| On The Line
Developing Conferencing Within a Distance Learning Management Education Context: Training the Tutors |
| Presented to: On line Educa
Asia,
September 1997
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| Introduction |
| The Open University Business
School is concerned with the professional development of managers up to
and including Master of Business Administration (MBA) level over much of
Western Europe and increasingly in other parts of the world, through multi-media,
supported distance learning.
Many commentators are arguing currently that technology provides all educators with a challenge and an opportunity as we move into the next Century. Macfarlane argues that the challenge is to "construct & deploy highly supportive environments" ..providing " self-paced tutor supported learning" . The challenge is to change the ways we aid the learning process to increase individual support, collaborative environments and provide more flexibility - to explore, where we do want to change our ways, where we do not, what we can do better than ever, what we can do that was not possible before - in terms of learning & teaching. New Communication Technologies (NCTs) present particular opportunities to distance education institutions such as UK Open University Business School (OUBS). Individuals do not need to be logged on at the same time, there is freedom from spatio-temporal limitations, there are opportunities for reflective or spontaneous interaction, increased contact between individuals , more control of communications for students, more communicating in writing One important application of NCTs is Computer Mediated Conferencing (CMC). In this paper we address in particular the training and development of Distance Learning teachers faced for the first time with the need to use Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) for teaching purposes, taking Metz's wide definition of CMC as "any communication patterns mediated through the computer" p31. Some researchers, writing
in the late 1980s about organisational use of CMC, reported as little as
20% successful implementation of electronic communication systems citing
inadequate planning , poor integration and cultural resistance as the main
causes of failure We contend that such training
and development for effective use of CMC for on-line communication, networking
and teaching, needs to be based on a constructivist, learner-centred approach
. It needs to address In developing his argument for CMC to be researched as a context rather than as a tool or simply as a channel of communication, Metz insists that an action research perspective is the most useful . Wild, writing recently of the need to develop a theoretical base for CMC research says: "Interpretivist and developmental studies (rather than analytical and comparative research) are likely to enlighten what we already know about what works and what doesn’t in this area" As the area of study is essentially a new one, it was necessary to have a "starting point" hence the building of a simple model of use based on the practice of students and tutors on line. In this sense, we were following Carr and his description of practical theory, meaning reflective practice . Earliest uses of content analysis were related to frequency of use of words in documents, typically to describe trends or patterns in the content of the communication, to audit communication against standards or to analyse style ;. However, there are recent examples of researchers using content analysis for evaluation or to infer critical thinking skills from messages in computer mediated conferencing [Newman, 1996 #31; ; . From MBA conferences in 1993 and 1994, content analysis enabled the building of a simple descriptive model of the way that OUBS students and tutors deployed CMC to assist with their teaching and learning on their courses. We have written elsewhere and given further details of the development and key features of this model . Five Stage Model Fig 1
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| Level 1 ACCESS |
| At this stage we aimed to
ensure that tutors were competence and confident at logging into the system
and were motivated to continue. We asked them to let us know they had "arrived",
by posting a message in the conference, and this enabled us to greet them
individually.
187 first messages were posted in the "arrivals" conference between November 1995 and March 1996. The authors of this paper, as the training programme leaders, e-mailed individual welcomes and directional messages to all new "arrivals" on line. The tutors in training were also at this stage given instructions on how to post their resumes - short biographies available to all users of FirstClassä . All participants were also asked to visit a "Reflections" conference before moving on to level 2, and subsequently at each stage of their training. Since we were taking a broadly constructivist view, the notion of "reflecting" at each stage of the learning was considered to be of key importance for the learning development of the tutors in training. Reflective practice focuses on individual interpretation of events and the framing of these into suitable actions. Implicit in this notion is the idea that practitioners can be prepared for all situations through such an approach. This has broad implications for trainers, and for researchers . The "Reflections" conference at level 1 aimed directly to test the achievement of the objectives of level 1 as well as to determine the amount of time the training was taking. Access to the conferencing system was rated highly by participants. On a possible scale of 1(-) to 10(+), there was a mean of 6.94, with 47% of tutors in training rating access as 9 or 10, and only 5 (6%) scoring under 5. The attempts to make tutors in training feel valued and welcome in the virtual environment were successful, with a mean score of 8.74 with 54% scoring 9 or 10. At this stage too, motivation was high. 38% of tutors in training reported that they felt highly motivated to continue with only 7% not motivated. Similarly, very positive feelings were reported both about the training programme (a mean score of 7.84) and only slightly less about using this medium for teaching on the course (7.39). Off Line Resources
At this point at the end of level 1, trainees reported an average of 105 minutes spent off line on reading and preparing to train, and 67 minutes on line. However, the off-line time included, in some cases an inordinate amount of time spent on getting and setting up appropriate equipment. |
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| Level 2 INDUCTION AND SOCIALISATION |
| Level 2 was intended to provide basic software skills in using FirstClassä , increasing feelings of confidence and comfort in working with others through the CMC medium and the opportunity to find others with similar interests. The "comfort" achieved at this level was considered to be a basic staging post for more constructive and cognitive skills at later level of the training. The feedback collected in the "Reflections" conference, indicated that tutors in training felt they had acquired basic technical skills at this level (mean score of 7.49), and were increasing in confidence (mean of 7.08). |
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| Level 3 SEEKING INFORMATION, FINDING NEW PATHWAYS |
| The aim of this stage was
to encourage the tutors in training to freely offer and seek information
from others on line.
