1

MODULE 4
TEACHING-LEARNING PROCESS
INTERACTIONS IN E-LEARNING

Defining interaction in E-learning

Interaction has always been valued in distance education, even in its most traditional,
independent study format. Communication technologies are used in education to enhance
interaction between all participants in the educational transaction. According to Wagner,
interaction is defined as reciprocal events that require at least two objects and two actions.
Interactions occur when these objects and events mutually influence one another

Interaction serves a variety of functions in the educational transaction such as:

Allowing learner control
Facilitating program adaptation based on learner input
Allowing various forms of participation and communication
Acting as an aid to meaningful learning
Also interactivity is fundamental to creation of the learning communities. The value of another
persons perspective is usually gained through interaction which is a key learning component in
education. Interaction is also defined as a major component of the educational process that
occurs when the student transforms the inert information passed to them from another, and
constructs it into knowledge with personal application and value. The value of another persons
perspective is usually gained through interaction which is a key learning component in education

Interaction is also defined as a major component of the educational process that occurs when the
student transforms the inert information passed to them from another, and constructs it into
knowledge with personal application and value

Educational media subsumed by web

The above graph shows the interaction levels of different educational media.

Types of educational interaction

 2

Interaction can be delineated in terms of the factors participating in it. Michael Moore discussed
three most common forms of interaction in distance education

Student -student

Student - teacher

Student- content

This list was expanded by Anderson and Garrison to include teacher- teacher, teacher-content
and content-content interaction.

1. STUDENT-STUDENT INTERACTION

Basic element in traditional classroom learning is communication among the students: the
ability to ask questions, to share ideas with others, or to disagree with others.
The fact that gaps in ones knowledge may be compensated for, and are complemented
by virtue of, the knowledge of such persons classmates, constitutes an important
advantage of learning in a group.
Initially the student-student interaction was downplayed as a requirement of distance
education as a result of constraints on the availability of technology. But, modern
educationists stress the value of peer-peer interaction in investigating and developing
multiple perspectives.
Collaborative learning increases the completion rates and the acquisition of social skills
in education. Moreover, people who work together provide social and emotional support
to each other.
 3

Distance education courses offer interaction among peers by using tools such as e-mail,
online conferences, and chat rooms.
In the new model of asynchronous distance learning courses, interactions among
students through discussion groups seem to be one of the most influential features.
Participants interaction with one another within a learning community can allow them to
overcome their isolation and strengthen their relationship with the group.
The interaction that is established by computer-mediated communication encourages
experimentation, sharing of ideas, increased and more distributed participation, and
collaborative thinking.

2. STUDENT-TEACHER INTERACTION

The connection between studentinstructor interactions and learning outcomes in the

traditional classroom environment is well documented.
Educational researchers have found that teachers verbal (i.e., giving praise, soliciting
viewpoints, humour, and self-disclosure) and nonverbal (i.e., physical proximity, touch,
eye contact, facial expressions, and gestures) behaviour can lessen the psychological
distance between them and their students, thereby leading to increased learning.
Interactions with e-learning instructors would appear to be important at least to the same
degree. Student teacher interaction is supported in online learning in a large number of
varieties and formats that include asynchronous and synchronous communication using
text, audio and video.
When positive interaction between the distance-learner and his or her teacher occurs, the
learner comes under the influence of the instructor. This enables the student to draw on
the experience of the instructor, which then permits the student to interact with the
content in the manner which is most effective, taking into account his own personal needs
and style.
By using the special tools that online technology offers, for example, to monitor the
students participation in the course, the instructor can interact with the students in a
manner which prevents them from getting lost. Moore (1989) claims that especially in
distance education, when the instructor has to deal with each student individually, and
each students response to a certain presentation differently, the instructor has a real
opportunity to enter into a dialog with each student.
 4

