Net*Working 2000

Online Learning Festival

Learning Submarines:

Raising the Periscopes

Dr. Gilly Salmon

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This paper and others can be found at:

E mail Gilly: gks13@leicester.ac.uk

A great deal of e-learning is going on around the world. Much of it though is happening in tiny pockets largely unseen, often rocked by the stormy waters of entrenched positions, of well-meant scepticism, or downright cynicism. I recently asked a submariner, " what do you see when you raise the periscope?" He said, "I’m used to raising the periscope and seeing miles and miles of ocean! There is much more going on below the seas!" I think this is like e-learning: we need to surface what we know already and learn and share between ourselves for the benefit of our learners.

But here we are- I’m in Las Vegas and you’re where? – we can communicate with each other. In other words your periscope sees not the gap in between but my periscope! This is the way we can recognise each other. So I can flash a light from my periscope to yours- saying "How are you doing? Any ideas on how to navigate the rocks?"

The little light I offer you in this paper is about the role of the online teacher or trainer- the person I call the e-moderator.

The most optimistic commentators see a whole new world for learning:

This renaissance view of teaching and learning is not universally shared, nor is it based on the record of what has been implemented to date. Millions of words have been written about the technology and its potential, but not much about what the teachers and learners actually do online. Two submarine periscopes in the vicinity of each other in the same virtual ocean, see only the smallest of indications of each other - not the scale, capability, size of each other and what they might be able to do together. We need to add the person who will bring them together. Networked computers can provide vehicles for learning materials and interaction but students still need the ‘champions’ who make the learning come alive – the e-moderators.

As yet, there is no widely agreed method for working out e-learning costs, nor is there a standard way to measure the educational or other benefits of using e-learning . In any case, what students and teachers actually do to learn changes when e-learning is introduced, so meaningful comparisons are difficult. However, some studies are starting to show that by using e-learning, higher student:faculty ratios can be achieved, with a satisfactory or perhaps increased learning experience.

Average costs per student for e-learning depend to some extent on scale but less so than expected due to the investment required in computer systems and the increased interaction between e-moderators and students . A virtual campus that saves on most of the capital and recurrent costs of buildings is not free, because at least some of the capital and direct costs of ICT infrastructures must be paid, but it may be cheaper or it may be possible to establish a "crossover" point where the benefits of economies of scale come into play see also.www.calstate.educ/special-projects).

The main success I’ve had with recruiting, training, developing and enabling e-moderation using networked computing has been to fully engage the participants so that the knowledge they construct is usable in new and different situations. So you can see the goal of the e-moderator for this kind of learning is to enable ‘meaning making’ rather than content transmission. This saves on the huge costs of developing sophisticated interactive online materials and the huge advantage is that there’s little cost beyond training the e-moderator!

­ Rock 3: We don’t have the right people!

Most e-moderator recruits come from face-to-face teaching where they may have relied quite heavily on personal charisma to stimulate and hold their students’ interest. It is a big change to make when switching to online. Even teachers who are used to developing distance learning materials need to explore how online materials can underpin and extend their teaching. Conversely, students used to the paradigm of teacher as the instructor may expect a great deal of input from the e-moderator. This can be very time consuming and unsatisfactory for both. The e-moderator must explain his or her role at the start, to reduce the chances of unreasonable expectations arising.

Education and training are always undertaken for a purpose. Unlike casual browsing or playing computer games on the Web, a key distinction of online education and training is that they are very purposeful. Like their classmates on campus, students online need goals, usually ones provided by their teachers or trainers. Like their colleagues on campus, the e-moderators have to think through the design of structured learning experiences for their students. To exploit e-learning for teaching, they must understand its potential, which is different from that of any other teaching medium and they need to be trained to understand e-learning, and to add real value for the online participants.

E-Moderators are like submariners, operating individually and independently to support their

students - operating to rules of engagement that might have to change

(with no real opportunity to check with Mission Control about

the rightness of their decisions to support the original

aim). They must therefore be trained professionals - able to understand

the medium and environment they operate in, skilled in the systems at their

disposal and able to undertake any of the roles that this mode of operation calls

for. Incidentally, this kind of experience cannot be easily simulated-

e-moderators need to immerse themselves in the online learning environment first.

(Insert Figure 1)

Individual access and the ability of participants to use e-learning are essential prerequisites for conference participation (stage one, at the base of the flights of steps). Stage two involves individual participants establishing their online identities and then finding others with whom to interact. At stage three, participants give information relevant to the course to each other. Up to and including stage three, a form of co-operation occurs, i.e. support for each person’s goals. At stage four, course-related group discussions occur and the interaction becomes more collaborative. The communication depends on the establishment of common understandings. At stage five, participants look for more benefits from the system to help them achieve personal goals, explore how to integrate e-learning into other forms of learning and reflect on the learning processes.

Each stage requires participants to master certain technical skills (shown in the bottom left of each step). Each stage calls for different e-moderating skills (shown on the right top of each step). The "interactivity bar" running along the right of the flight of steps suggests the intensity of learner-to-learner that you can expect between the participants at each stage. At first, at stage one, they interact only with one or two others. After stage two, the numbers of others with whom they interact, and the frequency, gradually increases, although stage five often results in a return to more individual pursuits.

Given appropriate technical support, e-moderation and a purpose for taking part in e-learning, nearly all participants will progress through these stages of use in e-learning. There will however be very different responses to how much time they need at each stage before progressing. The model applies to all e-learning software but if experienced participants are introduced to new- to-them e-learning software, they will tend to linger for a while at stages one or two, but then move on quite rapidly up the steps again.

The chief benefit of using the model to design an online course is that you know how participants are likely to exploit the system at each stage and you can avoid common pitfalls. The results should be higher participation rates and increased student satisfaction. E-moderators who understand the model and apply it should enjoy find that their work runs smoothly. (Salmon 2000)

Blumer’s view of action learning is of people involved in directing their actions, individually and collectively, around shared understandings of their world. Each carry cultural, philosophical, physical and psychological luggage and shape their learning experiences to meet ends associated with these. It is important that we understand the great value of action learning and how to transfer it into the e-learning world. The aspect of meeting online with colleagues, sharing views and receiving support is a fantastic opportunity for e-learning (Preece 2000). It’s critically important it does not get submerged and diverted into producing realms of written words, or even highly visual interactive software. The chief benefit of interactive networking for learning is the joy of learning online together.

So educators wishing to get the best from e-learning opportunities need to concentrate on engaging their learners (and not just on providing reading materials). I have recently coined the term "e-tivities" to bring together the practical aspects of mobilising, engaging and effectively e-moderating in technology mediated teaching and learning environments. My suggestion is that creating e-tivities with attention to both content, process and outcomes will enable students to truly engage- become enchanted even- with the online environment and arrive online frequently in great shape for learning!

I hope I’ve raised some periscopes with these ideas. Over the next hours and days online I hope we can shine some lights at each other.

Jewett, F. I., 1999. BRIDGE: A simulation model for comparing the costs of expanding a campus using distributed instruction versus classroom instruction. Proceedings of Online Educa, Berlin

Mason, 1998. Globalising Education: Trends and Applications. London, Routledge

Salmon, G. (2000) E-moderating: the key to teaching and learning online, Kogan Page, London.

Tiffin, J. and L. Rajasingham, 1997. In Search of the Virtual Class:Education in an Information Society. London, Routledge