CHAPTER 6
CYCLE 3 -
FIRST COMMERCIAL NETWORKED
COURSES
In the
first two cycles, two pilot projects were completed which provided the basic
infrastructure at Wellington Polytechnic to offer networked education on a commercial
basis. In the first research cycle the Wellington Polytechnic Website was
implemented, and in the subsequent cycle a free sampler networked course was
developed
In the
third action research cycle which occurred from January to December 1997, the
first commercial networked courses would be developed while the HYDI project
would be established as a more integral part within the organisational
structure as the HYDI Educational New Media Centre (Wellington Polytechnic,
1998 June). The roles and responsibilities in the centre also would become more
formalised.
The virtual
class infrastructure would be implemented at Wellington Polytechnic to the
point that two commercial networked courses were made available for enrolment
by students. A small number of students would participate in one of the
commercial networked courses when it was offered as an alternative to the
students who were enrolled in the on-campus version of the course.
The
traditional class was still the dominant model for education at Wellington
Polytechnic where most teaching was done face-to-face physically on the
A Computers
in Teaching Advising Group report (CTAG, 1997:3) indicated a growing and
wide computer use by academic staff at Wellington Polytechnic; it also
indicated that "both lecturers and students were united in their call for
access to the Internet”. A real concern was the limited computer access of
students mentioned in this report:
"access for students seems to be the Achilles heel for the
polytechnic. Students consistently called for wider access to swipe cards so
that they can use computers outside normal working hours”.
In a
further study done at the Wellington Polytechnic (O’Donovan, 1997:4) the impact of information technology on
internal communication was explored and the findings indicated that computer
usage and electronic mail among staff had become widespread since this research
started: survey findings indicated a “…
critical mass of respondents had adopted the technology, the majority of
respondents rank themselves as either intermediate or expert computers users
and on average spend 2.5-3.0 hours per day on their computers”.
The above findings indicated a positive internal trend in computer
usage and computer literacy if compared to the situation in 1995 when many
staff members of the Wellington Polytechnic preferred to have paper-based
communications and many academic staff did not have access to computers
(Appendix 7: 10).
This chapter
has been structured, like the previous two chapters, according to the typical
phases in action research that is:
6.1. plan
6.2. act and observe
6.3. reflection.
The action
research log for cycle 3 comprises 864 electronic mail messages, some of which
are included in Appendix 13.
6.1 Plan
The overall objective for this action research cycle was to manage the
implementation of the virtual class infrastructure at Wellington Polytechnic to
the stage where networked education could be offered commercially.
In the
terminology of
While the
work comprised growing the user-base of networked education within the
Educational Development Department, the plan also included extending the
diffusion of the virtual class into new academic areas because, as Rogers and
Scott (1997) indicated, early adopters
are instrumental in achieving to the point of critical mass for an innovation
and, hence, in its the successful diffusion. In terms of
In
preparation for student participation in networked education there was an
intention to extend the technological virtual class infrastructure in the areas
of synchronous on-line activities and back-end information technologies.
The modus operandi for cycle three was based
on the following strategies to meet the overall
objective:
6.1.1
grow the base within the Educational Development
Department by developing and delivering the first commercial networked courses
towards the Bachelor of Education qualification
6.1.2
further explore appropriate organisational structures
supporting the delivery of networked education
6.1.3
extend the diffusion of the virtual class into new
academic areas
6.1.4
strengthen the interest regarding the delivery of
networked education among senior and middle managers
6.1.5
extend the technological virtual class infrastructure
6.1.6
liaise with
institutions, organisations and individuals working in the field of the virtual
class.
6.2 Act and
Observe
This
section contains a discussion of how the strategies listed above were carried
out.
6.2.1 Grow the base within the Educational
Development Department by developing and delivering the first commercial
networked courses towards the Bachelor of Education qualification
As in the
sampler course in the previous cycle, a prototyping approach was used to
develop the on-line materials. The prototyping approach not only provided the
ability to experiment, but also created a high level of interaction among the
development team of whom the content provider was part of (Appendix 13: 5).
