Simulteaching: Beyond Traditional Synchronous Learning

8/14/2019 Simulteaching: Beyond Traditional Synchronous Learning

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Simulteaching: Beyond Traditional Synchronous Learning

Vic (Ruthvick) Hemant DivechaInformatics and Computing Services

University of Michigan School of Public Health

United [email protected]

Abstract: The demise of many highly visible distance learning initiatives (Harcourt HigherEducation, Virtual Temple, NYU Online, etc.) at the beginning of the decade curtailed appetites forgrand projects of this kind. Wary of costly conversions of entire programs, many universities chosemore cautious approaches. One of such hybrid approaches that extend a regular residential classonline, i.e. simulteaching, poses many challenges. The Summer Session in Epidemiology at theSchool of Public Health, University of Michigan, adopted simulteaching for two high demandcourses. The solution designed for this need involved the use of a regular classroom retrofitted withhighly economical software and elegant Audio-Visual equipment. Simulteaching involved the useof digital ink and designing online participation protocols. Two successful iterations revealedimportant issues based on which best practice guidelines were created for the third iteration in thesummer of 2008.

Introduction

The first half of the current decade witnessed the demise of many ambitious projects in online learning: theUK-based Open University folded its US branch; the virtual college Harcourt Higher Education managed to enrollonly 21 students in 2001 and then closed its virtual doors; having invested $12 million in the eCornell venture,Cornell University ended up scaling it down; New York University swallowed NYU Online - these are just a fewexamples (Wielbut, 2005). Clearly, the appetite for large-scale, expensive experiments in transplantinghigher education online has greatly diminished, but it doesn't mean that online learning is dead and can be dismissedas yet another short lived byproduct of the "Internet bubble". In fact, higher education continues to undergo changesand expand its online presence, but at a slower, much more cautious pace. A perfect example of that caution is theproliferation of on-campus courses, into which online learners are admitted to study alongside their local peers. Itallows colleges and universities to dip their toes into the online learning waters without expending significant effortand resources building fully online courses (Wielbut, 2006).

Synchronous online learning is characterized by live delivery and concurrent learning. There are manyvariations of this concept, achieved by varying the role and location of the learners and teachers. Simulteaching(Pullen and McAndrews, 2004) is one such variation where the students learn synchronously over a deliverymedium, such as the internet with the possibility of some of them being in the physical presence of the instructor.This, which is a special case of synchronous learning, where a single instructor is teaching students, some face-to-face and some at a distance, is presented here.

Pullen and McAndrews (2004) define simulteaching as "...simultaneous synchronous audio graphicdelivery (with optional video) to students both in the classroom and on the Internet". This concept of online learningis proving highly suitable for the needs of large traditional institutions where the mainstays of education are face-to-face classrooms and labs. Simulteaching allows enhanced delivery of existing face-to-face course offering to an

online audience. This comes as a great relief to academic administrators who might be looking to offer high-demandcourses beyond the limited physical space of the classroom.

The Graduate Summer Session in Epidemiology is offered in the month of July at the University ofMichigan School of Public Health. The goal of the program is to impart education in the principles and methods ofEpidemiology. Distinguished faculty members hailing from governmental agencies and academia teach in thisprogram. Courses are offered at both introductory and advanced levels. Course durations are 1-week and 3-weeks. Inaddition to the courses, evening lectures and workshops form an important part of the summer session.

In 2006, a 3-week introductory level course in epidemiology was piloted using simulteaching. TheFundamentals of Epidemiology (EPID 709D) course was chosen for its popularity in previous years and high


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demand amongst the Public Health workforce. Following this successful pilot, a second high demand course wasoffered in 2007 in addition to EPID 709D: Fundamentals of Biostatistics (EPID 701D). By 2008, these courses havebecome standard online offerings via simulteaching in this program.

