24,917 research outputs found
Teaching and learning in live online classrooms
Online presence of information and services is pervasive. Teaching and learning are no exception. Courseware management systems play an important role in enhancing instructional delivery for either traditional day, full-time students or non-traditional evening, party-time adult learners enrolled in online programs. While online course management tools are with no doubt practical, they limit, however, live or synchronous communication to chat rooms, whose discourse has little in common with face-to-face class communication. A more recent trend in online teaching and learning is the adoption and integration of web conferencing tools to enable live online classrooms and recreate the ethos of traditional face-to-face sessions.
In this paper we present the experience we have had with the adoption of the LearnLincĀ® web conferencing tool, an iLinc Communications, Inc. product. We have coupled LearnLinc with BlackboardĀ®, for the online and hybrid computer science courses we offered in the past academic year in the evening undergraduate and graduate computer science programs at Rivier College. Twelve courses, enrolling over 150 students, have used the synchronous online teaching capabilities of LearnLinc. Students who took courses in the online or hybrid format could experience a comparable level of interaction, participation, and collaboration as in traditional classes.
We solicited student feedback by administering a student survey to over 100 students. The 55% response rate produced the data for this paper\u27s study. We report on the study\u27s findings and show students\u27 rankings of evaluation criteria applied to hybrid and online instructional formats, with or without a web conferencing tool. Our analysis shows that students ranked favorably LearnLinc live sessions added to Blackboard-only online classes. In addition, how they learned in live online classrooms was found to be the closest to the hybrid class experience with regard to teaching practices they perceived as most important to them, such as seeking instructor\u27s assistance, managing time on task, and exercising problem solving skills
The practice of web conferencing: where are we now?
The use of web conferencing tools to support learning and teaching and facilitate interaction and collaboration is common in many higher education environments as is the
replacement of face-to-face meetings with virtual collaboration tools. This paper reports on Phase 3 of a trial of web conferencing conducted at a regional Australian university and further explores the use of web conferencing to support and enhance learning and teaching.
Preliminary findings from Phases 1 and 2 of the trial have been reported on in a previous paper. The action research method which framed the initial trial has again been applied to Phase 3. In Phase 1, collaborative mathematical problem-solving in an undergraduate course was carried out using web conferencing and tablet PCs. In addition, students in postgraduate Education courses were linked across the globe to participate in interactive and collaborative web conference activity. In Phase 2, a university-wide trial across disciplines was conducted. Phase 3 represents an analysis of feedback received from teachers who were involved in Phases 1 and 2 and who have had some time to reflect on the impact web conferencing has had on their teaching practice. From this, and their own experience, the authors make further observations regarding the use of web conferencing to support learning and teaching and raise a number of questions and issues to guide future research
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E-learning ā Who? What? Where?
This paper considers case studies of experience in distance-learning environments from the UK's Open University, two having successfully utilised e-learning, and a third which is at the proposal stage, requiring e-learning facilities which are not yet well-developed. Some of the lessons learned are described and the potential role of the world-wide web briefly assessed. The paper also
considers how a future strategy for collaboration amongst East and West European Universities and commercial organisations might be developed
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'Hope this helps': peer learning via CMC [poster presentation]
Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is increasingly used in distance education to provide opportunities for peer learning and support. CMC allows students to share understandings, discuss misunderstandings, and learn from each other. This peer learning can be more effective than interventions by the tutor, for a number of reasons. Students are willing to expose their difficulties to their peers, whereas they might feel uncomfortable doing so to their tutor. Fellow-students understand difficulties which a tutor, with a more advanced view of the topic, may not appreciate. CMC provides an invaluable opportunity for students to discover that other learners are having similar problems to their own.