The design
of the first commercial networked courses at Wellington Polytechnic provided
students with an option to study either independently in a more flexible mode
or as part of a group in a more structured manner. Networked education does
facilitate this flexible learning approach, which seems to be valuable to
people already in the workforce as illustrated by an electronic mail inquiry
that the author received from Texas (Appendix 13: 6). If a student elects to
study as part of a group, the time lines within a course will need to be more
structured, and the lecturer in networked education can thus use group work and
group assessment techniques.
If a student
elects to study independently, start and finish times for a course are less
important. Assessments then are to be structured for an individual approach and
the student might or might not want to participate in on-line communication.
On-line message boards, electronic mail and real-time CHAT (which the HYDI team
started to experiment with in cycle 3) can play a significant part in breaking
the isolation often experienced by a student studying alone (Barnard, 1997:30).
Asynchronous communications like hypermail boards and newsgroups allow the
student to observe the discussions that have occurred on course topics as well
as to obtain the contact information of other students who have done or are
taking the same course (Appendix 20). Stacey
(1997, June:1) quotes some of their students who used
computer mediated communication (CMC) in outback and urban
"I think it gives us better contact
with our fellow students and it takes away the isolation of distance education. "
"....it just makes you realise you're
not isolated in your pain. You're not the only one out there that doesn't
understand it".
The head of
the Educational Development Department, Nick Zepke, became convinced that
networked education could improve the quality of learning, and was the first
networked education teacher at Wellington Polytechnic. The first full course to
be deployed on-line was “Introduction to Educational Research” (Zepke, 1997a)
as well as case studies provided in the “Curriculum Design and Development” course
(Viskovic, 1997). These Bachelor of Education courses were available in August
1997 and their introduction was announced in the internal staff memo as well as
through a press release (Appendix
The head of
Educational Development Department also developed a research interest in networked
education and published "Narrative and Constructivism in Cyberspace:
Instructional Design for Distance Delivery using Hypertext on the
Internet" (Zepke, 1997b) and "Virtual Classroom: Holy Grail or Tin
Can?" (Zepke, 1997 October 28). The educational
adviser within the HYDI Educational New Media Centre also researched networked
education and presented a paper "Experimenting with the Internet:
Developing New Patterns of Communication with Distance Learners" at the
New Zealand Association of Research in Education (NZARE) Conference, Auckland
(Viskovic, 1997 December).
These two
content providers were influential in promoting networked education in the
wider Educational Development Department and also as gatekeepers for providing
educational, operational and cultural information (that is of the Educational
Development Department) to the HYDI team. There were still ambivalent attitudes
and concerns towards networked education as Viskovic (1997, December:11) points out:
(i)
Some are enthusiastic, seeing the potential for more distance students
to join in a wider variety of course experiences
(ii) Others are involved about equity issues
such as access to the Internet for distance students from lower socio-economic
groups
(iii) Others again see difficulties in the
staff time commitment required, not only in developing materials and creating
interesting interactive WWW pages, but also in maintaining on-going
communication. While our classes are relatively small, this is less of a
problem, but they ask whether we will still be able to interact with all the
students individually when the numbers grow …
Educational
principles were pre-eminent in the development of the first commercial
networked courses at Wellington Polytechnic. Technological possibilities and
administrative requirements were evaluated on the basis of how they contributed
to student learning. Educators drove the design and implementation of the
virtual class, and the networked courses thus had a strong educational base as
illustrated at an evaluation team meeting at
the end of cycle 3 (Appendix 16). It was felt that the good visual design,
provision of various navigational paths, personal warmth through style as well
as sound content based on educational principles and objectives should be
maintained. In terms of the process, aspects like the enthusiasm within the
team, continual inquiry and critique and an experimentation approach were
experienced as being positive. Growth areas identified, included closer
integration of design and narrative, more clarity on navigation plan, increased
quality assurance, early and clear explanation and negotiation of the role and
responsibilities of the facilitator, and more creative and effective
promotional strategies.
