VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES IN WEBTYCHO
Frank SchindlerUniversity of Maryland
University College, European Division
Heidelberg, Germany
University of Maryland Online Study since 1992
Leader in the field of E-Learning
2004 Award “Price of Excellence” from
International Council for Open and Distance Education of 142 Countries
WebTycho Interactive LMS
Web-Based Technology
Fully Editable
Supports Problem-Based Learning
Problems of Online Education
How to eliminate the feeling of isolation
How to help students to reach their learning goals
How to improve communication
Special Study Support
Individual Activities
Group Activities
Need for Group Activites
Some class activities must be performed in groups to avoid self-study
Certain balance between individual and group activities needed
How to Implement Special Study Support
Need for
Virtual Communities
Their Creation, Management and Monitoring
Means to Implement Special Study Support Electronic Study Materials
Discussion Forums
Video Conferences
Chat
Individual Activities
Paper/Electronic Study Materials
Web-Based Conferences
Online assignments
Online Tests (Exams)
Group Activities
Study Groups
Collaborative Projects/Documents
Online Exams
Examples of Virtual Communities
Web-Based Conferences
Web-Based Study Groups
Chat
Web-Based Conferencing
Created by teacher
A set of sample tasks posted online
Students are to discuss them online
Verbal Evaluation
Web-Based Conferencing…
Should be mandatory
Necessity of Their Proper Scheduling
Participation counted toward the final grade
Web-Based Conferencing…
Assumptions
Weekly schedule followed on time
Students do their independent readings
Policy on plagiarism needed
Study Groups Created by teacher
Students can ask and answer questions
Can be marked if needed
Can be mandatory/optional
Limited Number of Participants
Good for Online Teachers to Exchange Ideas
Some Limited Teacher/Student Communication desirable
Chat
Good tool instead of conventional office-hours
Limited Number of Participants
Time-Zone sensitive
Examples of Study Groups
Cybercafe Group Projects Online Assignments Online Exams Chat
Management of Conferences
Teacher Monitors happening in the conference
Comments responses of students
Changes status of conference from read & write to read-only mode
Managent of Study Groups
Teacher
Monitors actions in the study group
Answers some questions if needed
Changes status of study group
Advantages of Virtual Communities Psychological support for students Creation of personal, social relations Feeling to be part of a community Avoiding communication bottleneck Speed and art of bi-directional
communication Reduction of grading work for
teacher
Advantages of Virtual Communities…
Provide a way to steer and manage online course
Allow better course administration Allow to exchange ideas among
teachers Allow online testing
Disadvantages of Virtual Communities
Limiting factor is number of participants
Mode (Synchronuous vs. Asynchronuous)
Hard to mark (grade)
Conclusion
Lack of functioning virtual communities in virtual classroom means something is wrong
Better management and integration of virtual communities in online learning needed
Od jesene 2004
Frank SchindlerKatedra aplikovanej informatiky avýpočtovej techniky, FEI STUIľkovičová 3812 19 [email protected]
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