Collins, M. P. & Z. L. Berge. (1994). Guiding Design Principles for Interactive Teleconferencing. Paper presented at the Pathways to Change: New Directions for Distance Education and Training Conference, September 29, 30, and October 1, 1994, University of Maine at Augusta.
Approximately 3714 words
We normally do not have the opportunity nor the time to analyze individual students nor tailor instructional materials or activities specifically to them. We are constrained to group students together into classes for economic and administrative reasons. By varying the media selection, the teaching methods we use, and the student's classroom activities we attempt to compensate for the lack of individualize programming. This is just as true for distance education as it is for place-based education.
Individual, Small Group and Mass Communications Ellington (cited in Dekkers, et. al., 1990), suggests three classes of instruction: individual learning, mass communications, and small group. Historically, in distance education there were few ways to vary delivery and teaching methods. The correspondence model of individual learning was used nearly exclusively for the first 120 years of distance education in the United States. Earlier in this century, mass communications (i.e., audio and/or video in live or recorded forms) expanded our delivery tools. Still, the prevailing model is of students reading, using a workbook, watching a video tape or broadcast program alone (Garrison, 1993). Students individually attempt to make sense or meaning of this type intervention. To check students' "making of meaning" in what they read or saw, the instructor asks them to submit a written paper showing evidence of familiarity with the content and perhaps the occurrence of some analysis, synthesis or evaluation. The instructor also provides feedback, in a dialogue slowed and attenuated by time and distance.
For many years individual students worked alone on the content of a course, and received feedback from the instructor, in most cases, very slowly and by mail. What was, and still often is, missing is opportunities for the use of group learning models. Over the past two decades, emerging technologies have opened to the designer of distance education many more opportunities to vary medium and teaching methods, to facilitate the use of group learning models. There have also been significant changes in the way the distance educator thinks about how distance learning can be accomplished.
As Moore (1993) states:
Above all, the teleconference media allow a new
form of dialogue that can be called inter-learner
dialogue. Inter-learner dialogue occurs between
learners and other learners, alone or in groups, with
or without the real-time presence of an instructor. By
audio- conference, video-conference, and computer
conference, groups can learn through interaction with
other groups and within groups. There are enormously
significant implications in this potential, in every
process of teaching-learning. In particular, such
dialogue by learners to learners within and between
groups makes it possible for distance learners to share
in the creation of knowledge (p. 33).
A More Comprehensive System
Delivery of instruction is usually more effective when more than one medium is used, (Dekkers et. al., 1990). When considering the various channels of communication for distance educational purposes, the strengths and limitations of each available channel can be analyzed. Once that is done, decisions can be made concerning the better channel through which to present each instructional goal or learning activity. While there are dozens of factors that may be significant in the choice of media, we will concentrate here on two dimensions that can be used to characterize various channels of communication: 1) its synchronous or asynchronous nature, and 2) its potential to facilitate both social interaction and interaction with course content. This presentation points to ways that can promote the successful integration of several communications channels into a more comprehensive and effective system of delivery for distance education.
Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication
Synchronous communication occurs in real time--like a face- to-face meeting (e.g., among all of us here in this room now or a class held at a specific location with instructor and students meeting face-to-face). All participants in the interaction must be present, although not necessarily at the same physical location (e.g., if a class were televised and broadcast live to other locations).
Asynchronous communication is in some way technologically mediated and is not dependent upon teachers and students being present together at a specific time to conduct learning/teaching activities. Using asynchronous communication students can work at their own convenience when and where they want, and from a pedagogical point of view, students can also control the pacing of instruction.
Interaction in Formal Learning Environments
From the learner's perspective there are essentially three types of interaction involved in the process of schooling i.e., guided or formal learning. These can be considered as interaction with the content, interaction with the instructor and other students, and interaction with the institution. While this presentation is not focused on how the institution promotes learning, it is an important aspect of interaction, mainly through structuring the support and resources available to students.
