Practitioner Inquiries
Bette Collis is one of the leaders in the field of CMC development and practitioner inquiry. Her work with her own students at the University of Twente, from the late 1980s and still ongoing, grounded her seminal book Telelearning in a Digital World: The future of distance learning, published in 1996 and we start this sub-section with a reproduction of her table summarising key design points for CMC design at that time, which we feel still hold true today. Full references for the authors cited are given at the end of this subsection.
| Study | Major insight for course designers |
| Thorpe (1989) | Computer conferencing adds substantially to the time load on the instructor |
| Florini (1969) | Students need time to respond, but specific deadlines must also be set. |
| Mason (1989) | Computer conferencing is an interesting but marginal activity for the majority of students; for a minority it becomes exciting and satisfying. |
| Soby (1992) | The potential application to collaborative learning is high but students have difficulty in formulating good questions and to structure and adhere to planning when using computer conferencing. |
| Henri (1991) | The content of computer conferences can be analysed using a particular coding method around five dimensions: participation, interaction, social, cognitive, and metacognitive. |
| Hardy, McConnell, Hodgson and Reynolds (1991) | If well executed, computer conferencing can (partially) replace face-to-face seminars, tutorial sessions, and groupwork sessions. |
| Goldman and Newman (1992) | There are important differences in communication via computer conferencing and face-to-face interaction, particularly with respect to initiation and response patterns, turn taking, and distinguishing between public and private communications. |
| Wood (1993) | Computer conferencing is appropriate for 'high solidarity' course settings, such as graduate courses and colloquia. |
| Gunawardena and Heeren (1993) | Students may prefer to reflect rather than contribute; is this a problem in computer conferencing, and if yes, how should it be addressed? |
| Hiltz & Turoff (1993) | There are 329 (!) factors identified that can influence the success of computer conferencing; the various combinations of these are enormous. These factors are in four major groups: contextual, intervention related, group-adaptation related, and outcome related. |
| Mason (1994) | Computer conferencing supports humanistic aims in education in that it uniquely combines reflection and written communication with human intimacy and personal openness. |
| De Vries (1994) | The moderator and the way s/he carries out eight different categories of roles are critical to the educational value of computer conferencing. |
| Berge (1995) | 54 recommendations are offered for integrating computer conferencing into course design, grouped according to moderator's role, pedagogical design, social issues, managerial aspects and technical aspects. |
| Pincas (1995) | Consider a pedagogical approach where students are given a task, and use computer conferencing to comment on their discoveries (instead of teacher input generating student activity, student activity generates teacher input) |
Extracted from Bette Collis' book 'Telelearning in a Digital World: the future of distance learning' by International Thomson Computer Press, 1996 (pp 448-9)
Below we identify just five recent papers by people who engage with the challenges of e-tutoring and who have made some systematic investigation of their own practice.
Elsebeth Sorensen and Eugene Takle focus on ways of representing and assessing a 'knowledge building dialogue' between participants within computer mediated conferences, through clarification of grading requirements as well as providing students with what they call 'meta-awareness' around the functions of requested comments.
This is an interesting overview of a course changing over time (1995-2000) to accommodate a growing acknowledgement of, dependency on, and therefore criteria for assessing 'learning interaction'. As a preliminary study it works well, as a systematic investigation it doesn't, as the issue of generalisation across the learning environment, or indeed to the wider community, cannot be addressed. It would be worth thinking about the behavioural categories identified by the study, and whether they may usefully be applied within your own context.
Catherine Edwards engages in critical consideration of how the concept 'knowledge construction' is applied and explored in online environments. She offers an exercise in concept framework building through which data might be gathered to inform and develop a more robust theoretical stance. Her paper provides a very timely 'pause for thought' about some current assumptions:
That we can create viable communities of learners online.
That these online communities can construct knowledge through dialogue using eg. email or conferencing software
That the knowledge thus constructed will be useful to learners as professional practitioners and/or enable them to develop the kinds of critical thinking which will enhance their professional practice.
