SEEDS: Strengths and Challenges of CMC

by Wendy Burton, University College of the Fraser Valley

Strengths of CMC
Challenges of CMC

Strengths of CMC

Students can use the computer independently of other students or the instructor. This asynchronous learning allows students who have other responsibilities to participate in course offerings. Being able to send a message to the instructor at any time, instead of travelling to the campus during the instructor's posted office hours, makes it possible for those who have limited or no time beyond the normal classroom hours to talk to the instructor and the other students. Asking a private question of the instructor, or participating in a electronic discussion often reduces the student's sense of isolation, or "I'm the only one" phenomenon.

Preliminary investigation tells us students who learn online often find themselves in a collaborative, student centred environment, where the teacher role has been changed. Lecturing or other teacher-centred activities are difficult to conduct in an entirely online classroom, and courses that develop online are often more small-group oriented. The teacher assumes the role of coach or facilitator.

For students who are taking programs that require computer literacy, or who expect to work with computers can develop their computer skills while learning the course material.

The students can engage more fully with the material, by talking about it more online than they might in a face to face classroom. It is more difficult to remain silent online, because the silent student is invisible to the other students and the instructor. This invisibility is noisier than a similar silence in the classroom.

Students "see" each other working with the course material, because the messages pass before everyone. Students have abundant opportunities to develop critical thinking skills. Work posted is seen by everyone, not just the instructor. When I teach work place writing, the students read each other's rough drafts constantly. They are also able to download copies of every finished assignment. See Mason (1993).

Teaching/learning online does not require a professional wardrobe, or getting "ready" for class. We can work from home, or from anywhere else. We can travel to a conference and still 'meet' the class. Students don't have to 'dress up' or otherwise perform in order to learn. There is a sense that learning online democratizes the classroom, by eliminating bias based on appearance, or other 'isms, such as racism, ageism, ethnism, ableism, classism, heterosexism, etc.

Time commitment may be the same, but at the least the travelling time is reduced to the distance from wherever to the computer

CMC requires new ways to be a student and a teacher. This alone may make the enterprise attractive.

CHALLENGES SHARED BY STUDENTS AND INSTRUCTORS

Access to the technology. It is not certain yet how many students and faculty have reasonable and reliable access to the technology. Those studying or working in areas of computers or management might have better access than others. The system I have, which might be considered the minimum these days, is the following

Hardware: a 486/60 cpu, with 8 mgs of memory, a fast modem (14.4 preferred, but at least 9600), a good quality monitor, and access to a good quality printer
a comfortable and ergonomic work space,
a internet service provider, and
a fax machine.

information overload (number of messages). This is a persistent concern for computer mediated communications in education. The possibility of message overload is ever-present. On my last course, the average messages per week was 110, with eighteen students. I took a cmc course at the University of Toronto, and the first time around, I would often encounter 60 pages of text per session (an average of four sessions a week). I participated in an online conference on cmc/education, and at the end of the first week, this North American wide conference had received 275 messages, each message at least four screens long.

computer access and computer literacy. Nothing is as simple as the software salespeople tell us it is. Nothing. Every application requires a facility one step beyond wherever you are. Everyone is a novice with a new piece of software or a new Internet Servic4e Provider or a new windows environment. Some conferencing systems are not compatible with Windows95, for example. The Client Server with FIRSTCLASS did not "support" Windows95 during the first semester following the release of Windows95. This was a problem for computer users who bought new systems to take online courses using FIRSTCLASS. Most conferencing systems suggest the user be "comfortable in a Windows environment," a suggestion that could be interpreted in many different ways. It does not mean able to open and close real windows in real classrooms.

instability of the medium. When I use a piece of software I am always using something that is or may become unstable. Using FIRSTCLASS, for example, I discovered that when the message was posted to me to change my password, the message warning me my password was about to change disabled the dial-in procedure set up on my machine, making it impossible for me to get back into the course to retrieve the instructions to change my password. This glitch occurred four times in the four months I was teaching CMNS 225. Multiply that four times x 18 students and you see what I mean by instability of the medium. It is also a natural law that just when you need it most, your X will fail (where X = whatever piece of equipment most important to completing the task at hand). Learning to use the software and hardware means learning how to use it again and again, as new versions are produced and installed on institution hardware.