This paper reports on peer learning via CMC in an Open University course on Digital Communications. Members of staff moderated course-wide conferences whose main purpose was to allow students to help each other. The research reported here was based on a study of conference transcripts. The aim was to identify the ways in which peer learning took place, and the conditions which supported it
Design of a shared whiteboard component for multimedia conferencing
This paper reports on the development of a framework for multimedia applications in the domain of tele-education. The paper focuses on the protocol design of a specific component of the framework, namely a shared whiteboard application. The relationship of this component with other components of the framework is also discussed. A salient feature of the framework is that it uses an advanced ATM-based network service. The design of the shared whiteboard component is considered representative for the design as a whole, and is used to illustrate how a flexible protocol architecture utilizing innovative network functions and satisfying demanding user requirements can be developed
Using Sociocultural Theory to Guide Teacher Use and Integration of Instructional Technology in Two Professional Development Schools
This article demonstrates how sociocultural theories can be used to support strategic structuring of professional development activities for preservice and practicing teachers on technology use and integration. Examples are drawn from the authors\u27 experiences with teachers in two professional development schools that participated in a four-year Preparing Tomorrow\u27s Teachers in Technology (PT3) project. After a review of sociocultural theory and their context, the authors describe three activity systems in these schools: one for practicing teachers, one for preservice teachers, and a joint preservice/practicing teacher system. Important supports for use and integration of technology built into each of these activity systems included varied activities aimed at both beginning and advanced technology users, multiple levels of assisted performance, and a collaborative culture that offered numerous opportunities for shared work. Lessons learned and implications for teacher educators involved in similar partnerships are outlined
Video conferencing made easy
Network video conferencing is advancing rapidly throughout the nation, and the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL), a Department of Energy (DOE) facility, is at the forefront of the development. Engineers at INEL/EG&G designed and installed a very unique DOE videoconferencing system, offering many outstanding features, that include true multipoint conferencing, user-friendly design and operation with no full-time operators required, and the potential for cost effective expansion of the system. One area where INEL/EG&G engineers made a significant contribution to video conferencing was in the development of effective, user-friendly, end station driven scheduling software. A PC at each user site is used to schedule conferences via a windows package. This software interface provides information to the users concerning conference availability, scheduling, initiation, and termination. The menus are 'mouse' controlled. Once a conference is scheduled, a workstation at the hubs monitors the network to initiate all scheduled conferences. No active operator participation is required once a user schedules a conference through the local PC; the workstation automatically initiates and terminates the conference as scheduled. As each conference is scheduled, hard copy notification is also printed at each participating site. Video conferencing is the wave of the future. The use of these user-friendly systems will save millions in lost productivity and travel cost throughout the nation. The ease of operation and conference scheduling will play a key role on the extent industry uses this new technology. The INEL/EG&G has developed a prototype scheduling system for both commercial and federal government use
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Supporting undergraduate studentsā acquisition of academic argumentation strategies through computer conferencing
Executive Summary
Background
This research grows out of work on the importance of argumentation in developingstudentsā critical abilities. It focuses attention on how students argue in computer mediated conferences as opposed to traditionalwritten assignments, investigating the way in which argumentation is realised within the relatively new context of
computer conferencing which allows extended written discussions to take place overa period of weeks. Such text-based asynchronous conferencing is typically
characterised by features of both spoken and written modes.
Aims
The main aims of the project were:
ā¢ to investigate the argumentation strategies used in asynchronous text-based computer conferences;
ā¢ to compare the argumentation strategies developed through conferencing with those used in the writing of academic assignments;
ā¢ to examine the strategies used by tutors to encourage and facilitate argumentation in text-based computer conferences.
Methods
Data was collected over two years for the distance undergraduate course āPerspectives on Complementary and Alternative Medicineā at the Open University.Qualitative data was obtained through interviews with the course chair, tutors and students, and through a student questionnaire. Assignments and computer-mediated
tutorials were collected for textual analysis, although the timing of the assignments meant that analysis has only just begun on the essay data. To analyse the argumentation in the computer conferences and assignments a method of
categorising, coding and tracking argumentative discourse was developed building on earlier work by the authors. In addition, computational searches were carried out to compare linguistic features across conference and assignment data.
Results
In tutorial conferences, student discussion tended to take the form of collaborative co-construction of an argument through exchanging information and experience to
substantiate a position. However, students were also prepared to challenge other viewpoints. In both cases, they frequently drew on personal and professional
experience to support argument claims. The use of these strategies suggests that text-based conferencing lends itself to the collective combining of diverse sources of
information, experiences and ideas.
Conference discussions were often personalised with fewer explicit logical links marking argument structure. They were also marked by complexity of argument strands, many of which reached no conclusion. Preliminary analysis of argumentation in assignments suggests that this did not, however, adversely affect studentsā ability to create a more traditional, linear argument in their essays. Further analysis will be undertaken to compare argumentation strategies across the two sets of data. Tutors expressed concern about levels of participation in the tutorial conferences, which varied quite considerably. They also felt uncertain about their own knowledge of appropriate pedagogic strategies which would encourage students to participate in a collaborative yet critical way, and tended to rely on strategies from face-to-face teaching. Analysis of the conference discussion showed that tutors made fewer claims than students and were also less likely to provide information in support of their claims. There was, therefore, little modelling by tutors of the basic type of argumentation that would be expected in formal written assignments.Despite these concerns, student responses indicated that having a tutor and a group
of peers to interact with, or just to observe, was valued as a supportive feature of this form of distance learning. No clear picture arose of how to make conferencing more
interactive for more students, and this reinforces the sense gained from the tutor interviews of the difficulty of proposing a model of tutoring in computer conferences
that will necessarily engage all students or raise the level of discussion and debate.