At level 3 of the tutor training, additional skills conferences or "workshops" developed participants' ability to work with the software at this level. In addition, on line seminars and workshops were set up to correspond with the four main disciplines of the course for which the tutors were preparing to teach, i.e. Managing People, Finance & Information, Organisations & Change and Marketing. The model suggested that after the basic skills and confidence of working on line was acquired, tutors in training would be interested in considering and discussing the content of the blocks of the course that were relevant to them and this proved to be true. They felt that this level of the programme had fulfilled the objectives for them, with a mean score of over 7 on each of the objectives. At this level, the participants began to be acutely aware of who was contributing and participating and who was not. Many of the qualitative comments in the "Reflections" conference concerned these aspects. |
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| Level 4 KNOWLEDGE CONSTRUCTION |
At this stage, we were looking
to encourage and facilitate the kind of interaction between the tutors
that could lead to "knowledge construction", as a prelude to their eventually
working with students on line. Actions that we promoted were:
offering up ideas or resources and inviting critique of them asking challenging questions articulating, explaining and supporting positions on issues exploring & supporting issues by adding explanations and examples reflecting and re-evaluating personal position interactive thinking:
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| Level 5 - AUTONOMY AND DEVELOPMENT |
| The aim at this stage was
to encourage the learners to become responsible for their own continuing
developing in on line learning and teaching through the CMC opportunities
and the aim was to provide little support beyond what was already available
At this stage, the learners became responsible for their own learning through the computer mediated opportunities and little support beyond what is already available was necessary. At this level, tutors in training were introduced to the skills of creating and setting up their own conferences, and they were given a practice area in which to do this. In addition, they were invited to set up discussion conferences on topics of their choice. The final reflections conference again indicated very positive feelings about the training at this stage - with an average score of 7 against most of the questions. Only the question asking how they felt about using CMC for working with their students attracted a slightly lower average score - 6.52, probably because the setting up of their own conferences seemed a little complicated than they might have thought and the start of the B800 course was only days away! Evaluation of the Software
by the Tutors at the end of their On Line Training
Trainees were also asked for any features of FirstClassä that they felt had got in the way of their learning. The lack of an off-line reader was mentioned typically by those who had used one for other conferencing platforms. Worries about working on line and resultant telephone costs were mentioned by many others. In total, throughout the 7 questionnaires and reflections conferences, this issue was mentioned 158 time. We now (1997) have an off-line reader. |
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| Discussion & Conclusions |
| This paper has outlined
a 5-stage model for the development of competence in on-line computer conferencing.
The model was tested in an action-research setting - during an on-line
training programme for a cohorts of Open University Business School MBA
tutors. Results showed that the model-based training programme was effective
in enabling participants progressively to develop skills in the use of
CMC. To confirm carry-over, subsequent performance in the deployment of
these skills for on line teaching was monitored by a system of on line
"visits". The on-line training programme was found to be cost effective
against face-to-face training . Working with the 5 stage model as a basis,
the experience of running the training demonstrated that good, quick access
on line and toleration of "browsing" and social interaction prior to commencing
with learning and course based interaction courses was a key feature.
The study suggests that the medium offers new opportunities for the development of management teachers on-line. A most notable outcome from the training has been that a very large percentage of the MBA tutors interact on line with each other and staff of the OUBS in addition to their students, thus forming a viable and creative on line distance teaching community. In this sense, we feel that training on line fills the gap in preparing tutors to teach through CMC and enables the OUBS to focus on fully developing on line teaching for students as a viable and integrated aspect of supported distance learning for managers. Further Work in Progress:
research on novices to CMC and ways of supporting and developing them understanding and development of induction for students ( a large scale on line induction programme involving some 1500 MBA students was run during winter 96/7) research on the more detailed skills and techniques needed to successfully lead and teach on line (moderating) |
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| References |
| Caldwell, B. S. and L. H.
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