Course Development & Support

A Dynamic Model of Roles & Responsibilities for Stakeholders

The starting point of online education development is the clear definition of stakeholder roles. Traditionalroles of stakeholders in education programs need revision and redefinition in the context of online learning (Oliver,1999). The dual-mode Development & Support Model employed in delivering simulteaching at School of PublicHealth is presented in Figure 1. This model has evolved from the successful teamwork amongst instructionaltechnology support staff, academic departments and subject matter experts, i.e. the instructors.

The Planning & Development Phase Model is characterized by an active partnership between the academicdepartment and the instructional support team to plan the technology and train the instructors and online students.

The Post Course Launch Model is characterized by the instructors and students becoming the activedrivers. The academic department and instructional support teams move into maintenance mode, the departmentassuming oversight over the quality of education and instructional technologists respond to ongoing support issues.

Figure 1: A flexible model for simulteaching development and support characterized by two operational modes.

Instructor and Student Orientation Design: Prevention is better than cure

Given the relatively small size of enrolled students in each course (< 20), we decided to hold one-on-one

telephone based student orientations. These orientations trained the online students to install the web conferencingclient, understand the web interface and learn online interaction skills and netiquette. The goal was to identify andtroubleshoot end-user technology issues before the courses were launched. Fig. 1 indicates the success of theseorientations in terms of technical issues encountered by students in the post course launch period. The arearepresenting technical problem diminishes rapidly after the first few days of the course. This characteristic ofsupport demand curve is helpful in allocating resources & attention wisely over the period of the course delivery.


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Figure 2: In-class text-chat interactions. Content divided by nature of conversation over the period of the course.

The areas are stacked to reveal types of interaction & their volume.

The instructor orientation was a collective orientation of the teaching faculty and their assistants. Itincluded training in the use of the digital-inking devices (Sympodium, SmartBoard), text chat and processes forposting/accepting homework & quiz submissions via the Learning Management System.

Evolving the Technology Solution

The solution (Fig. 3 and 4) comprises of a) in-class instructional technology, audio-visual technology andwebcast uplink technology, b) web conferencing and c) end-user technology. The setup has evolved over the lastthree years to eliminate inefficiencies, automate certain functions and increase reliability. One design goal was tocontain user requirements to consumer grade hardware and basic broadband internet.

Figure 3: Technology solution in 2006, 2007 built around Saba Centra Web conferencing System

In-class Instructional & Audio-Visual Technology

The solution design principles took into consideration the small marginal value added by video compared to anaudio-only delivery (Pomales and Liu 2006). The instructors computer screen video with live digital ink withinstructor voice was priorities over in-class video. The instructor podium was equipped with a pen-interactivedisplay, to allow digital ink markup of the lecture slides, visible to all students.


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Figure 4: New Evolved technology solution in 2008, built around the Sonic Foundry MediaSite webcasting system

The podium top pen-interactive display worked well for Epidemiology; however, it posed a seriouschallenge for teaching the Biostatistics course, where hand-written component of the instruction dominates thecontent delivery. The instructor needed a larger surface to write out mathematical equations and solve mathematicalproblems. This need was addressed by replacing the Sympodium with a SmartBoard digital whiteboard in 2008.

To provide a seamless video and voice conference amongst the teacher, face-to-face participants and onlinestudents, we engineered a TV studio type solution which three involved floor technicians, two cameras and 12microphones. This was a pilot system with many proverbial moving parts. Retrofitting a traditional classroom withalien components was a technical challenge. Setup and testing times made the setup unsustainable in the longrun. However, it afforded us the opportunity to examine the needs thoroughly. The initial setup (Fig. 3) involvedspending 90 minutes every day, setting up and testing the components before show-time. After the second iterationin 2007 we strongly felt the need to move to a learning space designed for online collaboration.

Seamless audio conferencing was implemented by installing conference mics throughout in theclassroom. Audio from these mics and the instructor's lavaliere mic was streamed out to the online students. The

audio mixing of 12 channels of audio was done manually by a sound engineer. However, in 2008 this complex setupwas simplified by using a learning space with hardwired conference mics. These fed into a rack-mounted bi-ampmixer which featured automatic gain control and would turn on mics only when being spoken into. This eliminatedthe need for manually setting up & mixing audience mics in the classroom.

