What’s the Problem with Online Education?

Recent studies have demonstrated that online courses, properly handled, can meet and even exceed educational standards established by traditional face-to-face courses. So why aren’t more schools embracing this potentially powerful educational weapon?

Several barriers stand in the way of widespread use of online education. Some barriers relate to enrollment in distance education programs. Rezabek (as cited in Muilenburg & Berge, 2001) grouped these barriers into three broad categories. “Situational barriers result from an individual’s general situation or environment, and include such issues as transportation, age, time constraints, and family responsibilities. Institutional barriers are created by an institution’s programs, policies, and procedures, and include problems with admissions, registration, scheduling of courses, financial aid, and support services. Dispositional barriers result from an individual’ s personal background, attitude, motivation, learning style, and self-confidence.”

Also in the Muilenburg study, Leggett and Persichitte were cited as identifying five basic barrier categories to the implementation of technology in K12 classrooms: time, access, resources, expertise, and support. Muilenburg and Berg’s study, through the study of a myriad of other resources, developed their own list which ultimately identified a total of 64 categories of barriers which the authors used as survey questions for their study.

Berg (1998) identified multiple barriers to online education, including:

· "faceless" teaching

· fear of the imminent replacement of faculty by computers

· diffusion of value traditionally placed on getting a degree

· faculty culture

· lack of an adequate time-frame to implement online courses

· many distance learners who lack independent learning skills and local library resources

· lack of formalized agreements to sustain program commitment though difficulties and problems

· high cost of materials

· taxpayer ignorance of the efficacy of distance education

· lack of a national agenda, funding priority, and policy leadership

· increased time required for both online contacts and preparation of materials/activities

· the more technologically advanced the learning system, the more to go wrong

· non-educational considerations take precedence over educational priorities

· resistance to change

· lack of technological assistance

One definite barrier to online education is the attitude of the instructor toward technology. According to Christiea and Juradob (2009), educators have historically been slow to embrace emergent technology. “Older teachers required time to adapt to the use of overhead transparencies even when they instinctively knew that it was pedagogically smarter to show a picture of complicated equipment during a lecture than to try to describe it in words… It took time and a lot of trial and error before teachers made the next step to PowerPoint….” Christiea and Juradob went on to state that many teachers currently using PowerPoint technology were failing to use it for pedagogical reasons, but rather as speaker notes.  These users had not recognized the potential of the technology for illustration, engagement, or enhancement of their presentation. Similar problems exist with the current use of computer education.

Some might argue that it is fear of technology which impedes its general use more than any other barrier. “…the most critical obstacles reported in this survey appear related to persons' resistance to or fear of the many changes that must occur at the individual and organizational level. Add to these fears the lack of support for the changing roles of students and teachers and you have the ingredients that often lead to significant impediments to success in online education” (Berge, 1998).

Another key problem appears to be related to access. The best online program, if students are unable to access it, get it to work correctly on their home system or mobile device, or figure out how to use it, is worthless. This barrier is so pervasive, Lorenzo and Moore (2002) list access as one of the five pillars of quality online instruction. “One of the most comprehensive and experienced models of access-related issues can be found at the one of the oldest and largest providers of online education, UMUC… Merrily Stover, former Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Studies at UMUC, outlines the multifaceted structure of an institution focused on providing a full-range of services to make online learning easily accessible to students. For example, UMUC’s Student Success Center offers a full range of online orientations, 24-hour technical support, and easy web-based access to online courses and programs. The school’s Better Opportunities through Online Education Program helps low-income workers gain access to higher education.”

The good news is that educators are beginning to recognize the potential of the technology to provide high quality education to larger numbers of people. Institutes of higher education, public, private, and chartered K12 schools, and even state governments are beginning to offer, promote, and fund online education in vast numbers. Pedagogical changes are improving the quality of these programs, and organizations such as the Sloan Consortium are driving increased access and helping to overcome the digital divide. Unfortunately, it may take a generation for many of these barriers to be overcome. As digital natives graduate and join the ranks of educators and policy makers, I believe we will see a tremendous growth in online education and witness many of these barriers slipping away.

References

Berge, Z. L. (1998, Summer). Barriers To Online Teaching In Post-Secondary Institutions: Can Policy Changes Fix It? Retrieved May 3, 2012, from Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration: http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer12/berge12.html

Christiea, M., & Juradob, R. G. (2009). Barriers to innovation in online pedagogy. European Journal of Engineering Education, 273–279.

