The Revolution of the Virtual Learning
System
Dr. Pete Holt
Jane Gismondi
Athabasca University
At Athabasca University, we are in the process of putting all of our Computing Science and Information Systems courses into HTML for web-based delivery. To date we have converted/developed five courses, and have completed delivery of three of those courses, including an evaluation of the prototype for the Introductory Computer Science and Information Systems course. We have found that the process of converting/developing a curriculum raises issues for the Centre of Computing Information Systems and Mathematics (CCISM), and for the institution, beyond that of simply developing individual courses.
This paper outlines how several concepts from computing and information systems development are relevant for the development of a WWW-based curriculum, and assesses our success in regard to the courses we are currently delivering.
Although most of the reports on WEB development focus on individual courses, a major advantage of having materials in format for WEB delivery is the sharing of materials across courses. In our long term goal, is a body of curriculum knowledge, instructional support tools, and design strategies from which we can highlight materials for a particular course. As an approach to re-usability of materials, we try to use principles of object oriented design. At a pragmatic level this means tactics such as identifying what are common pieces from courses, and presenting such material in a course-neutral manner. There are obvious shortcomings in current WEB technology that constrain this approach.
We have students who are not only field-testers of courses, but as senior students are involved in the actual design and development of WEB-based courses.
As do many others, we do not develop all materials from the ground up, even when that might be the final intention. Instead, we develop rapid prototypes, using printed materials and graphics from the WEB, and course HTML templates developed in-house.
Since we are a distance education institution, our students are not located on-site. Currently, our student employees and students doing project work, live in Northern B.C., Manitoba, Southern B.C., Northern Alberta, and Southern Alberta. Thus our primary work environment is the INTERNET itself, and its associated tools for file transfers, file sharing, computer mediated communications, and computer supported collaborative work.
In the next version of the Introductory Computing Science and Information Systems course, we have eliminated the need for a purchased text in order to shorten the revision cycle.
In developing an entire curriculum, we have to deal with
other issues, such as parallel development streams, coordination, and
synchronization between teams. In courses where we have
purchased materials, copyright has rapidly become an issue.
In the next version of the Introductory Computing Science and
Information Systems course, we have eliminated the need for
a purchased text.
Keywords: CSCW, Learner Centered Design, Virtual Learning, Rapid Prototyping, Situated Learning, Formative Evaluation
The Revolution of the Virtual Learning
SystemThe World Wide Web (WWW) is the precursor of a revolutionary new learning system, it is more than simply putting printed pages on the INTERNET, putting graphics on the WEB etcetera. The virtual learning system based on electronic materials will change course development, the demographics and participation of the learners, public domain learning materials, copyright, ownership issues, and the way courses are assessed and evaluated. The evolution of this learning system supports theoretical concepts such as "situated learning" - moving educational practice into realistic day-to-day settings and applied requirements such as lifelong education in information systems technology where children and mature adults virtual side by side are learning evolving technology and the need for more applied education that leads directly to employment. education integrated into the workplace has much to offer society.
To keep this paper addressing practical issues we will not elaborate on the vision of but simply show how the evolution of new learning system has changed our operations related to some of these dimensions.
Computer Supported Collaborative WorkThe rapid evolution of WWW has allowed our students attractive alternatives to traditional distance learning. Distance delivery at the time and place of the learners convenience is increasingly more possible. In keeping with that philosophy we believe the development of learning systems should be driven by the needs of the learners. The technology and the concept allow CMC (synchronous and asynchronous), file sharing (shared databases), and the option of collaborative work a (CSCW), all of which contribute toward a "culture" of learning and a "team" work approach learning in a shared environment. The inclusion of CSCW necessitates computer networking, services and support. Senior students and faculty participate as support for new students.
One of the greatest advantages the web based CMC technologies has offered our students is the opportunity to "get to know each other" and to "work together". It has also allowed the university to hire students to work for the department as an integral part of the conversion process. Currently, we have students living in northern and southern B.C., Manitoba, and northern and southern Alberta. Our primary link for education and communication is the WWW as teachers/learners, and as employer/employees.
Furthermore, there is renewed interest in learning as a collaborative process between peers (Pea, 1993). While much research has investigated the computer as a potential collaborator (Collins and Brown, 1989), there has been a renewed interest in human collaboration with the machine as a mediating agent (Harasim, 1992). In fact Baecker (1991) asserts that this new paradigm extends beyond educational technology to the entire field of computer science.