We started with a two camera setup in 2006. Each camera was staffed by camera-persons to point to the in-class talking heads: mostly the instructor, sometimes the students. There was no video of the online students. The in-class cameras were mixed in real time by a production assistant using a live video editing appliance (NewTekTricaster). However, in 2008 we transitioned to a three camera system with remote control, operated by a singleproduction assistant who is also handling the now simple audio mixing.

Web conferencing component

The following discussion does not imply any technical superiority of Mediasite over Saba Centra as a

collaboration solution. They are different tools fulfilling similar but different collaboration needs. In 2006 and 2007,we used Centra webinars for extending the classroom onto the virtual space. Centra running on the instructor PCwould transmit the instructor's screen and digital ink into a web conference session. Another PC running as a co-presenter would be used to transmit the in-class audio and master video stream into the same session. Thisarrangement offered the advantages of freeing up the instructor PC from originating all the uplink data. This enabledus to troubleshoot audio and video uplink issues without interrupting the instructor. Centra has many advantagesover Mediasite, namely low latency, two way audio & text communication. However, the low use of the audiocomponent by online students for Q&A encouraged us to consider a simpler system with advantages over Centra inthe area of broadcasting instructor computer screens and video with greater ease and reliability. However, selecting


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Mediasite as the solution over Centra posed challenges: a) No in-built chat function b) significantly high latency andc) only one way webcast of audio, video and screen.

For cases where audio-conferencing becomes essential to an online students learning, the teachingassistants had all online students on speed dial over a telephone conferencing system. Mediasite 4.0 does not featuretext chat functionality, so the LMS chat on the course-site was extensively used. The text chat remained the primarymode of interaction, binding the online students to the teaching assistants.

Thus, over a period of three years we transitioned to an efficient setup (Fig. 4) that brought down the on-location staffing requirements from three to just one. The highlights of the streamlined process were lower staffingcost, greater reliability & control and elimination of daily setups and long testing drills. Overall, the tailored solutionstreamlined the end-user and instructor experience. Even though the technology fragmented into different pieces, i.e.separate systems for text chat, on-demand audio conferencing, it was a leap forward in terms of end-quality andoverall stability. Furthermore, the online students were no longer required to purchase headsets, which were requiredfor Centra-based web conferencing.

Conclusion

The goal of containing technical issues proactively was achieved. What requires further work are processesrelated to student-work: Homework, exams and quiz posting and submission processes have emerged as the biggestcourse support challenge. These facets will be addressed in the planning phase (Fig. 1) by formulating easy to followprocesses in advance and educating the instructors and students before course launch. Data gleaned from this yearssupport issues will be applied to improve all aspects of online delivery in 2009.

References

Oliver, Ron (1999). On-line teaching and learning: The new roles for participants. Retrieved September 24, 2008,from Flexible Learning & Technology: Pre-conference discussion Web site:http://www.monash.edu.au/groups/flt/1999/online.html

Pullen, Mark J. (2004). Low-Cost Internet Synchronous Distance Education Using Open-Source Software.Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition.

Wielbut, Vlad (2006). Pressure Points: Accelerating Change in Higher Education (US Perspective). e-Mentor.4(16)

Wielbut, Vlad (2005). Better Than Being There: Where Online Learning Makes the Most Sense. e-Mentor. 4(11)

Pomales-Garcia, Christina, and Liu, Yili (2006). Web-based distance technology: The impacts of module length andformat.American Journal of Distance Education. 20(3), 163-179.

Acknowledgements

At the University of Michigan School of Public Health: Vlad Wielbut, David Mendez, Mark Osmond,Brian Dunn, Jody Gray, Nancy Francis and Andrew J Pritchard.

Saba, Saba Centra, Mediasite, Sympodium, SmartBoard, Sonic Foundry, NewTek, Tricaster are trademarksof their respective owners

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Simulteaching: Beyond Traditional Synchronous Learning