That there is the added bonus that this 'knowledge' can be captured/evidenced because the dialogues are text-based and therefore recordable.
Philippa Levy, speaking at the same symposium as Edwards, provides a case study of her own action research approach. This evaluates the pedagogical model that underpinned her course for information services staff. It usefully provides rationale, framework and methods, criticising these from the perspective of her own discipline. The philosophy of action research is also treated in her paper.
Catherine McLoughlin's main concern is with culture and curriculum, specifically issues around cross-cultural participation for courses offered to an international market. Her critique of current instructional design approaches shows that many lack the depth and scope to enable them to provide culturally inclusive learning experiences. Taking up a model proposed by Henderson (1996) which her paper reviews, she offers a framework for culturally inclusive teaching and curriculum that can be applied to online learning environments. Her examples of 'instructive alignment' applied to online teaching might give ground for thought and reflection where the indigenous, rather than the global, learner group is a multi-cultural one. http:www.aare.edu.au/01pap/mcl01720.htm
Finally, Simon Rae's powerpoint presentation Peer, Expert, Reflector, Teacher and Collaborator, delivered to the Computers and Learning Research Group conference in 2000, treats the different roles and expectations of the online student and provides useful references for further study.
http://iet.open.ac.uk/pp/s.a.rae/CALRGpresentation/sld001.htm
References for Bette Collis' table:
Berge, Z (1995) 'Facilitating computer conferencing: Recommendations from the field'. Educational Technology, 35(1), 22-30
Collis, B. (1996) Telelearning in a Digital World: The future of distance learning, International Thomson Computer Press
De Vries, L (1994) 'Design considerations and the application of a qualitative content evaluation to a tele-seminar at the Distance Education Centre, Toowoomba, Australia'.Masters thesis, Faculty of Educational Science and Technology, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.
Florini, B. M. (1989) Computer conferencing: a technology for adult education. Syracuse, NY. Syracuse University Kellogg Project.
Goldman, S.V. and Newman, D (1992) 'Electronic interactions: how students and teachers organise schooling over the wires'. Interactive Learning Environments, 2(1) 31-44.
Gunawardena, C. N. and Heeren, E. (1993, 4 August) 'Design and analysis of global cooperative learning through computer conferencing'. Paper presented at the Ninth Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning. Madison, WI.
Hardy, G., McConnell, D., Hodgson, V. and Reynolds, M. (1991) Computer mediated communication for management training and development. Lancaster, UK: Centre for the Study of Management Learning, Lancaster University.
Henri, F. (1991) 'Computer conferencing and content analysis'. In A.R.Kaye (Ed),Collaborative learning through computer conferencing (pp.117-136) Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Hiltz, S. R. and Turoff, M. (1993) The network nation: human communication via computers. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Mason, R. (1989) 'An evaluation of COSY on an Open University course'. In R.
Mason & A. Kaye (eds) Mindweave (pp.115-145) Oxford: Pergammon.
Mason, R. (1994) Using communications media in open and flexible learning. London: Kogan Page.
Pincas, A. (1995) 'The learning benefits of well-designed computer conferencing'. In P. Held & W. F. Kugermann (eds) Telematics for education and training Amsterdam: IOS Press.(pp 277-280)
Soby, M. (1992) 'Waiting for Electropolis'. In A. R. Kaye (ed) Collaborative learning through computer conferencing (pp 39-49) Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Thorpe, M. (1989). The tutor perspective on computer mediated communication in DT200: introduction to information technology. CITE Report No. 76, Milton Keynes, UK: Institute of Educational Technology, Open University.
Wood, J. (1993) 'The professional development of teachers as facilitators of computer mediated collaborative learning'. In T. Nunan (ed) Distance education futures (pp 93-104) Adelade, Australia: Australian and South Pacific External Studies Association.
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