Lorenzo, G., & Moore, J. (2002, November). FIVE PILLARS OF QUALITY ONLINE EDUCATION. Retrieved May 3, 2012, from The Sloan Consortium: http://www.edtechpolicy.orgwww.edtechpolicy.org/ArchivedWebsites/Articles/FivePillarsOnlineEducation.pdf

Muilenburg, L., & Berge, Z. (2001). Barriers to Distance Education: A Factor-Analytic Study. The American Journal of Distance Education, 7-22.

Exemplary Online Educators and a Community of Inquiry

The readings this week centered around best practices for educators in online teaching. Two of the readings (Garrison et. al., 2000; Perry & Edwards, 2005) discuss the importance of creating a “community of inquiry” in an online learning environment. Garrison defines three intersecting areas which create this community; namely a social presence, a cognitive presence, and a teaching presence.

Although the remaining reading by Liu et. al. (2005) examined actual practice rather than developing theory, the authors categorized instructor roles into four categories to determine how instructors interact with students and the learning environment. Three of the four categories, in my opinion, overlap the areas established by Garrison. The four roles listed by Liu were Pedagogical, Social, Managerial, and Technical.

The pedagogical role intersects with Garrison’s idea of the cognitive presence. The instructor interacts with the course to provide content and interacts with the students to facilitate learning. “The pedagogical roles of online instructors revolve around facilitating educational process for students’ understanding of critical concepts, principles, and skills. Such tasks include encouraging students’ knowledge-sharing and knowledge-building through interactive discussion, designing a variety of educational experiences, providing feedback, and referring to external resources or experts in the field.” Perry and Edwards (2005) focus on the cognitive presence of the teacher, examining three characteristics of online teachers within the cognitive domain. Exemplary online teachers were found to be challengers, affirmers, and influencers. These traits overlap well with the roles of feedback-giver and interaction-facilitator described by Liu in the pedagogical arena.

I feel that the courses I’ve taken with Dr. Aworura have had strong cognitive presence. Dr. A. does an excellent job of creating a “triggering event” (Garrison et. al., 2000) and facilitating students’ discussion and exploration of the topic to allow us to connect and apply new ideas.

Obviously, the social presence and the social roles of instructors overlap. Interestingly, although Garrison shows this to be of equal and overlapping importance to the other two areas in a community of inquiry, Liu’s report indicates that this area tends to be looked at as of less or minor importance by many of the online educators involved in that study. Liu cited lack of awareness of the importance of this role, concern about time constraints, and lack of technology as reasons for this apparent apathy toward developing a social presence.

In our program, I feel that great importance has been placed on the social aspects of our learning community. We take time at the beginning of each course to greet and get to know one another. Because of this, I’ve come to know many of my fellow students in a casual way and have a picture of them in my mind when I’m discussing course material with them. Our class discussions are strong, lively, and interactive. Students engage in “expressive but responsive, skeptical but respectful, challenging but supportive” (Garrison et. al., 2000) discussions where we encourage one another to think outside the box and dig deeper for understanding. I have enjoyed these exchanges and grown as a person because of them. Group activities have allowed us opportunities to work with one or more students in a closer way. Although the dynamics of asynchronous communication often complicate this process (and in some cases make it downright impossible), I have worked in several groups where we have had a great flow of ideas and have complemented one another’s strengths. This collaborative learning meets the goal specified in Garrison as drawing “learners into a shared experience for the purposes of constructing and confirming meaning.”

The teaching presence isn’t a perfect match with the managerial roles. Some of what Garrison defines as a teaching presence overlap more with the pedagogical role, but instructional management is a part of the teaching presence as defined, and the parallel is apparent. “When education based on computer conferencing fails, it is usually because there has not been responsible teaching presence and appropriate leadership and direction exercised” (Garrison et. al., 2000). The roles of conference manager and organizer and planner expressed by Liu are useful in establishing leadership and direction, but Garrison’s reference to building understanding may fall more into the cognitive presence.

