Uys, P.M. (1998, April). Seminar "The hydi
Educational New Media Centre: Findings in Distributed On-line Education" at
the Knowledge Media Institute of the Open University,
The hydi Educational New Media Centre:
Findings In Distributed On-line Education
Dr Philip Uys
Senior Lecturer and Project Director :
Educational New Media
E-mail: philip.uys@globe-online.com
Personal
homepage: http://www.globe-online.com/philip.uys
Seminar at the Knowledge Media Institute
of the Open University in
2 April
1998
If you need assistance in the strategic implementation of
e-Learning (networked education/distributed learning) in your institute, you
are welcome to contact philip.uys@globe-online.com to discuss your needs.
Table of Contents |
"Reality
isn't what it used to be."
Steinar Kvale
In this seminar /seminar the use of educational
new media and in particular on-line hypermedia in higher educational institutes
is discussed within two given frameworks. Firstly within the current transition
in higher educational institutes from traditional learning to virtual class
learning - also called "telelearning"(Tiffin
& Rajasingham, 1995) and "distributed
on-line education" (Uys, 1998).
The second framework is the action research
findings of the hydi Educational New Media Centre
(Uys, March 1998) in implementing the virtual class since September 1995. The
growth of the centre has underscored the words of Prof Robert Spence (Professor
of Information Engineering,
On-line hypermedia and the advent of intranets
extensively increase the ease and feasibility of offering the same educational
facilities to local students and distance students. This convergence of
learning modes which traditionally have been called "distance
education" and "on-campus education" means that both learning
control as well as on-line learning and teaching materials are distributed to
both local and distance students using the same interface (ie
a Web browser). Hence the term "distributed on-line
education", coined by the author, which will be used throughout this
seminar to denote learning in the virtual class.
"Hypermedia" is defined as multi-media
(which includes text, movement, sound, pictures, colour) with hyper-links, which seamlessly transports the
reader to other hypermedia materials.
The virtual class is seen as an electronic
meeting place of students and lecturers for the purpose of learning and
teaching - an educational experience of real people in a virtual dimension. In
the virtual class the activities of the traditional educational institute is
performed mostly without the movement of physical objects (eg
getting students and lecturers into a physical venue); this includes the
challenge of providing social interaction and a "campus experience"
to on-line students.
The virtual class can take many forms, it might
be for example on-line education using the Internet or an intranet, or meeting
in virtual reality as telepresences, or combining
these methods with traditional educational modes. Moving towards the virtual
class for some higher educational institutes mean to move all education from
traditional education to virtual class methods, or it
might mean to incorporate the virtual class as one of the key educational
strategies.
The reasons why higher educational institutes
are considering moving towards the virtual class include the need for life long
learning. Education is becoming more of a lifelong endeavour
than a few years stint after school because most careers require continued
training to keep up with the growing body of relevant knowledge and also
because of the modern tendency to develop more than one career during a
person’s working life. Distributed on-line education is attractive to
those already in the work force because of its open and flexible nature.
Emerging as a strong rationale for using
distributed on-line education is that it can greatly enhance the quality of
learning. It can lessen two huge problems in traditional distance education ie decrease in personal motivation and a sense of
isolation. Both asynchronous (e-mail, message boards) and real time on-line
communication facilities (voice, video, Internet Relay Chat and shared
whiteboards over the Net) can be used very effectively in this area. It also
bridges the boundaries and limitations of time and space, provide for a variety
of learning styles as well as for different navigational preferences. Students
can also take more control of their learning and can develop "life"
skills like time management and research skills, by students having to set
there own study plans, find additional Web resources, having to evaluate its
validity and then drawing sound conclusions.
The following aspects of distributed on-line
education will be highlighted:
"Do
not be afraid of going slowly,
be
afraid of standing still."
Eastern
Proverb
Four key management issues are discussed here:
an approach for organizational change, convergence of traditional on-campus and
distance education, ensuring adequate motivation for virtual class facilitators
and dealing with an increasing proximity between industry and education.
2.1 An approach for organizational change
The concept of the virtual class is new to most
higher educational institutes and introduces organizational change; this was
also the case at
The On-line Campus is part of the vision to combine
hypermedia on the World Wide Web as an on-line education medium, with other
educational strategies to provide education to both overseas,
national and local students in an open and flexible manner.
