Case Study 2: Education

Two versions of this case study are available to download in pdf format (the Adobe Acrobat Reader to allow viewing of pdf files is available for download here). The first version is the basic case study as presented on this page, the second version includes all the 'voices of experience' - comments taken from learners and teachers to build up the case study - that are accessible from each section below, interwoven into the case study as a whole.

>> Case Study: CMC Use in Education - summary version

>> Case Study: CMC Use in Education - including interwoven 'Voices of Experience'

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Introduction

The Module in Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) constitutes one sixth part of a full-time MA programme dealing with IT in education. Most modules in the programme run over the course of one term, but this one stretches over two terms because of the nature of the materials and methods (the subject matter of computer-mediated communication) with which it engages, running from mid January until June.

Characteristics of the Communication Technology

The central technology in use on the course was text-based conferencing and electronic mail. There was no formal timetable for the contact which took place, save for one three hour introductory session at the beginning of the course, and another three hour session in the middle. The session at the beginning was used to present the technical facilities of the course to the students, and to introduce the strategies for communications which were to be deployed. The lecturer was at pains to point out to the participating students that the course was not an 'on-line course' as such, but rather it was a course which relied heavily on communications within the course group, and between students and staff . Most of the course activity, apart from these two 'face-to-face' sessions, is mediated through the electronic mail and conferencing system FirstClass. This was seen as a powerful yet accessible tool which was easy for the students to use, irrespective of their previous technical experience.

Stated Purpose of the Conferencing

The lecturer in charge of this particular module described it as 'an incestuous course within the course' because of the way in which it made use of the medium of CMC to help students to engage with the potential of CMC in education. He seeks to 'talk about CMC while doing it'.

In general, the course intended to deploy technologies and approaches with its participant group which the participants might be expected to want to use with the student groups for which they themselves were responsible. For example, the longer duration of the course gave all of the students the opportunity to serve in the role of moderator of the electronic conferences which were a central part of the course.

Stated Principles of Use

The course lecturer was particularly concerned to promote and encourage active participation among the group members, with participation being defined as contributions to the online discussion. Students were to see the set tasks as demanding collaborative activity among the group members, with an expectation that they would be logging on to the online conference every day or two, and posting frequently. This demand to be seen to be contributing was a cause of some resentment among certain students.

Assessment of student performance on the course was by a 4,000 - 5,000 word essay. There was no direct assessment of the activity of the students through the electronic conference, except in as far as the CMC discussions informed and contributed to the course essay. Some of the students appeared to find this state of affairs somewhat demotivating with respect to their contribution to, and participation in, the online discussion. Because there were no direct assessment points accruing to the online work, some chose to see it as 'neither here nor there'.

Even extended as it was over the two terms rather than one, the workload on the course was felt by some to be quite heavy. To some extent this was seen as being due to the open-ended nature of the on-line participation. In a 'conventional' course the workload was constrained by the number of timetabled contact hours and other opportunities for interaction with staff and students. In the on-line environment there were no such constraints.

Character of the Communication

The electronic communication was deployed on the course for purposes of supporting collaborative group work among the student participants. That the objectives were clear gave direction to the activity, as opposed to some general injunction to the students to use the medium for discussions around the themes of the course.

A great deal of discussion, among the student participants and in interview with the lecturer in charge of the course, focused on the notion of 'collaboration'. The lecturer had some reservations about the use of the word, as it was clear to him that it could be taken to mean very different things to different people. There is clear acknowledgement that the aim of achieving participative group work supported through the medium of text conferencing is a difficult target, and that the students need to build up to this through earlier, more self-directed activities.

Differences in the degree of manifest participation was also a cause of some friction within the group. Some appeared to contribute less to the online discussions, and there was little which could be done to compel participation. The feeling that some were reading the contributions of others and thereby benefiting, while not actively contributing themselves ('lurking') was a source of some resentment.

Some felt that the time lag inherent in the text-based conference served to interrupt the 'rhythm' of communicative exchanges and made the communication difficult to sustain. This coupled with the vastly different styles of writing from the different participants was again something of a complication and distraction.

Group size (being relatively small) was considered to be important for the success of the approach. Larger groups allowed and encouraged high levels of non-participation, while groups smaller than the suggested optimum of five or six usually failed to be viable.

Self-Perceptions

Some students clearly felt sensitive and self-conscious about their contributions to the on-line discussion. This focused on the teacher's desire that the students should work to make their presence in the group manifest through frequent postings, as opposed to the strong feelings of some students that they should on contribute when they had something to say. There was a mismatch between the lack of social, supportive feedback cues which were available in the online discussion context, and what one would normally experience in a face-to-face encounter. The guidance of the lecturer that students should attempt to replace these through frequent, brief postings did not seem to be resonant with the feelings of at least some of the participants.