3. STUDENT-CONTENT INTERACTION

Moores first type of interaction takes place between the student and the content, or the
subject matter that is delivered to him or her.
Interaction with content takes place when the learner, with the help of the teacher or the
teaching institution, establishes new knowledge by encountering new information and
combining it with the body of knowledge already retained by him or her.
Moore (1989) notes, that without this type of interaction, there can be no education,
because the educational process entails the learners intellectual interaction with content,
which results in changes in the learners understanding, the learners perspective, or the
cognitive structure of the learners mind.
Holmbarg (in Amundsen, 1993) views the process which takes place within the learner
as a form of communication with the written text. He refers to this process as a guided
didactic conversation, which means that the learner is actually involved and interacts
with the text he is learning, as well as with the author of the text.
In the distant past, prior to the invention of printing technology, interaction with content
was generally possible only in a direct, face-to-face teacherpupil framework, which
allowed for the transfer of knowledge from the teacher to his or her pupils.
In the 19th century, improved print technology combined with mass production paper
manufacture techniques made interaction from a distance possible. Later on, radio and the
television created a new kind of interaction with broadcasted content. Presently, we are
well acquainted with modern interaction tools that utilize different multimedia
techniques, and which can be exploited in a manner that illustrates and clarifies the
learning material.
Nevertheless, successful and proper exploitation of multimedia e-learning techniques,
such as the ability to access material online, generally requires careful treatment and
increased attention. Otherwise, the students may encounter significant difficulties, such
as becoming overwhelmed and confused by the amount and breadth of the information to
which they are exposed (Swan, 2001).
Also, in the modern era, when the daily schedule of the working student is, in most cases,
tight, and his election of the distance-learning format is often based on the will to use
his or her time as efficiently as possible, it is crucial to ensure that the content delivered
to the student is relevant to, and may be implemented and found useful in connection
with, his or her immediate needs, whether at his workplace or elsewhere. Choosing the
 5

proper form of interaction between the student and the subject matter of the course will
make the learning experience more worthwhile and valuable for the learner.

4. TEACHER- TEACHER INTERACTION

Teacher- teacher interaction creates the opportunity for professional development and
support that sustains teachers through communities of like-minded colleagues.
These interactions also encourage teachers to take advantage of knowledge growth and
discovery in their own subject and within the scholarly community of teachers.
Pervasive existence of low-cost, multimedia networks is providing unprecedented
opportunities for teacher-teacher interaction.
A variety of sophisticated networking tools have been built to support both asynchronous
and synchronous forms of teacher-teacher interaction.
Recent interest in peer-peer technologies that support document sharing , text and audio
conferencing etc creates a new era of sophisticated support for teacher-teacher
interaction.

5. TEACHER-CONTENT INTERACTION

Teacher content interaction focuses on the creation of content and learning activities by
teachers.
It allows teachers continuously to monitor and update the content resources and activities
that they create for student learning.
The communication technologies provide opportunities for teachers to find, utilize and
create learning objects by emerging data, and by other research results or environmental
sensors.

6. CONTENT- CONTENT INTERACTION

Content-content interaction is a newly developing mode of educational interaction in

which content is programmed to interact with other automated information sources so as
to refresh itself constantly and to acquire new capabilities.
For example, a weather tutorial might take its data from current meteorological servers,
creating a learning object that is up-to-date and relevant to the learners context
 6

Model of E-learning

Model illustrates two modes of online learning

Independent study
Paced-collaborative study
Two major human actors:
Learners
Teachers and their interactions with each other and with content
Many learners choose to have their learning sequenced, directed and evaluated with the
assistance of a teacher. This interaction can take place within a community of inquiry using a
variety of Net-Based synchronous and asynchronous activities. Eg: video, audio, computer
conferencing, chats or virtual classrooms.

These environments allow for the learning of social skills, the collaborative learning of content
and the development of personal relationships among participants. Also community binds
learners in time, forcing regular sessions or at least group-paced learning.

Second mode of learning illustrates the structured learning tools associated with independent
learning. Common tools used in this mode include computer-assisted tutorial, virtual labs,
printed text etc.
 7

E-learning and the semantic web

If the format and structure of content is described in formalized and machine-readable languages,
then it can be searched and acted upon not only by humans but also by computer programs
commonly known as autonomous agents. This feature of intelligent networks is named as
semantic web.

Semantic web will be populated by a variety of autonomous agents-small computer programs

designed to navigate the web, searching for particular information and then acting on that
information in support of their assigned task.

Student agents will be used for intelligent searching of relevant content and as secretaries for
booking and arranging for collaborative meetings, for reminding students of deadlines, and for
negotiating with the agents of other students for assistance, collaboration or socialization.

Teacher agents will be used to provide remedial tuition, and to assist with record keeping , with
monitoring student progress, and even with marking and responding to student communications.

Content agents can control rights to its use, automatically update it and track the means by which
the content is used by students
 8

ROLE OF TEACHERS IN E-LEARNING

With the advent and development of new style of e-teaching and e-learning in schools, many
changes have taken place in classroom situations. Not only do many computers occupy the
classroom but also teachers have changed their roles during e-teaching. The new generation of
teachers who will work in an Internet environment in both regular and virtual classroom
situations are e-teachers.

