DE Oracle @ UMUC

Synchronous Online Conferencing

Stella Porto

Program Director

Graduate School of Management and Technology

Published: January-February 2006

Category: » Online-pedagogy » Synchronous-communication

Anywhere, at a certain time…

Synchronous distance learning takes place when learners and/or instructors are in different geographical locations, but are able to interact (or meet) in real-time using specific enabling technology. Duckworth (2001) refers to the term "live e-learning" (p.1) to describe the use of Internet technologies to "provide synchronous lessons between an instructor and a group of learners" (p.1). This is, therefore, an interactive real-time experience, which might include text-based discussions, audio, video, document and/or application sharing.

Many distant students report feelings of isolation and loneliness in purely asynchronous online study settings due to the lack of immediate social interactions typically found in face-to-face instructional settings (Kurtz & Friedman, para. 12, 1999). The inclusion of synchronous instruction as part of a holistic online learning environment helps to mitigate this condition while creating a greatly enhanced teaching and learning experience through active engagement and spontaneous exchanges (Stacey, 2003).

The use of any synchronous technologies requires careful preparation and planning, given that it is harder to fix problems of any nature on-the-fly. By the same token, since the unexpected is virtually unavoidable, instructor and students should keep a good level of flexibility during their meetings, allowing for just-in-time changes and accommodations of the pre-planned agenda.

Online synchronous technologies

Many kinds of online synchronous technologies are available today for instructional purpose, including online chat, simple shared whiteboards and fully integrated synchronous learning systems. One common theme when analyzing and comparing these technologies is the tradeoff between the provision of high-touch interaction and the easiness of use. The decision of which synchronous system to use should be based on more than its technical capabilities alone. Organizational considerations, audience characteristics, instructional goals, and purchase and maintenance costs, all play a critical role in determining a best-fit synchronous learning solution. The system should be intuitive enough for users to become productive with little or no training. 

An online chat is an online communication method, where people "talk by broadcasting messages to people on the same forum in real time" (Definition of chat room, para. 1). This online forum is thus called a 'chat room', which might be moderated, but more frequently are not. Chat rooms are different than discussion groups, which are not based on real-time communication. In many cases, there is some overlap between the functions of a chat room and those of Instant Messaging (IM) systems. The latter have more recently included in their services the same capabilities offered by original chat rooms.

Whiteboards add flexibility to collaborative initiatives, allowing participants to draw and write in a common space. Moreover, whiteboards mimic closely the traditional classroom model, where an instructor use slides or the blackboard to demonstrate, illustrate and explain content to students. Alone, whiteboards can be limiting as a communication tool, but when coupled with some other communication medium, be it a chat or audio, the whiteboard becomes powerful in broadcasting ideas, organizing meetings, generating collaborative documents and explaining content in depth.

Higher-end synchronous learning systems provide a whole gamut of integrated features, including multi-way Voice over IP (VoIP), whiteboard, application sharing, one or two-way video, instant messaging, and "signaling" (the ability to visually request to be acknowledged). These features all enable the learner to actively engage with the instructor, one another, and the instructional material itself. In this type of environment, it is not uncommon for learners to experience the same level of empathy and relationship with their instructor and fellow students as that found in a traditional face-to-face instructional setting.

The UMUC context and experimentation

Given our mission as an open university, access is a top priority for all our programs. Thus, online synchronous learning is not envisioned as a substitution for the online asynchronous mode used in our current online classrooms. It should be considered, however, as an enhancement, providing students with a richer online experience and attending to the diversity of the non-traditional students’ learning styles. Currently, at UMUC, the WebTycho online chat room is a feature available to all instructors. More recently, the Tycho chat room has been enhanced with a simple whiteboard in a pilot testing context. WebTycho also offers IM capability through its "class awareness" embedded feature. Another existing possibility for synchronous interaction is the teleconferences, which are done via phone bridges. During the last two terms, the Graduate School of Management & Technology has also been conducting another pilot experience in the use of two distinct online synchronous learning systems, namely namely Blackboard Collaborate (formally Wimba and Elluminate) and Adobe Connect (formally Macromedia Breeze). Thus, our experience with synchronous technologies is still in its infancy, but is steadily being developed. These pilot experiments allow a smaller group of faculty members to share and discuss the viability of such technologies, as well as suggest efficient ways of integrating them to our current Tycho classrooms.

