[Virtual Universities] [Index]
Experiences
From 1994-1995 in some colleges and research centres a series of experiences were started based on networking.
Some of those experiences are here presented.Selected sites
Max Planck Institute (Germany)
Henley College (United Kingdom)
Wirral College (United Kingdom)
Häme Polytechnic (Finland)
Acadia University (Canada)
McGill University (Canada)
New Jersey Institute of Technology (USA)
Wake Forest University (USA)
Otago University (New Zealand)
Max Planck Institute (Germany) (^)Starting date: 1994
Mission: To select and organize data on the Web concerning specific themes for the use of the researchers of the Institute.
Targets
- To build a depository of information in the fields of psychology, sociology and instructional sciences.
- To allow the access to this stock of information as it were a self-service of documentary sources.
- To provide for the researchers a few "Resource Pages" as gateways for exploring personal trials of research.
- To associate the information on the Internet with other sources of information available inside the Institute (e.g. documents in the Library).Functions and Options
The services implemented refer to:
- Pages of resources concerning themes of general interest to the people within the Institute.
- Pages of resources on specific projects carried on inside the Institute.
- Brief notes about selected documents (contents, relevance, etc.) so that the researchers could make a first assessment as to their pertinence for the research they are conducting.
- Graphic standardisation of all the pages in order to facilitate the user; presentation of all the topics in English and German.
- Possibility to download the pages on your own computer in order to personalize them with further links to be made available to the webmaster for a constant updating of the resources by the group.
Further aims are:
- A total integration between paper documents and electronic data within a common data base and the possibility for everyone to produce easily "Pages of Resource" full of personal notes and shared by all the researchers.
- The implementation of a cooperative network linked to other Research Centres interested in producing "Pages of Resources" in order to avoid duplicating the efforts and to multiply the results achieved.Comments
The experience of the Max Planck Institute is remarkable for the effort in terms of quality of information available to the researchers. It represents a model Research centre intended as producer and distributor of structured knowledge, facilitating the growth of new knowledge.
The researchers have taken part to this experience initially as simple users and then as producers of information, suggesting new links and checking the reliability of external links. The wide utilization of the service and the demand for new "Pages of Resources" show the success of the project.References: Rusch-Feja, Diann in Libri, vol.47, 1997, pp.1-24
Henley College (United Kingdom) (^)Starting date: 1994
Mission: Allow the students to carry on distance learning.
Targets
- Availability of multimedia courses on the network.
- Continuous and fast updating of the courses.
- Development of networking activities.
- Putting the teachers in the position of helping and checking effectively the learning progress of each individual student.Functions and Options
- Electronic mail: exchange of messages by e-mail.
- Electronic tutoring: the teacher can use the network in order to promote topics for discussion, provide documents for reference, reply to student's questions.
- Pedagogical materials: some themes for discussion are presented regularly (every two weeks) up to the completion of the course. During this period a debate can take place between the participants and the tutor who, at the end, will summarize the main points dealt and will initiate the next round of discussions about another topic.
- Coffee room: availability of an electronic space for presenting and debating topics where everybody is invited to pose questions and provide answers in order to enliven the discussion.
- Information services: possibility of integrating the teaching materials with supplementary information and discussions.
- Students' works: electronic circulation of students' assignments to which the tutor replies either with specific notes or with a standardized form of assessment.
- Preparation for exams: materials available for assisting the students in preparing exams and tests. It is also possible to discuss some aspects of the exam among students, teachers and administrative staff.
- Administrative services: the possibility of making requests through the network for reports, books or other learning materials.Software employed: Lotus Notes
Comments
It is stressed the fact that the software, Lotus Notes, is not employed to its full potentiality yet, and that the teachers should develop their capabilities in preparing teaching materials and presenting them in electronic format.References: Birchall, David & Smith, Matty in Active Learning n° 5, December 1996, pp.1-5
Wirral College (United Kingdom) (^)Project: Intranet
Starting date: not given
Mission: To favour the access to documentary resources and to improve the learning process.
Targets
- Put at disposal of the students information sources available on the Internet.
- To use Internet for presenting learning materials in a more effective way.
- To facilitate and speed up the access to relevant web site by storing them on the college server.
- To save on resources by using materials freely available on the Internet.
- To link Internet and Intranet aiming at an easy access from everywhere.Functions and Options
- To provide addresses of electronic mail related to valuable human resources available inside and outside the college in order to facilitate the debate amongst the members of the college and the members of other learning organizations, considering the exchange of information as a sort knowledge updating.