The three year plan 1998 - 2000 of the Educational Development
Department (Appendix 14) indicated that the Educational Development Department
had embraced the virtual class as a significant component and strategy, and saw
it as one of the competitive advantages of the department. Bottom-up and top-down
- through the head of the department - initiatives within the Educational
Development Department led to the further extension of the diffusion process within the
Educational Development Department.
6.2.2 Further explore appropriate organisational
structures supporting the delivery of networked education
The HYDI
project was in a transitional stage between being an experimental project and
becoming an established part of the organisational structure at Wellington
Polytechnic. Its experimental nature is illustrated by the fact that it was
still being funded from the President’s development budget and that no staff
worked full-time on this project. However, the HYDI project had become part of
the Educational Development Department as the HYDI Educational New Media Centre
(Appendix 23) for the reasons described in chapter 6. The role and planned
operations of the centre are described in the three-year plan for 1997 to 1999
(Appendix 22) and indicated that an expanding role was projected for the
centre. The HYDI Educational new Media
Centre had a vision to spearhead and co-ordinate the use of new media in
education at Wellington Polytechnic from an integrated management, educational
and technical computer perspective to enable
technology-based educational improvement and innovation for open and flexible
learning. The author's position description was amended to include more
markedly the responsibility to spearhead and co-ordinate the use of new media
in education (Appendix 19).
Networked education was slowly being recognised as part of the
established organisational processes at Wellington Polytechnic as is
illustrated by the inclusion of HYDI responsibilities in the 1997 performance agreement (Appendix 15) of the HYDI educational
consultant. A further illustration of
this is the inclusion of the author’s role to “...input into WP Inet standards
and liaise re intended HYDI developments” in a document prepared by the
academic registrar and director of the Management Information Systems (MIS)
group to indicate wider “Inet” (that is both Internet and intranet) roles
within Wellington Polytechnic.
During
cycle 3 the author was invited to be a member of the newly formed Computers in
Teaching Advisory Group (CTAG), who reported to the President. Participants in this
group included academic staff of the
The
multi-disciplinary team approach that was used in the previous two cycles was
again utilised in the course development in cycle 3. This approach seemed to
work well, and regular fortnightly meetings (Appendix 13: 9) and some social
events (Appendix 13: 8) supported the electronic communications of the team.
The roles within the HYDI Educational New Media Centre remained as before,
except that a designated person did not fill the role of “editor”; the content
providers filled this role through peer evaluation.
It seemed
that policies could be used to blend the requirements of this innovation with institutional
capabilities and culture. In an attempt to formalise the use of networked
education at Wellington Polytechnic and to establish continuity and wider
support in administration, the author started formulating guidelines and
possible regulations for the use of networked education via the Internet or
intranet. This was done in consultation with the MIS director and a first rough
draft was created as the basis for further discussions (Appendix 18).
6.2.3 Extend the diffusion of the virtual class
into new academic areas
HYDI was
still maintaining the Wellington Polytechnic Website, which had been developed
as a pilot project in research cycle one. However, a transition of the
maintenance of the Wellington Polytechnic Website was achieved in July 1997
when a Web administrator was appointed within the Management Information
Systems (MIS) group. Although MIS group is not an academic department, this transfer
did support the diffusion of the virtual class infrastructure within the
institute because the academic registrar immediately set out to establish
formal ownership of the contents of the Wellington Polytechnic Website within
all the Wellington Polytechnic departments.
A
recommendation contained in the report on the author’s overseas visit in the
previous cycle (Appendix 8) was that short courses for niche markets
were to be selected on the basis of thorough market research and that these
were to be developed in parallel to the core formal courses in cycle 3. It was also stated that these short courses
should ideally cater for the international market. A memo (Appendix 21) and
general e-mail to all staff was therefore sent out in April 1997 (with a proposal
form) to invite staff to “...join in the exciting venture of delivering courses
via the World Wide Web to an international audience, by proposing a short
course in your academic area which you believe will have a wide international
audience and success (this will hopefully enable the Wellington Polytechnic to
offer it at a modest fee) and be a short course not more than the equivalent
of 4 or 5 credits (40 - 50 total
learning hours).”
