Communication Issues in the Online Classroom

Dr. Diane Finley, Department of Psychology

The Online Express

Prince George’s Community College

Fall 2000

THE ONLINE CLASSROOM

• Asychnronous – not real time

• Can take longer to identify conflict and to reach consensus (keep group work in mind)

• An uncertain environment

• Don’t know anything about others, except what they share

• Differing levels of comfort with the technology

• Unstructured communication situation

• Relies entirely on text

• Messages are often blunt; people are often less inhibited

• Can escalate quickly into flaming

• No nonverbal to either soften words or signal potential conflict (research has shown that the nonverbal element is the most important source of information of a communication)

• The text is temporary and can disappear from the screen

• Greater potential for misunderstanding since we don’t know any characteristics of other learners, except what they self-disclose (face-to-face is difficult enough)

• Words can be fuzzy and carry multiple meanings

ONLINE COMMUNICATION

• Set up parameters for responding to email. 24-48 hours is reasonable

• Announce when you will not meet these parameters

• Set up areas for content and procedural questions so you only answer them once – use an area that has common access

• Structure communication so it is not just two way (you and each individual student). Use students to manage discussions

• Timely and personal feedback are critical

• Remember that what you write is not private and could become public

IMPORTANT ISSUES

• Building the community is critical

• You need to model as well as create opportunities for interaction

• Create a welcoming environment

• Set up do’s and don’ts

• Read everything and respond privately EARLY ON if the posting is inappropriate

Keeping Discussions On Topic

• No available research literature on keeping online discussions on task

• Responsive moderation is key to keeping discussions on task. Students can be moderators

• Detailed instructions prior to beginning discussions are useful

• Carefully designed questions

• Rules of interaction that eliminate off-topic discussion

Suggested Guidelines

• Remind students that they are to stay on task

• Provide alternative area within the classroom where other discussion can occur

• Present rules of conduct prior to beginning and in an area that can be easily accessed

• Privately deal with students who ignore the rules

• Monitor all posts to head off problems

• Provide guidelines for and samples of good answers

PLEASURES

• Thoughtful answers from students, indicating that they have spent time with the course material

• High percentage of students who participate

• Students demonstrating interest in the material by doing more than what is required

PITFALLS

• Inability to see students and thus you can’t tell when someone is not getting it

• Enormous amounts of time spent reading and responding to email (underestimating how much is required)

• Underestimating the difficulty of teaching difficult concepts “blind”

PROBLEMS

Technology, technology, technology!!!!

Some students have little experience with the technology and you spend time teaching this rather than the subject

     content

Misconceptions by students about the rigor or online courses

Student who expect you to be on duty 24/7

DO’S AND DON’TS

• Personalize the environment

• Encourage introductions – introduce yourself

• Use names when addressing responses to students – comment on personal things they have mentioned

• Use an informal writing style but model correct grammar and spelling (otherwise you will get unreadable garbage)  – be aware that students cannot see your nonverbal behavior – avoid sarcasm

• Refer to good comments made by other students

• Be visible in the classroom  - you can do this without dominating but students like to know that the instructor is there

• Establish clear guidelines for participation in conferences areas – give appropriate weight in the grading scheme to participation – conferences/discussions move online courses beyond “correspondence” courses – emphasize that what happens in the classroom is private

NETIQUETTE POINTERS

• Keep posts brief and to the point. Use short paragraphs – they’re easier to read

• When replying to messages, quote any pertinent sections of the original message. Do not include the entire  original message.

• Discourage posting of messages such as” I agree”

• Do not type in all caps (think shouting)

• Discourage extensive use of emoticons and online abbreviations

MY HINTS FOR SUCCESS (or what has worked for me)

• Encourage students to seek technical help from the College personnel as soon as any problem         occurs (this is especially crucial in the first week).

• Respond to each student autobiography or introduction with a warm welcome – it sets the tone

• Make sure the syllabus and assignments are up the day the course begins and that they are clear. Be sure to open conferences or post other assignments by the date which you promise. Many students are on tight schedules.

• Always respond to questions promptly. I recommend responding within 48 hours.

• Let students know if you will be off-line for ANY length of time.

• Create an announcement area where you will post weekly (or more frequent if needed) updates and information  that comes up. Try to include information about the discipline there as well as the nuts and bolts.

• Maintain the same rigor as in a face-to-face situation.

• Be a little flexible – technical glitches do happen – but maintain deadlines.

• Give feedback on a regular basis – students like to know how they are doing.

• Keep a sense of humor!