Another issue raised was the extent to which discussion participants become very closely attached to their own points of view when these are expressed in the relatively permanent medium of text, as opposed to being voiced in a classroom setting. One student offered a helpful insight from his own professional experience, encouraging online participants not to become too wedded to their ideas, but to be prepared to 'back down'.

Learning and Teaching Relationships

One clear aim of the course is the promotion of educationally beneficial communicative and collaborative exchanges among the student participants. This is a development which can be seen over the period since the course's inception. In recent years, the lecturer observed, it seemed to have been increasingly necessary to orient the students directly and explicitly to this collaborative intent. In the past, increasing technological support for the possibility of communicative exchanges among the student group appeared to have led, very naturally, to attempts at collaborative engagement. In recent years this had been less obviously so.

One of the recurring themes in the interviews with the students was the extent to which their group work could be seen to be truly 'collaborative'. The progression towards closer interaction among the student group over time was clearly perceived by the students although some had doubts about just how successful the attempts to promote collaborative working had been. There was discussion among the students about the degrees of co-operation which could be seen in their working practices. While some could envisage the possibility of discussion leading to a truly collaborative written product, what seemed more often to happen was parallel activity on some common product which was later joined together in a relatively non-integrated way. The widely different aspirations of the students on the course were seen by some as posing difficulties for the aim of collaboration.

The communications among the students themselves were considered to be the most important on the course. The lecturer declared that once the tasks had been set his aim was to let the students get on with them with as little interference as possible. He would keep general oversight, intervening to guide or redirect only when things seemed to be going wrong in some way.

As with most course groups, the differing values and aspirations of the various members of the group proved to be something of a frustration for some of the participants. There was a feeling that the collaborative ideals of the course could only be successfully realised when most participants shared those ideals.

Getting Things Done

The course has a very clear sequence of progression from activity which is more independent through to activities with a much more obviously collaborative focus. The course begins with an on-line activity which the lecturer describes as 'brainstorming'. This involves the students in pieces of independent writing, which then form the basis of group discussion. Students are invited to present their ideas on a topic without reference, in the first instance, to the writing and views of their peers. This, the lecturer indicates, he introduces to address the students' 'fear of publication'. This is seen to be particularly important in the context of the international and cross-cultural composition of the course group. Later activities of the course compelled greater communication and integration of the students' online activities. This systematic progression seemed to be perceived and appreciated by the students.

Continuity with Curricula

The technologies deployed on the course constituted the substantive subject matter of the course. The purpose of the course was to present communication technologies in teaching and learning to the student group through the medium of those very technologies. The direct experience which they gained was greatly valued by the students.

New developments on the course would be stimulated by the ways in which the relevant media and educational technologies moved. While the progress in technology, and the students' access to that technology, was clearly extremely exciting, it posed particular challenges for the course. There was no stable base, but rather the agenda for the course evolved with the progression of technological development. The course had to consider what new elements of experience should be introduced each year. At the time of our study the course lecturer was considering the need to address people's burgeoning interest in video communication, and in the possibilities of networked sharing of applications programs. The lecturer felt that although the course did not currently include video conferencing technologies it would soon have to, because video was widely believed to be the important new medium. This was not a view he shared. The other major new development in prospect was the move to the next release of the electronic conferencing software FirstClass which would afford a greater degree of Web integration.

Evaluation

The students are generally enthusiastic about the opportunity which the course afforded to experience a range of new educational and communications technologies.

Most of the students were from the UK, although some were from overseas. The course lecturer observed that a collateral effect of the use of the communication media on the course was that two overseas students from that particular cohort had been able to continue their studies despite having to return home. This greater flexibility applied also to the UK students, a few of whom lived at a distance of around 50 miles from the campus. That students who lived at a distance from the campus were catered for in this way served as an additional, and increasingly important, recruiting gambit for the course. The gender ratio of course members was approximately equal male and female. Gender was discussed by some of the students as an issue in relation to differential participation in the online discussion although dismissed by others as not being relevant. Others raised the cultural and motivational differences within the group.

The course was in its seventh year at the time at which we looked at it in 1999. There were about twelve full-time students taking the module, with one or two working on a part-time basis. The lecturer observed that some of the success of the course could be attributed to the relatively small group size. The students were largely post-experience teachers from some part of the education system, with something of a bias towards the higher education sector. Some might be involved in education in other areas like technical support. The level of IT experience of the student group covered an extremely wide spread, although the general level of experience (and access) was noted to have risen steadily over the years. The cohort with which we spoke all had a computer and dial-up access through their own commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP). Most of the on-line work appeared to be done from home. There were however clear financial implications for the students in the extensive engagement with text conferencing. The amount of experience which course members had of educational CMC, and of online learning activities, varied enormously

Text of this section by by Hamish Macleod, editor Erica McAteer

Computer-Mediated Conferencing: Grounded Guidelines