Paper Presentation INSTRUCTIONAL USE OF SKYPE IN AN ONLINE GRADAUTE PROGRAM

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1 Paper Presentation INSTRUCTIONAL USE OF SKYPE IN AN ONLINE GRADAUTE PROGRAM Cheng Chang (Sam) Pan University of Texas at Brownsville, Brownsville TX, USA Abstract This paper examines instructional use of Skype, a synchronous communication freeware program, in two graduate Web based courses in an Educational Technology program. Skype was piloted and adopted to conduct group deliberations. To collect student feedback, open ended questions were used and informal Skype conversations with course participants were made. Preliminary findings suggest that the freeware program is deemed an effective tool to build synchronous interaction and to provide just in time clarification and information. Significance, recommendations, and challenges are addressed. Introduction In partnership with the University of Texas TeleCampus (UTTC), the Educational Technology program at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College (UTB/TSC) has devoted itself to a practice of e learning. With a student enrollment of approximately 400, the online M.Ed. program is committed to serving constituencies regionally, nationally, and internationally (see using Blackboard. Acknowledging the rigidity of this type of the course management system (CMS), attempts to exceed the system s limit continue. One of a cyber instructor s responsibilities is to seek any potentialities in use of tools to facilitate a cyber class in all aspects. Instructional tools in e learning which are likely to render communications more efficient and more effective tend to draw users attention. This paper is concentrated on instructional use of Skype, a VoIP freeware, in two entry level online graduate Educational Technology courses. There are two major purposes for Skype use in these courses: (a) supplementing group chat discussion and (b) contacting the instructor during the office hours or at other appointed time. Literature Review Of all, communication is always a top priority in an online learning environment. With built in features in CMS, e.g., content area (syllabus and calendar), discussion boards, chat, and (course) e mail, instructors and students are capable to stay on top of it. Such synchronous and asynchronous communication tools used in Web based courses are of great instructional value in building interaction between their users (including both instructors and learners). Significance of interaction in e learning has been theoretically recognized in work like Moore s Theory of transactional distance (as cited in Wheaton, Stein, Calvin, Overtoom, & Wanstreet, 2003) and Holmberg s didactic conversation (as cited in Wang & Newlin, 2001). There is certainly a room for each of the features. Wang and Newlin (2001) contended that those asynchronous tools are viewed as backbone and muscle for the subject content whereas synchronous media like chat and the audio bridge can be the heart and hustle of online courses. Bonk and Dennen (2002) argued that the live communication via chat is always desired by online learners who are expecting immediate assistance, response, and recognition from their active participation in the course. Using these features, class activities are recorded and logged, which allows for reflective teaching (Pawan, 2003). When access of the CMS is not available, e mail can ensure that communication remains open. Concerns rise over use of these tools. The communication tools aforementioned are prone to being blamed for its rigidity and inefficiency. Bonk and Dennen (2002) warned that without a deliberated planning, asynchronous media can exacerbate learners feeling of isolation and loneliness by allowing for scattered forum postings (i.e., message posting) in lieu of a meaningful and intellectual dialogue (i.e., question discussing). The lag time between the mail correspondences is not what most desire (Lavole & Foster, 1996). Additionally, Branon and Essex (2001) noted that some cyber learners do not check in often enough to carry the dialogue forward.

