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Multi-University Collaborative Learning: The EQUAD experience. Noshir Contractor University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign nosh@uiuc.edu. Distributed Teaching. Cooperative Learning. Distributed Cooperative Learning. Distributed Cooperative Learning & Teaching.
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Multi-University Collaborative Learning:The EQUAD experience Noshir Contractor University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign nosh@uiuc.edu
The Electronic Quad (EQUAD) Project1995-2002 • Goal: Distributed and Cooperative learning and teaching • Testbed: 11 universities – Illinois, Purdue, Michigan State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Southern Cal, UC Santa Barbara, Kansas, Arizona State, Arizona, Penn • Support:CIC (Academic Big Ten), UIUC: CIO, ETB, SCALE, CET; Purdue: LAS, CIO; USC: Annenberg School, Univ of Pennsylvania: Annenberg School
Graduate and Undergraduate Curriculum in “New Forms of Organizing & Emerging Technologies” • Understaffing • No standard curriculum • Interdisciplinary domain requiring multiple areas of expertise • How can we use distributed technologies to help address this problem?
EQUAD Courses • Introduction to Communication Technologies • Communication Technologies in the Workplace • Communication Technology and New Forms of Organizing • Network Forms of Organizing • Analyzing Organizational Networks • Communication and Globalization • Knowledge Networks and Distributed Intelligence
Managed remotely by CIC from ANL CIC MCU @ OSU Course Info: Course Web site Traveling faculty Guest speakers NetMeeting: Application sharing Real Producer: Live streaming Digital archiving and streaming
Key Lessons Learned • Overlap of expertise among instructors – an asset or a liability? • Multiple synchronous oral and text channels: Enabling broader or deeper participation? • Online vs. Offline OR Online & Offline? • One-Many, Few-Many, …. Many-Many? • Teacher or conductor?
Asynchronous Technological Challenges:Virtual Team Collaboration Support Tools • IKNOW: Inquiring Knowledge Networks On the Web (http://iknow.spcomm.uiuc.edu) to support creation of virtual teams • Group Calendaring software • Mobile H.323 video-conferencing facilities, such as Polycom’s Via Voice • Group Decision Support Systems for brainstorming, idea evaluation, etc.
Synchronous Technological Challenges:Floor Management Tools • Tools to signal turn-taking – split screen helps, but .. • Tools to queue speakers waiting to follow up comments • Tools to manage multiple threads of synchronous conversation
Logistic Challenges:All a Matter of “Timing” • Semester vs. Quarter systems • Differences in University schedule for starting, ending, and mid-term breaks • Differences in time zones • Differences in Daylight Savings Practices – Indiana/Arizona
Pedagogical Challenges:Substitution, Enlargement or Reconfiguration? • Virtual team collaboration: a “Bug” and a “Feature” • Meeting face-to-face at the start of the course, end of the course or never? • Managing and responding to feedback from multiple instructors and multiple perspectives • Providing persistent access to course materials after the course
“Business Model” Challenges: • Responsibilities for grading students and teams from multiple universities • Agreements on tuition fees: Formal alliances or bilateral agreements • Agreements on sharing responsibilities for costs incurred in “end-user,” “web-hosting” and “high-bandwidth carrier” technologies • Agreement on Intellectual Ownership of Course Materials
QUESTIONS & SUGGESTIONS • During this session: • Email questions and suggestions to: • vc-vbriefing@internet2.edu • After this session: • Email questions and suggestions to: • nosh@uiuc.edu