The Role of Discussion in Online Learning

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The Role of Discussion in Online Learning

• Paul Leng
• The e-Learning Unit
• The University of Liverpool

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Outline

• Approaches to e-Learning
• University of Liverpool online degrees
• Some key issues
• The role of discussion
• Possibilities for on-campus students

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Why online distance education?

• Some obvious answers
• Widening access making education available to
  people at home or in the workplace
• The disabled
• Full-time workers
• House-bound parents
• Internationalisation
• Integrating multi-campus provision
• Reducing costs, compared to campus-based
  education
• We shall see

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Why not e-Learning?

• More obvious answers
• Alienation
• Lack of personal contact/social interaction
• Low student involvement, lack of intellectual
  challenge and dialogue
• Technology-dominated
• Low quality
• Low teacher involvement, little student support
• Low cost, low value

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Some less obvious answers

• Perhaps on-campus education isnt so great
• How much intellectual debate really goes on?
• How closely do teachers engage with their
  students?
• Could e-Learning actually be a better learning
  experience?

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Student views

• The camaraderie between fellow students and
  tutors was phenomenal.
• ..I have forged great friendships..
• ..two and a half years of highly enjoyable,
  energy-sapping, inspiring effort..
• The intensity was high, but the classroom
  discussions made the courses lively..
• one of the most exciting and rewarding
  experiences of my life.
• (comments of e-Learning graduates)

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Styles of e-Learning

• Non-interactive
• Internet delivery of learning materials and
  return of student work
• Similar to paper-based distance learning
• Synchronous interactive
• online interactive real-time dialogue
• Analogous to campus-based teaching
• Asynchronous interactive
• Email-based interaction between and among
  students and teachers

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Non-interactive e-Learning

• Advantages over conventional distance learning
• Immediacy, speed of access
• Multimedia capabilities
• Indexing and organisation
• Integration of learning materials/ management
  tools/ student work
• But shares many of the disadvantages of DL
• Impersonal, non-involving, etc.

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Synchronous interactive e-Learning

• Class-teacher interaction via internet
  conferencing tools
• Model of a lecture/seminar on campus
• Advantage no need for physical presence
  (geographical flexibility)
• Disadvantages
• Temporal inflexibility
• Technology-driven/technology-limited
• Likely to be (at best) a degraded version of an
  actual classroom

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Asynchronous interactive e-Learning

• Interaction over an extended timeframe
• Geographic and temporal flexibility
• Relatively low technological requirements
• But what is lost?
• Teacher involvement?
• Classroom discussion?
• How to find the right balance involvement versus
  flexibility
• Could degenerate into non-interactive

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Liverpool University online degrees

• Wholly Internet-delivered
• Asynchronous interactive model
• MSc in I.T, MBA and MPH programmes
• Targeted at working professionals
• Here will focus on the MSc
• launched in April 2000
• Now around 1000 students

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Aims

• Academic Standards
• Comparability with on-campus programmes
• Adherence to QAA guidelines
• Standard procedures External Examiners, Annual
  Programme Monitoring, Boards of Studies, etc.
• Learning Experience
• Continuous active engagement with the programme
• Interaction and collaboration with teachers and
  colleagues

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Pedagogic Principles

• Constructivism
• students construct their own understanding of the
  subject
• Collaborative enquiry
• understanding is reached via a process of enquiry
  and discussion involving all the class

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How Does It Work?