2 Likely, online chat, a synchronous class activity is vulnerable to the same type of attack as its counterpart. Two major reasons that online chat is not favored by cyber instructors: (a) the large sized class or an enormous students/teacher ratio and (b) a presumable thought that students are able to gather all information by accessing course materials published on the course Web site (Wang & Newlin, 2001). Other disadvantages include lacking sufficient time for student reflection, getting students in the chatroom at the same time, and intimidating slow typists (Branon & Essex, 2001). Additional tools are in great need to supplement the present ones. Macromedia Breeze may be a solution. Regardless of its advanced features, the vendor s package incurs a cost of site licenses, which may have pushed away some of its loyal customers. As practicality issues like this are taken into account or getting in the way, under funded institutions of higher education may have to turn to other resources or sources that promote communications links. Skype use is proposed in this paper presentation. What is Skype? Skype (at a voice over IP communication tool, is developed by The Skype Group headquartered in Luxembourg. The freeware program provides a high quality of audio communication between two PCs (at no cost) with proper input and output devices, such as a headset. The purpose of this study is to answer the question, To what degree does Skype impact the learning and teaching experience in a Web based learning environment? Three aspects of the investigation are as follows: Method To what extent does Skype change the way the individual learner thinks of synchronous interaction in a Web based course? To what extent does Skype augment the way group members interact? To what extent does Skype influence the way the instructor facilitates an online course? In the Spring semester of 2005, Skype was piloted and incorporated in two online graduate courses, with one foundation course in relation to instructional technology (N=12) and the other pertaining to the instructional systems design and development (N=16). Five or six one hour chat sessions were planned in each course through out the semester. On the night the study was conducted, twenty three students in both entry level courses participated in the pilot study on a voluntary basis, by which the author meant that students were able to choose Blackboard Chat or Skype to accomplish an in class activity. During the first half of the chat session, students met in Lecture Hall in Blackboard Collaboration (Chat), where class announcements were made, course concepts were reinforced, followed by a questions/answers session. In the second half, learners were purposively divided into groups of four and asked to brainstorm and respond to a given question or activity by conducting a group deliberation. Please note that the capacity of a Skype conference call is five participants. A seat in each group was reserved for the instructor for monitoring and advising purposes. Each group then assigned a secretary to post the group effort in the designated forum. Each group member was required to read and respond to at least one other group s posting by the following midnight. Students were advised of certain Skype protocols prior to the session. Anecdotal evidence and Skype conversation during and after the chat session were collected to explain student use of Skype on the individual level. To acquire insights into the actual use of Skype at the course level, a set of eight open structured questions was e mailed to participants. How important is the synchronous interaction (e.g., chat, Skype, and phone call) in a Web based course like EDTCXXXX? If real time communication is significant in a Web based course like EDTCXXXX, one can simply use a land line or cell phone to conduct the group deliberations. Then, from your understanding with Skype, what is the value of Skype in this case? What was your experience with Skype last night? What are the strengths and weaknesses of Skype in our chat session? Whom were you using Skype to speak with? What other tools (e.g., Blackboard Chat or Skype Chat) were you using with Skype at the same time? What is the rationale of your blended use? Compared to a text based chatroom discussion, what difference does Skype make to render the communication issue easier (or bitterer)? What instructional use of Skype do you think we can include in this course in near future? Or what can we do to make it better next time using Skype or other tools?

3 Major Results and Discussion Preliminary findings suggest that the freeware program is deemed an effective tool to build synchronous interaction and to provide just in time clarification and information. To what extent does Skype change the way the individual learner thinks of synchronous interaction in a Web based course? Respondents report that their overall experience with Skype is positive. Student responses indicate that synchronous interaction in a virtual learning environment is needed especially in a group project with time and space constraints. Compared to their prior experience with Blackboard Collaboration (a.k.a. Chat), use of Skype in facilitating synchronous interaction is promising and encouraged. Some learners also note that talking via Skype makes them more aware of the topic and things seem to make more sense than that via Blackboard Collaboration. Not only are they conversing with others, but they are having an intrapersonal dialogue, by which individual student is empowered to take an active and responsible learning role. Therefore, the audio use seems to change the way each individual views synchronous interaction in a Web based course. To what extent does Skype augment the way group members interact? Skype seems able to augment group interaction. Interaction between learners becomes consistent and responsive during the half hour. In Skype, typing is not an issue. Learners can save all the mental effort to communicate thoughts, raise questions, and seek clarification by listening, thinking, and speaking. Taking on someone can occur. It is no exception in Skype. When this happens, learners notice it and quickly take an action to correct it. Sometimes the group lead intervenes to moderate the group deliberation. In a chatroom setting, there can be more than two participants typing at the same time without knowing it. When students realize this, they pause to let others talk. There are usually two things that happen afterwards. First, none gets to post the comment or question. Second, the class has moved on to next subject/topic before they know it. This experience can be stressful and dragging. Having said this, some say talking make them stay on task and motivated to learn. The group interaction becomes more efficient and effective with Skype as a supplemental device. If used wisely and in combination with Blackboard Collaboration, minutes can be archived for future reference. To what extent does Skype influence the way the instructor facilitates an online course? Anecdotal evidence shows that class activities dictate the media selection. The rationale of the use of such a virtual team exercise is three fold: (a) to solicit immediate feedback and input from peers, (b) to develop a working relationship toward a final group project, and (c) to reinforce key points of the course content. In attempt to do so effectively and efficiently, a decision to adopt a synchronous communication device is made. Superior to Blackboard Collaboration, Skype fulfills needs to provide just in time information, get to know each group member, and render real time clarification on the content at the group level. Thus, the medium is purposively selected because of the nature of the group project. Conclusions Online courses may not be for everyone. However, when e learning is the only opportunity to receive education, it will be one of the instructor s responsibilities to ensure the e learning experience is as compatible as possible to students prior experience. Any online program may have to accommodate those who are limited to the choice of e learning. This qualitative inquiry is deemed significant because of its attempt to discover a new tool that is suitable for a Web based learning environment. The freeware enables the CMS users, i.e., the instructor and learners, to provide just in time clarification and information. In so doing, learners can receive an immediate recognition of their courses of actions such as responsible and responsive participation in the course activities, which, in turn, encourage their autonomous and active or proactive learning on the Web. The audio tool ensures high touch as well as the high tech experiences in such a learning context. Furthermore, the easy to get on it program can offset the impact of geographical differences between distance education students on learning per se. For these first time online learners, use of the vehicle connotates a meaning of additional hand holding from the faculty. Recommendations for Instructors 1. Schedule the Skype subscription in the class orientation. (Should Skype be adopted) instructors can include the Skype use in the syllabus and schedule its subscription in the course orientation. Whether it is an online orientation or a face to face equivalent, the instructor can send learners to the Web site to download the freeware, followed by sending an instant message to the instructor. The sooner students are exposed to the technology, the better they can adjust to this unique learning experience. 2. Organize a pre class training. Instructors can schedule a meeting with a group of class participants on Skype Chat (text mode) and Conference (audio mode), in which important features of Skype are addressed, such as initiating a conference call, adding a late participant, sharing/sending contacts, and using Skype Chat and Conference at the same