In our program, I have seen Dr. A. establish and maintain a strong teaching presence. Even during my first couple of courses, when Dr. A. experienced a situation which took her outside the country into areas of limited internet connectivity, although she struggled to stay on top of all her teaching responsibilities, she was quick to respond to student messages, offered direction, and provided a well-organized environment and well-facilitated discussions. In contrast, I have taken online courses where the teaching presence was weak and where I felt isolated, like I was learning on my own. I do not feel these courses were as successful in stimulating my critical thinking skills, and I felt slighted, like I wasted my time in the class and could have learned as much without the tuition charge.

I work with teachers in other departments whose online courses amount to little more than “a correspondence course via email” (Roberts & Br anna n as cited in Perry and Edwards, 2005). These courses fail to establish any social presence, and the cognitive and teacher presences are limited. Students work in isolation on problems. Teaching is often limited to reading the text and completing assignments and assessments. Those teachers with a stronger understanding of the dynamics of online learning may offer multimedia support, additional offline resources, Powerpoint slide presentations of instructor notes, etc., but fail to establish any kind of community and do not facilitate discussion among students. It may be that the courses being offered do not lend themselves well to a rich online environment. I would be interested to sit in the face-to-face courses of these instructors to find out if their traditional classrooms are focused on lecture and also lack discussion and student interaction.

The only area discussed by Liu for which there was not a parallel described in the Garrison model is the technical role. This role also lacks a parallel in traditional education. Educators have been asked to fill a role for which they are under-qualified and unpaid. This is an unfortunate side-effect of online learning. Even under the best of circumstances with well-designed courses on robust learning platforms, students and teachers can experience technical difficulties beyond their control. Operating system and browser incompatibility, problems with plug-ins, viruses, and scheduled or unscheduled server shut-down can interrupt the flow of an online course, prevent the instructor from using powerful tools, and wreak havoc with student access. When students lack the skills necessary to troubleshoot their problems, the teacher is forced into the role of technical support and often has to try and resolve student issues, redirect their inquiries, or find a work-around solution. In a small college like A&M Texarkana, there may be a lack of funds or resources to provide actual technical support staff. In future definitions of exemplary online educators, there may be a greater emphasis placed on the instructor’s ability to support the students with technical problems, although I do not feel this should ever become a routine part of their job description.

References

Garrison, D. Randy, Anderson, Terry, and Archer, Walter (2000). Critical Inquiry in a Text-Based Environment: Computer Conferencing in Higher Education. The Internet and Higher Education 2(2-3). Elsevier Science Inc.

Liu, Xiaojing, Bonk, Curt, Magjuka, Richard, Lee, Seung-hee, and Su, Bude (2005). Exploring Four Dimensions of Online Instructor Roles: A Program Level Case Study. American Education and Communication Technology (AECT) International Conference.

Perry, Beth and Edwards, Margaret (April 2005). Exemplary Online Educators: Creating a Community of Inquiry. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education-TOJDE Volume: 6, Number: 2.

Augmented Reality - Innovations for the classroom

Our society has already begun implementing Augmented Reality (AR) into our culture in ways we are not even fully aware of. If you have watched a televised sporting event recently, it is likely that you have already experience AR (Hamilton, 2011). The yellow first down marker on the football field, enhanced puck in a hockey game, even the advertising appearing behind the batter in a baseball game are all examples of AR used by sports broadcasters, overlaying the real images with additional "virtual" information.

Another pervasive use of AR by our culture is the increasing presence of QR markers on just about everything. Businesses, churches, and even schools use these markers to link their clients to additional information, upcoming events, and applicable downloads. Retail shoppers can scan QR codes for point-of-purchase information, reducing the need for sales floor representatives in every area of the store. I met one gentleman with an app which scanned the bar codes and QR codes on the products he consumed and tracked his caloric, fat, protein, cholesterol, and carbohydrate intake each day to assist him with maintaining a balanced and healthy diet.

Wii and Xbox Kinect are also examples of AR applications invading our culture. These gaming systems use "gestures" to control game play, allowing users to experience the game as though they were actually participating in the event. The result is kids (and adults) participating in on screen "virtual" experiences while mimicking the actual required motions in reality. Want to learn to ski (without the snow), get fit, play the violin? All possible virtually using one of these games.

Special AR browsers are already available which layer AR information over an image captured by your phone's camera and using your GPS coordinates to provide additional information about your location. The educational uses for this type of application are boundless and incredible.