The main aims of the centre - through research,
consulting, development and teaching - are to increase
A key factor in the success of the on-line
campus project at
For acceptance of the "virtual class" concept , it has been important to create a general
awareness following both a top-down and bottom-up approach. After the President
accepted the proposal and appointed the Project Director, the Project Director
then asked staff who have shown some personal interest
in on-line education, to join the project in the required roles. The President
agreed to launch the concept at a breakfast for the Directorate (top
management) - with other specially invited staff - and the project team. The
Project Director also provided input on a monthly basis at the Senior
Management’s meetings. A number of general sessions were held for other
staff. Each deliverable has also been publicly launched.
The concept of a pilot project to develop the
Wellington Polytechnic Homepage was used so that the team could gain a better
understanding of Web technologies and gain an understanding of the resource
requirements.
The pilot project concept was again used when
the first on-line course, ‘Teaching Techniques for Adult Learning’
was developed. This free sampler provides interested parties a taste of what
on-line courses at Wellington Polytechnic can be like (different delivery
approaches however are followed in other on-line courses.
Overall, the seven stages of Lewin
and Schein’s model for organizational change
(Stair, 1992) were followed. These stages are listed with a description of how
each step was applied in this project:
a. Scouting: Identify
potential areas or systems that may need change: educational planning,
development and delivery
b. Entry: Stating the
problems and the goals: included and described in the initial proposal document
c. Diagnosis:
Gathering data and determining resources required: described in the initial
proposal document and further developed during the pilot project and the development
of the Sampler course
d. Planning: Examining
alternatives and making decisions: some early decisions were contained in the
initial proposal document eg that the Web is to be
used as key delivery medium; others were made by using the prototype and
Sampler concepts where a large degree of exploration, discovery and
experimentation was allowed for in all areas : educational, technical and
design.
e. Action: Implementing the
decisions: decisions were followed through in a consistent manner.
f. Evaluation: Determining
whether the changes satisfied the initial objectives and solved the problems
identified: this process has been carried out continuously in weekly and later
fort-nightly project meetings, informal and open discussions, feedback by students who were asked to
"test-drive" the courses and by enrolled students. Valuable feedback from trusted colleagues at other higher educational
institutes were also obtained. It is essential that continual student
feedback is sought and also that ongoing technical evaluation occurs to ensure
that the most appropriate technologies are being used in an effective way.
g. Termination: Transferring
the ownership of the new / changed system to the users and ensuring efficient
operation: if the content providers (as clients) are intimately involved from
start to implementation, this transition should take place in a fluent and
satisfactory way.
The above model seems to work well if the seven
stages are not seen as consecutive, but as dynamic dimensions of a process.
Flexibility and giving a high priority to people-issues proved to be essential
ingredients in the success of introducing this change in
2.2 Convergence
With the advent of intranets, the ease and
feasibility of offering the same facilities to local students that are being
offered to distance students have increased extensively. With the same
interface (ie a Web browser), on-line education and
teaching materials are available to both local and distance students.
Traditionally, centres
for distance education were often "the minority" who understood and
used information technology in education out of necessity because of its ease
of distribution, ease of maintenance and later because
of its potential to increase the quality of learning and teaching. At the same
time their colleagues carried on with face-to-face education with workload
formulas based on contact hours as a key component and lecturing in bigger and
bigger lecture halls.
On the other hand, some educational institutes
have the majority of their on-line materials solely for the use of local
students.
Scenarios like these indicate that the
possibility and reality of convergence of both local and distance education
modes is a paradigm shift which is currently being made by only a small number
of higher educational institutes.
What does this convergence look like in reality?
It means that teaching and learning materials are available on-line and that it
is used by academic staff as well as local and distance students in a creative
way. Local students may have all their lecture notes on-line as well-designed
hypermedia courseware which include on-line
communication facilities, different navigation paths, catering for different
learning styles, access and pointers to other Web resources and exercises. The
local students may also have face-to-face tutorials to work through exercises
and sit tests and exams in a physical building. Distance students may also have
all their lecture notes on-line, have on-line real-time tutorials, attend
workshops on the physical campus, and do their assignments on-line. However the
synergy of this convergence is that local and distance students can meet
on-line as well as physically, evaluate each other’s on-line published
materials, do group assignments together, form informal study groups etc!