Hillman et. al. (1994) summarize interaction in an educational context as:
The importance of interaction in education is
practically a "given." Shale and Garrison (1990a)
state that "in its most fundamental form education is
an interaction among teacher student, and subject
content." Sewart (1982) proposes that all educational
transactions lie somewhere on an interaction continuum,
with learner-instructor interaction at one end and
learner-content interaction at the other. Anderson
(1987) and Keegan (1990) believe that interaction is
the key to effective learning and information exchange.
Moore (1989) considers interaction "a defining
characteristic of education," (p. 2) and regards it as
"vitally important" (p. 6) in the design of distance
education. Booher and Seiler (1982) show that learners'
avoidance of learner-instructor interaction harms
academic achievement, while Thompson (1990) identifies
interaction as a significant component in promoting
positive learner attitudes toward distance education.
Interactions between instructor and learner and
interactions among learners provide opportunities for
an educational transaction. Without interaction,
teaching becomes simply "passing on content as if it
were dogmatic truth," and the cycle of knowledge
acquisition-critical evaluation-knowledge validation is
nonexistent (Shale and Garrison 1990b, p. 29). (p. 31)
Interaction with Content
The very phrase "interaction with content" occurs frequently in the literature (see Moore, 1989), but is a problematic formulation as content can not interact, hold a dialogue, nor answer back. Interaction about course content can occur within students' own heads as they hold dialogs within themselves while attempting to construct meaning, answer questions, or find the appropriate places to integrate incoming information to existing schema. Even when studying alone or in self-study, students must engage in this kind of internal dialogue in order to retain information. The content does not merely pass before their senses but must be cognitively processed (Bower and Hilgard, 1981). Typically, in formal schooling, much content delivered to the student quickly becomes "inert" (Gagne et al., 1993) as it has little relevance or use in the life circumstances of the student, eventually becoming "lost" to retrieval. Hence, instructors, especially in business, are exploring the advantages of just-in-time learning. It appears that knowledge and skills acquired immediately prior to a need for their use may reduce retraining because the original instruction occurred too long before an opportunity for use arose.
Social Interaction
The importance of interpersonal interaction in learning is well accepted (Fulford and Zhang, 1993), although some distance educators still advocate an "independent learner" model. Even while an independent learner is cognitively processing course content in a setting divorced from peer interaction, they are also, it is hoped, taking what they have learned and applying it, making it meaningful in the context of actions and interactions within their own lives as they seek personal satisfaction, credentials and advancement on their life path. When students have the opportunity to interact with one another and their instructors about the content, they can analyze, synthesize and evaluate course content and use their new learning to construct a shared meaning, making sense of what they are learning.
We suggest that well designed interaction about content can move learning from the lower levels of cognitive processing such as recognition and comprehension to the higher levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation (Bloom, 1956; Garrison, 1993; Moore, 1993). Formal schooling can most effectively occur in situations where intellectual operations can be practiced with adequate feedback from the community with whom the scholar, or apprentice scholar, is attempting to build meaning. As the instructor encourages interaction, learners can become personally involved and such interaction is essential to effective mediated learning (Hackman and Walker, 1990).
Characteristics of Media
Figure 1 shows selected media along the continuums of synchronous or asynchronous communications and interaction.
[INSERT FIGURE 1 ABOUT HERE.]
There is some overlap among the quadrants in what can be accomplished with many of these media. However, the attempt here is to place each medium along these two dimensions at the place were we hypothesize it could be used most appropriately for instruction. The most notable exception is computer conferencing. It can be appropriately used in a much broader scope than perhaps any other single medium in education. However, it is not found in the synchronous/content interaction quadrant because we do not believe it appropriate to deliver high density text in real-time using computer conferencing.
Part and parcel of Moore's (1993) formulation of "interaction with content" is the idea of structure:
With regard to the media, a recorded television
programme, for example, is highly structured, with
virtually every word, every activity of the instructor
and every minute of time provided for, and every piece
of content predetermined. There is no dialogue and
therefore no possibility of reorganizing the programme
to take into accounts [sic] inputs from learners.