The
reaction was limited and no developments occurred as a direct result of this
effort - it seemed as if academic staff were just too
busy to explore this further. Through personal networking a first networked
education short course, “Virtual Teams: Meeting On-line” (Pauleen, 1997) in the
School of Languages and Communication was, however, developed and piloted in
November 1997 for national and international delivery. The HYDI team
endeavoured to operate as far as possible within the regulations of the
institute. In this instance the approval status of this course was defined as a
seminar (Appendix 13: 1). The need for differentiation of international fees
based on the local fees of students came to the fore (Appendix 13: 7). Charging
a standard international fee made it difficult to market courses
internationally while the exchange rate further made the fees unattractively
high for certain international markets.
Through
personal networking, which again emphasised the importance of the bottom-up
component of innovation diffusion, the first teaching and learning resource of
the On-line Campus was launched in November 1997 from within the Computer
Studies Department. It comprised a comprehensive set of evaluated and
categorised links to statistical organisations, resources and statisticians
across the world (Lovrich, 1997). Another bottom-up activity was that the
author presented two papers to academic and allied staff from various departments “The
Wellington On-line Campus: Quo Vadis?” (Uys, 1997b October) and “Trends in
Cyberspace Education: What’s Happening?” (Uys, 1997 September) at the Winter lecture series at the Wellington Polytechnic.
At the end
of that year, a proposal to CTAG (Appendix 13: 2) was accepted to create a
subgroup of CTAG to conceptualise and enable the further development of
networked education. This subgroup would be called the “Forum for Enabling
Networked Education”. This bottom-up activity was part of the plan to extend
the diffusion of the virtual class into new academic areas and also to start
addressing more of the strategic and operational issues related to networked
education.
A study at
Wellington Polytechnic (O’Donovan, 1997:3)
indicated the need for training in general and basic computer skills among both
academic and administrative staff in particular in order for networked education
to diffuse further:
… the
majority of respondents (70.5%) rank themselves as an intermediate or expert
computer user. While this is a positive outcome, it should be noted that 20
lecturers (40%) classify themselves as either novice or beginner. This suggests that computer based
communication systems are likely to be less effective among this group of
employees. Training may be needed to ensure that these respondents are able to
communicate using the available technology.
6.2.4 Strengthen the interest regarding the
delivery of networked education among senior and middle managers
In the
Wellington Polytechnic’s “STATEMENT OF CORPORATE OBJECTIVES 1998 - 2000”
(Wellington Polytechnic, 1997) no mention was made of any aspect relating to the
virtual class or the Internet. The references to the internationalisation of
education were stated in terms of the conventional practices of increasing the
international linkages with two more collaborative agreements, and recruiting
international students to attend courses physically on campus eg “Orientation
and ongoing social and learning support to be provided for international
students” and “Increase international student numbers to …% of total EFTS”. The
SMG also requested that the monthly spoken input that the author had been
providing at SMG meetings be replaced with written input; the President obliged
by consenting to the request of the SMG group.
In June
1997 CTAG made a presentation to the President in which the author identified
the perceived advantages of using the Internet in education and specifically
included benefits relating to management (Appendix 6). The author hoped that
this document would be used to create more support among directorate members
for the implementation of networked education at Wellington Polytechnic.
The
directorate still supported the implementation of the virtual class at
Wellington Polytechnic, as is reflected in September 1997 in a comment by the
Vice-President at a public staff meeting t the effect that the directorate
perceived HYDI as potentially significant in the strategic direction of the
Wellington Polytechnic.
6.2.5 Extend the technological virtual class
infrastructure
The
importance of proper database support for networked education was illustrated when
a small database application was developed to monitor the navigation of
individual students through networked courses. This application analysed the
raw data obtained from the Internet Service Provider (ISP) on “hits” statistics
(the number of times pages are accessed) on the networked courses. This
information could contribute to understanding how the students’ actual use of
the on-line materials correlated to the instructional design.