Instead of trying to meet traditional workload
formulas and extend often ineffective class room and distance education
techniques, this convergence rather look at creating the best possible learning
scenarios for both local and distance students in a more flexible way.
This convergence of learning modes which
traditionally have been called "distance education" and
"on-campus education" means that both learning control as well as
on-line learning and teaching materials are distributed to both local and
distance students using the same interface (ie a Web
browser). Hence the term "distributed on-line education".
Managing this convergence is a key aspect in the
transition towards the virtual class.
2.3 Ensuring adequate motivation for
virtual class facilitators
It is essential that reward systems are tied to
the strategic objectives and directions of an institute. If an institute
desires to move towards the virtual class, its reward systems should encourage
those involved to become more effective and committed to it.
In general it can be said that academics
don’t like changes to their jobs and how they work. In the virtual class
environment a large number of changes are required eg
moving from text based to digital media, being more of a facilitator (ie following a developmental rather than a dissemination
approach (Hodgson, Munn and Snell,1987) than a "lecturer", spending
more time on on-line communication than face-to-face communication, being less
of a "guru" and more of a coach, being less of a "creator"
of courses and more of a "user" (especially of Web resources) etc.
Workload requirements needs to be revised to incorporate these on-line activities as
well as the involvement in developing on-line hypermedia courseware.
Intellectual Property rights should be debated
and negotiated, especially in a virtual class environment where a large
proportion of the courseware is published on an international medium from where
materials can be easily copied.
2.4 Dealing with an increasing proximity
between industry and education
Corporate Universities are emerging which do not
have the same academic philosophies or handicaps of traditional higher
educational institutes (Microsoft, Andersons and Macdonald’s for example
is active in this area). These proprietary institutions often focus on what
makes money (eg courses like MBA, ESL, certificating
teachers) following an industrial model of education ie
through an intermediate process, inputs deliver outputs which can be marketed
and sold.
Education and entertainment is getting closer
too! Hollywood Studios are also getting involved in partnerships (currently
project with Warner Bros to identify how each student learn and what they need
to learn, and then match up with specific computer mediated learning systems).
I have heard that the BBC, the Open University (UK) and the British film
industry is exploring joint projects in education?
Will we soon see "The Ultimate
Consortium" delivering the same quality of education, at the same cost or
less, but more entertaining and taken shorter for degreeing
students? A consortium consisting of a huge financial
sponsor, a computer giant (eg MS) and a prominent
company in the film industry drawing on the "best professors"
available for the content and educational process? Will free academic
discourse, critique and research be valued, encouraged and supported when the
bottom-line becomes achieving a target profit margin?
Higher educational institutes will need to
rethink mission, objectives and strategies to turn threats into opportunities
in this competitive and dynamic environment.
Hypermedia assists the instructional designer in
catering for different learning styles and ways of navigating a course. Mediated
individualised instruction is a sound
educational goal and supported by educationalists like Romiszowski
(1984).
3.1 Navigational paths
Two basic navigational preferences are being
addressed in the Massey University at Wellington’s on-line courses:
sequential and random navigation, as well as whether the student would like to
study independently in a more flexible mode or as part of a group in a more
structured manner.
Let’s first look at sequential and random
navigation.
The Web and intranets cater very naturally
through hyperlinks for the random learner. No strict sequence is built into the
courses, although some suggestions of a sequential progression are made. The
learner can thus take any route through the content and activities; the only
fixed requirement is that the assessments need to be completed before credit
can be obtained!
For the sequential learner, special measures
need to be taken in an on-line course. In some courses we have used clickable
navigational "course maps", which is a graphical presentation of the
proposed sequence of the main sections in a course, and is presented at the
start of the course. One of the standard hyperlinks at the bottom of each page
within a course is a link to this "map" to help students orientate
themselves whenever required.
