Syllabus Column #7

The Best Demos Aren’t Demos:  New Hybrids Allow “Walking the Walk”… and Even More

Steven W. Gilbert

2/6/01

 

Have you ever been embarrassed to discover yourself giving a lecture telling others how they should be using new information technology and telecommunications options to improve teaching and learning?  I have.  However, based on four new combinations I’ve been privileged to try during the last few months, I feel more confident that I am “walking the walk” -- not just “talking the talk.”

 

1.             Online Coaching (phone, email, Web-based course-management system;  designed to guide a “development team” to launch its own new TLT Roundtable).

 

2.             Email “Push” + Web Series (2 brief email messages per week with “hot” links to the Web for 10 weeks;  designed to help Chief Academic Officers make major decisions about Campus Portals;  loosely linked to other closely related “hybrid” events).

 

3.             Silence for “Human Moment” in WebCast (WebCast with one presenter and one site;  one presenter and multiple online sites).

 

4.             WebCasts+ -- Linking Online with Onsite  (at least one leader/presenter interacting face-to-face with a large group at one location and with many other participants located elsewhere and connected via the Web; additional leader/presenters may also take part via telecommunications).

 

Each of these combinations effectively improves both the access to and the quality of instructional activities and materials.  Each exemplifies some of the elements that many of us have been trying to encourage others to use.  The one I describe below -- “WebCasts+” -- is especially exciting, as it opens the door to many new instructional options. 

 

In the last couple of years I’ve been comfortable acknowledging that it’s quite reasonable to use face-to-face meetings and lecture formats for some purposes – especially within ongoing courses, faculty development and professional development programs that can include more varied activities over time.  But I still feel a little guilty when I give a straight stand-up lecture in which I’m advocating that others use more interesting combinations of media.  Now, using these new approaches, you can more easily join me in avoiding this apparent hypocrisy if you’re responsible for faculty development or professional development.  If you’re a teacher, you can adapt these same approaches to your own courses, especially if you’re trying to integrate online and onsite teaching and learning.  The hybrid options keep getting better and better.     

 

In the TLT Group’s Web page, in my Listserv, and in subsequent Syllabus columns, I’ll introduce others of these new hybrids and an emerging taxonomy to help describe, categorize, and select them.  I hope many of you reading this will try similar approaches and let me know about them, too.  But let me begin with just one. 

 

 

WebCasts+:  Linking Online with Onsite

I’m still excited.  In November, we began linking onsite and online activities in new ways with applications that actually worked.  Applications that offer capabilities that formerly required much more expensive installation of equipment far in advance – and then only in specially adapted rooms.

 

On November 15, 2000 we combined resources from the WebCT eColloquium series, the HorizonLive.com “webcast” services, the Anaheim Hilton facilities, and the League for Innovation in the Community College at its annual Conference on Information Technology. 

 

This unusually successful "hybrid" professional and organizational development event involved more than 80 people in Anaheim during the face-to-face session and more than 100 online sites.  Technology from HorizonLive.com enabled people from the remote sites to hear the voices of the presenters, see PowerPoint slides and Websites, and offer their own comments and questions through a live Internet chat (text only) feature. 

 

One of the presenters, Randy Bass (Executive Director of the Center for New Design in Learning and Scholarship -- CNDLS) participated from Georgetown University by phone and Web through the HorizonLive system.  Trent Batson (TLT Group Senior Associate) acted as the “voice” of the chat room participants – monitoring their dialog and voicing some of their questions – from a WebCT office near Boston.  Two of the presenters, myself and Don Green (Executive Vice President of Florida Community College at Jacksonville) were in Anaheim face-to-face with the audience of more than 80 people who had selected this special pre-conference session.

 

Remarkably, it all worked smoothly.  The Anaheim audience could see and hear each other as well as the two presenters.  They could also hear and interact with Randy Bass who would otherwise not been available to them.  The remote participants could see the visual presentation materials and hear the voices of the three presenters, the “voice” of the chat room, and the Anaheim audience.  The remote participants could also communicate with each other and easily get the attention of a session leader via the chat room and Trent Batson's important role as their monitor/representative.  As a valuable byproduct, we have an easily accessible digital record of the entire event.  Finally, and not coincidentally, this session (which was about Virtual Teaching, Learning, and Technology Centers) demonstrated a use of media, technology, and pedagogy that is a good model for the topic being discussed!

 

 

I plan to extend this model to my own work with colleges and universities on topics loosely based on my "Curriculum for Change" (see WWW.TLTGROUP.ORG).  I am planning a series of campus visits during which I will lead sessions similar in structure to the November 15 one described above.  As in Anaheim, the local audience will benefit from the presentations of experts who could be on site.  I hope to highlight some of the host institutions’ own accomplishments for the remote audience.  Of course, those engaged online will have both access to the presentations as well as the ability to interact with each other, the presenters, and the local participants;  and a Web-accessible archive will be available for review and for those whose schedules conflicted. 

 

We’re also planning to use this combination at future Syllabus conferences.  We had a chance, with very little advance preparation, to try some variations at the Syllabus 2000 Boston conference.  Archives of some of the sessions are now available on the Web.

 

Watch AAHESGIT and WWW.TLTGROUP.ORG for more information.

