Virtual Classrooms: Engaging and Retaining Learners in Distance Education

This page was created by Paula Johnson, as part of the USQ course FET8611: Emerging Environments for Learning.


Please comment on it using hidden inline comments (QUICKTAGS > HIDDEN COMMENT) or ADD COMMENT at the bottom of the page. You may reuse the content under the knowledgeGarden copyright policy. The page will be released into community ownership after 31st December 2009.

This site has been created to discuss experiences of using virtual classrooms like Wimba and Elluminate as both students and educators. This information could then be used to explore methods of developing virtual classrooms in ways which engage learners and help them to complete their course of study.

The following video from the BBC shows how virtual classrooms are already being used to educate students who are unable to attend school: Elluminate, Accipio-Virtual Classroom Delivers Real Learning


Smyth & Zanetis (2007) discuss how virtual classrooms have come of age as technology has developed in speed, ease of use, cost and even size with the use of mobile phones for internet access. They also demonstrate how they can be use in pedagogically sound ways to encourage student-centred learning within a constructive framework:




Smyth, R., & Zanetis, J.. (2007). Internet-Based Videoconferencing for Teaching and Learning: A Cinderella Story. Distance Learning, 4(2), 61-70.  Retrieved September 5, 2009, from Academic Research Library. (Document ID: 1402686761).


URinvited2
Comments about your experiences are invited in the following areas:

• The Student's Perspective;
• The Educator's Perspective and
• Implications for Learning

To assist in the evaluation of the information we collect, the fist two areas are also divided into sections to record positive, negative and average experiences.

Positive Experiences

What was the learning situation and how did you find it beneficial?

Paula :
As a distance student I've found using virtual classrooms to be an efficient method of sharing information. I particularly value being able to ask questions and get an instant response. This form of communication can also help to avoid the misinterpretations which can occur on bulletin boards/forums.


UserPage:janclewett|Jan?:

As a moderator I particularly love being able to share the desktop in Elluminate. I facilitate an online course for teachers and I find this ability invaluable for showing them how to manipulate software or create and online course etc. Also the Wimba group discussion we had on Friday with 6 course participants was really productive. It took a while for us all to login but it was worth it. It allows online students to get to know each other through synchronous communication which is so effective. It also puts a real live person behind the "face" of the avatar.

Cathleen?
I have had a couple of very positive experiences with Elluminate live. I was a judge for an online Science Fair last year. After frantically trying to get on and eventually running out to buy a new head set, I had a very positive experience. By the end of my session with the student who shared her project with me, I felt I could make a very valid judgement. She had produced a great power point and I could see all the research and preparation before the final product. I was able to have a positive conversation with the student. She had used Elluminate extensively so she was able to express herself very well. I noticed that when she was not sure of a question she asked specifically what I meant. This made it easy for me know if we were on the same page or not. I made the decision then that I would never wonder quietly because people cannot see my face so I need to communicate as clearly as possible. My second positive experience I had with elluminate was attending an online "class" for junior high students. The teacher had been teaching online for a while and is an exemplary teacher. She took the class to google earth and was able to complete some activities with us. It was an experience that opened up a new world for me and gave me the desire to learn to teach effectively with the elluminate tool.

Stephen?

I have only experienced Elluminate once during an online conference run by the Australian Flexible Learning Network. There were some positives for me as a 1st time user:

• real time access to the faciliator and guest speakers
• seeing the contribution of other learners - this prompted ideas from em to both respond to and interact with the other learners
• ability to 'see' what the faciliator was talking about - even seeing you tube clips while in the classroom
• the tool that allows you to pose questions as the session unfolds and then the facilitator can respond at the end (if they questions were not already answered in the session.
• I missed a session and was able to 'replay'. Great concept, even if it meant I was not able to participate.

So, that was my positive experience. It was a big group - nearly 80, so it contrasts with Cathleen's 1-on-1 discussed above.


