Communication aspects of virtual learning environments: perspectives of early adopters

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are increasingly used in higher education to support communication and collaboration among students. However, there is little research into the effectiveness of VLE communication tools, and how they might be improved. This paper reports findings from interviews with teaching staff at UK universities who were early adopters of VLEs. The interviews revealed how these staff used VLE communication tools, what benefits and problems they experienced, and how VLEs might be improved to provide better support for collaborative learning

Use and perceptions of second life by distance learners: comparison with other communication media

Research has demonstrated that the use of communication media in distance education can reduce the feeling of distance and isolation from peers and tutor, and provide opportunities for collaborative learning activities (Bates, 2005). The use of virtual worlds (VW) in education has increased in recent years, with Second Life (SL) being the most commonly used VW in higher education (Wang & Burton, 2012). There is a paucity of information available on students’ use and perceptions of SL in relation to other online communication media available to the distance learner. Consequently, in the study described here, this area was explored with a group of students registered in a part-time distance education Master’s program at a large UK University open to international students. A self-completion survey was designed to assess students’ use and perceptions of using SL compared with other communication media. The majority of students rated SL lower than other forms of communications media such as email, WebCT discussion boards, Skype, and Wimba for facilitating communication, promoting the formation of social networks, fostering a sense of community, and benefiting their learning.  It is possible that the results of this study were influenced by the lower frequency of use of SL in this program compared to other work reported on this subject. Further work is required to evaluate the effect of frequency of use of SL and availability of alternative communication media on students’ use and perceptions of this virtual world

New communication media challenges for supervisors and external doctoral students

This study investigated perceptions of doctoral students and supervisors in an Australian university about communication challenges in doctoral distance education, frequency of communication between candidate and supervisors, satisfaction with meetings or communication, use of communication media and use of new types of personal media of communication. Forty-one doctoral students and nine supervisors confirmed their reliance on email communication via responses on a communications survey. Subtle differences emerged between the perceptions of doctoral students and their supervisors with reference to the adaptation of distance learning materials, the mix of synchronous and asynchronous interaction, and the use of new media of communication in the university. There was a less than positive perception of the use of discussion boards or online communities as learning tools

Creating interaction in online learning: a case study

This paper uses the case‐study method to examine detailed data related to student and tutor usage of an asynchronous discussion board as an interactive communication forum during a first‐semester associate degree course in applied psychology at the City University of Hong Kong. The paper identifies ‘what works’ in relation to discussion board use, demonstrating how students might gradually create an online community of their own, but only if prompted in a timely and appropriate way by the course structure. It also identifies three distinct phases in online interaction and suggests these might, to some extent, be mediated by assessment tasks

Learning in Social Networks: Rationale and Ideas for Its Implementation in Higher Education

The internet has fast become a prevalent medium for collaboration between people and social networks, in particular, have gained vast popularity and relevance over the past few years. Within this framework, our paper will analyse the role played by social networks in current teaching practices. Specifically, we focus on the principles guiding the design of study activities which use social networks and we relate concrete experiences that show how they contribute to improving teaching and learning within a university environment

Exploring the virtual classroom: What students need to know (and teachers should consider)

Technological improvements in many countries have meant that institutions offering distance education programmes now have more options available to them to communicate and interact with their students, and increasingly, attention is being turned to the potential of Web2 technologies to facilitate synchronous interaction. This study explores the affordances and limitations of an online virtual classroom, Adobe Connect Pro, when used in the learning programmes of two groups of undergraduate and postgraduate education students. Results indicate that while both groups gained value from using the classroom, they also found it a completely new environment, and one to which many had trouble transferring the interaction and communication skills developed in other contexts. The reasons for this related to three specific areas of knowledge – technical, procedural and operational, that were identified as being critical to student performance in this environment. The study suggests that educators and course designers need to embed strategies into their online offerings to enable students to develop these, if they are to gain substantial benefit from the availability of virtual classrooms. Additionally, the study identified that when making design decisions about online learning environments, it is very much a matter of horses for courses when selecting tools for specific purposes. While the virtual classroom proved useful for developing social connection and a sense of community, it may not be so beneficial for supporting deeper learning

Teaching practical science online using GIS: a cautionary tale of coping strategies

Strong demand for GIS and burgeoning cohorts have encouraged the delivery of GIS teaching via online distance education models. This contribution reviews a brief foray (2012–2014) into this field by the Open University, deploying open source GIS software to enable students to perform practical science investigations online. The “Remote observation” topic spanned four science disciplines in 6 weeks – an ambitious remit within an innovative overarching module. Documenting the challenges and strategies involved, this paper uses forum usage and student feedback data to derive insights into the student experience and the pitfalls and pleasures of teaching GIS at a distance

Using asynchronous discussion tools in engineering education

This paper considers a number of uses of asynchronous discussion in engineering education, highlighting the benefits to learners and the issues which need to be considered. The main context is the use of computer conferencing by distance learners of technology at the UK Open University. The paper focuses on two courses where computer conferencing has been used in different ways: for optional peer support; and for assessed group activities. A number of questions about the use of asynchronous discussion are considered in the light of experience from these two contexts. The paper also indicates where more research is needed, considers how this research might be carried out, and discusses the difficulties involved

An online collaborative learning system : designing for evaluation of students' learning

This paper will discuss work-in-progress in the development and evaluation of an online collaborative learning system. The context is a study of a course in an on-campus weekend part-time program attended by students who share similar professional engineering backgrounds but living far apart from each other with no opportunities to meet for discussions between weekends. The course requires students to tackle problems based on real life scenarios within small online groups after having attended lectures over the weekend. The research will look at ways in which group work can be conducted, and the contribution of the instructor. The approach to be taken will be an interpretive case study using questionnaire survey, text analysis and interviews. The main findings from the study will be reported, with focus on the strengths of, and difficulties in, using the research methods