 

 

Of course, in retrospect these four hybrid educational approaches each seem obvious.  Each mixes available technologies, telecommunications options, and pedagogical choices to improve quality and accessibility in helping people learn about educational uses of similar technologies.  Each demonstrates an approach that can be used by teachers, learners, and academic support professionals.  Each uses applications that are rapidly becoming widely accessible, reliable, and affordable.  Each resulted from a creative collaborative planning effort among some friendly technology companies, associations, and colleges.  And each benefited from time pressure and a little bit of luck.

 

 

 

SIDEBAR #1

WebCasts+ Choices – Key Questions

 

When organizing one of these “WebCasts+,” the answers to several important pedagogical and technological questions  should shape the event (and the technological tools, support structu8re, preparation, and follow-up activities associated with it).

 

1.             How many sites will have more than two or three people participating through a single computer connection?

 

2.             What special characteristics/options will identify the host site? 

·        Relatively large number of people physically present in one space?  Acoustics, microphone(s), and speaker system enable presenters and audience to hear and be heard and to be linked to the phone system?  Projection device linked to computer with Web access enables presenters and audience to easily see what online participants each see on their own computer screens?

·        Scheduling the event as one hour or one session within a longer-running conference or workshop? 

·        Leader from the institution providing a formal welcome? 

·        Highlighting some capability or resource of which the institution is especially proud and eager to publicize?

 

3.             How many experts or leaders will be participating live from the host site?  How many other experts or presenters will be engaged from sites at other locations?

 

4.             Who will serve as the “voice” of the text-based chat room -- paying special attention to the questions and contributions of the online participants?

 

5.             Will the overall moderator be based at the host institution?  Will that person also make a formal presentation? 

 

6.             How much in advance can the presenters make available the visual materials they will be using?  Are there good materials or advisory services available to guide the presenters’ selection of visual materials?  Visual images must be prepared for convenient viewing by individuals who connect to the Website through their own computers as well as convenient viewing by those at the host site via projection.  Is it possible, if necessary, to supply two sets of visuals for these two different purposes?

 

7.             Is the display of slides (e.g., PowerPoint) and Websites adequate for the visual component?  Or is there a need to show the speakers as they speak?  To use graphics that show other motion?

 

END OF SIDEBAR #1

 

 

SIDEBAR #2

If you want to see/listen to the archive of the November 15, 2000 hybrid session go to:

http://www.webct.com/ecolloquia/viewpage?name=ecolloquia_archive

 

Scroll down to about the 15th event in the list to find the archive for the "Virtual TLT Centers" WebCast.  Click on "Watch It."  Then enter any name you like when asked to "Enter your WebCT login name."  Then be a little patient.  After a couple of minutes you should see a screen that includes a PowerPoint slide and begin to hear Trent Batson's introduction.  [Don't worry about the first few seconds of rather quiet background noise.])

END OF SIDEBAR #2

 

 

POSSIBLE SIDEBAR #3

How It Worked

 

The sound system for the room in Anaheim was linked directly to a phone line into the phone bridge established by HorizonLive.  We had a computer in the room logged on to the HorizonLive Website and connected to a projector so that the Anaheim audience could all see the same images as those connected remotely.  Actually, the local Anaheim audience saw the “presenters’” view of the HorizonLive system, which included the same visual images and chat room accessible to the remote participants, but also included the control panels used by presenters to select visual images to be displayed in this system. 

 

We passed out 3X5 note cards to the Anaheim audience and asked that they write their questions along with their names and institutions on the cards.  During the event, Rob Rennie (VP for IT at Florida Community College at Jacksonville) collected the cards and selected a few as the basis for inviting individuals to come to the microphone in the room and ask their questions.   All the presenters, those connected from remote sites, and the local audience could then hear the questions at the same time.  Don Green and I used the same microphone to make our presentations.

 

 

END OF SIDEBAR #3

 

EXTRA?

 

Email “Push” + Web for CAOs

Starting last summer, I began working with George Mehaffy, Vice President of AASCU and Dave Eisler, Provost of Weber State University to develop a new form of professional education for chief academic officers of AASCU member institutions.  Beginning in October, Eisler led a 10-week series of two email messages per week about Campus Portals to over 100 provosts.  Each message was short enough to be read in 5 minutes or less and contained hot links to a growing Web site if the reader wanted more information.  The recipients were encouraged to pass the messages along to others at their institutions.  We were surprised at the enthusiasm and persistence of the participants and at the frequency of pass-alongs. 

 

We’ve been collecting feedback from the participants and we’re exploring some follow-up activities and topics.  I’m especially interested in trying variations with other groups of professionals and with other topics.  We’re looking for topics that require or benefit greatly from the involvement of multiple perspectives.  For example, in dealing with Campus Portals, we included a provost (Eisler), a librarian, and professionals from the fields of student affairs, faculty development, technology support, external affairs, and evaluation/assessment.

 

We’re also exploring different combinations of media to meet the work styles and learning needs of different kinds of professionals.

 

With respect to Campus Portals, we were able to offer Webcasts (see below) and a special track Syllabus 2000 Boston conference.  Now we’re working on developing related print materials and other activities to further take advantage of the expertise and information we’ve been assembling.  Eisler’s work in assembling and organizing an especially helpful Website on this topic has been exceptional.

 

 

 

OUTTAKES

EXTRA PARAGRAPHS OMITTED

 

Finally, we should expect to be able to take advantage of the same pattern when offering professional and organizational development activities for faculty and staff.  Professional development is just another form of education, and hybridization should apply here too.  Organizational development depends on changing how people think and act – fundamentally educational processes.