Conventional roles of teachers

In conventional classrooms, a teachers job is to tell, and students tasks are to listen. Classes
are scheduled according to school hours and timetables, and teachers and students interact in
real time. Learning objectives of students are set by the teacher and institution. Students follow a
linear pattern influenced by the needs of other class members and the teachers planning.
Teachers must prepare their work before class according to a school calendar and curriculum.

In class, students must sit neatly and listen attentively to the teacher, and the teacher is expected
to stand in the front of the classroom to explain the topic. Teacher is the actor in the classroom,
and those students are just audiences. The result is often that seemingly looking the teacher is the
controller of the class, but he is virtually very passive in the teaching process, because there is a
less interactive environment in the class, which makes the students less involved. And the long-
term effect is that both the teacher and the students will feel tired.

Impact of e-learning on teachers

The networked environment of this new Internet-connected world has enriched the opportunities
for teaching and learning. What makes the implementation of e-teaching so challenging is that
we are asking teachers of the dot.com age to teach in a way in which they have never been taught
when they were at school.

They will work in an environment in which they have never been learners and may have had few
first-hand experiences. There are always some teachers who like challenge, but there are still
some teachers who feel nervous and even fear.

Changing roles of teachers

Many words have been written about the Internet and the possibilities for its use in e-education
but little has been researched about how teachers can work effectively in this new environment.
Just because teachers in schools have teacher education qualifications, this does not necessarily
prepare them to be e-teachers. Being able to teach confidently in one environment is not a
precursor to success as an e-teacher in a very different environment.
 9

JoAnn Harrison suggested that the e-teacher will not be "the person who knows all the answers
and decides what the question will be" but it is the e-teacher who "becomes "an expert learner,"
who can help students solve problems and find answers to their questions". The teacher therefore
becomes as much a part of the learning process as their students as they learn to work in a
facilitative and collaborative e-learning environment.

The different roles the teacher may have to play in e-learning include:

1) E-teachers should be the designers and developers of learning resources. Designing and
developing web-based learning resources is the first step in teaching. You can collect a large
number of content-related learning and teaching materials and present them on the Internet, and
this powerful resource-sharing computer networks will provide students with alternative learning
resources. As a designer and developer, the main task of the teacher is to present the teaching
content on the Internet in an appropriate manner, and to provide students with a variety of
information needed as far as possible, thus the students can make a choice according to their
demand for learning materials. Different responsibilities that the teacher can take related to this
are:

o Authoring course content: The teacher is generally responsible for this function due to
their experience in the given field of training.

o Learning content expert: The teacher may also support other course content authors by
providing expert advice. In this case, the teacher's role is to validate the texts once they have
been drafted.

o Designer of educational content (i.e. development of learning scenarios): The designer

determines course delivery, and develops learning activities and the related assessment
schemes, etc. This function can be carried out by the teacher provided that she/he already
has, or is planning to acquire, the necessary technical and pedagogical skills.

2) E-teachers should be a tutor (course monitor) as well. Their mission is to track learner
progress during the course and provide them with support. They should help the learners work
through the course, provide encouragement, track their progress, make sure they maintain their
study momentum, guide them, answer their questions, and so on. As such, the tutor plays a key
role in course delivery. Effective follow-up is vital if learners are to stay motivated and not be
tempted to drop out of the course.

There are two types of tutoring:

 10

Proactive tutoring, where the tutor takes the lead by encouraging learners to take part in
activities or study meetings in order to fire up their enthusiasm and get them back on track.

Reactive tutoring, where the tutor waits for learners to contact them and answers their
questions or deals with their problems as and when they occur.

3) E-teachers should be the guidance of the learning process of students. Students can get a lot of
information from the Internet, but they do not necessarily know how to select the appropriate
information and knowledge, how to apply this knowledge to make it into a new learning content.
So to guide students on how to absorb the information obtained from the Internet and how to use
them rationally becomes necessary and important.

4) E-teachers should be the organizer and coordinator of students cooperative learning.

Cooperation in the network environment is a new collaborative relationship, which emphasizes
the active involvement of students. They are expected to put forward their own views on learning
and evaluate their peers. The focus is shifted to students from the teacher in the class, and the
leading role of the teacher and the involvement of students can be stimulated in the learning
process. In this new type of cooperative learning, the teacher plays the role of organizer and
coordinator, and a good and harmonious relationship between the teacher and students can be
established in the course of study.

BLENDED LEARNING

Blended learning is a combination of online and face-to-face instruction. Blended learning is a

formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through delivery of content
and instruction via digital and online media with some element of student control over time,
place, path, or pace.

While still attending a brick-and-mortar school structure, face-to-face classroom methods are
combined with computer-mediated activities. Blended learning can best address the needs of
corporate delivery methods.

