My study group attempted to have our first meeting this past Thursday, and we ran in to some technical difficulties. Not enough people could join a vRoom, so the group could not meet. We were able to communicate using text chant, but we were not able to complete the assignment and collaborate on the document. This got me thinking about some of the potential hurdles people might encounter in online learning, and how to overcome them.
In my "day job" I help manage the network for an insurance company. Although the Internet is becoming more ubiquitous, it is still far from always on. Even power and cable companies experience outages, and both of those could affect someone's ability to get into an online classroom event. In addition technical difficulties, such as computer crashes, server outages, viruses or many other things could limit the ability to complete a class.
The lesson for me is that online learning needs to build in mechanisms for those people who have these challenges. It should be flexible enough so that if someone misses an assignment due to unforeseen circumstances, they can still make it up. Instructors will need to monitor this carefully, so it doesn't turn into the digital version of "The Dog Ate My Homework". I would be curious to know what strategies people come up with to both allow for make-ups, and monitor for over use.
Thoughts?
You are right John, you must have a backup plan and be ready - but thats true in most instances. Did you think the plan your group came up with to overcome your issues worked well?
ReplyDeleteOh - did you mean "Leanring" or Learning?
ReplyDeleteWith the attempted group work in the V-Room, the main problem is the limitation of 3 people. I am under the impression that if we were to pay for the service we would have been able to complete the assignment since more than 3 people could join the link. Unfortunately at this time, I do not have the extra money or inclination to pay for a service like this. However, after looking at the assignment, it seems that the total number of collaborators was set up to be 3 which would have allowed of the students to be able to meet, but the instructor would either have to have the V-Room meeting saved and view it later, or attempt a different meeting strategy.
ReplyDeleteFor the little time in the V-Room, I was impressed with what could be done using both visual and audio. I am not sure, but would Elluminate be willing to let universities have the paid services for a nominal charge? If they did, I am sure that there are many people who would find it impossible to do without and would actually then get the paid service.
For those following along with this post, Louis was able to create a vClass for our group which allowed us to all meet and compelte the assignment. This was a great solution to the problem, without us having to pay for the service. Once we were in Elluminate gave us a great platform to share ideas.
ReplyDeleteOne other important lesson: You should manually spell check your post title as well as the body of the message: Leanring is now speeled correctly.