The Digital University: Reinventing the Academy

319 Pages·1998·14.54 MB·English

by  Reza Hazemi

Computer Supported Cooperative Wo rk
Springer-Verlag London Ltd.
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The Digital University
Reinventing the Academy
With 35 Figures
i
Springer
Reza Hazemi, BEng, MSc, PhD
Stephen Hailes, MA, PhD
Steve Wilbur, BSc(Eng), MSc, CEng, FIEE, FBCS
Department of Computing Sdence, University College London,
Gower Street, London, WCIE 6BT, UK
Series Editors
Dan Diaper, PhD, MBCS
Head, Department of Computing, School of Design, Engineering and Computing,
Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, Dorset BHI2 5BB, UK
Coiston Sanger
Shottersley Research Limited, Little Shottersley, Farnham Lane
Haslemere, SurreyGU27IHA, UK
ISBN 978-1-85233-003-3
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
The digital university : reinventing the academy. -(Computer supported cooperative work)
1.Computer-assisted instruction 2.Universities and colleges -Data processing
3.Education, Higher -Data proeessing 4.Edueation, higher -Computer network resourees
5.Universities and colleges -Computer network resourees
I.Hazerni, Reza II.Halles, Stephen III.Wilbur, Steve
378'00285
ISBN 978-1-85233-003-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publieation Data
The digital university: reinventing the academy I Reza Hazerni. Stephen Halles, and Stephen Wilber. eds.
p. em. --(Computer supported eooperative work)
ISBN 978-1-85233-003-3 ISBN 978-1-4471-0625-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4471-0625-8
1. Education, Higher--Great Britain--data proeessing. 2. University eooperation--Great Britain.
3. Edueation, Higher--Effeet of technologieal innovations on--Great Britain. 4. Internet (Computer
network) in edueation--Great Britain 5. eomputer-assisted instruction--Great Britain. 6. Distance
education--Great Britain. I. Hazerni. Reza, 1996- . II. Halles. Stephen. 1965-
III. Wilbur, Steve, 1944- . IV. Series.
LB2395.7.D54 1998
378'.00285--dc21 98-6346
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as
perrnitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced,
stored or transrnitted. in any form or by any means, with the prior perrnission in writing of the
publishers, or in the case of reprographie reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued
by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be
sent to the publishers.
© Springer-Verlag London 1998
Originally published by Springer-Verlag London Limited 1998
Crown copyright is reproduced with the perrnission of the Controller ofHer Majesty's Stationary Office.
The use of registered names, trademarks etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a
specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant laws and regulations and therefore free
for general use.
The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy of the
information contained in this book and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors
or omissions that may be made.
Typesetting: Camera ready by editors
34/3830-54321 Printed on acid-free paper
Contents
THE CONTRIBUTORS ................................................................................. XV
FOREWORD ............................................................................................... XXI
1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1
1.1 THE NEED ............................................................................................. 1
1.2 THE SOLUTION ...................................................................................... 2
1.3 THE STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK .............................................................. 3
2. REINVENTING mE ACADEMY ............................................................ 7
2.1 COLLABORATIVE T ASKS ........................................................................ 7
2.1.1 Teaching ....................................................................................... 8
2.1.2 Research ....................................................................................... 9
2.1.3 Support ....................................................................................... 10
2.1.4 Administration ............................................................................ 11
2.1.5 Comment ..................................................................................... 13
2.2 AVAILABLE TOOLS ............................................................................. 14
2.2.1 WWW-based Tools ...................................................................... 14
2.2.2 Commercial Tools ....................................................................... 14
2.2.3 Locally-built Tools ...................................................................... 15
2.2.4 Comment ..................................................................................... 15
2.3 ApPLICATION OF TOOLS ...................................................................... 15
2.3.1 Teaching ..................................................................................... 15
2.3.2 Research ..................................................................................... 16
2.3.3 Support ....................................................................................... 16
2.3.4 Administration ............................................................................ 16
2.3.5 Comment ..................................................................................... 17
2.4 THE FUTURE OF HiGHER EDUCATION: THE DEARING REpORT ............... 17
2.4.1 Teaching ...................................................................................... 17
2.4.2 Administration ............................................................................ 19
2.4.3 The Changing Face of Higher Education ..................................... 20
2.4.4 Comment ..................................................................................... 23
2.5 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................... 23
REFERENCES .................................................................................................. 24
VI The Digital University
3. MANAGING DISTANCE LEARNING -NEW CHALLENGES FOR
FACULTy ................................................................................................ 25
3.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 25
3.2 A NEW MANAGEMENT MIND SET ........................................................ 26