4 time. The trainees then teach their own group members these skills. Divide students into groups of four. A Skype conference call can only take up to five participants. A seat should be reserved for the instructor for tracking and coaching purposes if needed. The class can be regrouped when the next chat session is held to interact with other learners. Provide technology use protocols ahead of time. Technical glitches can occur. Students can become frustrated and disoriented by the glitches. Instructors are advised to develop course convention so that learners can quickly respond to the difficulties by taking an action. With the protocols serving as a coping mechanism, students are able to seek solutions to resolve a situation. For instance, when someone accidentally hung up, the conference call initiator (usually the group lead) would immediately add him or her back to the meeting. Keep group deliberations on the record using additional tools. Skype conference calls are not recorded. Extra tools are needed to log key points from the group conversation. Options are Skype Chat and Blackboard Chat. Reserve a Blackboard chat room for each group as the last resort. One of the drawbacks to use such freeware is that the service makes no guarantee that the program will be there when needed. An effective way to cope with this is to reserve the Blackboard chatroom as a back up device. Encourage necessary accessories. A headset and a wired broad bandwidth connection are showing promise. Stand alone speakers can cause severe echoes, which, in turn, delay the conversation. A wireless Internet connection is more vulnerable to reception errors than a wired connection. Some challenges are foreseen How can instructors regulate the use of Skype to avoid a possibility of being overwhelmed? Knowing that teaching excellence is one of the three primary duties for the faculty, instructors need to plan this use wisely and mange the tool use in a manner that they can attend to other required duties. If one uses Skype with family members, a separate Skype account for the course use is a must. Technical Support on the student side can be challenging. Because of this external tool, the technical support personnel may not be willing to provide extended support for this use. Should that be the case, this job will fall on the instructor s shoulder. As may be seen, use of technology can land the faculty into a dilemma, unless the individual is confident and competent enough to carry this responsibility for technical support. A mandatory use of Skype can be intimidating. Necessary accessories of the audio tool include a wired broad bandwidth connection and a headset. A mandated implementation can incur extra cost and cause inconvenience to learners. Skype has a limited capacity. Capacity wise, each conference call can host up to five users. Some course activities may not find a good fit in using Skype within small groups. Innovative use of Skype on such a condition is needed. References Bonk, C. J., & Dennen, C. J. (2002, August). Web advances continue: From best pedagogical practices to evaluation and assessment techniques. Proceedings of the 18th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning, Branon, R. F., & Essex, C. (2001). Synchronous and asynchronous communication tools in distance education. TechTrends, 45(1), 36, 42. Lavole, D. R., & Foster, G. W. (1996). An inter university Internet exchange project to network pre service science teachers. In P. Rubba, P. Keig, & J. Rye (Eds.), Proceedings of the 1996 International Conference of the Association for the Education of Teachers in Science, Pensacola, FL: Association for the Education of Teachers in Science. Pawan, F. (2003). Reflective teaching online. TechTrends, 47(4), Wang, A. Y., & Newlin, M. H. (2001, August). Online lectures: Benefits for the virtual classroom. T.H.E. Journal, 29(1). Retrieved February 28, 2005, from Wheaton, J., Stein, D., Calvin, J., Overtoom, C., & Wanstreet, C. E. (2003). Building online learning communities: Factors supporting collaborative knowledge building. Proceedings of the 19th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning. Retrieved February 26, 2005, from /Resource_library/proceedings/03_40.pdf

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