The literature suggests the use of synchronous technologies in conjunction with asynchronous learning mode through different approaches as described below.

The UMUC on-going pilot experiments have shown effective use of synchronous technologies in the following interactive activities (which inherently include the different approaches described above):

• Staff and faculty meetings;
• Training sessions for staff and faculty;
• Instructor office hours;
• Instructor intervention with team problems (in case of group projects);
• Instructor presentations (lecturing);
• Guest presentations and interviews;
• Instructor demonstrations (of software use, websites, problem solving, etc.);
• Instructor-supervised team breakouts and presentations;
• Non-supervised team meetings and presentation rehearsals;
• Recording of students in language courses. 

What have we learned so far?

We define our lessons learned in two major categories, namely at a macro and at a micro level. Those at a macro level relate to lessons that have potential impact on policy making on the use of such technologies. Such policies implicitly include expectations that need to be shared with faculty members who decide to include such enhancements in their classrooms. The micro level category includes lessons related to the planning and management of the individual sessions.

Conclusion

The addition of a synchronous instruction capability to establish an accessible, inclusive, blended learning medium optimizes existing asynchronous course content and creates a sound foundation for active learning by combining the best of both media in a learner-centered online instructional environment.

To be truly effective, however, the institution must recognize that "electronic collaborative learning requires instructors to rethink and change their own assumptions about teaching and learning" (Knolle, p. 17, 2002). A key characteristic of synchronous interaction is its ability to motivate learner participation and involvement through active learning techniques (Siantz & Pugh, n.d.), leading to increased information retention rates, in some cases from 10% to 75% or more (Barclay, 2001).

As overall Internet bandwidth increases, synchronous tools will demonstrate escalating presence in the DE arena. It is, therefore, mandatory that instructors understand how to explore such tools for learning purposes, while identifying when they should be used.

References

Barclay, K. (2001). Humanizing learning at a distance: Ph.D. Dissertation. Kathleen Barclay, Saybrook Graduate School. Retrieved November 10, 2004: http://www.stratvisions.com/dissertation/dissertation.html (URL Defunct)

Duckworth, C.L. (2001). ISD for live e-learning.  Retrieved on September 25, 2004 from http://www.learningcircuits.com/2001/apr2001/duckworth.html(URL Defunct) Article can be found at: http://www.astd.org/LC/2001/0401_duckworth.htm

Knolle, J. (2003). Identifying the best practices for using HorizonLive to teach in the synchronous online environment pp. X-XI & pp.32-59. Retrieved November 9, 2004: http://www.csuchico.edu/~jknolle/research/thesis/jknolle-thesis.pdf

Kurtz, G. and Friedman, B. (1999). A Holistic, Individual, Technologically-Mediated Learning Environment at the Open University of Israel. A paper presented at the ICDE Conference, Vienna

Siantz, J. E. and Pugh. R. (n.d.). IPSE - using interactive video for instruction. Retrieved November 18, 2004: http://old.ihets.org/consortium/ipse/fdhandbook/uiv.html (URL Defunct) Article can be found at: http://itdl.org/Journal/Aug_07/article01.htm

Stacey, P. (2003). Online pedagogies for active learning. Retrieved October 31, 2004: http://www.bctechnology.com/statics/pstacey-oct1703.html (URL Defunct) Article can be found at: http://paulstacey.pbworks.com/f/pstacey-oct1703.htm

Tomas, P. (1997). Electronic audio-graphic tutorials: a teacher perspective.
Retrieved October 2, 2004: Web Tycho, OMDE 631 Course Content
WordIQ.com,(n.d.). Definition of chat room. Retrieved Sep 25, 2004, from WordIQ.com Web site: http://www.wordiq.com/definition/CHAT (URL Defunct)