Sarah:
Over the 18 months I've been studying at USQ I used Wimba very rarely until last semester, when I participated in a group activity and wrote a joint paper. This group found Wimba extremely useful as a sounding board for our ideas and concerns at key stages of project development.
I have been particularly interested in this combining of synchronous tools like Wimba and asynchronous tools like discussion boards. A lot of the early research into online learning focused on the advantages of asynch learning - the fact that you can log in anytime and participate in discussions via asynchronous posts to a board - but I often found student's posts on the discussion board were a bit formal and stilted. There has been a marked contrast in the units where the students have heard each other's voices (and sometimes seen each other on webcam) in Wimba - it changed the way we used the discussion boards. So I think some of the advantage of these tools is not just in what we can do in them, but how the immediacy of audio/visual discussions can augment the other online learning tools we use.


Andy:

Learning from distance education has its own set of unique challenges. Although I was dubious about virtual classrooms my experiences using Wimba on the programme has been very positive. It has allowed people from threads on forums to become real individuals. Through dialogue in the virtual classroom I have learnt so much from other participants. Indeed as Sarah wrote above the majority of the course is asynchronous in context. It is indeed refreshing to communicate live with somebody and receive real time responses. Perhaps for me it has provided that communication which is lacking in the asynchronous delivery methods.All in all it has been a positive experience utilizing virtual classrooms. Andy



Sharifa:

I've used Elluminate and Wimba in different occasions in the past as a virtual meeting space and a virtual classroom. Both experiences were very positive to me. The two applications simulated a learning environment that everyone communicated together regardless the distance.
I found the tools fascinating; the whiteboard interactions, ability to use voice chat as well as text messaging. Uploading images to the class, transferring documents , collecting feedback through poll feature and engaging the class by using quizzes.

This kind of technology provided synchronous communication that enriches the learning experience

Negative Experiences

What was the learning situation and what didn't you like about it?

Jan
Userpage:janclewett
I like using Virtual Classrooms, however I find that access to classroom because of slow bandwidth is problematic. Most Content Management Systems take a long time to make a call to the database and this involves my students waiting for an extremely long time to access information. So long in fact that they form an aversion to the virtual classroom. I find USQ Moodle almost inaccessible from my school computers.

Cathleen?
Our school has four campuses and so we have all our staff meetings using elluminate. What I find most frustrating is that often we drop out and have to reenter or the sound will suddenly just cut out. There is always a sense of panic because I don't have any idea how to fix a problem. Often it has nothing to do with me anyway. Our school has adopted an attitude of patience and I feel this is an important attitude that I want to adopt in my classroom. If someone falls out of the classroom we do worry too much they come back in and we keep going.



Paula :
Like Jan and Cathleen, technical issues cause the biggest frustration for me when using virtual classrooms. I missed out on half the Wimba session on Friday because I couldn't get the sound to work as it was being blocked by the firewall and I didn't have administration rights on the computer I was using in order to fix it. Luckily I was joining a very patient group who were happy to fill me in :-) Thanks!



Sarah:
Apart from the technical issues, the other obvious downside to synchronous tools like Elluminate is time difference. I'm a member of a Ning group which regularly holds Elluminate symposia, but the group is based in the US which means I not only find it difficult to be awake at the right time, but they often post the announcements just before the event, so I don't even find out that its on till the next morning! Although you can review the session after its over its not the same as being there.
USQ students who are not based in Australia must also find it difficult to make it to our Wimba discussions sometimes. I know Cathleen has been up very early for some of our sessions!

Average Experience

What was the learning situation and what did/didn't happen that prevented it from being beneficial?

Jan

I had a very average experience as a participant in a summer online course through USQ. There were very few participants and the facilitators rarely logged into the course and responded to questions. This was extremely frustrating. As there were only about 5 active participants, we felt neglected and really left out. When it came to the Christmas holiday period, there was a real lack on momentum in the course and I found myself detesting the whole situation and struggled with the content and the assignments. We had handed in 2 assignments and had not received any feedback from the facilitator. When we did it was just a mark with a one sentence reply after the course had finished. It is important that the facilitator makes a presence in the course. They should login every few days to check that everyone is coping. 10days is a long time in a course not to receive any feedback to a question.

