ONLINE EDUCATIONAL TECHNIQUES
by Stuart Umpleby

Below are some ideas about how to teach university level courses via a computer conferencing system. My experience with teaching via CC is as follows: I taught a course on "The Fundamentals of Cybernetics" on EIES during the fall of 1983. At the same time I audited or observed the course "Human Communication via Computers" taught by Murray Turoff and Roxanne Hiltz. During the spring of 1985 I operated a computer conferencing system called Conexus on my IBM XT. It was used as a supplement to two graduate courses in information technology at George Washington University. In April 1985, I observed the course on "Space" on The Source, which was taught by Paul Levinson and facilitated by Lisa Kimball.

INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNIQUES
========================

In their course on "Human Communication via Computers" on EIES Turoff and Hiltz used the following techniques:


1. Conversations between two instructors who hold
slightly different positions or who approach the
subject from different disciplinary backgrounds.


2. Students introduce themselves as a first exercise
in using the equipment.


3. Students are encouraged to recount personal
experiences relevant to part of the course.


4. Students choose books or articles to review online.


5. A role-playing exercise requiring the use of
private or small-group messages.


6. Individual explorations of various facilities on
EIES with reports back to the group.


Paul Levinson in the "Space" course on The Source used these techniques:


1. "Lectures" of three to four pages to define an
issue.


2. "Guest lectures" consisting of comments by other
authors, sometimes downloaded from other courses on
other systems.

3. Setting forth a wide range of views on some subject
in order to provoke comments.

4. Connecting the topic of the course to a current
political controversy in order to stimulate
discussion.


PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED AND ATTEMPTED SOLUTIONS
============================================

The most commonly discussed problem in online courses is how to keep students current with the discussion and active online. For the Levinson-Kimball course on Space on The Source, Lisa sent out offline or parallel reminders.

A problem I faced on EIES was whether to wait for student replies or to go on with the next week's lecture. Proceeding at my own pace made for a chaotic transcript when students finally replied. This problem is neatly solved in Participate by starting a new branch for each major topic. Levinson used this structure for the Space course.

QUESTIONS REGARDING THE FUTURE
==============================

I have two questions about the future of computer conferencing in education--a narrow question and a broader question.

The narrow question concerns the relationship of computer conferencing to other media of instruction. CC can be regarded either as a supplementary medium of instruction or as the principal medium of instruction. I think there is a large potential for CC as a supplement to existing classroom courses. Preliminary experiments at GWU indicate that CC can be both appropriate and valuable when used in conjunction with normal classroom courses. If conferencing is used as the primary medium for off-campus education or continuing adult education, it can be supplemented with computer-aided instruction and with mailed videotapes or programs on public television. And, of course, books are used to supplement both online and classroom instruction.

The broader question is what the effect of CC will be on higher education and education in general. Although there was considerable enthusiasm about computer-aided instruction (CAI) in the 1960's, CAI does not yet play a major role on university campuses. But CC is intended to facilitate, rather than replace, communication between human beings. Is it therefore possible that CC will have a much greater effect on universities in the next twenty years than CAI has had? If so, what might those effects be?