TYPES OF COMMUNICATION

• Content-related
                  Lectures, assignments, clarifications, discussions,  summarizations of  discussions

• Process-related
            Directions for sending assignments, syllabus information, how the-class-will work
       Technical Tips
            software tips, how to navigate the class platform, how to send attachments, how to cut and      paste

•       Behavioral Guidelines
            plagiarism, code of conduct, netiquette

•       Responses
             answers to questions and assignments, feedback

CHALLENGING SITUATIONS

• Conflict between students

• Can escalate and damage the classroom climate

• Need to respond effectively

• Types of Conflict

• communication failure

• personality clashes

• value and goal differences

• responsibility issues (in group projects)

Responding to Conflict

• Use descriptive language when discussing the issue

• Set limits

• Offer support (give positive reinforcement to examples of positive communication)

• Use relationship reminders

• Be specific when discussing conflicts

• Defuse the tension

ONLINE COURSES – A COMPILATION OF THOUGHTS

Diane Finley

Interaction is CRITICAL – it can make or break the online environment.

 “What students want: regular interaction between instructors and students , a student-centered approach and opportunities for students to learn on their own. The instructor must be willing to field questioned and engage students in group discussions. The emphasis is on the professor-student relationship over the bells and whistles.” (Dan Carnevale – Chronicle of Higher Education, October 27, 2000)

 “The social bonds are crucial in online education. It’s about building the community.  You have to get them talking to each other.” (Dan Carnevale – Chronicle)

 Students want “prompt unambiguous feedback – this can be difficult for instructors since students often work on the courses during the late evenings and weekends. Students and instructors need to learn to manage their expectations about when they should be able to have reliable fast communicative responses.”   (Hara and Kling, CSI Working Paper)

 “The social dimension is important to the effectiveness of asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN) and needs to be taken in to account in the design of courses.  (Wegerif, JALN, V.2, #1, March 98)

“The first priority should therefore be to build a sense of community through carefully structured exercises in which differences between students are not so obviously significant. Many students suggested that they would have benefited from a warm-up period with light-hearted exercises which were aimed more at getting to know each other than at formal learning.”  .  (Wegerif, JALN, V.2, #1, March 98)

 Communication changes in the online environment

 “While distance education is often valued, it is a medium which also leads to certain stresses. Students do not see each other or their instructors unless they use a video-link. It can be hard to determine the instructor’s expectations. Much of human communication is inherently ambiguous. But people can often adequately resolve key ambiguities when they are face to face. When the primary communication medium is written text, resolving ambiguities may be more difficult for many people.”  (Hara and Kling, CSI Working Paper)

 One student said “gender bias that she experienced in meetings in her place of work was not present in  CMC (computer mediated communication) and she was able, after a period of watching, waiting and learning from others, to engage more effectively in the discussion that she ever had before. CMC supports an egalitarian style of communication in which everyone can participate more easily.  ALN supports the sort of free and open encounters between ideas more effectively than other media.”  .  (Wegerif, JALN, V.2, #1, March 98)

 Conflicts will still arise. Since we lack any nonverbal facets to the communication, the instructor needs to be vigilant and hypersensitive to what is written. Encourage students to let you know if they have any problems. (Diane Finley)

 “Situated models of teaching and learning generally accept the educational principle of scaffolding whereby learners are introduced gradually to complex new skills through the activity of teachers who coach simplified versions initially and then increase the degrees of freedom towards a point where the teacher is no longer needed. Students need more opportunities to lead group learning experiences.”  .  (Wegerif, JALN, V.2, #1, March 98)

 Online education is time-consuming. Many students mistakenly think it is an easy and quick way to get an education. We need to disavow them of this mistaken idea VERY EARLY in the semester.

 Students don’t always communicate problems with the instructor – “I didn’t complain because I felt stupid. I should have spent more time on this (course) but I couldn’t because I’m too busy. If I hadn’t taken this many courses and also work, I could…if you want to take this course you have to spend time.”   (Hara and Kling, CSI Working Paper)

“The course requires self-discipline. It is too easy to drop out. It is necessary to log on regularly – perhaps every day. The medium is not always as asynchronous as it seems. This is especially true of collaborative work where your time and the other participants’ time have to mesh together. Students don’t always contribute to discussions because of the pressure of work and limited access.”     (Wegerif, JALN, V.2, #1, March 98)

 Students need some facility with the technology since technology problems will ALWAYS arise.

 “The first focus was technological problems and students without access to technical support were especially frustrated.”  (Hara and Kling, CSI Working Paper)

Online education is not easy.

“High quality education, both online and face-to-face, is neither cheap nor easy.”    (Hara and Kling, CSI Working Paper)

Online courses require a different approach to orientation

“We could have benefited from a longer familiarization period. Perhaps the first exercise could have been something not too serious. Perhaps a conference discussing how to conference, when to do it, how to deal with the amount of data. “  .  (Wegerif, JALN, V.2, #1, March 98)

Students need to be encouraged to introduce themselves, or post biographies. Giving credit for this somehow (I use 3 extra points on the midterm) will ensure greater participation. (Diane Finley)

Online education has the potential to encourage deeper reflection and thinking in students.