Basic elements of blended learning

Learning through information

Material based information is the first coherent step towards starting a learning program. Web
based material can render the learning program easy to deliver and faster to implement. Making
the information accessible at their own convenience, this in turn, will enhance understanding and
enthusiasm.
 11

Learning through interaction

The learner-instructor, learner-content, learner-learner, and learner-infrastructure interactions are

the different forms of interaction, which, together, help retain the knowledge that is acquired
through their knowledge practically, without the possibility of them affecting your business
directly.

Learning through collaboration

Collaborative learning includes peer to peer discussions, conference calls, chat, team rooms and
instant messaging where learners, even though geographically remote, can communicate in real
time.

Learning through classroom experiences

Conventional, tested and by far the most effective approaches to learning.

Advantages

Incorporation of the "asynchronous Internet communication technology" into courses is a

major contributor to student satisfaction and success in such courses.

The use of information and communication technologies has been found to improve access
to as well as student attitudes towards learning.

By incorporating information technology into class projects, communication between

lecturers and part-time students was improved,

Students were able to better evaluate their understanding of course material via the use of
"computer-based qualitative and quantitative assessment modules
 12

Disadvantages/challenges

Blended learning has a strong dependence on the technical resources with which the blended
learning experience is delivered---these tools need to be reliable, easy to use, and up to date in
order for the use of the Internet to have a meaningful impact on the learning experience.

Additionally, IT literacy can serve as a significant barrier for students attempting to get access
to the course materials, making the availability of high quality technical support paramount.

It has been observed that the use of lecture recording technologies can result in students
falling behind on the material---in a study performed across four different universities, it was
found that only half of the students watched the lecture videos on a regular basis, and nearly
40% of students watched several weeks worth of videos in one sitting.

COOPERATIVE LEARNING

Cooperative learning is an approach to organize classroom activities into academic and social
learning experiences. It has been described as "structuring positive interdependence." Students
must work in groups to complete tasks collectively toward academic goals.

Unlike individual learning, which can be competitive in nature, students learning cooperatively
capitalize on one anothers resources and skills (asking one another for information, evaluating
one anothers ideas, monitoring one anothers work, etc.).

Furthermore, the teacher's role changes from giving information to facilitating students' learning.
Everyone succeeds when the group succeeds.
 13

Types of cooperative learning

1. Formal cooperative learning

It is structured, facilitated, and monitored by the educator over time and is used to achieve
group goals in task work (e.g. completing a unit).

Any course material or assignment can be adapted to this type of learning, and groups can
vary from 2-6 people with discussions lasting from a few minutes up to an entire period.

Types of formal cooperative learning strategies include:

The jigsaw technique

Assignments that involve group problem solving and decision making

Laboratory or experiment assignments

Peer review work (e.g. editing writing assignments).

Jigsaw activities are wonderful because the student assumes the role of the teacher on a
given topic and is in charge of teaching the topic to a classmate. The idea is that if students can
teach something, they have already learned the material.

2. Informal cooperative learning

Incorporates group learning with passive teaching by drawing attention to material through
small groups throughout the lesson or by discussion at the end of a lesson, and typically involves
groups of two (e.g. turn-to-your-partner discussions).

These groups are often temporary and can change from lesson to lesson (very much unlike
formal learning where 2 students may be lab partners throughout the entire semester contributing
to one anothers knowledge of science).
 14

Discussions typically have four components that include formulating a response to questions
asked by the educator, sharing responses to the questions asked with a partner, listening to a
partners responses to the same question, and creating a new well-developed answer.

This type of learning enables the student to process, consolidate, and retain more
information.

3. Base group learning

e.g., a long term study group

It is effective for learning complex subject matter over the course or semester and
establishes caring, supportive peer relationships, which in turn motivates and strengthens the
students commitment to the groups education while increasing self-esteem and self-worth.

Base group approaches also make the students accountable to educating their peer group in
the event that a member was absent for a lesson. This is effective both for individual learning, as
well as social support.

Elements

Brown & Ciuffetelli Parker and Siltala discuss the 5 basic and essential elements to cooperative
learning:

1. Positive interdependence

Students must fully participate and put forth effort within their group.
Each group member has a task/role/responsibility therefore must believe that they are
responsible for their learning and that of their group.

2. Face-to-face promotive interaction

Members promote each other's success.