Most of the
necessary technological architecture for offering networked education had been
obtained and implemented. This included access to the Internet and a Web
server, HTML editors, a scanner and cross-platform computers. The news in
August 1997 that Apple and Microsoft had reached a broad product and technology
development agreement was welcomed with the hope that cross-platform
differences like the rendering of colours and HTML files would be eliminated
(Appendix 13: 11). In cycle 3 the HYDI team started experimenting with
video-cams and related software for synchronous on-line communications within
networked courses. The author felt that synchronous communications could
contribute to a sense of accountability by students, communicate to students
that there was a real interest in them and also to add aspects of non-verbal
communication through on-line video-conferencing. The experiments proved to be
difficult to conduct (Appendix 13: 4) without an internal Webserver to
experiment and test these newer technologies and applications.
6.2.6 Liaise with institutions, organisations and
individuals working in the field of the virtual class
Networking
with colleagues involved in similar projects was essential for the author to
evaluate the implementation of networked education at Wellington Polytechnic
within a national and international context. As an open system, the Wellington
Polytechnic also had to remain aware of changes in the external environment.
In
The author
attended the 18th World ICDE (International Council for Distance Education)
Conference" in Pennsylvania, USA (June 1997), presented two papers (Uys,
1997a June; Uys, 1997b June) and participated in two panels that dealt with “An
Infrastructure to Support the Use of Educational Technology for Sustainable
Development” and “Moving Course materials from Paper-Base to Screen-Base”,
respectively. In the process valuable feedback was obtained on the HYDI team’s
efforts and the author also learnt more about management issues in the virtual
class from other presenters of papers (as referred to in this Chapter and
others).
6.3 Reflection
6.3.1 Managing the implementation of the virtual
class infrastructure
These
findings address the following elements of the MIT90 schema (see Figure 1.3):
6.3.1.1.strategy
6.3.1.2.roles and skills of
individuals
6.3.1.3.organizational
structure
6.3.1.4.technology.
6.3.1.1 Strategy
It seemed
that in terms of instructional design in the virtual class, prototyping, which
was used in cycle 3 to develop the first commercial networked courses and in
each of the previous two cycles, again proved to be a useful and appropriate
development methodology because of its flexibility (Stair, 1992; Burch, 1992).
The assumption in the TIES change model of Szabo et al. (1997) supports experimentation, which is intrinsic to
prototyping. Although no-one can predict the future, especially in the highly changing
area of instructional technology, the best way to predict the future is to
invent it through experimentation, retaining the good ideas and dropping any
that do not work.
The
presentation of papers and attendance of conferences by HYDI team members
proved to be important strategies for establishing contacts with colleagues at
other tertiary institutes working in the field of networked education as well
as assisting in legitimising academic staff involvement in networked education.
In the
virtual class the financial cost on the part of the student cannot be ignored
and, besides strategies to provide affordable access to adequate ICT, the cost
of Internet access while studying on-line needs to be considered as a
management issue. A specific strategy that can be followed in this regard, and
which was used at Wellington Polytechnic, is to have a networked course in a
compressed state that the students can download as a single file, leaving the
students to go on-line only for communications and perhaps on-line assessment.
Clear instructions need to be provided for the students on the steps to follow
for down loading the file, decompressing it and accessing the course. Some
networked education software packages like WebCT and Lotus Learning Space
require the student to stay on-line for networked education. The potential
benefits to the institute (student tracking and database functionalities) need
to be balanced by the cost to the student.
The
interest from senior management in networked education was still limited to one
or two individuals and, with the President as sponsor retiring at the end of
1997, the top- down support looked set to dwindle. The bottom swell of interest
did extend slightly further than the Educational Development Department, but
was still insignificant when compared to conventional teaching. Szabo, Anderson and Fuchs (1997) reported on the
implementation of the virtual class at the University of Alberta, Canada and
indicated their support for a simultaneous top-down and bottom-up approach to
meet the two major intended goals of involved in a training, infrastructure and
empowerment system. The first is for the chief academic officers to identify a vision
for alternative delivery systems of instruction for the institution, publish
that vision widely, and demonstrate their commitment to it in a clear and
convincing fashion. Secondly, departments within the institution should create
leadership task teams to interpret the vision for their unit and prepare
colleagues to implement the shared vision.