Conclusions
Our study suggests that text-based conferencing has an important role to play in developing studentsā argumentation strategies and understanding of academic
discourse and conventions. In view of its hybrid nature, somewhere between spontaneous speech and formal academic writing, course designers and tutors should aim to take advantage of both aspects ā on the one hand, the informal
dialogic exchange of opinions and co-construction of knowledge, and on the other,the opportunity for consolidation, reflection and re-positioning.
Our findings reinforce the view that studentsā willingness to exchange ideas freely and openly is partly a consequence of how personally engaged, at ease and
confident students feel with one another and their tutor. In particular, it seems that there is a role for the interpersonal and, to some extent, the chat and the frivolity, which in some other studies discussed in the literature review have been regarded as negative influences.
Recommendations
To facilitate studentsā development of argumentation and learning more generally,tutors need greater awareness of the ways in which academic argumentation operates in computer conferencing as compared to written assignments. Since pedagogic strategies developed in other contexts may not transfer well to computer conferencing, there is a need for targeted professional development, focussing in
particular on:
ā¢ Choosing topics for discussion and designing effective task prompts;
ā¢ Supporting weaker students;
ā¢ Encouraging challenging of ideas;
ā¢ Finding the right tone to facilitate peer discussions.
Some specific suggestions are made within the report, but our recommendations at this stage remain tentative as we still have to complete the analysis of the assignment data and draw conclusions about the impact of the computer
conferencing on the quality of written argumentation within this more formal context
Satellite-enabled interactive education: scenarios and systems architectures
There are specific sectors of the economy that can benefit from satellite-based tele-education. Areas, such as maritime and agriculture, share common needs for both broadband connectivity at remote geographical areas that cannot otherwise be covered, and for innovative content for tele-education purposes. Furthermore, each area has special requirements with regard to the type of content to be delivered. In this paper we propose a set of architectural designs and case scenarios that will realise such interactive end-to-end education systems based on satellite communications. Services requirements in this setting are also identified and discussed
ICT research bursaries : a compendium of research reports a report on the ICT Research Bursaries 2002ā03
An assessment of the ways in which teachers evaluate software, Bridging the gap: ICT in the transition year, Colouring outside the lines: research into the potential of using new digital technologies to increase home-school interactivity in a conductive education environment, The development and use of a computer-based model for assessing thinking skills, The Hedley Walter High School: cultural change in learning through the use of new technologies, ICT and subject literacies: a study of the relationship between ICT and subject literacies in the secondary school, An investigation into the visual and kinaesthetic affordances of interactive whiteboards, Making IT happen: patterns of ICT use among a group of UK school staff, Networking success: an investigation of the effectiveness of the Birmingham Grid for Learning's ICT Research Network, The Ripple Project: the whole school impact of conducting learner-centred ICT projects in infant classrooms, The use of interactive whiteboards in the primary school: effects on pedagogy, Video conferencing in the mathematics lesson, Trainee teachers and 'impact' learning: A study of trainees' views on what helps them to use ICT effectively in their subject teaching, An investigation of how different ways of presenting information using ICT may affect children's thinking, New Opportunities Funding: Did it work? A follow-up to NOF training, The HomE-Work Project, e-Learning in broadband-connected classrooms, Digital video and bilingual children with special educational needs: Supporting literacy activities, Sustainability and evolution of ICT-supported classroom practice, The impact of prior technological experiences on children's ability to use play as a medium for developing capability with new ICT tools, How can the use of an interactive whiteboard enhance the nature of teaching and learning in secondary mathematics and modern foreign languages?, Already at a disadvantage? ICT in the home and children's preparation for primary school, The impact of technology on children with physical disabilities: an evaluative case study at a special school in the West Midlands, Bedding in: factors that facilitate implementation and integration of ICT in classroom practice, Developing a networked learning community with ICT - learning the hard way, Exploring the elements that make an effective web-based science lesso
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