Students explain to one another what they have or are learning and assist one another
with understanding and completion of assignments

3. Individual and group accountability

Each student must demonstrate mastery of the content being studied

Each student is accountable for their learning and work, therefore eliminating social
loafing(tendency of putting less effort while in a group)

4. Social skills

Social skills that must be taught in order for successful cooperative learning to occur
 15

Skills include effective communication, interpersonal and group skills

Leadership

Decision-making

Trust-building

Communication

Conflict-management skills

5. Group processing

Every so often groups must assess their effectiveness and decide how it can be improved

In order for student achievement to improve considerably, two characteristics must be present:

When designing cooperative learning tasks and reward structures, individual

responsibility and accountability must be identified. Individuals must know exactly what
their responsibilities are and that they are accountable to the group in order to reach their
goal.

All group members must be involved in order for the group to complete the task.
In order for this to occur each member must have a task that they are responsible for
which cannot be completed by any other group member.

Techniques

There are a great number of cooperative learning techniques available. Some cooperative
learning techniques utilize student pairing, while others utilize small groups of four or five
students.
 16

1. Think Pair Share

Originally developed by Frank T. Lyman (1981), Think-Pair-Share allows for students to

contemplate a posed question or problem silently. The student may write down thoughts or
simply just brainstorm in his/her head. When prompted, the student pair up with a peer and
discuss his/her idea(s) and then listens to the ideas of his or her partner. Following pair dialogue,
the teacher solicits responses from the whole group.

2. Jigsaw

Students are members of two groups: home group and expert group. In the home group, students
are each assigned a different topic. Once a topic has been identified, students leave the home
group and group with the other students with their assigned topic. In the new group, students
learn the material together before returning to their home group. Once back in their home group,
each student is accountable for teaching his or her assigned topic.

3.Jigsaw II

Jigsaw II is Robert Slavin's (1980) variation of Jigsaw in which members of the home group are
assigned the same material, but focus on separate portions of the material. Each member must
become an "expert" on his or her assigned portion and teach the other members of the home
group.

4. Reverse Jigsaw

This variation was created by Timothy Hedeen (2003).It differs from the original Jigsaw during
the teaching portion of the activity. In the Reverse Jigsaw technique, students in the expert
groups teach the whole class rather than return to their home groups to teach the content.

5. Reciprocal Teaching

Brown & Paliscar (1982) developed reciprocal teaching. It is a cooperative technique that allows
for student pairs to participate in a dialogue about text. Partners take turns reading and asking
questions of each other, receiving immediate feedback. Such a model allows for students to use
important metacognitive techniques such as clarifying, questioning, predicting, and
summarizing. It embraces the idea that students can effectively learn from each other.

6. The Williams

Students collaborate to answer a big question that is the learning objective. Each group has
differentiated questions that increase in cognitive ability to allow students to progress and meet
the learning objective.
 17

7. STAD (or Student-Teams-Achievement Divisions)

Students are placed in small groups (or teams). The class in its entirety is presented with a lesson
and the students are subsequently tested. Individuals are graded on the team's performance.
Although the tests are taken individually, students are encouraged to work together to improve
the overall performance of the group.

Benefits and applicability of cooperative learning:

Students demonstrate academic achievement

Cooperative learning methods are usually equally effective for all ability levels

Student perceptions of one another are enhanced when given the opportunity to work with
one another

Cooperative learning increases self-esteem and self-concept

Ethnic and physically/mentally handicapped barriers are broken down allowing for positive
interactions and friendships to occur

Cooperative learning results in:

Increased higher level reasoning

Increased generation of new ideas and solutions

Greater transfer of learning between situations

Cooperative learning is significant in business:

Cooperative learning can be seen as a characteristic of innovative businesses

The five stage division on cooperative learning creates a useful method of analyzing
learning in innovative businesses

Cooperative learning seems to make the creation of innovations possible

Limitations

Cooperative Learning has many limitations that could cause the process to be more
complicated than first perceived.

The constant evolution of cooperative learning can be a threat.

Because cooperative learning is constantly changing, there is a possibility that teachers may
become confused and lack complete understanding of the method.
 18

Teachers implementing cooperative learning may also be challenged with resistance and
hostility from students who believe that they are being held back by their slower teammates
or by students who are less confident and feel that they are being ignored or demeaned by
their team.

Students often provide feedback in the success of the teamwork experienced during
cooperative learning experiences.

Peer review and evaluations may not reflect true experiences due to perceived competition
among peers.

A confidential evaluation process may help to increase evaluation strength

COLLABORATIVE LEARNING

Collaborative learning is a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn
something together. Cooperative learning is a specific kind of collaborative learning

Collaborative learning supports instruction through interactive methods or online communication

using social media tools such as chat rooms and discussion forums, and video tools such as
webinars and webcasts. These tools can be implemented in online and classroom learning
environments to support a course of instruction.