In the HYDI
team the Educational Development Department staff ensured the pre-eminence of
educational principles rather than administrative desires or technical
possibilities. It seems therefore appropriate that educators drive the
implementation of the virtual class infrastructure. Szabo et al. (1997) made some assumptions in their TIES change model by
stating that emphasis should be placed firstly on
realistic goals for improving formal learning (such as increased achievement,
decreased learning time, increased accessibility to instruction or cost
control) and secondly on the use of the technology involved in alternative
delivery systems (ADS). The move towards flexible approaches to teaching
and learning in a medium-sized (2000 students) tertiary institute in England
was examined over a period of three years by Willmot and McLean (1994:102-104).
They found that academics were suspicious that flexible learning was being
promoted for economic rather than educational reasons (1994:102) and that
students and academics agreed that, if flexible approaches were to be
successfully adopted, then "teachers need to take the responsibility for
deciding on the appropriate level and type of guidance". Caladine
(1993:9), who reviewed the literature on non-traditional modes of delivery in
higher education using state-of-the-art technologies, supported this emphasis
when noting “...that if the system is driven by technological determinists
rather than educators, the learners may become the victims of the process
rather than its beneficiaries”. David Noble (Appendix 13: 3) noted that
"some sceptical faculty insist that what they do cannot possibly be
automated, and they are right. But it will be automated anyway, whatever the
loss in educational quality. Because education, again, is not what all this is
about; it's about making money”. This highlights the importance of ensuring
ownership by academic staff through using a bottom-up approach (which should
occur in combination with top-down strategies) when implementing the virtual
class infrastructure in conventional tertiary education (
Another
management strategy to enable the wide implementation of the virtual class
infrastructure in conventional tertiary education is to ensure that this is a
strategic objective and direction, and to tie reward systems to it (Munitz,
1997). This would be true for any strategic objective or direction, and also
when an institute desires to move towards the virtual class. Its reward systems
should encourage academic staff and students to become and remain involved in
networked education if it desires to implement the virtual class infrastructure
widely within the institute.
6.3.1.2 Roles
and skills of individuals
In
implementing the virtual class infrastructure in conventional tertiary
education it is important that the perceptions of academic staff concerning
networked education are addressed. The attitudes and ownership by academic staff
are vital to the success of the implementation of educational innovations
(Evans and Franz, 1998 April). At Wellington Polytechnic the two content
providers of the first networked course from the Educational Development
Department were positive about networked education and were influential in
promoting networked education in the wider Educational Development Department -
there remained, however, ambivalent attitudes to and concerns about networked
education (Viskovic, 1997 December). The challenge that remained was to widen
the positive perceptions in Educational Development Department to more academic
departments at Wellington Polytechnic and to address the concerns about
networked education within Educational Development Department. Taylor, Lopez and
Quadrelli (1996) postulate that the adoption of technology within higher
education faces three obstacles, namely attitudinal, technical and structural
of which attitudinal issues are the most important. In their investigation, the
relationship of attitudes and beliefs to change was fundamental. A negative
perception of networked education is portrayed in an open electronic mail
(Appendix 13: 3) by David Noble highlighting powerful barriers facing the
adoption of networked education:
Once faculty and courses go
online, administrators gain much greater direct control over faculty
performance and course content than ever before and the potential for
administrative scrutiny, supervision, regimentation, discipline and even
censorship increase dramatically. At the same time, the use of the technology
entails an inevitable extension of working time and an intensification of work
as faculty struggle at all hours of the day and night to stay on top of the
technology and respond, via chat rooms, virtual office hours, and e-mail, to
both students and administrators to whom they have now become instantly and
continuously accessible. The technology also allows for much more careful
administrative monitoring of faculty availability, activities, and
responsiveness.
