Hardware/Software to Support
Distance Learning Classes
Bruce Harrison, Jr.
Abstract
While the major part of any class is the classroom
contact time, out-of-class support often makes
the difference between success and failure of a student. With Distance Learning
classes, we are
faced with a unique set of problems in supplying this outside support. Our
students are often
spread over large geographical areas and have varying schedules due to work
and family
considerations. In order to overcome these problems, there is a wide array
of hardware and
software tools at our disposal. We will explore such tools as electronic
mail, World Wide Web
servers, computer conferencing software, voice/telephone technology, and
Internet services such
chat, audio, and video.
Introduction
Outside support of a traditional class includes office hours for the instructor,
review sessions,
notes posted on a bulletin board, extra handouts available from the office
secretary, peer-led study
sessions, and classroom note-sharing among students. When everyone was normally
in the same
geographical location and had some time during the week to meet with others,
it was fairly easy
to interact and/or get help with classroom work. With the advent of technology
based distance
learning, our classes are now spread over a wide geographical area and contain
non-traditional
students with diverse schedules. Now our task of supplying and encouraging
this outside support
becomes much more difficult. How do you hold a review session for 25 people
separated by 100
or more miles, and who may be working unusual schedules? What about the
people away on a
business trip? How do students share notes and ideas outside of class? How
can these students
ask questions of the instructor and get a timely answer? What about help
with working a math
problem or checking a circuit diagram? Hopefully, the technology that caused
some of these
problems can also help solve these same problems. I would like for us to
take a look at some of
this technology and apply it to the above concerns.
Our first tool is a familiar one, electronic mail (E-mail). You may already
have E-mail access, but
if not, get an E-mail address, learn how to read your E-mail, and acquire
the habit of reading it at
least once a day (hopefully more). Having done this, be sure your E-mail
address is listed in the
class syllabus and is well-known to the students. At the beginning of class
request the E-mail
addresses of all students. These can be incorporated into a nickname or
list in your E-mail
software, making it quite easy to send E-mail to the entire class. Some
instructors distribute the
syllabus via E-mail, and even require homework to be submitted using E-mail.
Encourage your
students to become familiar with and use E-mail; perhaps even require its
use.
E-mail is the probably one of our "lower-tech"
solutions. As long as someone has access,
they can be using an older computer, or even a terminal attached to a company
mainframe. The
drawback is that E-mail is a text-only medium. It is possible to attach
a word processor
document (or other files such as a spreadsheet) to an E-mail message. The
student then reads the
E-mail, saves the attachment, and opens the attachment using applicable
software.
If the class is fairly large, maintaining an up-to-date list of all E-mail
addresses can be a problem.
In addition, each person in the class must maintain that same list. A better
solution is to use some
version of list processing software (listserv, listproc, majordomo, etc.)
and to set up a mailing list
for the class. In this scenario, an electronic list is created and everyone
in the class subscribes to
this list. When E-mail is sent to the list, it is automatically forwarded
to all subscribers on that
list. With this tool, only one copy of all E-mail addresses is required.
Normally you, as the owner
of the list, control who is on the list. People are added or deleted from
the list as required. With
list processing software, it is possible to maintain an archive of all E-mail
sent via the list. This is
useful for students wishing to catch up after an absence. Most list processors
also allow the
storing of files and their subsequent retrieval by list members.
If E-mail is to be an integral part of your class,
I recommend using a list. This effectively
deals with the problem of various schedules. Class members may read their
E-mail from the list
whenever they choose and reply at their leisure. Group discussion takes
place without the entire
group being present at any one time. In addition, a list best addresses
the problem of maintaining
a single, manageable list of all E-mail addresses.
Computer conferencing is a software tool that allows
multiple people to participate in a group
discussion, exchanging text, images and sound in real time. This software
requires all participants
to have computers capable of running the conferencing software and be connected
to the internet.
The Internet connection can be via a LAN or dialup , but must be a network
connection. Simple
asynchronous dialup to a mainframe or other central computer is not enough.
Using this
software, it is possible to schedule an online classroom discussion without
regard to location of
the participants. Any computer on the internet and running the conferencing
software may
participate.
There is a particularly nice software package available
via the Internet and it is free. The
software "PowWow" is available from http://www.tribal.com and
is suitable for both
small and large conferences. It supports text, images, and sound. The only
drawback is lack of
Macintosh support. There are many commercial products available and should
be surveyed for
suitability and cost if you plan to do extensive computer conferencing.
If the majority of your students only have asynchronous
access, there are several
mainframe or central computer based conferencing packages on the market.
You may want to
inquire with your computer services group on campus as to availability.
These packages are
normally text-only, but on the other hand they can be used in an older computers
or terminal
environment. In summary, the PC-based conferencing packages offer much more
functionality,
but require a higher level of hardware and network connection. Central computer
based
conferencing packages require a lower level of hardware and network complexity,
but are text-
only.
World Wide Web Services
Perhaps one of the best known tools at our disposal
is the World Wide Web (or WWW) server.
This tool is especially suited for posting such information as course syllabus,
class notes, extra
study material, links to other material on the internet, etc. In addition,
files such as word
processing documents and spreadsheets may be stored on the server and downloaded
by students
at their leisure. The WWW server excels as a way to make graphic images
such as drawings or
photographs available. Even audio files and video clips may be incorporated.
To make full use of
information on a WWW server, the student must have access directly to the
Internet and be using
a computer capable of running the newer WWW browsers such as Netscape or
Internet Explorer..