From the page that contains the "course
map", students can also access an "Index" page which contains an
extensive list of most of the hyperlinks within the course. The inherent
capability of Web browsers to change the colour of
all followed links are used on this "Index" page, so that a student
can access this page and see exactly which parts of the course have been
visited and which parts not (this is a crude method and needs to be developed
further).
Another issue is whether a student would like to
study independently in a more flexible mode or as part of a group in a more
structured manner. When the student wants to study as part of a group, the time
lines within a course needs to be adhered to, and group assessment techniques
can be used. The message boards can also play a key part in such a learning
approach. If a student choose to study independently however, start and finish
times for a course becomes less important. Assessments are then structured for
an individual approach and the student might or might not want to participate
in on-line communications. One of the benefits of on-lined education is that
certain types of asynchronous communications like hypermail
boards and newsgroups, allow the independent student to see what communications
have been occurring on course topics and also provides contact information o fother students who have done or are doing the same course
and in such a way break the isolation often experienced by the independent
student.
3.2 Different Learning styles
Other facilities in the On-line Campus are
included to support specific learning styles. One learning style inventory
describes four learning styles namely that of being a pragmatist, activist,
reflector and theorist. (It is recognized that every student has a blend of
these learning styles and approaches, and also that this is one of about twenty
possible learning style inventories!).
Pragmatist
: learning best by understanding / seeing and actively engaging in a practical
application of the content - a "Gymnasium" section is a standard
hyperlink at the bottom of each Web page within some courses where students are
provided with exercises of both a practical and theoretical nature
Activist:
learning best when the content contains a large number of activities and
concrete experiences, when learning is an exciting experience and when there
are a variety of "discoveries" - the "Gymnasium" section in
some courses also assists this learning style. The Web also naturally lends
itself to "discoveries" through hyperlinks - within the course or to
external sources. Students can experience excitement in their learning through
- random
navigation
- high level of
inter-activity through e-mail, message boards, on-line feedback on assignments
- the use of
multi-media ie graphics, colours,
sounds and movement.
Reflector:
learning best by reflective observation - a "Reflection" section is a
standard hyperlink at the bottom of each Web page within some courses where
students are provided with "thinking" exercises - often more advanced
questions or points to ponder on. The "Gymnasium" section also
assists this learning style. Since a large proportion of on-line communication
in hypermedia courses on the Web is asynchronous, the student has the
opportunity to reflect before responding to students, lecturers, the content or to assessments.
Theorist:
learning best by abstract conceptualisation ie by understanding the principles of theory - a large
percentage of some of our courses are the narrative elements (ie the instructional pages which consist largely of direct
information-giving).
"The
single most frequent failure in the history of forecasting
has
been grossly underestimating the impact of technologies"
Anon
The question why on-line communications are so
important is briefly discussed below.
On-line real-time communications over the
Internet is exponentially growing. On-line video and voice
meetings, CHAT’s, real-time interactive
applications in education and commerce is growing. (About
50% of the people who attended the ICDE conference in June 1997 have been using
on-line real-time communications over the Internet regularly.)
"Distance" is no longer defined in
terms of physical proximity but in response time!
It will become an essential and normal part in
on-line courses to provide this extremely cost-effective way of communication
between students and between students and lecturers ("Cyber
guides"!). The educational value of it include
One of the problems with traditional distance
education courses is the isolation that these students often experience. They
often don’t know who their fellow students, previous students or even
their lecturers are! We have employed a number of mechanisms in our attempt to
solve this problem and also encouraged an active, constructivist learning
approach.
Some of our on-line courses are using real-time
on-line communication facilities like Internet Relay Chat (IRC), voice,
video-conferencing and shared whiteboard facilities over the Web. These
facilities provide social interaction in a more natural way, and also build
some accountability into these courses.
Asynchronous mechanisms we use in our
distributed on-line courses include an "Ideas Exchange" which is referenced
via a hyperlink at the bottom of every page in our sampler course. Here
students can place public messages for other students on a dedicated message
board - with or without an e-mail address (some courses uses hypermail threaded message boards while others use open
message boards). They can also place public messages for the lecturer on a
dedicated message board - with or without indicating their e-mail address, as
well as send private messages to the lecturer via e-mail. (Message boards can
be used for both asynchronous and synchronous communications).
