How can I use online communication most effectively in my teaching?

In our university context, we are constrained in our teaching approaches by a number of factors – tradition, culture, expectations by students and staff, the academic timetable and resources (people, classrooms and time) and technology. It is not possible to expand on all of these challenges here, but I will try to explain how some of them affect our online learning initiatives in the context of the above incident.

The normal pattern for our courses in our 42 hour contact hours in a 14 week semester is a 2-hour lecture and 1-hour tutorial each week. However, in our new curriculum model – outcome-based learning and criterion-referenced assessment this pattern doesn’t quite work. The 2+1 model is geared towards knowledge acquisition rather than performance outcomes, and I would like to see a 1+2 model instead. However, this would increase the classroom contact hours significantly, and resources would not allow it. So this semester I have been struggling with the logistics and the pedagogy to see how to the two can balance by introducing a number of online tutorials instead.

It was decided to use this with first year students as they are usually more open to new approaches. I introduced the first online tutorial in week 5, in a foundation HRM course (Staffing & Supervision in the Hotel & Tourism Industry). Because we have 215 students in the class and 10 (20 student) tutorial groups, there were significant challenges of time and personal contact. I set up 10 individual groups in our LMS (WebCT) and posed two questions for discussion within the groups plus a task to be completed and brought to the next tutorial.

Our students, because English is their second language, usually find it difficult to take part in classroom discussion. Therefore, as Applebee and White suggest in Garrison’s paper, writing is often a better way of expressing their ideas, and demonstrating critical thinking and problem-solving. I wanted to get our students to share their ideas, and respond to practical HR problems.

The logistical arrangements went smoothly, the students had a deadline (6 days) to respond, and we were very surprised and pleased that 212 out of 215 students made two or more postings to the discussion questions. I responded to each group with general feedback based on the group’s inputs, and the incentive for the students was a mark towards their continuous assessment component based on their participation and quality of response. I read all the responses which took me about five hours, and with the administration, preparation, feedback and dealing with practical questions the tutorial time for the week took around 8 hours compared to the normal 15+ hours (preparation, classroom time and feedback to group activities) that I normally take.

Student responses were highly positive, as we did a mid-course evaluation, and only a small number said they did not like the online tutorial because it took more time or because they preferred the classroom session. A few had technical problems, or posted in the main forum, but the majority enjoyed the variety and opportunity to express their ideas and take part in the forum discussions.

The implications for my future practice are in two areas: how to make the discussion more interactive, and how much time should be given to this method in a normal semester. Because I posed questions, students answered the questions, gave their views, but did not really discuss each other’s views. The questions may have been too closed i.e. ‘Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the 360 degree assessment method’, as once two or three students had posted their comments, there was not too much new to say! The feedback suggested that more than 2 or 3 online tutorials per course might be overdoing a good thing.

My conclusion is that an ongoing discussion could be conducted throughout the course on the relevant topics to allow motivated students to take part, plus 2 or 3 particular tutorials online. Giving marks for participation is important, as is good planning, more open questions, and careful and timely feedback.

References
Garrison, D.R, Computer Conferencing: the post-industrial age of distance education, Open Learning, June 1997
________________________________________

Some students’ comments:

“First, I guess I enjoy participating in this online tutorial because I can always think much more deeply before I contribute any ideas. When we are in class, prompt responses are needed and hence sometimes it would be not that easy for us to have further elaboration on our ideas… Frankly I guess our class's discussion lacks a bit of interaction cuz it seems to me not many of us really respond to others' ideas before expressing their own. But I think everyone has contributed brilliant ideas.” YNG

“Actually, online tutorial is quite practical, as we need to work on our own before discussing with other group mates online. Therefore, it is good to arrange some online tutorials together with some basic tutorials. And I am glad with the arrangement now.” KBF

“I feel like more relaxing in online tutorial, because i can express what i want and i can have more time to think the question more deeply. because in the class, i still believe 5-6 students in one group doesn't provide enough time for everyone to share their opinions in a particular topic. however, it is about HK education system, that's nothing i can do. anyway, i really regard the online tutorial is a great method for us to express what we feel to the whole class.” PMW

“What I like is the high level of freedom. I can do the assignment anytime I like (within the specified period, of course), so I can have more time to do research and plan what I should write. Also, I need not come to the lessons, so I can have a rest from my tight schedule!” CPL

“I think that online tutorial is an useful channel to share our ideas with classmates. Having seen their opinions, I can learn a lot from others as some of the points they contributed to the exercise that I have never thought of and that motivate me to think more and more. However, lack of interaction is really a problem because many of us are only share our ideas to that topic. I know that comment on others are important but it is really difficult to do that as we can not communicate at the same time. It would be better if we can do that as a form of "chat room", then we can receive other opinions and reply to them promptly and directly.” YCY

“The best thing about online tutorial is that everyone is given the chance (or are required to) give their own opinions on a particular topic. This is perhaps a solution to making passive students speak up. It was a nice experience for me because I get to see the opinions of people who are outside my own small group. It's always nice to have more people to brainstorm on one topic, for instance I learnt quite a lot from other classmates when they made a point I haven’t really thought of before. And this would not really happen in tutorials because students are passive in general and might not really voice out their opinions on the spot.

I couldn’t say there was real "communication" going on in the online tutorial. This is perhaps because we had a relatively broad topic to discuss on, and every student tend to first present a structured (and long) answer to the question, which makes it kind of difficult to respond to. The ideal communication should have the full picture of each student's opinion followed by a free flow of opinions, which would be more like a discussion.” HYK