A Critical Inquiry into Web-Mediated Collaborative Learning

This chapter presents a critical approach to collaborative learning viewed as a social interaction process. Based on Habermas’ theory of communicative action, the chapter proposes a communicative model of collaborative learning with the aim to enhance understanding of communicative practices in Web-mediated collaborative learning situations and to provide a methodological instrument for the analysis of concrete learning processes. Drawing on the empirical data from a field study the chapter illustrates how the communicative model of collaborative learning can be applied to analyse not only what linguistic interactions among students mean but also what they produce in a particular learning situation. The chapter concludes by summarising possible implications of this critical perspective and the communicative model of collaborative learning on both practical pedagogy and empirical research in Web-mediated environments.

Web-Based Collateral Support for Traditional Learning

The emergence of the Web and the growth of multimedia technologies offer new mechanisms to support and enhance traditional classroom instruction. This chapter reports on a field study in the use of a Web-based distance learning tool. Students enrolled in traditional classroom courses were provided with asynchronous distance learning support consisting of anytime/anyplace access to classroom lectures via the World Wide Web. The traditional classroom lectures were audio-recorded and the audio transcripts digitized, compressed and stored, along with the synchronized lecture slides, for accessing and viewing via the Web. Usage patterns were unobtrusively monitored and correlated with performance. Additionally, participants’ perceptions were collected, compiled and analyzed. The results showed that repeated use of the Web-based supplement was correlated with better overall performance in the class. They also provided some clues to the motivations of users who seek out and explore collateral Web-based support for their own individual learning. This study provides a foundation for further research and application by: 1) helping to assess the utility of collateral support for traditional instruction using Web-based media, 2) shedding light on user adoption behaviors and attitudes, and 3) identifying practical considerations in the implementation of Web-based support for distance learning.

Distributed Web-Based Assignment Management

There is an ever-increasing use of computers and applications used by educators for delivering course material. The term ‘courseware’ has been applied to the comprehensive software available to manage many aspects of the delivery process. Until recently, the main thrust of such software has been towards the delivery process and the incorporation of educational material. However, subject management is also an important task carried out by the subject coordinator, and the role it plays in the overall course delivery process should not be underestimated. Although the subject administrative tasks are usually transparent to some degree, if they are performed inefficiently, they become immediately obvious and in the worst case can distract students and staff from the learning process. An instructional system must be backed up by an efficient subject administration system. One administrative task that can consume much of a subject coordinator’s time is assignment management. Assignment management involves collection, date stamping, redistribution to tutors for marking, collation of results, and return of assignments to students. Many such computerized systems have been previously developed, but due to the nature of the infrastructure they were designed for, their use has been awkward and they are not easily transferred from system to system. With the development of the Web since the early 1990s, we now have a ‘standard’ platform used by education and the general community that allows us to build platform independent systems to implement assignment management functionality. Such software provides tangible benefits to both students and subject coordinators.

Modelling and Analysis of Web-Based CourseWare Systems

Designing reliable Web-based courseware systems is not trivial. Courseware authors need to allow as much flexibility in navigating through the system as possible on the one hand, and to ensure the satisfaction of properties and constraints in the system on the other. The problem is aggravated with facilities like Java applets which incorporate dynamic behaviour into the information structure. These issues motivate the need for designing such systems through rigorous modelling and analysis. We propose a scheme using a formal method called the Calculus of Communicating Systems (CCS) to unify the modelling of the courseware based on its navigational structure, semantics and dynamic components. Properties like ordering constraint, reachability and coverage constraint can be answered after a model is extracted from the implementation. Besides, our approach can be extended to assist in the design phase of the construction process, just like what computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools do. A hypothetical example is used throughout the chapter as an illustration.

Developing a Class Session Using Audio and Video Streaming

The objective of this chapter is to describe the process of creating audio and video streaming content for an on-line class session1 . An overall model of audio and video streaming is described, together with the media streaming process, in the introduction. The next parts of the chapter discuss how to create a class session with audio streaming only, audio and graphics, and audio and video. The chapter ends with a discussion on how to set up a streaming media server.

Opportunities in Web-Based Teaching

Web-based teaching technology has become a popular tool for many institutions in this decade. It can be used for every educational level from K-12 to higher education and distance education in many different fields. In order to make these opportunities possible, there are many requirements, including sufficient funding, a strong technological infrastructure, hardware and software, good design and interface, operations, maintenance, training, and cooperation of every involved party. When these requirements have been met as a minimum condition, Web-based teaching can provide many benefits to students, teachers, parents, and educational institutions. It is one alternative of modern technology that has been developed to augment traditional learning and teaching at all educational levels.

Using a Course Web Site to Enhance Traditional Lecture Style Courses

This chapter examines the role of the World Wide Web in traditional lecture based courses. It details a student oriented approach to the development and maintenance of course Web sites. An experiment was conducted in order to determine if use of a course Web site improves student performance. The surprising results, that students in certain sections did not use the site at all, are analyzed. It was concluded that using the Web in class and making Web assignments part of student’s graded work may impact use of a course Web site.

Developing On-Line Collaboration

This chapter focuses on developing on-line collaboration. The basic premise is that an effective educational experience involves much more that just delivery of content material. In addition to effective content delivery, a positive educational experience also involves a climate conducive to learning. The recent push for web courses with either little or no face-to-face contact ignores the importance of subtle and cumulative effects of a variety of factors that create a learning environment. It is shown that recent educational research has found that students learn more effectively if they become partners in a cooperative learning environment, but they need the skills to do so. A model describing collaborative group development, instructor behavior, and student readiness for on-line cooperative learning is provided to show how instructors can foster on-line collaboration. The concept of transactional distance is used to describe aspects of the distance learning environment. Specific examples and recommendations are given for decreasing transactional distance and increasing on-line collaboration.

Faculty Development for Web-Based Teaching

At the institutional level, Web-based teaching focuses on faculty development. In the 1980s and 1990s, campuses invested their resources on building an infrastructure—putting computers and connective systems in place. Hand-in-hand with the development of an infrastructure is the proliferation of the World Wide Web (WWW). This near ubiquitous phenomenon has provided a common graphic based interface that campuses can use to communicate to a larger audience both internally and externally. It is not surprising then, that attention is now turning to the use of computers to deliver instruction. However, just having a technology infrastructure does not mean that faculty will use it as a part of their teaching. This chapter will examine a faculty development process focused on Web-based instruction within a major research university, faculty reactions to the process, the issues that faculty are facing in Web-based teaching, technology and instructional support, and a glimpse at the future.

Pedagogical Methodology in Virtual Courses

Recent technological changes have propelled a change in the way modern universities think about their educational delivery systems, and have significantly impacted on the nature of modern education (Eisenstadt and Vincent, 1998; Imel, 1996; Latta, 1996). Until recently only limited and often terribly expensive means existed for the conveyance of education to students via interactive mediums (Fires and Monahan, 1999). This chapter discusses the implementation of course delivery technology in a traditional university setting. Despite the traditional setting, students expect that technology will be used to facilitate their needs and desire for greater educational convenience (Mende, 1998). In addition, the university is demanding that faculty incorporate a higher degree of technological sophistication in their courses as administrators realize the vast numbers of potential students who can only be reached through technology (Kelley, 1995). This chapter discusses the related literature, defines categories of implementation, explains adaptable technologies to meet students’ needs, predicts significant pedagogical changes, and reports on relevant on-going projects.