They permit a number of students to work together with an instructor or facilitator and they also
permit student-to-student peer learning, for example, a student can share his/her insight about
how to solve a complex problem. This active exchange of discussion and ideas promotes critical
thinking and problem solving. Collaborative learning can be synchronous, when learning occurs
in real-time, or asynchronous, when learning does not occur in real-time.

Collaborative Learning is quite similar to cooperative learning in that the learners work together
in small teams to increase their chance of deeper learning. However, it is a more radical
departure from cooperative learning in that there is not necessarily a known answer.
Alternatively, collaborative learning occurs when individuals are actively engaged in a
community in which learning takes place through explicit or implicit collaborative efforts.
 19

Collaborative learning tools :

1.Chat Room:

A synchronous tool in which a virtual meeting space is used to facilitate instant communication
among instructors and students. Users must be present and can type their messages
simultaneously, and their messages appear immediately on a screen in the chat room.

2.Discussion Forum:

An asynchronous tool in which students can post and reply to comments published by an
instructor or other classmates. Students reply on their own schedule and do not need to be
present while posts are being submitted. It permits interaction and collaboration through threaded
discussion postings.

3.Wiki:

A web page on a particular subject that students can collectively contribute. They can prepare,
write and post content directly to the page and it can be revised with updated information that
appears instantly, unlike traditional printed material that may take a considerable amount of time
to write, edit and publish. Students can subscribe to the wiki to receive periodic updates on a
subject.

4. Webinar/Webcast:

A tool that delivers an educational session online using streaming video to distribute content to
learners.

A webinar is synchronousa live educational session that permits interaction. Students are
directed to a specific website to view the video.
 20

A webcast is asynchronousa recorded educational session that can be selected and

replayed by students. It can be accessed through a website or embedded in an e-Learning
course.

Benefits of Collaborative Learning

A collaborative learning environment provides a support structure for the students, both
from the instructor / facilitator and from their peers. This support can be social (i.e.
encouragement, friendship) as well as academic.

There is motivation for the students to perform well because their performance is visible to
their peers. This may be lessened some by the distance aspect of their relationship but still is
a factor.

Learners experiencing difficulties in particular areas, can ask their peers for assistance rather
than struggling alone. Because of the distance between students, good communication
practices are essential.

Students take on a more active role in their learning than they would in a lecture-based
environment, thus enabling them to guide the instruction to be personally beneficial.

A group can usually generate more information, solution to problems, and alternatives than
the average individual.

The learners are given the opportunity to analyze the subject being covered from various
perspectives, thereby giving them a more complete and overall understanding of the
material.

Collaborative learning environments help to strengthen social interaction skills while

simultaneously increasing the student's academic knowledge.

Disadvantages of Collaborative Learning

Certain individuals do not feel comfortable participating in a group setting, even at a

distance (i.e. shyness, fear of criticism). This awkwardness may keep some individuals from
benefiting from the instruction.

Since collaborative learning generally grants the students more control over the flow of
information, there is the possibility that the focus of the instruction may veer from its
intended course.

As with any group activity, some members may contribute while others do not. At a distance
this may pose even a greater problem than if all students were in the same room.
 21

Problems may result if group members cannot agree or will not compromise. This can prove
to be a huge problem if the group project is to be graded at the group level.

It can often be difficult to assemble all members of a particular group at the same time,
especially in a distance-learning environment. This is only a disadvantage in situations
where the collaboration is a mandatory part of the instruction and not simply an option
available to the students.

The abundance of information that a group generates can prove to be difficult to compile
individually

Comparison of Cooperative and Collaborative Learning

Similarities
Stress the importance of active learning.
The teacher acts as facilitator
Enhance higher order cognitive skills.
Greater emphasis is placed on students' responsibility for taking charge of her/his
learning.
Involve situations where students must articulate ideas in small groups.
Help students develop social and teambuilding skills.
Increase student success and information retention.
Utilize student diversity.
Differences

Cooperative Collaborative

Students receive training in small group
social skills.
Activities are structured with each student
having a specific role.
The teacher observes, listens and intervenes
in a group when necessary.
Students submit work at the end of class for
evaluation.
There is the belief that students already have the
necessary social skills, and that they will build
on
their existing skills in order to reach their goals.
Students organize and negotiate efforts
themselves.
The activity is not monitored by the instructor.
When questions are directed towards the teacher,
the teacher guides the students to the
information needed.
Students retain drafts to complete further work.
 22

MULTI-CHANNEL LEARNING

Multichannel learning is a strategy that provides multiple ways for people to engage in the
learning process. This strategy acknowledges that different people learn in different ways and
recognizes that in most developing settings, relying on a single connection to knowledge can be
ineffective. Multi-channel is a term used to describe the process of writing an application once
and run from a range of devices or browsers.

