Moving Beyond Text Chat: Making the Most of e-Conferencing Tools to Enhance Online Learning

November 26, 2008

By: Christopher Hill in Distance Learning Administration, Online Education

Increasingly sophisticated e-conferencing tools and the growing availability of high-speed Internet access are making synchronous online learning an attractive option for many instructors. But as with any new technology, it’s important to consider how synchronous online instruction might best be used to enhance learning.

There are several e-conferencing systems available, such as Elluminate, Horizon Wimba, Macromedia Breeze, and WebEx. Common features include text chat, voice communication among participants, polling, the ability to “push” content (PowerPoint, documents, images, etc.) to learners, the ability to divide students into small groups, application sharing, a whiteboard, and archiving.

Since 2001, the California Community Colleges System has been working to figure out how to use synchronous online learning tools through a system-wide program called CCC Confer, which provides training, support, and toll-free access to e-conferencing for each of the CCC System colleges.

The diversity of functions in the popular e-conferencing tools can be overwhelming for instructors. “I think for the most part people coming into this arena discover there are a lot of skills that need to be developed. It’s a very powerful tool, but it can easily get out of control or be a little overwhelming,” says Blaine Morrow, CCC Confer project manager.

Morrow and Shufang Shi, an instructional technology professor at the State University of New York at Cortland, used surveys and interviews to determine which features of the synchronous online conferencing applications accomplish which of Chickering and Gamson’s seven principles of good practice in undergraduate education.

The following are the seven principles with the e-conference features that address each:

Contact between students and faculty—polling.
Reciprocity and cooperation among students—text chat.
Active learning techniques—application sharing, polling.
Prompt feedback to students—text chat for private/public messages, polling.
Time on task—Respondents did not feel that an e-conferencing feature addressed this principle.
Communication of high expectations—Respondents did not feel that an e-conferencing feature addressed this principle.
Respect for diverse talents and ways of learning—voice, text chat, application sharing.