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Distance Education: Facilitating student communication

Distance Education: Facilitating student communication. Karen Anderson Edith Cowan University. INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON ARCHIVES Section for archival education and training. CONSEIL INTERNATIONAL DES ARCHIVES Section pour l’enseignement de l’archivistique

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Distance Education: Facilitating student communication

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  1. Distance Education:Facilitating student communication Karen Anderson Edith Cowan University

  2. INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON ARCHIVES Section for archival education and training CONSEIL INTERNATIONAL DES ARCHIVES Section pour l’enseignement de l’archivistique et la formation des archivistes European Conference for Archival Educators and Trainers Marburg, September 24th & 25th 2001 “Reading the Vital Signs: Archival Training and Education in the 21st Century”

  3. Overview • Aim: • to demonstrate effective communication with and between distant students • Objectives: • introduce some communication methods for distance education students • demonstrate use of an electronic bulletin board for discussion and assessment • Learning outcome: • understand stages of development in e-moderated discussion • use an electronic bulletin board for class discussion

  4. Communication tools • Asynchronous: • Telephone - individual • Email – individual or group • Print – group • Web page - group • Electronic Bulletin Boards or Computer Moderated Conferencing - group • Synchronous: • Chat rooms - all participants log on at once

  5. Overcoming isolation • Distance education students often feel very isolated • Overcoming this isolation is a big challenge • Good access to a tutor is essential • It is most helpful if students can communicate with each other, building their own learning community

  6. Chat rooms • can be difficult to organise across time zones • discussion can lack depth (limited by keyboard skills) • it takes skill by the moderator to plan the session and control the discussion • large groups can be broken up into smaller groups and sent to other rooms for short sub-discussions • ask them to return and report to the whole group at a particular time • The chat session can be captured & posted to a BB for those who can’t attend

  7. Social chat • Students can also use chat rooms to meet others at pre-arranged times without their tutor for • Friendly “café” chat sessions • Informal study groups • Requires some leadership by individuals who want to start a study group

  8. Electronic Bulletin Boards • E-moderator (tutor) and individuals contribute at their convenience • Allows more reflective contribution than chat rooms • Contributions are preserved • Boards may be multipurpose: social and study; OR • Special boards can be set up for particular tasks or discussion groups • The e-moderator can set deadlines for tasks

  9. Model of teaching and learning online (Salmon, 2000. p.25)

  10. Stage 1: access & motivation • Learning about the benefits of computer moderated discussion boards • Learning about the course requirements • Setting up and configuring software • Navigating to the BB • Be prepared to provide help or to direct participants to a help desk

  11. Stage 2: social introductions • Overcoming shyness and making introductions • Some enjoy being ‘faceless’ • Others will ‘lurk’ for a while before they have the courage to contribute • Introducing netiquette • Make sure participants understand the need to protect their own privacy and respect others’ privacy

  12. Rules for discussion groups • Be courteous: participate responsibly • Participate actively • Write clearly • Build ideas on what others say • Question the opinions of others • Actively read and question the text • Be credible: back up your statements • Stick to the subject (Based on Shoop, 1999)

  13. Stage 3: information exchange • Learning to use the information resources supplied • Learning to search & use the Internet • Sharing information • Helping others with solutions to problems • Information overload may become a problem • Silence is OK, but be alert for dropouts

  14. Stages 4 & 5: knowledge construction & development • Students interact and respond much more participatively • Students take responsibility for their own learning • Introduce new discussion threads • Suggest alternative approaches • Support each other • E-moderator becomes a participant, not a tutor

  15. Evaluation • Provide opportunities for • students to reflect on their own learning and contribution • feedback on the learning experience • evaluation of your performance as e-moderator • Reflect and revise your e-moderating strategies

  16. References Salmon, Gilly. (2000). E-moderating: the key to teaching and learning online. London: Kogan Page. ISBN 0 7494 3110 5http://oubs.open.ac.uk/e-moderating/ Palloff, Rena M. and Pratt, Keith. (2001). Lessons from the cyberspace classroom: the realities of online teaching. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. ISBN 0 7879 5519 1

  17. References and Resources Berge, Z. and Collins, M.Resources for moderators and facilitators onlinehttp://www.emoderators.com/moderators.shtml Handbook for Instructors on the use of electronic class discussions http://www.osu.edu/education/ftad/Publications/elecdisc/pages/home.htm Shoop, Linda. (2000). Developing interactive competence with student centered discussion. [Draft Manual] http://home.kiski.net/~dwright/scd/guid.html

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