Positive Experiences

What was the learning situation and what were you particularly pleased with?

Negative Experiences

What was the learning situation and what would you do differently with the benefit of hindsight?

Paula :
When Elluminate was first introduced in my workplace I organised for a group of us to trial it to determine whether it would be suitable for our needs. Even though we had all run the set-up wizard prior to the session, I still ended up running from one office to another helping colleagues to sort out problems with audio and video, but did manage to get everything running smoothly until I logged on myself. No matter what I or IT Support tried we couldn’t get my mic to work in spite of the fact that it had been working earlier in the day. I ended up typing my responses and feeling very frustrated.

Given that I had followed all the instructions carefully, I’m not sure what I could have done differently, but it did reinforce my belief in always having a contingency plan (such as a pre-recorded PowerPoint with audio).



((UserPage:janclewett|Jan )):
Yes Paula I too have had similar experiences. I tend to have a variety of headsets and microphones handy. I login and out a few times to see if this fixes the problem. This sort of thing always happens to someone. I have been on both sides. It can be extremely frustrating for the participant who then feels they are being left out. I noticed a similar thing happens in Wimba so it is not just an Elluminate problem. Sometimes I wonder if it is the system of my employer that is at fault. I don't have the technical expertise to figure that one out. What I say to the participants is to just listen and send me an email with any questions that I will answer afterwards. I find it really hard to read the chat while I am moderating a session. If the problem is a global issue for most participants, I cancel the meeting and reschedule.


Userpage:Carmel
Hi Paula. My school introduced Elluminate at the beginning of the year. I only had one day training in Elluminate but was very keen to use it with students because it has enormous possibilites for Distance Education students. I also have been training other teachers to use Elluminate (even though I am still learning it myself. My experiences with Elluminate have been frustrating....not sure whether it is to do with the networked environment I used it in or other issues with the server that the system is hosted on. When using it with students I had frequent drop outs. One student, who is overseas, continually dropped out. However, when I used Skype with him, it worked fine. As Jan mentioned, it is hard to read the chat when you are moderating a session. It is just so full on and you have to be super organised and well planned. Students do like it though but there is a reluctance, with some, to give it a go. The other frustrating area was using it with teachers. We have done several practice sessions but we had all sorts of weird things happening such as people logging in and the system telling them they were already logged in. I am blaming our problems on the networking and infrastructure that my organisation uses. There were some functions in Elluminate that did not work...I could not use the web tour feature because of some blocking by the system that my organisation uses.


Paula :
Thanks Jan and Carmel. My recent Elluminate experiences don't seem to have been so problematic (in fact I had more trouble accessing Wimba last time we had a session) and I wonder if this is due to what Smyth & Zanetis (2007) discuss in the introductory reading; a combination of ongoing improvements to hardware, software and network connections. I've found that in the latest version of Elluminate there are a number of different ways of doing the same thing, so that if one system isn't suitable/practical for everyone in the group, another might be. Also, having a webroom that is available to you for longer periods of time (weeks, months or even years) rather than having individual sessions set up gives moderators the ability to upload media to the library well ahead of time and therefore trouble shoot any potential problems.


Andy:

I would have to concur with everyone's comments above. Technical issues has been a big problem for me working with Elluminate. Currently I am trying to set up an Elluminate account with a business and get them online using it as a virtual classroom. There appears to be little control of technical issues so as a moderator you are left with no real control. This has an impact both on the learner and the moderator. At this point if you were doing a one on one I would prefer Skype to virtual classrooms. I am wondering whether to try Wimba and see if there are less problems, though from everybody else's above comments I wonder. I also agree as moderator it takes a lot to be on track and keeping it all together, reading different comments as well as responding to people. I certainly feel more control is a real classroom (though technical problems there are almost as problematic). Andy



Paula :
Thanks Andy. When we've been 'playing' in Elluminate we've all had moderator privileges, so the differences between moderator and participants hasn't been so obvious, but the moderator does have quite a bit of control in Elluminate. For example you can control participants ability to use any of the tools and turn off the text chat in the room if you prefer. This means that the moderator doesn't have to keep up with too many things at the same time, but participants still have the ability to send you a text message if they are having difficulties. Having said that, smaller groups would have to be preferable in classroom type situations where you want everyone to be involved in the communication.