There is little or no opportunity for deviation or
variation according to the needs of a particular
individual. This can be compared with many
teleconference courses which permit a wide range of
alternative responses by the instructor to students'
questions and written submissions (p. 26).
How accommodating a particular medium is with regard to
novel feedback from other people, including the instructor, is
one hallmark of the dimensions shown here in Figure 1.
Guiding Principles
When decisions need to be made about delivery methods, or when thinking about features of the course or learning activities development, we hypothesize that in the service of well constructed objectives, these principles should normally guide the course design/development:
Technological Minimalism
Minimalism was an art movement in the 1970s (Baker, 1988), whose philosophy is well expressed in the words of one leading sculptor when he said: "'Minimal' means to me only the greatest economy in attaining the greatest ends" (Andre, 1984). The movement's philosophical basis is rooted in the:
distinctly American tradition of respect for plain
facts and plain speaking, manifested in Shaker
furniture and the pragmatist philosophy of Charles
Sanders Peirce and William James, in the precisionist
paintings of Charles Sheeler, in the "scientific"
realism of Thomas Eakins, the photographs of Paul
Strand and Walker Evans, and the poetry of Williams
Carlos Williams and Marianne Moore. (Baker, 1988, p.
13)
Such simplicity and the American cultural myth of "the simple life" have always sounded a counterpoint to the materialistic individualism of most of American life. For many years now those who have not embraced technology as the cure for all educational ills, and have hesitated to join the flight for more and more sophisticated, costly, and complicated delivery technologies have been stared at askance and belittled as Luddites. Still, there is a firm common sense, a philosophical and economic basis for the position of "less is more" in educational technology.
We are defining technological minimalism as the unapologetic use of minimum levels of technology, carefully chosen with precise attention to their advantages and limitations, in support of well defined instructional objectives. When a course moves beyond the traditional delivery technologies of paper and face- to-face, chalk-and-talk, class work assumes as a prerequisite that the learning site or the student be equipped to use whatever level of technology has been chosen for the course. Access to often complex and expensive technology becomes a serious issue. This is particularly evident in the international delivery of distance education, where lack of technology is further widening the gap between the "haves" and the "have nots."
From the viewpoint of institutions in general, and instructional designers in particular, there is no need to apologize for espousing technological minimalism and the consequent well-designed use of the best features of low technology solutions. There is wisdom in technological minimalism--the more bells and whistles a delivery technology has, the more expensive and complex the equipment needed, the greater the limitations on student access, the greater the claims on time and travel (e.g. to live videoconference sites), the more extensive the technical support needed and the greater the chance of inopportune equipment failure.
Density of Content Should Be Inversely Related to the Amount of Synchronous Communication Within the (Distance) Education Learning Environment
Recorded text, video, or audio can carry the highest burden of content as recorded media can be crossed and re-crossed, mined and plowed from many different angles and perspectives, at many different times, to yield meaning on many levels, as the needs of learners change. But once recorded, it becomes static and subject to private interpretations that may be quite different from the initial meaning intended by the speaker.
A face-to-face lecture, which is synchronous, is limited in the amount of content it can carry. Unless recorded in print, on video or audio tape, a lecture is ephemeral and afterwards exists only in the notes and memories of the speaker and those who heard it. When lectures are presented in mediated form they can quickly become tedious and boring, and students' minds wander. Students can process information much faster than the speed of most speech, so it is possible that this spare processing power can be turned to other uses than the integration of incoming information.
A heuristic for mediated communication is to present information, i.e., lecture, review readings or demonstrate, for 20 minutes at most. After that, establish a short activity to allow for active processing of the material followed by a report, or an opportunity for a question and answer period, with the instructor or students concluding the unit with a short summary of content and activities.
