Simulteaching: Beyond Traditional Synchronous Learning

Simulteaching: Beyond Traditional Synchronous Learning Vic (Ruthvick) Hemant Divecha Informatics and Computing Services University of Michigan School of Public Health United States [email protected] Abstract: The demise of many highly visible distance learning initiatives (Harcourt Higher Education, Virtual Temple, NYU Online, etc.) at the beginning of the decade curtailed appetites for grand projects of this kind. Wary of costly conversions of entire programs, many universities chose more cautious approaches. One of such hybrid approaches that extend a regular residential class online, i.e. “simulteaching”, poses many challenges. The Summer Session in Epidemiology at the School of Public Health, University of Michigan, adopted simulteaching for two high demand courses. The solution designed for this need involved the use of a regular classroom retrofitted with highly economical software and elegant Audio-Visual equipment. Simulteaching involved the use of digital ink and designing online participation protocols. Two successful iterations revealed important issues based on which best practice guidelines were created for the third iteration in the summer of 2008.

Introduction The first half of the current decade witnessed the demise of many ambitious projects in online learning: the UK-based Open University folded its US branch; the virtual college Harcourt Higher Education managed to enroll only 21 students in 2001 and then closed its virtual doors; having invested $12 million in the eCornell venture, Cornell University ended up scaling it down; New York University swallowed NYU Online - these are just a few examples (Wielbut, 2005). Clearly, the appetite for large-scale, expensive experiments in transplanting higher education online has greatly diminished, but it doesn't mean that online learning is dead and can be dismissed as yet another short lived byproduct of the "Internet bubble". In fact, higher education continues to undergo changes and expand its online presence, but at a slower, much more cautious pace. A perfect example of that caution is the proliferation of on-campus courses, into which online learners are admitted to study alongside their local peers. It allows colleges and universities to dip their toes into the online learning waters without expending significant effort and resources building fully online courses (Wielbut, 2006). Synchronous online learning is characterized by live delivery and concurrent learning. There are many variations of this concept, achieved by varying the role and location of the learners and teachers. Simulteaching (Pullen and McAndrews, 2004) is one such variation where the students learn synchronously over a delivery medium, such as the internet with the possibility of some of them being in the physical presence of the instructor. This, which is a special case of synchronous learning, where a single instructor is teaching students, some face-toface and some at a distance, is presented here. Pullen and McAndrews (2004) define simulteaching as "...simultaneous synchronous audio graphic delivery (with optional video) to students both in the classroom and on the Internet". This concept of online learning is proving highly suitable for the needs of large traditional institutions where the mainstays of education are face-toface classrooms and labs. Simulteaching allows enhanced delivery of existing face-to-face course offering to an online audience. This comes as a great relief to academic administrators who might be looking to offer high-demand courses beyond the limited physical space of the classroom. The Graduate Summer Session in Epidemiology is offered in the month of July at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. The goal of the program is to impart education in the principles and methods of Epidemiology. Distinguished faculty members hailing from governmental agencies and academia teach in this program. Courses are offered at both introductory and advanced levels. Course durations are 1-week and 3-weeks. In addition to the courses, evening lectures and workshops form an important part of the summer session. In 2006, a 3-week introductory level course in epidemiology was piloted using simulteaching. The Fundamentals of Epidemiology (EPID 709D) course was chosen for its popularity in previous years and high

demand amongst the Public Health workforce. Following this successful pilot, a second high demand course was offered in 2007 in addition to EPID 709D: Fundamentals of Biostatistics (EPID 701D). By 2008, these courses have become standard online offerings via simulteaching in this program.

Course Development & Support A Dynamic Model of Roles & Responsibilities for Stakeholders

The starting point of online education development is the clear definition of stakeholder roles. Traditional roles of stakeholders in education programs need revision and redefinition in the context of online learning (Oliver, 1999). The dual-mode Development & Support Model employed in delivering simulteaching at School of Public Health is presented in Figure 1. This model has evolved from the successful teamwork amongst instructional technology support staff, academic departments and subject matter experts, i.e. the instructors. The Planning & Development Phase Model is characterized by an active partnership between the academic department and the instructional support team to plan the technology and train the instructors and online students. The Post Course Launch Model is characterized by the instructors and students becoming the active drivers. The academic department and instructional support teams move into maintenance mode, the department assuming oversight over the quality of education and instructional technologists respond to ongoing support issues.

Figure 1: A flexible model for simulteaching development and support characterized by two operational modes. Instructor and Student Orientation Design: ‘Prevention is better than cure’ Given the relatively small size of enrolled students in each course (< 20), we decided to hold one-on-one telephone based student orientations. These orientations trained the online students to install the web conferencing client, understand the web interface and learn online interaction skills and netiquette. The goal was to identify and troubleshoot end-user technology issues before the courses were launched. Fig. 1 indicates the success of these orientations in terms of technical issues encountered by students in the post course launch period. The area representing technical problem diminishes rapidly after the first few days of the course. This characteristic of support demand curve is helpful in allocating resources & attention wisely over the period of the course delivery.

Figure 2: In-class text-chat interactions. Content divided by nature of conversation over the period of the course. The areas are stacked to reveal types of interaction & their volume. The instructor orientation was a collective orientation of the teaching faculty and their assistants. It included training in the use of the digital-inking devices (Sympodium, SmartBoard), text chat and processes for posting/accepting homework & quiz submissions via the Learning Management System.

Evolving the Technology Solution The solution (Fig. 3 and 4) comprises of a) in-class instructional technology, audio-visual technology and webcast uplink technology, b) web conferencing and c) end-user technology. The setup has evolved over the last three years to eliminate inefficiencies, automate certain functions and increase reliability. One design goal was to contain user requirements to consumer grade hardware and basic broadband internet.