Average Experience

What was the learning situation and what did/didn't happen that prevented it from being beneficial?

Elements of a positive virtual classroom experience

CathleenI found this website to be helpful to my own research on creating an online presence.
http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/books/interactions.pdf Karen Swan has made some solid observations that have given me some great ideas about how I will set up my own classroom. A study that backs up her research from the students' point of view comes from Athabasca University in Canada. Comments from students about their online teachers relflected the same values. http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde18/articles/article6.htm
Both studies identify the importance of Social Presence, Cognitive Presence and Teaching Presence. I hope that you you enjoy them.


Paula :
Thanks Cathleen, great links . Swan very clearly demonstrates the value of the community of inquiry model (Rourke, et al. 2001) which emphasises the importance of interaction with content, teachers and peers in effective learning. The links she has drawn between research findings and their implications for practice suggest that tools such as virtual classrooms can be an effective means of developing a strong learning community which caters for varied learning styles.


Sarah:
Paula, what other tools are there besides Wimba and Elluminate? Would sites like TinyChat be useful in any of the settings you're looking at? It doesn't have all the tools of Wimba and Elluminate but it seems to be simpler to use (and hence may eliminate some of the technical issues noted here?). See: http://tinychat.com/ for more info.


Paula :
Thanks for posting the link Sarah. TinyChat does seem like a much easier system for first time users, but I am concerned about the lack of privacy and wonder if for that reason, Skype or Messenger wouldn't be a better option if chat was the only function you needed. I'm currently using Elluminate for meetings regarding a work project and the ability to application share makes the time much more productive than just using a chat client, or even a video conference room. Rather than explaining what has been done, or what could be adapted, we are able to show each other exactly what we mean.

Things to avoid when using virtual classrooms

Sarah: After today's (12 Sept) excellent experience in Paula's facilitated Elluminate session, I'd say I would probably avoid relying on internet streaming for a teaching activity (eg: running a youtube video directly into the session). Although the software supports this, Cathleen's test indicated the visuals were poor and the sound nonexistent. Obviously it depends on the group's hardware and connection rates, but there are alternatives (like adding a video to the Multimedia library) which appeared to work more reliably. This reiterates Paula's point above - always have a backup plan!

A users' guide to technical problems when using virtual classrooms

URinvited2 help build this troubleshooting section based on your experiences using virtual classrooms

This is a place to put your heading text URinvited2 help build this troubleshooting section based on your experiences using virtual classrooms
Sarah	Technical problems or logon problems.	I suggest that at every Wimba/Elluminate session we all agree on a chat software format (eg: Skype / kG Shoutbox / USQ StudyDesk chat or similar) and ensure that we have the same one running when we logon. This way if someone is having logon problems, the more experienced members of the group can provide advice via chat which might help the others work out how to get on (or at least alert others that they have a problem).	Any suggestions from other users?
name?	The Problem.	How you solved it.	Couldn't fix it - suggestions from other users.
name?	The Problem.	How you solved it.	Couldn't fix it - suggestions from other users.

Elluminate

If you're not familiar with virtual classrooms this kG site provides a step-by-step guide to using Elluminate:
http://www.baker-evans.com/knowledgegarden/Using+the+Elluminate+conferencing+system?

The following site looks at the educational benefits of using Elluminate:
http://www.baker-evans.com/knowledgegarden/Engaging+online+with+Elluminate+E-live+improves+student+success?