Wellington
Polytechnic, as many other polytechnics in
Nixon
(1996:5) refers to this tension between the roles of academic staff as teachers
and researchers when he argues that “the reconstruction of professional
identity is a precondition of the restructuring of higher education”. He points
to the differential status (and employment opportunities and rewards) attached
to these roles, with rewards going to those who are tenured and
research-focused. Nixon (1996:13) identifies four pre-conditions in educational
institutes for this problem to be resolved through proper development of
academic staff:
(i)
the importance of collegiality and the need for mutually supportive
relationships with colleagues;
(ii)
the importance of having a clear sense of where their institution was
going; a sense of its priorities and
long-term commitments;
(iii)
the need for structures to support their development as teachers and
writers; and
(iv)
the need to resolve tensions between their teaching
responsibilities and research commitments.
6.3.1.3 Organizational
structure
The HYDI
project became the HYDI Educational New Media Centre within the Educational
Development Department - a department that serves the whole institute. This
created a firmer base for networked education and its wider diffusion at
Wellington Polytechnic. This suggests that a central unit can be established to
provide sustainable training, support, research and development of networked
education in a conventional tertiary educational institute that aims to pursue
networked education.
The HYDI
Educational New Media Centre was established using the first of the three
possible implementation approaches of “flexible delivery options” in higher
education proposed by Taylor, Lopez and Quadrelli (1996). The
integrated approach with a central unit managing the integration of teaching
and learning with IT, emphasising support for professional development in
educational and information technologies and linking it to university goals.
The parallel approach, creating an IT-based teaching and learning
unit, which operates separately and in parallel with existing staff development
units. The distributed approach, which is more 'bottom up' and devolves
responsibility for IT-based teaching and learning developments to local
innovators across a range of faculties and units.
6.3.1.4 Technology
The use of
video-cams and having to meet on external servers in experiments by the HYDI
team confirmed the necessity of having a stable, dedicated internal Web server.
Experimentation with and testing of new technologies also required quick access
to, and a high level of control - an important function of management (Boone
and Kurtz,1984; Van Dyk et al., 1991; Newman,
6.3.2 Managing the operations of the virtual class
The
research findings in this section support the second research question (How does one manage the operations of the
virtual class?) and describe the
“Management Processes” element within the MIT90 schema (see Figure 1.3).
The virtual class facilitates the use of the tools of the emerging
information or knowledge society as educational tools. This can be particularly
valuable in countries like
Networked education makes it easier for students to select networked courses
from different institutes of their choice in order to gain a qualification.
This technical possibility could be explored at Wellington Polytechnic as more
networked courses, specifically in adult education, become available. This
again points to the new level of control that a student can exercise in the
virtual class.
The growing list of locally and internationally offered networked courses
(The University of Texas at Austin, 1998; TeleCampus Online
Course Directory, 1999; Geteducated, 1999) provide the
student with a greater choice and can simultaneously create a minefield for
students in having to select from this increasing number and variety (in
academic quality) of networked courses and virtual institutes (Global
Virtual University, 1999; Butterfield, Chambers, Moseley, Prebble, Uys and
Woodhouse, 1999 July). The value and
standing of courses are factors the student naturally has to consider with
care. The critical analysis skills of students will need to be sharpened as
choices in tertiary education increases.
The design of the first commercial networked courses at Wellington
Polytechnic gave students the option to study either independently in a more
flexible mode or as part of a group in a more structured manner. Networked
education facilitates this option which is often not available in
conventional tertiary education where teaching
occurs in a group mode or as individualised correspondence education.
More autonomy for the student is thus possible in networked education.
On-campus
students were increasingly considered to be part of the networked education
student body. Viskovic (1997, December:4) describes this possibility as
follows: “… can also enable local students to communicate between classes, or
to access class resources or staff members at other than timetables class
meetings”. This convergence of learning modes which traditionally have been
called “distance education” and “on-campus education” through networked
education adds a new dimension to the management of student learning and the students management of their own learning.