- To arrange an electronic bulletin board for sending information and asking questions to everybody or to some specific individuals.
- To use the Intranet as a passage to Internet and as a positive filter for the selection of resources.Comments
Some advantages are highlighted with reference to this project, as for example:
- the reduction in the number of people necessary for managing and distributing documents;
- the better access to documents of which only a single copy is necessary and whose update is much quicker and easier;
- the shortening of the time for the production of a document by the utilisation of standard models, existing graphic elements and by cutting and pasting the useful parts of a document.References: Blackmore, Paul in Aslib Proceedings, vol. 49, n° 3, March 1997, pp.67-72
Häme Polytechnic (Finland) (^)Project: Global Virtual Polytechnic
Starting date: not given
Mission: To develop a new learning environment based on a network through which the students can access the materials prepared by the teachers.
Phases
- To install software in view of producing coursewares that can be accessed by the students
- To provide guidelines and to form teachers capable of producing and presenting coursewares.
- To provide guidelines and to form students capable of using a system of electronic learning materials.
- To present coursewares and to test them through pilot experiences.Functions and Options
- to access the programmes of each course
- to navigate the Web
- to use the electronic mail
- to check the dates for the various activities
- to view the electronic bulletin board
- to participate in discussions
- to get information about assignments and tests.Software employed
- Lotus Notes (for the workgroup)
- Front Page (for producing web pages)Comments
It is stressed that in the development of the project it is necessary:
- to avoid the risk of simply moving from paper support to electronic support;
- to aim at producing courseware based on problem-solving, promoting the efforts of thinking and of searching for solutions.References: Valta, Anja, EVITech Conference Enable97, pp.1-3
Acadia University (Canada) (^)Project: Digital Agora (module: political sciences)
Starting date: not given
Mission: To allow the users to access a set of diffused information and to organize a group collaboration effort in order to understand and solve complex problems together through the network.
Functions
Digital Agora is based on the Web and on a hypertext system that allows the drafting of documents by the group, the formation of discussions groups and the analysis, simulation and graphical representation of a specific topic.Options implemented
The system allows to access the following options:
- primary documents (e.g. political documents, political comments, etc.)
- secondary documents (e.g. notes for courses, abstracts, lists of relevant web sites, etc.)
- simulations (e.g.. economic forecasting, demographic data, etc.)
- visualizations and conceptual maps (representations of concepts and themes with the aid of a repository of symbols)
- practical exercises (e.g. questions and marking of answers)
- presentation of documents
- group discussions (formal or informal, with or without moderator)
- calendars of activities (concerning general activities within the university, concerning the engagements of specific groups, referring to individual courses)
- information and announcements (what’s new)
- presentation of ideas and problems
- drafting of texts in group
- students' magazine on-line
- glossary of terms on political sciences
- list of notes and hypertext links by groups or individuals
- frequently asked questions (Faq)
- access pages for external visitors (guest book)Comments
The project of Digital Agora marks the passage from an educational model based on the teacher (instructor-centred) to one that stresses the activities and efforts of the learner (learner-centred).
The participants to the project are, at the same time, producers and users of information.
The students become active participants to the process of learning as authors, collaborators and explorers of documents.
The integration of the role of producer and user of information represents a central aspect of the project. The users are to be allowed to make comments, start debates, introduce links to documents, either individually or as members of a group.References: Watters, Carolyn et alii in Communications of the ACM, January 1998, pp. 50-57.
McGill University (Canada) (^)Project: electronic distance learning.
Starting date: not given
Targets
- To allow for synchronous and asynchronous communication.
- To start learning projects locally or based elsewhere.
- To present the students' projects to a wider public and, in so doing, to give bigger resonance to their activities and efforts.
- To allow the access to many large information and knowledge sources.
- To provide an immediate feed-back to the demands of information, relying on teachers or on the support offered by other students.Functions and Options
- Utilization of the electronic mail.
- Availability of a virtual library with the full text of over 25 journals on education.
- Links to databases, to e-books, electronic dictionaries and to modules introducing learners to the use of the Web.
- Access to the bibliographies of each course and to materials (journals, reports, presentations, etc.) that will aid the student in the learning process.
- Availability of courses on CD in order to access information without the need for linking to the Internet.References: http://www.mcgill.ca/mycourses/
New Jersey Institute of Technology (USA) (^)Project: Virtual Classroom
Starting date: 1986
Targets
- To use the computer in order to improve the learning process with respect to traditional methods of teaching.