My research into this subject went far past the assigned readings and videos for the week as I was extremely fascinated both by the subject and the implications for use in the classroom. What I've uncovered only begins to scratch the surface and with the velocity at which technology is changing and improving will be out of date tomorrow.

For example, lets start with the use of webcams and markers to bring virtual 3D experiences into the classroom. I already spoke of the applications for Google Sketch-Up (Google) and its Inglobe Technologies Counterpart (AR-media Plugin for Google SketchUp, 2012) for displaying the models in AR. Our videos this week included one from Thailand's Larngear (Learngears , 2008) showing applications such as 3D modeling of atoms and 3D popup books about robots which seem incredible to me, with far-reaching implications for the classroom. I located a website called ZooBurst (About Zooburst) which allows teachers to create their own 3D popup books which can be viewed on the computer or displayed virtually via a webcam. Another cool application being developed by Qualcomm in association with Sesame Street (minipcpro, 2012) allows physical 3D toys to interact with a virtual environment, so plastic toy Ernie and Bert can "visit" their virtual 3D apartment and come to life, talking and interacting with the environment and each other. Applications such as this can be used in early childhood education to help develop language skills, early motor skills and more.

Take the markers away, and how does AR interact with our environment? The game our reading discussed this week called Environmental Detectives (Peters, June 2007; Klopfer & Squire, April 2007) is just one example of geo-tagged AR gaming which allows students to learn in the context of their own environment. The Handheld Augmented Reality Project (Handheld Augmented Reality Project) provides innovated educators of middle school math, science, and ELA classes the opportunity to test an AR project lasting from 5-10 days in their classroom and provides equipment, assessments, and support. The project, called Alien, "invites students to explore an area outside of your school with handheld computers, requires students to form hypotheses and analyze bits of evidence, and requires students to present persuasive oral and written arguments supporting their hypotheses." This game builds students' problem-solving, collaboration, math, and science literacy skills while providing a fun and engaging simulated game play.

While Xbox Kinect and Wii might seem like pure virtual fun, teachers are using both retail and custom gaming solutions in the classroom to engage students and teach important skills.  The Microsoft News Center includes a press release (Kinect in the Classroom: Scratching the Surface of Potential, 2012) that explains how an innovative high school math teacher is developing a custom Kinect game which will help math students understand abstract math concepts such as acceleration, velocity, and distance. The game allows students to graph these functions using their bodies instead of paper, allowing students to relate the abstract concepts to their physical motions. The article also mentions a first grade teacher who is using the retail game Disney Adventures to take her students on a virtual field trip to Disneyland. The activity teaches math skills (budgeting, finances), geography (students plan the driving route), and collaborative skills (each group of students is allocated 30 minutes in the virtual Disneyland park and must agree how they will spend their time).

The Layar Reality Browser is one of several new AR supported browsers which overlay the real world as seen through your mobile phone’s camera with virtual information geo-tagged to the location found by the GPS on your phone. This type of browser overlays multiple types of information on the screen image from your phone’s camera. Point the camera at the sky to retrieve up-to-the-minute weather forecasts and see the image of the sky change based on the prediction. Point it at a business to search for job openings, and access an online application. Point it at a restaurant to make a reservation, preview their menu, even place a take-out order. Point it at a movie theatre to see what’s playing, watch trailers, and buy tickets.

This type of layering has many implications for education. Imagine visiting a local historical site such as famous battlefield or the location of a large discovery of gold. Students with AR enabled browsers could look up geo-tagged information on the history of that site. What did it look like when the battle took place? With this type of layering the student could experience that. Science applications could include pointing the camera at a certain tree or plant to identify it and learn more about it, or seeing the simulated effect of global warming over period of time on their environment. Genuine applications for geometry could be explored by having students overlay a photo of a room with formulas to calculate the amount of flooring needed to cover it.

The 2010 Horizon report (Johnson, Smith, Levine, & Haywood, 2010) estimated that Augmented Reality was four to five years from implementation in the classroom. These cases are evidence that some classrooms are already experimenting with AR, and many more will be soon to follow. The potential is mind-boggling, and I am excited to see how this plays out in the future.