3.3 A NEW STYLE OF MANAGEMENT.. ....................................................... 27
3.4 MANAGING METAPHOR ....................................................................... 28
3.5 MANAGING MEANING ......................................................................... 30
3.6 MANAGING CULTURE .......................................................................... 31
3.7 MANAGING ROLES .............................................................................. 32
3.8 MANAGING TIME ................................................................................ 33
3.9 MANAGING AWARENESS ..................................................................... 34
3.10 MANAGING COLLABORATION .............................................................. 35
3.11 MANAGING FACULTY DEVELOPMENT .................................................. 36
3.12 NEW CENTRES OF LEARNING ............................................................... 36
REFERENCES .................................................................................................. 37
4. COLLABORATIVE INTERACTIONS IN SUPPORT OF
LEARNING: MODELS, METAPHORS AND MANAGEMENT .......... 39
4.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 40
4.2 A MODEL OF THE INTERACTION SPACE ................................................ 40
4.2.1 Teaching Theatres Become Stagesfor Collaboration ................... 41
4.2.2 Collaborative Spaces ................................................................... 42
4.3 METAPHORS AND THE HYPERCOURSEW ARE PROTOTYPE ...................... 45
4.3.1 HyperCourseware Prototype ....................................................... 46
4.3.2 Interface Designfor Collaboration .............................................. 48
4.4 POLICIES FOR MANAGING LEARNING ACTIVITIES ................................. 49
4.5 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................... 52
REFERENCES .................................................................................................. 53
5. TOWARDS THE VIRTUAL CLASS: ON-LINE HYPERMEDIA IN
HIGHER EDUCATION ........................................................................... 55
5.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 55
5.2 SOME INTRINSIC QUALITIES OF THE INTERNET AND INTRANETS AND
THE IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION .................................................... 57
5.2.1 It is a Global Phenomenon .......................................................... 57
5.2.2 Ease ofP ublishing and Maintenance ........................................... 58
5.2.3 Consistency ofI nterface .............................................................. 58
5.2.4 Natural Interface ......................................................................... 59
5.2.5 Seamless Access .......................................................................... 59
5.2.6 Highly Interactive ....................................................................... 60
5.2.7 Unbound in Space/Time .............................................................. 60
5.2.8 Distributed, Non-hierarchical [4] ................................................ 60
5.2.9 Is in Line with the Emergence oft he Information Society ............. 61
5.3 SOME KEy MANAGEMENT ISSUES IN HiGHER EDUCATION IN
PROGRESSING Tow ARD THE VIRTUAL CLASS ....................................... 61
5.3.1 Convergence ............................................................................... 62
Contents vii
5.3.2 An Approachfor Organisational Change ..................................... 62
5.3.3 Ensuring Adequate Motivationfor Virtual Class Facilitators ....... 64
5.3.4 Dealing with an Increasing Proximity between Industry and
Education .................................................................................... 65
5.4 SUPPORTING ON-LINE EDUCATION WITH HYPERMEDIA COURSEWARE .. 65
5.4.1 Communication Structures .......................................................... 66
5.4.2 Enrolmentfor the On-line Courses .............................................. 67
5.4.3 Downloading Mechanismsfor the Courses .................................. 67
5.4.4 Navigational Paths and Other Facilitiesfor Different Learning
Styles ......................................................................................... 67
5.4.5 Help Information ......................................................................... 69
5.4.6 Providing an Ability for Students to Publish Directly on the Web
or Intranet .................................................................................. 69
5.5 ISSUES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ON-LINE HYPERMEDIA COURSEW ARE 69
5.5.1 Systems Development Methodology ............................................. 69
5.5.2 Project Team Composition .......................................................... 70
5.6 SUMMARY .......................................................................................... 71
REFERENCES .................................................................................................. 72
6. CREATING A COMMUNITY OF LEARNING USING WEB-BASED
TOOLS ..................................................................................................... 73
6.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 73
6.2 ApPLICATION OF CSCW PRINCIPLES TO A MASTERS COURSE ............... 75
6.2.1 The Problem Space ..................................................................... 75
6.2.2 Solutions Based on CSCW Principles and the Web ....................... 76
6.3 DIMENSIONS OF COURSE SUPPORT ....................................................... 77
6.4 DESIGN ISSUES .................................................................................... 78
6.4.1 Support for the Group Concept .................................................... 78
6.4.2 Properties of a Virtual Course Environment ................................ 79
6.4.3 Support for Asynchronous Collaborative Tasks ............................ 79
6.5 IMPLEMENTATION ............................................................................... 80
6.6 INFORMAL EVALUATION ..................................................................... 82
6.7 CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................... 83
REFERENCES .................................................................................................. 84
7. USING THE WWW FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING: RAISING