Synchronous Communication Allows Social Interaction as Opposed to Only the Processing of Content
Both synchronous (real-time) interaction and asynchronous interactions are valuable in distance education. This idea is nothing new in place-based education (e.g., in class demonstration and questions and out-of-class reading assignments). We now have the tools to accomplish these goals in distance education. There lies the key to the use of technology for group learning at a distance-- emerging technologies provide the tools to link people in real-time (synchronously) not just through asynchronous communication. Discussions can be extended in time far longer using computer mediated communication, for instance, than is possible in other forms of conferencing.
Group work allows students to practice problem-solving and higher level thinking skills in the setting of cognitive apprenticeships. Just as those receiving training often work with a master craftsmen and each other and promptly use their training to enrich their own performance, students can articulate their newly constructed ideas to others and through rehearsal, argument persuasion and feedback, build shared meaning.
Many institutions want to take advantages of economies of scale and bring costly lecturers face-to-face with as many students as possible. This frequently means that technologies that can best enhance small group interaction (e.g., audioconferencing; audiographics) are used as broadcast technologies and deprive the student of rich interaction with either the lecturer, instructor or their peers. Our research indicates that students see this as costly in terms of lost opportunities for learning and feedback.
Attendance at synchronous interactions is more costly than asynchronous interaction in terms of money and inconvenience regarding time and/or space. When you sign up for place-based instruction, you resign yourself to the cost involved, especially the inconvenience of going at a specific time to a specific place. These costs are balanced against the richness that is sometimes experienced in face-to-face interactions with instructor and peers. Historically, one reason to go the distance education route was to avoid the costs associated with learning based in place and time. If you are a distance education student who wants self-paced, individual study, then you may have a preference for solitary, asynchronous learning (at least for some of your education). But our research indicates that distance education students who are willing to pay for synchronous communication, want "more bang for their buck" and access to interaction with their peers when in synchronous mode.
Adequate Technical Support and Training for Both Student and Instructor is Essential
The more technology is used, the greater the need for technology support, institutional support, and training. Hillman et al. state:
Successful interaction in the mediated educational
transaction is highly dependent upon how comfortable
the learner feels in working with the delivery medium.
Learners need to possess the necessary skills to
operate the mechanisms of the delivery system before
they can successfully interact with the content,
instructor, or other learners. The challenge to
practitioners of distance education is to create new
instructional methods that empower learners to work
successfully with the technology (p. 31).
The instructor needs to be able to use the media, too.
An Important Goal of Distance Learning is the Creation of an Environment of Cooperation and Trust Among Students and the Instructor so that Meaning can be Built and Shared
One goal of education is to move the process of learning from the warehousing in students' heads of inert knowledge to the active integration of information into students' cognitive structures as they build ideas or skills. Education is what is left after you have forgotten all you learned in school. Before a student is willing to test their new-found ideas aloud, they must feel secure and comfortable in their learning environment. They must feel they will not be penalized if their attempts are unsophisticated or seem weak. Without an environment that takes seriously every participant's trials and prototypes, attempts to articulate their new found understandings would quickly stop, except perhaps by the cleverest students or by the instructor.
Conclusions
Regardless of the media used, it is the responsibility of the institution and the instructor to provide a learning environment in which the learner has the opportunity for appropriate interactions with content and others (Moore, 1993). A mismatch of the use of interaction, synchronicity and technology can lead to loss of the student's attention, boredom, information overload, frustration, and be costly in time lost for learning. Even students who are actively engaged in attending to the learning activity constantly fight distracting thoughts while processing new information, (these can be thoughts related to or unrelated to the content being presented). One challenge therefore, for those designing the learning environment, is to seriously consider which media will best enhance and empower the learner.
The use of a variety of delivery media and formats for information presentation (especially if synchronous learning is scheduled for relatively long periods of time) with each aspect carefully chosen and designed to meet specific instructional objectives is essential. The creation of the student's opportunity to interact about content with instructors and peers in ways that enhance the construction of meaning is something we all must be striving for.
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