CHALLENGES FOR THE STUDENT

public nature of the classroom. For some who are shy, or uncertain, posting to an online course can be very threatening. Everyone reads everything. It is difficult for many students to have to learn in front of everyone.

facility with the language of instruction. The assumption on the part of some is that a lower literacy level is required for communicating online. The experience of those who have taught and learned using cmc seems to be demonstrating the opposite: the level of literacy is much higher because so much of the communication is through text and graphics supported text. Students report a sense of using the language more when learning online, relying more on their written words, and having to "really read" each other. Spell checkers are available, but not often accessibly when writing online, which most students find themselves doing. Re-reading posts with spelling errors or grammar errors seems to serve as a self-correction, as does the occasional online correction from other students or the instructor. When clarity of thought can only be expressed through print-based text, the literacy demand grows.

absence of instructor. For those students who rely on figuring out 'what she wants' in the classroom, learning online can be quite a challenge. The instructor may seem absent more frequently. The students have to learn in an environment where they can log-on anytime and find themselves alone. *keyboard skills. Proficiency on the keyboard saves time. The faster and more efficient the typist, the quicker the mechanical production of text becomes. So. Typing tutor, anyone?

time management and commitment. Online learning requires a different sort of presence than classroom learning. Students can't cruise or coast, by not coming online for several days at a time. Successful students discovered they needed to be on three or four times a week, for 10-20 minutes a shot. Students who wanted to log-on once a week, read all the messages and post their assignments found they were way behind, and could not catch up. Students need to develop a pattern of usage.

CHALLENGES FOR THE INSTRUCTOR

public nature of the classroom. If you have a bad day, you have a bad day in front of your students. This is a commonplace of teaching. If you have a bad day online, the badness of the day is immortalised in print for the entire course. The transcript of the course, the transcript of the conferences, remain for many to see. Bumbling a response to a student in the face to face classroom is bad enough, bumbling a response to a student online means, among other things, that the message hangs there until you either delete it (a significant admission of failure) or the course ends and the technician wipes your slate clean. What can be even more unsettling is to read back through the conferences and discover examples of your own -- poor practice -- examples you may not have been aware of at the time you made them.

absence of nonverbal cues and clues. We can't see students the way we are accustomed to seeing them in the F2F classroom. The absence of the cues we may have learned to use and respond to unconsciously can be unsettling. What replaces these nonverbal cues are equally subtle cues, imbedded in the text flowing throughout the course. Responding to these cues, of tone, word choice, emoticons, layout, repetition of key ideas, signature lines, behaviour in CHAT conferences, and so becomes the new challenge for the instructor in cyberspace.

time management and commitment Both times I taught online, I discovered I used the same amount of online time as I used in the face to face classroom, within an hour. My preparation and marking were equivalent. I had a schedule I kept to, beginning the week's conference on Saturday evening, and logging on at least Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I was tempted to log on more often, to see what was going on, but I resisted the temptation. Students began to learn that I was not "on" 24 hours a day, which increased their student-to-student interaction. Unlike some other sorts of teaching, the online course had to be tended on a consistent basis. I don't think I could have left the course for a week at a time, as I might be able to do if I had a once a week, face to face classroom. The students also had my e-mail address, as well as my phone number, so they could contact me any time they needed to, as is the case with my on-campus students.

a new set of communication strategies. When communicating textully through CMC tone, word choice, format and layout, timing, and so on replace the nonverbal aspects of communication, such as stance, gestures, facial mannerisms, proxemics, and so on.

new teaching strategies. Creating and participating in an online community of learners are new strategies for some instructors.

isolation from the energy of the face to face classroom For those of us who enjoy the dynamics of F2F (face to face) teaching, this loss can be significant. There is a different energy, a different dynamic online, but the interactions possible in a real classroom with real people is hard to reproduce online.

innovation does not automatically mean better learning No one has yet demonstrated that cmc/education yields 'better' teaching and learning. Different, yes. Good as, yes. Better? Not so far. There are many claims made to this effect, but these claims are not supported by research from the field.

last update: October 31, 1996