AWARENESS WITHIN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON ............. 85
7.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 85
7.2 THE POTENTIAL OF THE WWW IN HIGHER EDUCATION ........................ 86
7.3 CURRENT USE OF WWW .................................................................... 88
7.4 UCL's USE OF THE WWW FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING .................. 89
7.5 OUR ApPROACH TO ENCOURAGING THE USE OF THE WWW: CHEW .... 90
7.5.1 Interviewing the Staff .................................................................. 90
7.5.2 Why a Portfolio Approach? ......................................................... 91
7.5.3 Description of the Portfolio ......................................................... 91
7.6 TOOLS FOR CREATING COURSEWARE ................................................... 93
7.7 THE WORKSHOPS ................................................................................ 94
V111 The Digital University
7.8 CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................... 95
REFERENCES .................................................................................................. 96
8. AN ASYNCHRONOUS COLLABORATIVE LEARNING SYSTEM
ON THE WEB .......................................................................................... 99
8.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 99
8.2 THE EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT ............................................................. 100
8.3 THEUSER'sDoMAIN ......................................................................... 101
8.4 OVERVIEWOFTHESERVICES .............................................................. 102
8.4.1 Basic Services ............................................................................ 10 3
8.4.2 Complementary Services ............................................................ 104
8.5 SPECIFICATION OF THE USER INTERFACE ............................................ 105
8.5.1 Basic Principles ......................................................................... 10 5
8.5.2 AgentsoftheACLS. .................................................................... 107
8.5.3 Consistency oft he Inteiface ........................................................ 108
8.6 SPECIFICATION OF THE USABILITY METRICS ....................................... 109
8.6.1 Introduction ............................................................................... 10 9
8.6.2 Effectiveness .; ............................................................................ 110
8. 6.3 Flexibility ................................................................................... 111
8.6.4 Learnability ............................................................................... 111
8.6.5 Attitude ...................................................................................... 111
8.7 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................... 112
REFERENCES ................................................................................................. 112
9. MODIFYING MULTI-USER DISCUSSION SYSTEMS TO
SUPPORT TEXT-BASED VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRON-
MENTs ON THE WEB - THE COMENTOR EXPERIENCE ............. 115
9.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 116
9.2 MUDs AND MOOs ............................................................................ 116
9.2.1 Definition ................................................................................... 116
9.2.2 Educational MUDs and MOOs ................................................... 117
9.2.3 Writing MUDs and MOOs .......................................................... 118
9.2.4 Language MUDs and MOOs ...................................................... 119
9.2.5 Campus and General MUDs and MOOs ..................................... 119
9.2.6 Research Community MOOs ....................................................... 119
9.2.7 Pedagogy in MUDs and MOOs .................................................. 120
9.2.8 Technical Issues: MOO and the Web .......................................... 121
9.3 COMENTOR. ....................................................................................... 122
9.3.1 Introduction to coMentor ............................................................ 122
9.3.2 coMentor Design Philosophy ...................................................... 123
9.4 EXTENDING THE GEOGRAPHIC METAPHOR OF ROOMS ......................... 126
9.5 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS .................................................................. 127
REFERENCES ................................................................................................. 129
ApPENDIX 9.A A SELECTED LiST OF EDUCATIONAL MOOs/MUDs ............ .l31
10. A SERVER FOR THE JOINT PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS
ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB .............................................................. 135
Contents
IX
10.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 135
10.2 THE WEB4GROUPS PROJECT .............................................................. 136
10.3 PRINCIPLES OF JOINT PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS (JPD) ................... 137
10.3.1 Document Structure ................................................................... 138
10.3.2 Server Architecture ................................................................... 139
10.3.3 Server Functionalities ................................................................ 140
10.3.4 Format ....................................................................................... 141
10.3.5 Upload ...................................................................................... 141
10.3.6 Hypertext Handling .................................................................... 142
10.3. 7 Annotations ............................................................................... 144
10.4 USER INTERFACE ............................................................................... 144
10.5 EXTENSIONS ...................................................................................... 146
10.5.1 Features ..................................................................................... 146
10.5.2 Upload Extensions ..................................................................... 149
10.5.3 Generic Model .......................................................................... 150
