Grounded Guidelines/Case Study: Automotive Engineering
Characteristics of the Communication Technology
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Networked communication was used to augment the course through the provision of computer-mediated communication (CMC), and by the delivery of course documents through the World-Wide Web. The vehicle for provision of the CMC was Lotus Notes, accessed through the Domino Web server. This provided a "threaded" asynchronous text conferencing system.
Teaching staff thought and talked about this facility as a distributed "database" (reflecting the underlying architecture of the system), while students saw a sequence of linked Web pages accessed through a course home page "menu". Students tended to talk about the communication facility in interview as "the Web page" or "the Web pages", reflecting the external manifestation of the system, and their route to access it. The database contained a mixture of "broadcast" information, and opportunities for communication and questioning.
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If the Web page was a little bit faster ...
I think it would be better integrated in our email package - the Web page ... so the barrier would be smaller to use it ... I think we would use it more.
This discussion starts when a student asks why the interest in the use of the Web - "Why is it so important - the use of the Web - for you?" The interviewer then clarifies. The discussion then moves to the interaction and integration of the Web forum with the standard email tool.
One student indicates that they might not go to the Web for as long as a month, whereas it would be quite usual for them to check email every 2 hours. Email is delivered into one's mailbox, while one has to go in to the Web to see if there is anything there.
It seemed to be accepted in the group that this was a valid analysis of the situation, rather than being an assumption based on the primacy of their particular past experience. [What is being observed here, of course, is not an intrinsic function of the particular technology, but of the interaction between what the teachers and course organisers have provided, and the normal behavioural pattern of the students.
"Going into .." the student's email account is not seen as an inconvenience in the same way that having to go to a particular Web page seems to be viewed.] Students indicated that they would go to the Web from time to time for general information or announcement and sometimes they would get email to say, "Have you looked at the Web ...?"
One of the group observes that the feedback which the students provided on the last module which they had taken, had been placed on the Web. This was clearly news to some of the others.
The chat forum (with the cup of coffee) is just for the student - not for the staff.
Discussion could be improved if you were able "to more categorise ..." to provide for a clearer relationship between messages. That would be an advantage over a normal emailing system - the organisation.
One student is describing the way in which the Web technology allows you to see, from the appearance of the screen, where you have "been" and what you have read. He observes that this is a great improvement on what was available only two years ago, and that things would be expected to get better in the future.
Someone comments on problem of speed of access a few months ago, which was to do with his own computer within the company - he now had a different machine which had made access much faster.
[Student focus group discussion] |
Broadly, the database was used to disseminate organisational information about the course ("Module Information"), to make available learning resource materials which students could download at their place of work ("Study Support Materials"), and to afford opportunity for students and staff to participate in discussion and questioning about the work of the course ("Discussion Forums"). Illustrated here is the home page and point of access to the database.
An additional discussion forum was established as an area for social "chat" among the students.
The study support materials accessible via the Web for downloading were held as pdf (portable document format) files readable using Adobe Acrobat Reader.
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