Web Conferencing using WebBoard

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Web Conferencing using WebBoard

• Dr Hazel Derbyshire
• Learning Technology Development Officer
• Computer Centre, University of Leicester
• TALENT - Institutional Project Officer

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TALENT

• Teaching And Learning using NEtwork Technologies
• http//www.le.ac.uk/TALENT
• Canterbury Christ Church College (TITLE Unit)
• Nene University College (Networked Learning
  Initiative)
• University of Kent (Learning Technology Group)
• University of Leicester (Learning Technology
  Group)

is a project which collects knowledge and
experience of using the web for T L institution
wide and shares this knowledge within a community
of collaborating universities
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Why Use the Web ?
Teachers
Local Students
WWW Browsers
Administrators
Distance Students
Mac
VT
X
Windows
WWW
AUDIO
VIDEO
IMAGES
TEXT
EXT- ERNAL
COURSE WARE
CWIS
OPAC
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The Leicester Model

• The CWIS Project (1992 - )
• Campus Wide Information Service

The STILE Project (1992-6) (TLTP Phase 1)
Students Teachers Integrated Learning
Environment
April 1996 LTG formed from a merger of these two
projects
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Leicester CWIS

• The Central WWW
• Server is home to the
• CWIS (Campus Wide
• Information System)
• The CWIS consists of
• information provided
• and maintained by
• authorised web account
• holders and information
• providers from
• throughout the University

Critical Mass Empowerment
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Resource Based Learning
Individual
Departmental
Course Overviews Book Lists Past Papers
LECTURE NOTES
Glossaries
(SELF) ASSESSMENT
Web Resources
Web Conferencing
Virtual Environments
Images
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What is WebBoard?

• User friendly Internet Conferencing facility
• Enhance the use of the Web within an institution
• Enables staff and students to participate in
  conferences
• Posting messages
• On-line chat

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WebBoard - Screen dump
http//webboard.le.ac.uk/tutorial
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Uses of WebBoard

• Project collaboration
• Community building
• Virtual meetings
• Information management
• Customer service/technical support
• Teaching

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Ten educational components and functions of
computer conferencing
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1. The notice board

• Same function as announcements in face- to-face
  classes.
• Electronic notice board is equally accessible to
  those who attended class and those who missed
• It is permanently displayed and automatically
  marked with the date etc.
• Since it is interactive, it also allows for
  clarification of announcements

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2. The public tutorial

• Conferences can be used for questions and answers
  that can clarify issues and elaborate on material
  presented in class
• When issues are raised online, tutors are more
  inclined to produce a detailed discussion knowing
  that it will not be necessary to repeat the
  explanation for subsequent inquiries from other
  students

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3. The individual project

• An online conversation between two participants
  can be useful in situations such as writing a
  term paper, guiding an independent reading
  course, or writing a thesis proposal.
• Online supervision may be slower than direct
  spoken consultation.
• On the other hand, it may be more thoughtful and
  more productive use of contact time

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4. Free flow discussion

• May be used to continue and supplement
  interaction in a face-to-face class
• Participants can pursue ideas between classes
  after they have read further and reflected on the
  issues
• For example, free flow discussion conferences
  have been used successfully for informal
  reflection on a futures theme

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5. The structured seminar

• In a structured seminar, sub-topics have been
  matched to units of course material.
• This is particularly useful for distance learners
  and individuals who have incoherent course
  progress

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6. Peer counselling

• Primarily for student-to-student interaction
• Provide a medium for mutual support and advice on
  
• academic issues such as exam preparation,
• administrative aspects eg. registration
  procedures and fees,
• how to survive as a part-time student.
• Although peer counselling take place in
  conferences with other purposes, their function
  may be important enough to merit a separate
  conference or a separate topic in a course
  conference

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7. Collective database

• Collective databases (eg. annotated
  bibliographies, listings of journals, directories
  of sources for scholarships, and calendars of
  events) can be established within computer
  conferencing systems.
• Conferencing systems provides a means for
  soliciting and collecting contributions from
  individuals

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8. Group product

• Conference systems can facilitate group work such
  as case study preparation, project development,
  and team presentation
• Conferences can further provide forums in which
  classes can analyze problems, coordinate
  individual work, prepare group papers, and review
  and revise each other's work

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9. Community decision making

• A conference open for all students and staff can
  address
• management of educational resources
• procedures for comprehensive exams
• curriculum changes etc
• Especially at the graduate level, shared
  decision-making is beneficial for building true
  academic communities

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10. Inter-community networking

• Linkages between similar academic groups at
  different universities have been attempted to
  promote common research and scholarly interests
• This seems to work best among people with
  previously established relations through on-site
  conferences, shared study interests, or exchange
  of papers

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How does WebBoard work?