Participatory Design and Learner Centred DesignOver the last ten years the design of computing systems has involved the end user to a great extent. This trend in participatory design in computer applications has more recently been extended to to the concept of learner centred design learning systems. (Norman, 1995). This trend in involving the learners in the design of the learning system converges with recent theory about the entire process of learning. In a transformative model (Pea 1993), learning occurs through the process of interaction with other learners and the environment. Students become empowered, acting as both peer tutors and active learners. We find the learning environment tends to produce strong intrinsic motivation to learn. The role of the teacher shifts from expert to more of a facilitator model. In applying the "transformative view", we have included both the tutor and learner not only in the learning process, but also included both in the actual course design, development, and field testing.
The challenge for us, using new computer technologies, is to expand ways of learning. First we used WEB based materials and CMC to create collaborative learning environments. Next we involved students in field-testing and creating the courses. Using hypertext, CMC, and multimedia we hope to construct a process which expands the knowledge base for both learners and instructors.
Our project has provided learners with authentic tasks in which they actively used new knowledge. Social negotiation situated within a shared environment creates common ground enhancing the basis of learning.
The complexity of the course conversion project including staff/students working at a distance requires a carefully designed system including prototyping, planning, standards, documentation, communication, testing, support and evaluation.
Students working on the course conversions reported some of their feelings and experiences. For the most part, the comments were positive. Students mentioned liking the modular approach, the independence combined with a team effort, the blending of talents, team support/communication, clear goals and objectives, and defined standards. The main concern concerned the file sharing system (overwriting files).
Working with students on course conversions, design, and development has enhanced both the process and the product. Students enrolled in on-line courses have ideas about what they want/need, and what they see as possibilities for the technology for education from a learners point of view. Together, as a team, we work to improve many aspects of our web course delivery.
Re-usability of Code and Integrity of DataAlthough most of the reports on WEB development focus on individual courses, a major advantage of having materials in format for WEB delivery is the sharing of materials across courses. In our long term goal, is an electronic body of curriculum instructional support tools, and design strategies from which we can highlight materials for a particular course. In theory these materials may reside anywhere on the WWW. In practice we only have control over the materials we create. We expect eventually WWW standards for learning systems design will evolve in the same manner standards are evolving for other applications systems. In developing an entire curriculum, we have to deal with lots of institution issues such as ownership of materials and firewall security. One of the most critical issues was developing the process for course production with our Educational Technology department.
As an approach to re-usability of materials, we try to use principles of systems development, particularly, object oriented analysis and design such as data encapsulation and inheritance. There are obvious shortcomings in current WEB technology that constrain this approach. Despite rapid evolution of tools for visually oriented creation of pages we have not found that such tools have matured to stage where we are comfortable abandoning "manual" html coding.
So as much as possible we follow in object oriented principles design and implementation without really using object oriented tools.
Examples of how we follow the principles include things such as:
As one can see we work more at the level of general principles since we lack the tools for doing HTML in real object oriented fashion. Other pragmatic approaches we have derived from design and programming wisdom are naming conventions for files, and the creation of global directories for shared materials (similar to the library concept). We identify are common pieces from courses, and presenting such material in a course-neutral manner. We also are looking at a source maintenance system (e.g UNIX based RCS for our students doing HTML from a distance) to handle file sharing by team members. We will be looking a special servers such as Hyper G to see how they fit our needs.
Rapid Prototyping As is common practice, we do not develop all materials from the ground up, even when that might be the final intention. Instead, the availability public domain materials on WWW we develop rapid prototypes using public domain materials (both placeholder printed materials and visuals). For instance our we mapped out our first course totally with public domain icons which were place-holders until our visual designers developed AU standard equivalence. Now we can use those and templates course HTML templates developed in-house to quickly map out a course and use the modifications in the course to evolve the templates in a cyclical process. This process allows us to hire student workers to do the main development working in teams with the prototype course then being critiqued and revised by educational technology professionals. Along with visuals and HTML we use primarily public domain or shareware utilities for items like search engines and online tests. We feel again that this approach to prototyping is best in this period of rapid technology evolution.