• The teaching paradigm is the seminar rather than
  the lecture
• Modules are divided into seminars
• Theory is acquired through individual reading
  assignments of textbook, lecture and additional
  materials
• Theory is applied in individual and group
  assignments
• Concepts are collaboratively discussed in a
  virtual classroom

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The Virtual Classroom

• Structured hierarchy of email folders
• Separate folders for course materials,
  assignments, correspondence and discussion, group
  work, etc.
• Assignments folder is write-only (read by course
  instructor)
• Discussion folder is read/write (for open
  discussion of module topics)
• Sharing of class knowledge/experience

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Typical module structure

• 8 one-week seminars
• Each seminar includes
• An online lecture and associated learning
  materials
• Reading assignments
• Questions for class discussion
• Possibly ongoing group project work
• Other exercises/assignments
• Strict one-week timeframe
• Assessment and feedback in following week

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Key learning features

• Collaborative learning
• Students work together (in the whole class or
  smaller groups)
• Outside experience of students brought in to help
  others (NB students are working professionals)
• Key role of moderated discussion (an assessed
  component)
• Maximum of 20 students per class
• Expected involvement 15-20 hours/week

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Key aspects

• Costs not a low-cost model
• Public-private partnership
• Academic standards and Quality
• Role of Discussion

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Quality Assurance

• Essential
• to maintain credibility of programme
• to ensure not driven by commercial pressures
• To maintain control of a distributed operation
• Aspects
• Academic control retained by University
• Standards validated by University procedures
• Monitoring delivery the e-Learning Unit

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Monitoring delivery

• All communications (including feedback and other
  private instructor/student communications) are
  viewable
• Each virtual classroom monitored online by
  e-Learning Unit
• Module monitoring verifies
• Adherence to curriculum, procedures, etc
• Maintenance of academic standards
• Teaching quality
• Assessment outcomes

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Some issues

• Student involvement
• How do we ensure engagement with material, avoid
  isolation/alienation?
• Tutor involvement
• How do we promote student-teacher interaction?
• Plagiarism and identity
• How can we be sure that assignments are the
  students own work?

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The role of discussion

• Discussion in Virtual Classroom
• Establishes identity of students
• Guarantees involvement prevents isolation and
  alienation
• Requires active tutor participation
• Facilitates collaboration students help each
  other, share experience
• Enables progress monitoring student absence
  immediately revealed
• Reduces risk of plagiarism

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Student comments

• The discussions with other students were most
  helpful in expanding my understanding of the
  various subjects
• The subject and discussion were good a lot of
  real experiences to share
• The support I have received from my fellow
  students and the different ideas that came to the
  fore were interesting and helpful
• Varied contribution of other students provided
  an enriching learning experience

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Plagiarism and identity

• Risks reduced by emphasis on discussion and
  collaboration
• Hard to falsify multiple discussion
  contributions, throughout module
• Discussion contributions validate other
  assignments
• All interactions within class are visible and
  recorded
• Can go back over the record (including previous
  classes)
• Software to detect plagiarism/collusion

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Evaluating discussion

• Involvement in discussion a key feature
• Research shows necessity to demand involvement
• Involvement ensured by making participation an
  assessed component
• Essential to evaluate it critically and
  consistently

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Conclusions

• Some final remarks

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Online Learningimage and reality

• Preconception
• Impersonal and alienating
• Bulk processing
• Low delivery cost
• Low standards

• Actual
• Very high student-student and staff-student
  interaction
• Classrooms of up to 20 students
• Costs similar to on-campus teaching, except for
  premises
• High demands on staff and students

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Summary Why e-Learning?

• First Key advantage can obtain higher degree
  while continuing to work full-time
• But also I believe online learning can be (in
  many respects) more intellectually stimulating
  than much (most?) lecture-based teaching
• More effective use of discussion
• Closer overview by tutors
• So can we import these advantages to on-campus
  programmes?

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Mixed-mode delivery

• Some possibilities
• Offer some modules of an on-campus programme in
  an online mode
• Diversity of learning experience
• On-campus or online versions of the same module
• Greater flexibility for part-time students

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Blended learning

• Some more possibilities
• Online seminars/discussion groups as part of an
  on-campus module
• Include a structured discussion element in the
  learning process
• Online project teams
• Allow students to collaborate through online
  dialogue
• Online staff-student forum
• More effective than traditional committees?

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Thank You!

• http//www.uol.ohecampus.com