• Combines database and email technology with WWW
  technology
• Uses Microsoft Access database to record board,
  conferences, messages users, configuration
• Uses web pages for logging in, reading posting
  messages, searching etc.
• Also has email and chat facilities

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Some WebBoard Features

• Virtual boards
• Conferences
• Messages
• ConferenceRoom Chat
• Mailing lists

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Basic Organisation

• Board (set up by administrator ie. Me) may be
  dedicated to a
• department
• course
• Year of course
• WebBoard allows 255 boards per server
• Each virtual board has its own set of
  conferences, topics, messages etc
• Each can have its own colour scheme and custom
  look and feel

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WebBoard - Screen dump
http//webboard.le.ac.uk/tutorial
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Conferences

• Each board contains various conferences
• Conferences organise content subjects
• Public Conferences
• Private Conferences
• Read-only Conferences
• Moderated Conferences
• Conferences are set up by the administrator and
  Board managers they decide how to arrange
  subject matter of boards and conferences

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WebBoard - Screen dump
Conferences listed in left hand window
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Messages

• Content of a conference is developed by users
  posting new topics or responding to previous
  messages
• Unmoderated conferences users drive the
  discussion
• Moderated or read-only conferences moderator
  determines the content
• Spell-checking correction, message preview,
  anonymous posting, file attachments

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WebBoard Screen dump
message
Reply to message
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Chatting in Webboard

• Students can talk with each other to learn more
  about assignments, lectures, research projects
  etc
• Two types of chat
• ConferenceRoom chat (internet relay chat, IRC)
  lt1000 users
• Webboard JavaScript chat lt50 users

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Chatting in Webboard cont

• Clicking on the CHAT button brings up a list of
  conferences that have a chat room
• User selects room and enters

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Mailing Lists

• Allow users to participate in conferences via
  email
• Non-digest (messages sent immediately after
  posting)
• Digest (1 days messages are sent in a single
  indexed email once a day)
• Digest/zipped

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Archiving Retrieval

• Can archive messages
• By number of messages
• Age of messages
• Messages can be retrieved by administrator,
  manager or moderator

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Email Notification

• WebBoard can notify users once a day when new
  messages have been posted to conferences they
  specify

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Using WebBoard

• Accessing Web Board
• Following a link from an existing web page
• Typing Internet address of the board eg.
  http//webboard.le.ac.uk/tutorial
• Once the board has been accessed the the login
  screen will be seen

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Login screen screen dump
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Entering a Board

• Guest (can browse messages but not participate in
  the conferences)
• New user
• A username
• Full name
• Password
• Email address
• Existing user

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Viewing Messages

• Board is split into two sides
• Left side shows available conferences
• Conferences contain topics which can be viewed by
  clicking on the symbol
• Read messages by clicking on them
• Right side shows messages

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WebBoard Tutorial

• Have a look at the WebBoard tutorial at
  Leicester
• http//webboard.le.ac.uk/tutorial

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Some Example Boards 1

• http//webboard.le.ac.uk/LUMCIT

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Some Example Boards 2

• http//webboard.le.ac.uk/PPY2
• (Psychology Practical Year 2 )

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Some Example Boards 3

• http//webboard2.le.ac.uk/MuseumStudiesDL

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Some Example Boards 4

• http//wb2.nene.ac.uk/5/5

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Some References

• Pedagogical Techniques for Computer-Mediated
  Communication
• http//www.hs.nki.no/morten/cmcped.htm
• Pointers to Resources on Computer Conferencing
• http//www.shss.montclair.edu/useful/confer.html
• WebBoard for Educators
• http//software.ora.com8080/webboardedu
• O'Reilly Software - the producers of WebBoard
• http//webboard.oreilly.com/
• My Web pages http//www.le.ac.uk/cc/hsd3/

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http//www.le.ac.uk/cc/hsd3/home.html