Course Currency The new learning system will provide information on the most recent theoretical developments to all learners. CCISM has always had a problem the computing and information systems courses current. WWW based materials allow us to revise our materials more easily and quickly than the older print-based materials. For instance, in version of our introductory Information Systems course which is under development, we have eliminated the need for a purchased text in order to shorten the revision cycle. In theory we have save $40,000 per year in texts but we will need to pay somebody to keep course current in terms of its external links. A first estimate looks like there will be a considerable cost savings to go along with keeping the course more current. Presumably in long run publishers will get into the business of providing materials online that are incrementally updated.
Copyright IssuesSome of the copyright issues certainly remain to be resolved. Canadian copyright law needs upgrading also. Ownership of our own materials is an issue for Athabasca University.
To date, our experience with publishers regarding copyright has not been good. In one course where we had permission to distribute electronic versions of purchased materials, the permission was later withdrawn causing us to close the course.
While we understand publishers concern about distribution of their materials, we believe that the INTERNET is an "information" network. Further, we believe that learning is an on-going, lifelong process, and that as much as possible, information should be readily available to those looking to learn. As a Centre, we would like to see the provision of our courses readily accessible by all. Those wanting to take part in a "formal" educational experience or process - that is, communication/interaction with instructors, tutors and peers, or official evaluation for credit would be required to register for the courses. "Open Learning" then, as a concept in our Centre goes beyond the commonly accepted definition. We fully realize that this is not the institutional viewpoint. Although personally I am in favour of having a fairly open approach where learning systems will evolve quite rapidly we did password part of our most recent course.
Assessment and Evaluation The WWW is not simply print over the wire or pictures over the wire or even video over the wire. It is the beginning of a virtual environment which people will will be immersed for many aspects of their lives. In distance education we are moving rapidly from print to a virtual reality with a number of evolving intermediate stages. In these intermediate stages formative evaluations can inform design decisions for that one immediate stage but perhaps offer very little about the next stage.
We believe that summative evaluations of WEB based courses are of limited use. By the time the assessment is completed, the technology has changed to an extent the evaluation will be little more than an historical document.
While a summative evaluation is like moving backward down a long black tunnel miles long with a flashlight looking at where you have been, formative evaluation is like racing ahead with flashlight that sees only a few feet in front of you. Perhaps both options are of limited value but the second is better than being completely in the dark.
Although we are in the middle of converting or creating all our COMP courses in INTERNET mode, we have only offered a few courses in this mode to date.
In MDDE615 version 1.0 we had 12 students with no formal evaluation. Students claimed to enjoy the course and the student projects of last April were successful.
COMP482 is an unpaced course using materials similar to MDDE615. It has had 8 students so far (Our programme is new, so our senior student numbers are small to date). We have had no formal evaluation of these courses. The student projects underway include the design specification for an educational MOO, the creation of a virtual helpdesk , and designing front-ends for search engines for our pages and library materials.
In our prototype of COMP200 (Version 1.0), we had 11 students with the same start date.We have hired evaluator to whom I am simply a client. She has not completed the evaluation but is looking at a variety of factors including grades, completion rates, self-report on learning and satisfaction, costs, societal trends, and online time. With such small numbers, nothing definitive will come out but we hope to treat it as a formative evaluation for COMP200 (1.1.) The course did have a high completion rate and a big smile index. We see one of the most important outputs from the evaluation will be feedback about 'process' - how to create more cost-effective learning environments.
We have just opened a second offering of MDDE615 (which is designed for off-line reading). This course will be evaluated based on the same criteria as COMP200, however, it will be conducted concurrent with the course progress.
In summary we view formative evaluation as integral to a situated research and development process. We believe that we can help guide the development of the new learning system by being integrally involved in its development. Finally we would like to emphasize that one must be sensitive to emergent benefits such as the student work experience projects and the building of programme based comradarie.
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Pea, R. (1993) Seeing what we build together: Distributed multimedia learning environments for transformative communications. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 3 , 3, 285-299.
Pea, R, D. & Gomez, L. M. (1992) Distributed multimedia environments: Why and how? Interactive Learning Environments, 2, 2, 73-110.
Pete Holt
Chair, CCISM
Athabasca University
Box 10,000
T9S 1A0
holt@aupair.cs.athabascau.ca
http://ccism.pc.athabascau.ca
N.A.WEB 96 - The Second International North America World Wide Web Conference http://www.unb.ca/web/wwwdev/ University of New Brunswick.