10.5.4 User Interface ........................................................................... 150
10.6 RELATED WORK ................................................................................ 151
10.7 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................... 151
REFERENCES ................................................................................................. 152
11. SUPPORT FOR AUTHORING AND MANAGING WEB-BASED
COURSEWORK: THE TACO PROJECT ............................................. 155
11.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 156
11.2 BACKGROUND ................................................................................... 158
11.2.1 Requirements for a Web-based Coursework System .................... 159
11.3 THE TACO SYSTEM .......................................................................... 162
11.3.1 The TA CO A uthoring Interface .................................................. 165
11.3.2 The TACO Student Interface ....................................................... 166
11.4 RESULTS FROM THE PILOT STUDy ....................................................... 168
11.4.1 Evaluation by Lecturers .............................................................. 168
11.4.2 Evaluation by Students ............................................................... 169
11.4.3 Observation on Student Behaviour .............................................. I70
11.5 CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................... 170
11.5.1 Improvements to the TACO System ............................................. 171
11.5.2 The Process ofA uthoring Coursework ........................................ I7I
11.5.3 Coping with Distributed System Environments in HEIs ............... 172
11.5.4 Participatory Design in the Development ofE ducational
Technology ................................................................................ 173
REFERENCES ................................................................................................. 174
ApPENDIX II.A LiST OF REQUIREMENTS FOR A WEB-BASED SYSTEM .............. 176
12. GROUPWARE SUPPORT FOR ASYNCHRONOUS
COLLABORATIVE KNOWLEDGE WORK ........................................ 179
12.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 179
12.2 GROUP TASK CHARACTERISTICS ........................................................ 180
12.2.1 Adopting an Information Exchange Perspective ......................... 181
12.2.2 Group Task Inter-dependence ..................................................... 182
x The Digital University
12.3 GROUPW ARE CHARACTERISTICS: SUPPORT OF INFORMATION
EXCHANGE ........................................................................................ 182
12.4 THE QUALITY OF INFORMATION EXCHANGE ....................................... 183
12.5 METHOD ............................................................................................ 183
12.6 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................. 184
12.6.1 Overall Support by Lotus Notes .................................................. 185
12.6.2 Group Task Inter-dependence .................................................... 185
12.6.3 Amount and Nature ofI nformation Exchange ............................. 186
12.6.4 Communication Gains and Losses ............................................. 188
12.7 CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................... 190
REFERENCES ................................................................................................. 19 1
13. USING LOTUS NOTES FOR ASYNCHRONOUS,
COLLABORATIVE LEARNING AND RESEARCH ........................... 195
13.1 ASYNCHRONOUS COLLABORATION ..................................................... 195
13.2 ACADEMIC COURSES .......................................................................... 196
13.2.1 Case 1 -Professional Development for Practicing
Management Developers ............................................................ 196
13.2.2 Case 2 -A Modular Programme for the Development of
Learning Technology Professionals ............................................ 197
13.2.3 Case 3 -Second Year Law Undergraduates ................................ 197
13.3 RESEARCH SUPPORT .......................................................................... 198
13.3.1 Case 4 -Learning Company and Re-view. ................................... 198
13.3.2 Case 5 - Virtual Student Mobility ................................................ 198
13.4 ASYNCHRONOUS INFORMATION SHARING ........................................... 199
13.4.1 Case 6 - Teaching Developments Database and Discussion ........ 199
13.4.2 Case 7 -Notes Calls ................................................................... 200
13.5 FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS .................................................................... 200
13.5.1 The Networking Academy ........................................................... 200
13.5.2 Showcase for Notes/Web ............................................................ 201
13.6 SUPPORT ISSUES ................................................................................ 201
13.6.1 Administration ........................................................................... 201
13.7 PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN SUPPORTING DISTANCE LEARNER USE
OF NOTES .......................................................................................... 203
13. 7.1 Replication ................................................................................. 203
13.7.2 The Groupware Mind Set ........................................................... 204
13. 7.3 Hardware ................................................................................... 204
13.7.4 Development vs Stability ............................................................ 204
13.8 ADVANTAGES OF USING NOTES TO SUPPORT LEARNERS ...................... 205
REFERENCES ................................................................................................. 206
14. SUPPORTING ASYNCHRONOUS COLLABORATION IN
ACADEMIA ............................................................................................ 209
14.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 209
14.2 ASYNCHRONOUS COLLABORATION ..................................................... 210
14 .3 GROUPWARE AND ASYNCHRONOUS COLLABORATION ......................... 2 1 1
14.4 RELEVANCE TO ACADEMIA ................................................................ 213