Because students don’t have to answer questions immediately, they have time to think about what they are saying. This can encourage more thoughtful answers. (Diane Finley)

“CMC (computer-mediated communication) could support metalinguistic comments and thoughts by students. This sort of explicit self-reflective statement is of undoubted value to learning but not easy to achieve in face-to-face conferencing.”  .  (Wegerif, JALN, V.2, #1, March 98) 

Managing online discussions requires practice.

In other words, there is a learning curve. Don’t expect the online discussion to work the same way as an in-class discussion. In some ways, online discussions can be better than f2f discussions. But it takes some management skills to have a successful online discussion, especially in an asynchronous environment. (Diane Finley)

One suggestion for putting together groups and trying to avoid the no-show member is to survey students about when they plan to schedule being on-line during the semester. Another way is to let students choose their own groups. You can always roster active students into groups and then put the laggards in a group of their own.

Try scheduling specific end dates for participation. Since most students do their work on the weekends, you might consider requiring the first posting in a conference by Sunday and responses to 2-3 other students by the following Thursday. Be sure to give specific times (your time zone) for posting for credit.

Feedback needs to be modeled for students. Students tend to give feedback and responses that does not encourage discussion. As instructors, we need to model how to give appropriate feedback.

“The online instructor is key to organizing interaction and Hiltz suggests that having a responsive moderator is key. The instructor does not necessarily need to be the moderator.”  (Beaudin, JALN, 3, 2, November 1999)         

A research study (small-scale) identified the following as techniques for keeping asynchronous online discussion on topic: (in order of rating of effectiveness)

“Carefully design questions that specifically elicit on topic discussion. Open ended questions are good but they must not be too vague.

Provide guidelines to help online learners prepare on-topic responses

Reword the original questions when responses are going in the wrong direction (as instructor you need monitor constantly even when you aren’t actively discussing - DF)

Provide discussion summary on a regular basis

Provide an alternative location (e.g. cyber-café) for off-topic discussion

 Formally state the expectation that online discussions stay on topic (count discussion as a large enough part of the course grade that it matters; set up grading so that off-topic posts and  “I agrees” get no credit – DF)

Formally present rules of conduct that eliminate off-topic comments.

Include a reminder to stay on topic with all posted questions

Provide a reward for keeping on topic (I find positive reinforcement in the form of comments early on is sufficient; taking off points or not giving points is a stronger incentive - DF)

Privately reprimand and provide corrective suggestions to learners who submit off-topic comments (I do this once or twice then it’s 3 strikes and you’re out- I allow more leeway in the first couple of weeks of the course. After that it is time for them to get on board. DF)

Screen postings and route off-topic postings to alternative locations with an explanation to the submitter. (Again, I would do this the first week or so, Then I delete such comments. This means as instructor I need to be vigilant in reading the discussions - DF).

Provide a grade for keeping on topic. (I think this is important – DF)

Expel offenders from the discussion after “x” number of off-topic posts. (This might present some problems with some administrators. I think giving negative grades and no chance to redeem those points is more effective. Be sure to spell out this process including all penalties in your syllabus. DF)”   (Beaudin, JALN, 3, 2, November 1999)

“The carefully design questions is key to good teaching and learning. Questions need to be clear, concise and directly relate to the purpose of posing the question. Developing questions that create cognitive dissonance provides opportunities for new insights. Provide guidelines or even sample answers. Summarize discussions. “  (Beaudin, JALN, 3, 2, November 1999)

Keeping students actively engaged may require you to use techniques that are not part of your ordinary repetoire.

“Some of the techniques for helping students become actively involved include:
1) requiring regular participation and giving credit or a grade for it,
2) making materials relevant by connecting new learning and course materials to current events or student experiences,
3) use response activities where students must respond to one another
4) provide conflicting points of views to stimulate discussion and analytical thinking
5) have a guest lecturer or expert present materials for discussion
6) assign roles to students for discussions”  (Whitesel, UMUC January 2000) 

Course and Time Management Techniques

Make contact early on with students who have minimal or no participation. Give them suggestions for managing the time requirements.

Think out the organization of the course before putting it up. Organize it so students can avoid information overload. (i.e. use separate discussion forums for each topic.)

Point out technical help available.

Give supportive responses to early postings.

I recommend contacting students out of the classroom to tell them their responses are either poorly written or not in depth enough.

Create information about time management, course requirements, etc. that can be posted in a course information area for referencing throughout the semester. This will prevent you from answering the same question over and over.

Establish online or telephone office hours when you will be available.