A large investment in learning and preparation is required of the creator
of these pages. There are
tools available to aid in the creation of these pages, but it is still no
trivial matter. With that said,
the WWW server remains one of our best tools for making information available
to a widespread
audience. In addition, it is possible to use message boards and allow group
discussion very similar
to what takes place on an E-mail list.
Audio and Video Via The Internet
With today s technology, it is possible to record
and store audio and video as computer
files. These files can then be accessed from a WWW server or downloaded
and played back later.
This technology may have use with a music class to make listening examples
available or for other
classes to provide demonstrations. Video and audio files can be quite large
and thus have long
download times. Class members must also have sufficient computer resources
to retrieve and play
these files.
Audio files can be recorded with any computer equipped
with a sound card. Video
recording requires a special piece of hardware known as a video capture
card. Input to this
capture card can be a camcorder, VCR, or other video source. When dealing
with video and
audio recordings, copyright issues must be addressed. If the material is
of your own creation, you
may use it as you wish. If the material belongs to someone else, the question
of copyrights comes
into play. Often your library can provide information on this subject.
Another area involving audio and the Internet is the ability to broadcast
audio. This can
be pre-recorded or live audio. In this situation the audio is not stored
on a computer but is put
out on the Internet in real time. The broadcast is done by a special server
and is received by
special software. Two of the systems to do this live audio broadcast are
RealAudio and Mbone.
Check out http://www.realaudio.com and http://www.mbone.com for more
information on either of these products. Using this technology it would
be possible to make a live
speaker available to a dispersed group with little effort. Students could
hear a speech or
presentation without being on campus.
Video teleconferencing via the Internet is another area that may have potential.
Using a
personal computer equipped with a video capture card, sound card, and software,
it is possible to
hold a live video/audio conference over the internet. While this is an exciting
tool, it requires a
large amount of bandwidth and fast network response time to be useful. If
the Internet itself is
slow during a conference, the user sees this as a frozen picture or gaps
in the audio. "CuSeeMe"
is probably the best known of the Internet video teleconferencing systems.
Further information
can be obtained on this software from http://goliath.wpine.com/cu-seeme.html
or http://gated.cornell.edu/pub/video/. For other software, use one of the
search engines on the Internet and look for "video teleconferencing".
Other Internet Services - Chat, MOO, MUD, and WWW
Broadcast
Another tool, similar to computer conferencing and WWW message boards, is
IRC, or
InterRelay Chat. This is a live, interactive, text-only discussion system.
A chat server allows you
to create various channels and to hold a discussion. The channel may be
local to that server or
connected via other servers to form a world-wide discussion. If students
only have access to
asynchronous dial-in and accounts on a central computer, chat can still
be used via a chat client on
that central computer. Others may participate via direct internet connections
and clients on their
individual computers. Check with your computer services group on your campus,
a chat server
may already be in place.
MOO s and MUD s, software that had its origins
in the role-playing game arena, have
been used in an educational setting to provide a gathering place for people
to discuss and
interact. The software creates various virtual rooms"; the participants
can enter or leave a room,
and once in a room interact with others there. Private conversations are
also possible. A MOO
or MUD server is required to create this environment. For an example of
MOO s and MUD s
used in an educational setting, check out http://www.missouri.edu/~moo/
which is the
University of Missouri s Educational MOO. Also of interest may be the paper
shown at
http://sensemedia.net/sprawl/16880 which is entitled MUD s in Education:
New
Environments, New Pedagogies.
A new and emerging technology that may be of interest
to the distance learning
community is on-line content-delivery servers. These servers broadcast information
over specified
channels on the internet. The user receives this information via a special
server software
package or one of the newer Internet browsers. Currently the best example
of this technology is
PoingCast, but there are others in the market. Check out http://www.pointcast.com
http://www.backweb.com http://www.intermind.com or
http://www.netdelivery.com.
The telephone has become a standard fixture in
our society and a number of information tools
have sprung up around it. Answering machine and voice mail can be obtained
quite easily and can
be used to make information available 24 hours a day, and requires nothing
other than a standard
touch-tone telephone to use. Customized voice mail systems could be used
to disseminate
information on a number of classes. Telephone access to data on a mainframe
or networked
computer system is also available. Students can register for classes, check
information, pay fees,
etc. without having to travel to campus. While this is not strictly a teaching
issue, it makes the
entire educational process much easier and user-friendly.
Conferencing via telephone may be a useful classroom tool. Most campus telephone
switches can establish a multi-way telephone conference. However, these
may be limited in
number. The local telephone company can also provide a dial-in conferencing
service to
accommodate many more callers. It would be possible to hold a review or
discussion session
among all class members over the telephone.
Fax services can be of use to the distance learning environment. Besides
the normal fax
machine, there are fax servers where a user may call in and request a specific
document be faxed
to them. It would be possible to distribute class information and handouts
via this method.
Problems to Consider
With all of our modern technology and global connections
come a few problems. Several
points need to be considered.
Availability of appropriate hardware and software
for all students and instructors
Access control to keep outsiders from disrupting class discussions
Availability of internet access for all students
Copyright issues for audio, video, and printed material
Training students and instructors in the use of various software packages
Cost of acquisition and use of appropriate technology
Conclusion
A large and ever-growing collection of technology
is now available, allowing us to better serve
our students who may be geographically spread about our service area. With
this new technology
we can make it much easier for students to retrieve information, participate
in out-of-class
discussion and to maintain close contact with the instructor. This can often
be done from the
convenience of their home or office with no more than a modern pc and an
internet connection.