Topland (2002) defined multi-channel as the technology which is using a framework on how the
content should be distributed such as web, WAP, phone and fax. Multi-channel work with a web-
based e-Learning application to provide a range of services including video on demand, chat,
white board, virtual laboratory, file transfer and video conferencing.

The following Figure shows a multi-channel e-Learning 3-tier architectural framework involving
four client devices accessing a single application (P1) from a web server.

The architecture integrates three components represented as tiers: the client tier, web
server tier and database server tier. On this platform, at anytime and from any location,
students and researchers can access the enterprise e-Learning application using different
communication devices.

E-Learning Database Server: The database server stores the learning materials,
video/audio data and other learning content data that may be needed by the e-
Learning community members.

E-Learning Web Server: The web server stores the actual e-Learning application
and other value-added information and content that subscribers wish to access.
 23

Clients: The client uses different types of communication devices running

various browsers such as WAP Phones PC/Laptop, Pocket PC and PDA.

WAP Gateway: The gateway is the interface between WAP clients (mobile devices), and
web server. The functions of the WAP gateway includes:

processing of encoded requests for Internet-based information from the mobile

devices

decoding/encoding of task

conversion of Wireless Session Protocol (WSP) to HyperText Transfer Protocol

(HTTP)

transformation of Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) to Wireless Markup

Language (WML) content.

VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY

A virtual university provides higher education programs through electronic media, typically the
Internet.Some are bricks-and-mortar institutions that provide online learning as part of their
extended university courses while others solely offer online courses. They are regarded as a form
of distance education.

The goal of virtual universities is to provide access to the part of the population who would not
be able to attend a physical campus, for reasons such as

distance where students live too far from a physical campus to attend regular
classes

the need for flexibility some students need the flexibility to study at home
whenever it is convenient for them to do so.

Program delivery in a virtual university is administered through information communication

technology such as web pages, e-mail and other networked sources. As virtual universities are
relatively new and vary widely, questions remain about accreditation and the quality of
assessment.The Virtual University experience can be accurately summed up in the following
excerpt: "A post-secondary educational environment, delivered electronically through a
communications medium, which mimics a real-world post-secondary environment in every
aspect, resulting in an educational experience equivalent to one normally received by attending
the same university in the physical world."

Coursework
 24

Providing access to higher education for all students, especially adult learners, is made
easier by the fact that most virtual universities have no entry requirements for their
undergraduate courses. Entry requirements are needed for the courses that are aimed at
postgraduates or those who work in specific jobs.

Studying in a virtual university has essential differences from studying in a brick and
mortar university. There are no buildings and no campus to go to because students
receive learning materials over the Internet. In most cases, only a personal computer and
an Internet connection is needed.

Course materials can include printed material, books, audio and video cassettes, TV
programmes, CD-ROM/software, and web sites. Support is offered to learners from the
professor or a tutor online through e-mails if they are having problems with the course.

Taking courses on-line means that students will be learning in their own time by reading
course material, working on course activities, writing assignments and perhaps working
with other students through interactive teleconferences. Online learning can be an
isolating experience since the student spends the majority of their time working by
themselves.

Because of the potential difficulty of maintaining the schedule needed to be successful

when learning online, some virtual universities apply the same type of time management
as traditional schools. Many courses operate to a timetable, which the student receives
with the course materials. These may include the planned activities for each week of the
course and due dates for the assignments. If the course has an exam, the students will be
informed where they have to go to write it.

An example of a university that maintains a tight schedule is the Virtual Global

University (VGU) in Germany. VGU offers a graduate program International Master of
Business Informatics (MBI) a master program in information technology and
management that takes an average of four semesters to complete (for full-time students).
Each course has a lecture or a virtual class meeting every week. Afterwards, students get
a homework assignment; for example, they have to solve an exercise, elaborate on some
problem, discuss a case study, or take a test. Lecturers give them immediate feedback,
and one week later, the same happens again.

Teaching modes

When online courses first began, the primary mode of delivery was through a two way
audio-visual network. Then as well as now, many of the virtual study programs were
 25

mainly based on text documents, but multimedia technologies have become increasingly
popular as well.

These web-based delivery modes are used in order to expand access to programs and
services that can be offered anytime and anywhere. The spectrum of teaching modes in
virtual education includes courses based on hypertext, videos, audios, e-mails, and video
conferencing. Teaching on the web through courseware such as WebCT and Blackboard
Learn are also used.

