Thoughts on graduate level distance education, part 2: the software
Posted by Jesse Rodgers on June 18, 2008 at 11:16 PM
In part one I talked about the general format of my graduate education experience through distance education. This part will talk about the technology that was used to conduct the course.
The software that ‘did it all’ from running the courses to interacting with fellow students was from managed by Embanet, FirstClass, and is from OpenText. My first impression of it was along the lines of disbelief. It seemed like a really bad newsgroup manager with a clunky interface and slow beyond belief. After a few settings changes and things got better. Once I learned about some of the more useful features like ‘unsend’ messages I was less annoyed by it. It has a clunky UI but it works. Just this spring the program switched to blackboard, not sure what I think about that but I am glad I didn’t have to make the switch.
How we used the software was very similar to a newsgroup with a managed space for shared files. The courses had their own ‘group’ that was broken down to sub-groups that were based on each week. All assignments, group work, and correspondence with the instructor was done in that style. A shared folder for each week that was essentially just another newsgroup that gave only posting access is where assignments were handed in. The software did allow for live chats with classmates, audio chats, and a really useful set of collaboration features.
However, there was nothing in the software that I could not do in MSN, facebook, a newsgroup, blog, forum, etc. I am pretty sure the experience would have been better if they had a process that utilized tools that are more flexible than the software they gave us. I am not sure how you can manage distance education without a centralized ‘kitchen sink’ system to control access to content though. With on campus courses where students use online tools to compliment lab and/or classroom experiences I don’t know why you force students to use ‘kitchen sink’ software like blackboard if only to enforce control on access to content. Sadly if students try to do something in an environment they find useful academics can re-act in bizarre ways.
My grades, course information, and handbook was all handled in a web based solution that was just a .NET application with some simple tables displaying information. An odd management of documents had HTML files located on the web app but anything that was in Word documents or other templates was found over in the embanet software.
In courses themselves any software used was generally Open Source and/or platform independant. I only had one course that was VB.NET focused and it was XML Web Applications that focused largely on SOAP and XSLT, no the irony still isn’t lost. The IT Project Management course required MS Project but supplied a licence for it but not much for this OS X user. Thankfully I had an Intel Mac with Boot Camp so I managed the course.
Part three will talk about the time requirements and what I see as the benefits of this style of graduate education.
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“The software did allow for live chats with classmates, audio chats, and a really useful set of collaboration features.”
did these tools get used well?
Having used Connect (AKA Breeze) since the days that Macromedia bought it, I’m amazed those sort of tools aren’t used more in Education, both for delivering lectures or tutorials online – or teamwork even.
“I am pretty sure the experience would have been better if they had a process that utilised tools that are more flexible than the software they gave us”
sigh… lemme check the calendar … this is 2008, isn’t it?
… bloody Blackboard … it’s everywhere (last year I was part of a team involved in rolling out BB to replace a CF-powered home-grown LMS at a large university)
Audio chats didn’t get used but once in a while the chat stuff did. We were conscious about using it when group work was required and we needed to a trail to prove we did the work. MSN would have been fine if we didn’t need the log.
That is the one good argument for centralized systems… you can audit usage and meet ‘academic requirements.’ Although I bet you could with other systems as well, its just no one wants to figure out how.
Jesse:
I am the Chief Academic Officer for Embanet and would be interested in hearing about your experience in more detail. We are always looking for ways to improve the student experience for online learning.
BTW, as a clarification Embanet doesn’t build LMSs we host them and currently host seven different ones.
I would like to know which one you were using. It appears it may have been an older version of Moodle.
Regards,
Tom Downey
@Tom – I didn’t know you guys managed it, I thought it was created or maintained by you. I updated my post to include it was actually FirstClass from OpenText (I live in Waterloo and that is the only thing I now know they make).
Since you do hosting that is really interesting… I had no idea that existed. Must say your customer service is excellent even if FirstClass made me cry at times ;)
Tom – Many online students were crying when they started to use Blackboard in May this year. They were only given 3 weeks of familiarisation. The tutors seemed to be pretty green in using the BB. The students were kicked out from the system so many times that they failed their assignments. The education provider was not helping much as the IT Technical staff did not know what had gone wrong. A Cisco Consultant was called to check on the error page at Singapore and found that the server was having problems. That was too late when the student had missed the deadline for submitting his assignment. Sending a Ticket sometimes does not help to recover the situation fast enough and the student is disappointed with BB.
What is the problem with BB? Do they cater for developing countries where the broadband speed is slower? There was no ‘meeting place’ for online students where Embanet has created The Learning Group, Meeting Place, Student Forum, etc… and when they wanted to call for SoS.
Online international students feel helpless and lonely most of the time when they first try to adjust themselves to the new environment. The ESEA-UoL Forum now acts as the main area for discussion of problems during the long haul journey of doing the Masters Programmes.
- Eileen W
www.ulesea-mastersonline.net
www.LinkedIn.com
Online Education
www.sangambayard-c-m.com
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