- To put forms and ways of learning under the control of the student and freeing them from a specific place or time (distance learning, asynchronous learning).Functions and Options
- Use of e-mails
- Discussions between students and teachers (groupware)
- Notes on debates and information about new activities and about the tasks of the members of the group.
- Communication of news and general info.
- Personal registers of notes and personal records.
- Lists with the participants to the courses and their profile, including their interests and research fields, in order to facilitate the linking between people with commonalities.
- Electronic spaces for questions-answers by the teachers to whom every student is supposed to answer, circulating afterwards everybody's answers.
- Tests and exams.
- Info about assessment for each exam.
- Various tools for learning as, for instance, on line videos of courses, hypertext coursewares, simulations and learning games, etc.Comments
The main original features of Virtual Classroom project are pointed out as:
- The teacher (the producer of coursewares) plays the role of moderator, communicating with the students in view of organizing the information and integrating the new data that emerge every year out of the work of each group and putting them at the disposal of the students of the following years.
- The teacher becomes also author/editor/distributor of coursewares, while the students are collaborators/authors at different levels, individually or in group.References: Turoff, Murray in 1995 International Conference on Computer Assisted Instruction, pp.1-12
Wake Forest University (USA) (^)Project: Project 2000
Starting date: 1995
Mission: To provide every student with a portable computer in order to stress:
- the importance of accessing the network (local, global) and of collaborative learning;
- the willingness of allowing for a generalized access to the technologies of information;
- the acknowledgment of the importance of mastering information processing tools.
"Project 2000" is based on a network of portable computers given to each student enrolled in the course. By the year 2000 every student being part of the University is supposed to be provided with a portable computer.Software employed:
- Microsoft Office
- Lotus Notes
- Netscape Gold 3
- Adobe Acrobat
- QuickTimeFunctions and Options
The "Wake Forest Template" has been produced by using Lotus Notes. The template is like a chest of drawers. Inside each drawer there are dossiers for consultation, collaboration or production of learning materials.
The index presents the following items:
- calendars of activities
- information materials divided by
- subject
- theme
- author
- date
- work groups
- news
- tests
- discussions
- the library catalogue
- archivesNote: The "Wake Forest Template" can be accessed from the outside (e.g. by external students, visitors, guests, etc.) through an access key.
The experience has made possible, amongst other things:
- to produce learning resources for many courses (biology, chemistry, mathematics, religion, music, foreign languages, etc.) and to start projects in collaboration with other universities;
- to use external experts (for instance an English professor found through the Internet for running a seminar on Shakespeare).Comments
The ideas emerging from the project can be summarized in the following way:
- The problem is not to adapt teaching and the running of courses to computers but to see how computers can be used in order to fulfil the educational aims.
- The standardization of systems and programs in necessary for reasons of economy, for servicing the computers, and for facilitating the process of learning and communicating. At the same time it is possible to employ specific operative systems for experimental uses.
- Collaboration with industry (IBM in this specific case) can bring benefits to both partners.
- It is necessary to forecast and cater appropriately for the increase in the amount of electronic communication.
- It is essential to provide assistance to users. This project has greatly benefited from the help given by students with scholarships and by experts in information processing.References: Brown, David G. et alii, in Communications of the ACM, January 1998, pp.26-35
Otago University (New Zealand) (^)Project: Module in Political Sciences
Starting date: not given
Mission: To encourage students' participations and to promote their thinking efforts; to use the computer as a tool for research, for drafting texts, for communication.
Functions and Options
- To make on-line searches.
- To access through the network the CD-ROMs in the library.
- To make and enrich with notes a bibliography by using a specific software (EndNote).
- To communicate by e-mail, presenting questions, sending relevant documents, arranging for tutorials.
- Using a hypertext program (StorySpace) for accessing notes about courses drafted by teachers.
- To add notes and links to on-line documents.Comments
The specific aspect in the Otago experience is the use of an hypertext program (StorySpace) aiming at:
- sharing the experiences and the contributions offered by teachers and students of each course;
- to stimulate students at making conceptual links by using graphic representations of the various teaching materials and their autonomous researches;
- to allow the development of dynamic relationships between the members of a group with respect to their personal contributions to research and learning;
- to know the opinions of the students about the courses, to present their contributions and to intervene, with the teacher, on course contents and presentation.References: Soler, Janet & Lousberg, Marjan in Active Learning n° 5, December 1996, pp. 1-6.
[Virtual Universities] [Index] [back to : Experiences] [forward to : Functions and Options]