Anna

1

Online Communication in University Education in
Iceland

• Anna Ólafsdóttir
• Project Manager
• Distance Education
• University of Akureyri
• Ásrún Matthíasdóttir
• Assistant Professor
• Reykjavik University

2
Overview

• Focus will be on ICT and online communication
• Research from 2002
• Teachers and students
• Results
• Discussion

3
Research

• The research which is described here is a part of
  a 3-year project which started in the autumn 2002
• The title of the project is LearnICT using ICT
  in learning and teaching
• Partly funded by the Icelandic Centre for
  Research (RANNIS)
• The main goal of the LearnICT project is to
  examine the influence of ICT on teaching and
  learning at all levels of the school system
• We will be focusing on higher education

4
Research
Students

• In the autumn 2002 in 3 universties
• Student main results
• Students responce rate was 46
• Females 75, males 25
• In the higher education system the propostion is
  females 71, males 29

5
Student use of online communication
Students
6
Student use of online communication
Students
7
Student attitudes
Students
8
Attitudes to online communication
Students
9
Teacher main results
Teachers

• Teachers responce rate was 59
• Females 49, males 51
• For the higher education system the percentage is
  females 46, males 54

10
Use of e-mail for preparing teaching
Teachers
11
E-mail communication with the students
Teachers
12
Attitudes to online communication (agree and
totally agree)
Teachers
13
Communication with the help of technology

• Can give the students a new feeling of freedom
• They can communicate and answer questions
  wherever They are and whenever they want
• Can also distract from the discussion
• Attendance can be poor or late
• Spontanity in answering and brainstorming may be
  lost
• The student can make use of the personal
  anonymity the web offers but the quality of the
  communication depends on the organization and the
  tools used as well as the role of the students
  and the teachers

14
Illustrative explanation
15
Online quiz
16
Quiz from WebCT
17
Online discussion
18
Information on the Internet
19
Information and exercises
20
Online database
21
MSN
22
Online- Communication...What for?

• Can serve as an effective tool to increase
  student activity in courses
• Strengthens collaborative work amongst the
  students and encourages critical reflection
  through various forms of interaction amongst
  teachers, learners and content
• Online communication as an assessment tool offers
  many opportunities for peer-evaluation

23
Online Discussion cont.

• Effective way to promote deep-learning
  (Entwistle, 2001)
• Main strengths or advantages
• More time for reflective thinking than in
  real-time discussions
• The fact that students have to put their thoughts
  into written words often broadens and deepens the
  discussions
• Some students are less shy when expressing their
  thoughts and opinions in web-discussion than in
  classroom discussion
• Powerful tool for evaluation work, especially to
  involve students in the assessment

24
Online- discussion cont.

• Can be of various forms
• Formal, topic centered, graded
• Informal voluntary, open one-to-one discussions
  
• Whatever form is used it is necessary to
  integrate online- discussion into the learning
  experience if it is to become a useful tool in
  the study (Wallace, 2001)

25
Online Chat

• Most VLE platforms have inbuilt chat-facilities
• A lot of free chat-facilities on the Internet
  (e.g. MSN)
• Can be used for teacher-student meetings, one on
  one or for meetings with student-groups e.g. in
  project-work
• Can also be used in student-groups for the same
  purpose without the teacher being involved
• Teacher can be online for students on MSN during
  office hours

26
Online chat cont.

• Advantages
• Useful tool in building up a class-culture within
  the student group, especially important when it
  comes to distance education students
• reduces the risk of distance-education students
  feeling alone and isolated in their study
• Disadvantages
• Students sometimes tend to use online-chat
  meeting with the teacher as a kind of FAQ hour,
  can turn into a rather chaotic, frustrating event
  when many students attend the meeting (Gunn and
  Barnett, 2001)

27
Conclusion

• For the generation now knocking on the door of
  the university online communication is just a
  part of everyday life
• Challenging task for policy makers having totally
  different technological background to understand
  their needs
• The Internet-generation
• Has been living with computers and the Internet
  all their lives
• Technology has played a vital role in their
  study, communication and hobbies
• Expect to see the possibilities technology offers
  being used in the utmost sense (Nasseh, 2000)
• Is the university fully prepared to meet the
  demands of this generation?

28
References

• Entwistle, Noel, 2001. Promoting Deep Learning
  Through Teaching and Assessment. In Linda Suskie
  (Editor), Assessment to Promote Deep Learning (p.
  9-20). Washington DC American Association for
  Higher Education.
• Gunn, Cathy and Barnett, John (2001). Online
  learning a quality experience. In Peter Roberts
  og Mark Chambers (Editors), Digital Developments
  in Higher Education - Theory and Practice (p.
  139-160). Cambridge Taylor Graham Publishing.
• Nasseh, Bizhan (2000). Forces of Change The
  Emergence of a Knowledge Society and New
  Generations of Learners. In Lisa Ann Petrides
  (Editor), Case Studies on Information Technology
  in Higher Education Implications for Policy and
  Practice (p. 217-227). London Idea Group
  Publishing.
• Wallace, Lori (2001). Do Students really want to
  Interact? In David Murphy, Rob Walker og Graham
  Webb (Editors), Online Learning and Teaching with
  Technology Case Studies, Experience and Practice
  (p. 21-27). London Kogan Page Limited.