Figure 3: Technology solution in 2006, 2007 built around Saba Centra Web conferencing System In-class Instructional & Audio-Visual Technology The solution design principles took into consideration the small marginal value added by video compared to an audio-only delivery (Pomales and Liu 2006). The instructor’s computer screen video with live digital ink with instructor voice was priorities over in-class video. The instructor podium was equipped with a pen-interactive display, to allow digital ink markup of the lecture slides, visible to all students.

Figure 4: New Evolved technology solution in 2008, built around the Sonic Foundry MediaSite webcasting system The podium top pen-interactive display worked well for Epidemiology; however, it posed a serious challenge for teaching the Biostatistics course, where hand-written component of the instruction dominates the content delivery. The instructor needed a larger surface to write out mathematical equations and solve mathematical problems. This need was addressed by replacing the Sympodium with a SmartBoard digital whiteboard in 2008. To provide a seamless video and voice conference amongst the teacher, face-to-face participants and online students, we engineered a TV studio type solution which three involved floor technicians, two cameras and 12 microphones. This was a pilot system with many proverbial ‘moving parts’. Retrofitting a traditional classroom with alien components was a technical challenge. Setup and testing times made the setup unsustainable in the long run. However, it afforded us the opportunity to examine the needs thoroughly. The initial setup (Fig. 3) involved spending 90 minutes every day, setting up and testing the components before show-time. After the second iteration in 2007 we strongly felt the need to move to a learning space designed for online collaboration. Seamless audio conferencing was implemented by installing conference mics throughout in the classroom. Audio from these mics and the instructor's lavaliere mic was streamed out to the online students. The audio mixing of 12 channels of audio was done manually by a sound engineer. However, in 2008 this complex setup was simplified by using a learning space with hardwired conference mics. These fed into a rack-mounted bi-amp mixer which featured automatic gain control and would turn on mics only when being spoken into. This eliminated the need for manually setting up & mixing ‘audience’ mics in the classroom. We started with a two camera setup in 2006. Each camera was staffed by camera-persons to point to the inclass talking heads: mostly the instructor, sometimes the students. There was no video of the online students. The inclass cameras were mixed in real time by a production assistant using a live video editing appliance (NewTek Tricaster). However, in 2008 we transitioned to a three camera system with remote control, operated by a single production assistant who is also handling the now simple audio mixing. Web conferencing component The following discussion does not imply any technical superiority of Mediasite over Saba Centra as a collaboration solution. They are different tools fulfilling similar but different collaboration needs. In 2006 and 2007, we used Centra webinars for extending the classroom onto the virtual space. Centra running on the instructor PC would transmit the instructor's screen and digital ink into a web conference session. Another PC running as a copresenter would be used to transmit the in-class audio and master video stream into the same session. This arrangement offered the advantages of freeing up the instructor PC from originating all the uplink data. This enabled us to troubleshoot audio and video uplink issues without interrupting the instructor. Centra has many advantages over Mediasite, namely low latency, two way audio & text communication. However, the low use of the audio component by online students for Q&A encouraged us to consider a simpler system with advantages over Centra in the area of broadcasting instructor computer screens and video with greater ease and reliability. However, selecting

Mediasite as the solution over Centra posed challenges: a) No in-built chat function b) significantly high latency and c) only one way webcast of audio, video and screen. For cases where audio-conferencing becomes essential to an online student’s learning, the teaching assistants had all online students on speed dial over a telephone conferencing system. Mediasite 4.0 does not feature text chat functionality, so the LMS chat on the course-site was extensively used. The text chat remained the primary mode of interaction, binding the online students to the teaching assistants. Thus, over a period of three years we transitioned to an efficient setup (Fig. 4) that brought down the onlocation staffing requirements from three to just one. The highlights of the streamlined process were lower staffing cost, greater reliability & control and elimination of daily setups and long testing drills. Overall, the tailored solution streamlined the end-user and instructor experience. Even though the technology fragmented into different pieces, i.e. separate systems for text chat, on-demand audio conferencing, it was a leap forward in terms of end-quality and overall stability. Furthermore, the online students were no longer required to purchase headsets, which were required for Centra-based web conferencing.

Conclusion The goal of containing technical issues proactively was achieved. What requires further work are processes related to student-work: Homework, exams and quiz posting and submission processes have emerged as the biggest course support challenge. These facets will be addressed in the planning phase (Fig. 1) by formulating easy to follow processes in advance and educating the instructors and students before course launch. Data gleaned from this year’s support issues will be applied to improve all aspects of online delivery in 2009.

References Oliver, Ron (1999). On-line teaching and learning: The new roles for participants. Retrieved September 24, 2008, from Flexible Learning & Technology: Pre-conference discussion Web site: http://www.monash.edu.au/groups/flt/1999/online.html Pullen, Mark J. (2004). Low-Cost Internet Synchronous Distance Education Using Open-Source Software. Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition. Wielbut, Vlad (2006). Pressure Points: Accelerating Change in Higher Education (US Perspective). e-Mentor. 4(16) Wielbut, Vlad (2005). “Better Than Being There”: Where Online Learning Makes the Most Sense. e-Mentor. 4(11) Pomales-Garcia, Christina, and Liu, Yili (2006). Web-based distance technology: The impacts of module length and format. American Journal of Distance Education. 20(3), 163-179.

Acknowledgements At the University of Michigan School of Public Health: Vlad Wielbut, David Mendez, Mark Osmond, Brian Dunn, Jody Gray, Nancy Francis and Andrew J Pritchard. Saba, Saba Centra, Mediasite, Sympodium, SmartBoard, Sonic Foundry, NewTek, Tricaster are trademarks of their respective owners