Other courses might have a "
A clear distinction is made between
students-only boards and ones on which the facilitator may participate.
The degree and benefits of public access to
course communications and the decision about leaving all or some messages on
the boards for future (or continuous) course occurrences are issues to be
considered by each on-line educator.
Nicholas Negroponte encouraged participants at
the 1997 ICDE Conference to take the role of emotions in communication
seriously! There was a time when purists in sociology and communications
believed that emotions detract and negatively influence the "true message"
- it was part of the "noise" which had to be removed to get the
"real" message. We should however not subtract or try to remove
emotions from human communications - instead, it is a very important and
natural part of human communications which should be included and supported in
computer mediated communication!
The challenge is for computer systems, and
computer mediated education systems in particular to accommodate, facilitate
and communicate emotions (be it verbal, body-language or otherwise) as an
integral and vital part of the message.
On-line education can deliver some support for
this aspect through on-line audio and video, emoticons, well-designed icons
etc. - but there is still a way to go!
"The
Universe is full of magical things
patiently waiting for our
wits
to grow sharper."
The concepts of "constructivism" and
"discovery learning" are often confused (
"Discovery learning" centers around the concept that a strong narrative is not provided
and that the student "discovers" knowledge / meaning through various
self-directed activities such as working through a case study, having debates,
answering a set of questions, being provided with references to resources. The
Web lends itself very powerfully to this kind of learning through linking to
various Web sites and through the use of both asynchronous and synchronous
on-line communications.
"Constructivism" however, is a
philosophical educational approach in which it is argued that since knowledge
is socially and culturally constructed (
Hypermedia systems can also facilitate this
approach very well as Landow (1992) for instance
writes:
"Hypermedia technology is enabling
rather than directive; learners browsing hypertext documents can construct
their own knowledge according to associations in their own cognitive structures
... This emphasis on an active, constructivist learner means that hypermedia
systems should be viewed as learning rather than teaching tools."
The implications for instructional design is
well summarised by Boyle (1996) who suggests that it
should focus on:
Adding to this should be an expectation on the
part of the lecturer of receiving different expressions of meaning in
assessments.
"A
mind once stretched by a new idea
never
regains its original dimension"
Oliver
Wendell Holmes
It is quite astounding to see how many computer
products for the development of on-line courses take the notion for granted
that course elements ("course objects") are to be stored in flat
directory structures.
Often the html files, media elements and scripts
are being stored on servers in an organised flat
directory structure which is reminiscent of how data was stored before the
1980’s! Since then relational databases and object oriented databases
have emerged as effective, sound and popular ways of storing information in
computer systems.
Some comprehensive and specialised
databases have been developed for on-line course generation eg
"Hyperwave" ( initially
developed as "Hyper-G") (Hyperwave, 1998)
The hydi Educational
New Media Centre is currently developing a flexible, low-end educator’s
tool for on-line course generation using the "Filemaker"
relational database because it is a cross-platform (Mac and PC) product, can
generate HTML on the fly, is a fully relational database, is an inexpensive
product and has sufficient security and access features.
This tool allows the lecturer to input from
their office directly into the database text in paragraphs, selects from a
range of pre-designed media elements (graphics, movies, audio clips) via key word
queries, create internal and external links, and doing all of this without any
knowledge of HTML, Java or other technical coding languages. This tool is
highly flexible and does not have the characteristics of a "shell"
type product.
At any stage the content provider can generate
the course for transfer to the web server or deliver html on the fly through a
pre-designed template script.
We see the advantages of this tool in
being a low end, friendly and focussed
tool for developing distributed on-line courses.
"Freedom
is not worth having if it does not include
the
freedom to make mistakes."
Mahatma
Gandhi
In this seminar the following aspects of distrbuted on-line education werer
highlighted:
There is no doubt that the findings discussed in
this seminar is preliminary and that it will be enhanced and expanded as the
movement in higher educational institutes towards the virtual class gain
increasing momentum. In the field of distributed on-line education we should
acknowledge that expertise is short lived, and that an appropriate approach is
that of being a continual learner, since:
"In
a time of drastic change it is the learners who survive;
the
"learned" find themselves fully equipped
to
live in a world that no longer exists"
Eric
Hoffer