References

About Zooburst. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2012, from ZooBurst: http://www.zooburst.com/zb_about.php

AR-media Plugin for Google SketchUp. (2012). Retrieved March 30, 2012, from InGlobe Technologies: http://www.inglobetechnologies.com/en/new_products/arplugin_su/info.php

Google. (n.d.). Google SketchUp. Retrieved March 30, 2012, from Google SketchUp: http://sketchup.google.com/download/

Hamilton, K. E. (2011). Augmented Reality in Education. Retrieved March 30, 2012, from WikEd: http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Augmented_Reality_in_Education

Handheld Augmented Reality Project. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2012, from Harvard College: http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=harp&pageid=icb.page69587

Johnson, L., Smith, R., Levine, A., & Haywood, K. (2010). The 2010 Horizon Report: The K12 Edition. Retrieved March 30, 2012, from New Media Consortium: http://wp.nmc.org/horizon-k12-2010/chapters/augmented-reality/

Kinect in the Classroom: Scratching the Surface of Potential. (2012, March 6). Retrieved March 30, 2012, from Microsoft News Center: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2012/mar12/03-06KinectEducation.mspx

Klopfer, E., & Squire, K. (April 2007). Environmental Detectives—the development of an augmented reality platform for environmental simulations. Education Tech Research Dev .

Layar Browser. (2012). Retrieved May 30, 2012, from Layar Browser: http://www.layar.com/browser/

Learngears . (2008, November 5). Augmented Reality Learning Media, Learngears in classroom education. Retrieved March 30, 2012, from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT2ek8N0VlY

minipcpro. (2012, February 27). Sesame Street Augmented Reality Dolls Take AR to the Next Level . Retrieved March 30, 2012, from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2jSzmvm_WA&feature=share

Peters, K. (June 2007). m-Learning: Positioning educators for a mobile, connected future. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning .

Innovative Online Tools for Educators

Now more than ever, teachers are looking for ways to make learning more authentic. We need to differentiate learning for students of all learning styles, and we need to appeal to our students’ interests. These tasks sound daunting, but the web has many tools available to help us accomplish these goals.

Students can become published authors with the website www.Lulu.com. Budding writers will find new reasons to write when their work is available for download via Lulu’s free eBook maker, or publish a printed copy of their works for just pennies a page. Imagine the delight of your students when you present them with a paperback copy of the story they wrote and illustrated? How about creating a classroom or school anthology that students have to compete to get into? How hard would reluctant writers work for the “honor” of being included in a hardcover anthology?

Whether you are a teacher of history, literature, or CAD, you’ll have to appreciate the free tool from Google called Google Sketchup. Download it free from http://sketchup.google.com/download. There are hundreds of free 3D models available for students to download and explore, or they can create their own models using this tool with little or no experience drawing. Imagine taking your students on a virtual tour of the Parthenon, or giving them the experience of walking the grounds of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Allow your students to design and build the setting of the novel you are reading as a class project, or let your art students go wild designing their own fantastic structures or machines. Want to take it to the next level? A plugin available from InGlobe Technologies http://www.inglobetechnologies.com/en/new_products/arplugin_su/info.php allows students to experience what is known as Augmented Reality. With the help of this plug-in and a web camera, students can virtually hold their 3D models for presentation or further exploration. Be sure to check out the demo on InGlobe’s website.

Students love multimedia. Why not let them create their own presentations? What a great way for students to showcase what they are learning or reading! Some easy-to-use websites where students can create free multimedia presentations include www.Animoto.com and www.Stupeflix.com.

What about animations? There are many free tools out there to help students design and create their own animated “movies”. My favorite is www.Xtranormal.com, but students can also make animated movies at www.GoAnimate.com. Teachers can use this as an engaging replacement for a traditional lecture. Instead, consider dividing your students into teams and having them animate a lesson for the class.

Need more tools? Kevin Honeycutt lists hundreds in his teacher toolbox. Find them at http://web.me.com/khoneycuttessdack/kevinhoneycutt.org/Central.html.

New Online Resource for Teachers and Administrators

I have just signed up for a new web service: eBackpack.com. This great resource provides teachers and administrators with secure cloud storage and file sharing in an environment especially designed for them. The website allows you to create sub-accounts under your own for your students, add classes and assign students to classes, upload files (handouts, notes, assignments) to share with students, provide a drop-box for students to submit work online, return graded submissions to students, create an online ePortfolio of student work, and more. This looks like it is going to be a great site with many possible uses. Be sure and check out the site and sign up for your free account today, and let me know what you think!