Viskovic
(1997, December:13) indicates concern among the
Educational Development Department staff about the new possibilities of
flexible enrolment at Wellington Polytechnic (Appendix 20): "what
administrative practices may need modification if we want to use on-line
learning as effectively as possible? Would variable start and finish times for
courses offer distance students more flexibility, since they are not studying
in classrooms? Or should on-line students be encouraged to progress ‘in-step’
so that they are all ready to discuss particular course topics at the same
time?” At the ICDE conference in June 1997,
Martin Valcke of the Open University of the
6.4 Conclusion
In cycle 2
the implementation of the virtual class infrastructure at Wellington
Polytechnic had reached the stage where it was no longer experimental, but set
to provide real education and earn real income. It was still largely based in
the Educational Development Department with some other departments also
starting to put materials on-line. The diffusion of this innovation had spread
to more “early adopters” but was still a small project in the overall teaching
regime at Wellington Polytechnic.
In the
business plan of the HYDI Educational New Media Centre of August 1997 (Appendix
22) a number of weaknesses of the implementation of the virtual class
infrastructure was listed as part of a "SWOT" (Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats) analysis including:
(i)
The Internet and related technologies are developing at an exponential
rate
(ii)
A research centre is new to Wellington Polytechnic (in fact to most
Polytechnics in
(iii)
The financial resources limit the research outcomes severely,
especially in not being able to employ a computer technician for a substantial
number of hours per week
(iv)
Most people involved in the centre have other stronger commitments in
their working day
(v)
The operational processes within this centre is often different than
the processes within vertical departments and schools due to its nature as a
growing research centre and its entrepreneurial focus
(vi)
Marketing and promotion of the services of the centre is not adequate
(vii)
Students desiring to do on-line courses might not have adequate
computing
facilities.
The
research findings of cycle 3 are documented in 6.3.1 and 6.3.2 above.
The overall objective for this action research cycle was to manage the
implementation of the virtual class infrastructure at Wellington Polytechnic
through the following strategies to the
stage where networked education could be offered commercially:
6.4.1 further extension of the base within the Educational
Development Department by developing and
delivering the first commercial networked courses in the Bachelor of Education
6.4.2
appropriate organizational structures for supporting
the implementation of the virtual class were further explored with the most
significant development being the establishment of the HYDI Educational New
Media Centre as part of the Educational Development Department
6.4.3 the diffusion of the virtual class was extended into two new
academic areas, which thus extended the number of “early adopters”
6.4.4
the interest regarding the implementation of the
virtual class among senior and middle managers was not sufficiently
strengthened
6.4.5 the technological
virtual class infrastructure was extended through experimentation in the area of synchronous on-line
activities, but lacked further acquisition
of back-end information technologies, for example a proper database for storing all the course
elements
6.4.5
liaison with
institutions, organisations and individuals working in networked education
occurred through the writer’s attendance of the 1997 ICDE conference and Alison
Viskovic’s attendance at the New Zealand Association of Research in Education
(NZARE) Conference.
As the
implementation of the virtual class infrastructure progressed and approached
closer to facilitating networked education in a commercial way, it became more
evident that conventional management of tertiary education would need to be
transformed to manage the operations of the virtual class. The conventional
organisational structure and culture within Wellington Polytechnic made it very
difficult for the institute to adapt – or consider adapting - its management
approaches and processes to the extent that is required to effectively use
networked education.
This
concluded the third of four action research cycles.
As
indicated in Chapter 1, the action research had to progress to the point of
fee-paying students enrolling and participating in networked courses at
Wellington Polytechnic. A few students did participate in one of the commercial
networked courses in an experimental way when it was offered as an alternative
to the on-campus version, but on-line course interactions were at an early
stage as the courses were made available late in cycle three.
In the fourth action research cycle the plan was to extend the investigation of management issues particularly relating to teachers and students in networked education and also to investigate which administrative processes were required.