Quality

Students taking virtual" courses are doing real work to get their degrees, and educators
preparing and teaching those courses spend real time in doing so. That is, students meet a
comparable level of academic learning outcomes and are evaluated through programs
constructed according to standard university-level criteria.

Though it should not be assumed, virtual universities may be accredited in the same way
as traditional universities and operate according to a similar set of academic standards.
However, questions remain about accreditation and the quality of assessment.

Accreditation is required to assure students that the online institute has certified online
instructors who have the expertise and educational qualifications to design and carry out
the curriculum. Assessment standards need to be particularly closely monitored in virtual
universities.

For example, respondents in studies of opinions about online degrees will rate an online
degree from Stanford the same as an on-campus degree, because the name of the granting
institution is recognized.

VIRTUAL LIBRARY

The term has been defined by many different people in many different ways. It is a
library in which the holdings are found in electronic stacks.It is a library that exists,
without any regard to a physical space or location. It is a technological way to bring
together the resources of various libraries and information services, both internal and
external, all in one place, so users can find what they need quickly and easily.

Eg: IEEE Xplore Digital library

Some of the content of a virtual library may include, but certainly is not limited to, CD-
ROM, Internet subscriptions, lists of annotated web links, internal work products (such as
 26

brief banks), proprietary databases (such as LexisNexis or Westlaw) and even web
spiders or push technology that deliver targeted research to the user.

Advantages

No physical boundary:

The user of a digital library need not to go to the library physically; people from all over
the world can gain access to the same information, as long as an Internet connection is
available.

Round the clock availability:

A major advantage of digital libraries is that people can gain access 24/7 to the
information.

Multiple access:

The same resources can be used simultaneously by a number of institutions and patrons.
This may not be the case for copyrighted material: a library may have a license for
"lending out" only one copy at a time; this is achieved with a system of digital rights
management where a resource can become inaccessible after expiration of the lending
period or after the lender chooses to make it inaccessible

Information retrieval:

The user is able to use any search term (word, phrase, title, name, subject) to search the
entire collection. Digital libraries can provide very user-friendly interfaces, giving
clickable access to its resources.

Preservation and conservation:

Digitization is not a long-term preservation solution for physical collections, but does
succeed in providing access copies for materials that would otherwise fall to degradation
from repeated use. Digitized collections and born-digital objects pose many preservation
and conservation concerns that analog materials do not.

Space:

Whereas traditional libraries are limited by storage space, digital libraries have the
potential to store much more information; simply because digital information requires
very little physical space to contain them and media storage technologies are more
affordable than ever before.
 27

Added value:

Certain characteristics of objects, primarily the quality of images, may be improved.

Digitization can enhance legibility and remove visible flaws such as stains and
discoloration.

Easily accessible.

Virtual libraries are easily accessed compared to a physical library

Challenges

Digital Preservation:

It aims to ensure that digital media and information systems are still interpretable into the
indefinite future. Each necessary component of this must be migrated, preserved or
emulated. Typically lower levels of systems (floppy disks for example) are emulated, bit-
streams (the actual files stored in the disks) are preserved and operating systems are
emulated as a virtual machine. Only where the meaning and content of digital media and
information systems are well understood is migration possible, as is the case for office
documents.

Copyright and Licensing:

Digital libraries are hampered by copyright law because, unlike with traditional printed
works, the laws of digital copyright are still being formed. The republication of material
on the web by libraries may require permission from rights holders, and there is a conflict
of interest between libraries and the publishers who may wish to create online versions of
their acquired content for commercial purposes.

Metadata Creation:

In traditional libraries, the ability to find works of interest is directly related to how well
they were cataloged. While cataloging electronic works digitized from a library's existing
holding may be as simple as copying or moving a record from the print to the electronic
form, complex and born-digital works require substantially more effort. To handle the
growing volume of electronic publications, new tools and technologies have to be
designed to allow effective automated semantic classification and searching. While full
text search can be used for some items, there are many common catalog searches which
cannot be performed using full text, including:

finding texts which are translations of other texts.

 28

linking texts published under pseudonyms to the real authors (Samuel Clemens and
Mark Twain, for example)

differentiating non-fiction from parody (The Onion from The New York Times, for
example).

Disadvantages

Every product has its own distinct user interface.

Users need to remember different passwords for different products.

There are often difficulties with downloading or printing.

Often there is no cost savings, especially when both the virtual and print products are
maintained.

Everything is NOT available in digital format.

There are restrictions, which vary from vendor to vendor, on how the product can be
used.

The virtual library relies on power and computer networks in order to be available for
use.

Users are most comfortable using books.