with their workplacements and this could provide a "low-cost" alternative to face to face visits!?  It is also unlikely (I think) that organisations would have access to Adobe Connect or Elluminate or some of the other facilities found in University settings but potentially have Skype.
 
Sue Murrin-Bailey

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How about using http://www.callburner.com/ to record tutorials with
students (thanks to Russell Prue* for the URL).  Oh, even better, tell
your students to record your tutorial so they can review what you said
to them again and again.  Did I read in the literature (Woo, 2010?)
something about students being able to re-visit lectures that were
recorded, that they found this really useful, that those who have
difficulty processing auditory information benefit from being able to
re-visit, that those who have English as a second language find these
recordings immensely useful?

Personally, I'd not want to record myself, but would encourage my
students to try recording to see if they get any benefit.  Following a
series of tutorials I'd probably send out some generic feedback to all
students, as an audio file.

Do we see any problems suggesting that all staff encourage their
students to record tutorials (Skype or face to face)?

Kindest regards

David Callaghan

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I personally doubt any useful tutorial will happen without some form of application/file sharing, too (ok, maybe there are tutorials in performance arts where that is not necessary, but I would venture at least to argue that the majority will require more than audio, video and chat in order to make the most of everyone’s time).

I would see this is a very good reason to make the case to the university for an online conferencing tool (having just had another disappointing afternoon with Illuminate on our local Java set-up, I can’t avoid thinking something Flash-based perhaps: Acrobat Connect Pro is my current favourite, but DimDim is around, too, together with other options, I imagine). The added bonus is that, once staff get comfortable with a technology that just works and is easy enough, they’ll start using it for other things, as well – e.g. invited speakers, conferences, marketing, distance learning, even interactive face-to-face sessions and more, all of which have been picking up at Leeds in the last few months.

As Karen was saying: most stuff will get blocked but Connect Pro somehow manages to stay alive for me even in the face of serious adversity (e.g. wireless access fluttering its delicate wings around my machine…)

Dr. Dragos Ciobanu

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we've embarked exactly on such a project as a pilot, using the Skype VoIP facilities to contact students on work placement instead of a f2f visit..

So far we observe that

(i) students in the UK are difficult to contact during working hours due to Skype's requirements described earlier (supernode relay features) which is banned by most private organisations

(ii) students placed abroad are much easier to contact and we have managed to established Skype connections with students in NZ, Australia, Botswana and a number of European countries; either the network administrators are more relaxed in these countries or the existence of different time zones has helped the students to schedule sessions outside their working hours, relying on their private internet access instead.
As an alternative we intend to explore the usefulness of JANET's JVCS to overcome the issues experienced within the UK

Henry Keil

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My understanding is that Skype does not set up supernodes behind firewalls with appropriate port blocking, ie any educational institution with a vaguely competent network administrator.

My thoughts are that the prefix super- in supernode make that sound scary.... its only a P2P addressing mechanism, as I understand it, not something that carries voice or video traffic. Please correct me if I am wrong, but from the scant data on the Web about Skype's architecture, this seems to be the case.

Summary: Don't be afraid of using skype.

Mark van Harmelen