15.1.1 The paradox of online learning

Online learning may be something of a paradox. Although it is often chosen as a low-cost alternative to face-to-face teaching, it is best combined with other methods of learning and teaching in order to provide a balanced blend and an enhanced, more personal learning experience. Properly constructed and implemented, it might require a bigger investment than face-to-face alternatives. It always involves a computer of some sort. At the present time that computer might be in a fixed location or it might just as well be worn on the wrist or carried in the pocket.

A distinctive attribute of online learning is that the computer is connected to Web pages of some kind, typically through the Internet or an organization’s own network. Planned and mediated or spontaneous and self-directed, online learning fits both formal and informal learning and teaching tactics. It might be open to all or restricted to a particular audience. It might be intimate or a shared experience, distributed to huge multicultural audiences around the globe. Scheduled and by invitation it might be “pushed”, or it might be “pulled” and available to one or more on demand. Finally, it might be social and collaborative, delivered to cohorts of learners with a homogenous need and interests, or it might be a solitary experience.

Places of learning around the world, that is to say schools, colleges, universities, government, public and defense services, and businesses, have adopted online learning to make learning more open and accessible to all, and especially to those who might otherwise be denied access to education. At the lowest level of sophistication this might involve teachers and lecturers putting their lesson notes and assignments on the Internet. In this sense printed materials are a central component of online learning.

In the academic world, the term “flipped classrooms” has been coined to describe the phenomenon of combining online and offline learning (Baker 2000). Learners stay at home to attend lectures online, and to work on assignments; they come to school only to interact with other learners and tutors, and to use the tangible facilities held in a building, such as library and laboratory. There is some evidence to show that this eclectic approach can achieve better results than traditional face-to-face classes. In the autumn of 2012, San Jose State and edX reported that pass rates increased from 55% to 91% when online elements were combined with conventional classroom-based content (Harvard 2013).

For those who have come to associate e-Learning with media-rich tutorials and simulations, this too can seem to be a paradox. It is useful to keep an open mind about what can and what cannot be validly regarded as part of the “mix” since it is through eclecticism (the current buzz-word being “blended learning”) that online learning can be made modular and thus individualized. Blended online learning can offer a wide choice as well as the closest match to three sets of criteria for which I have coined the term “the 3 Ls”:

• the Learner: his or her capability, capacity, preferences, and circumstances
• the Learning: the content of the materials
• the Logistics: the physical environment, budget, time etc. available to enable the learning to happen.

Text, audio, video, and real activity in the physical world can all be valid parts of an online learning strategy. They can be combined to create a counterpoint just as a composer might mix music, or they can be used as discrete stand-alone elements of a curriculum. Crucially, they can support the tenet that “Learning is not an event; it is journey” by extending the path of learning so that it moves naturally between the environments of education and training (schools, courses, and classrooms) and of real life (the workplace, home, and society.) until the learner achieves mastery or enlightenment.

Blended learning has a symbiotic relationship with online learning and for some time now has been the keystone of organizational training strategy. For many it has come to mean an interspersing of conventional face-to-face classroom facilitation with digital content, most commonly e-Learning tutorials and live or self-paced online discussions and assignments. Online learning, however, is not limited to planned, mediated, and moderated learning activity: it can be informal, casual, and on-demand as well as formal, planned, and scheduled. “Resources, not courses” has become the mantra of those who perceive confident self-motivated learners as being equipped with the necessary skills and access to learning materials through books, documents, media, and networks.

The same arguments in favor of blended online learning are regularly put forward (e.g., by Eryilmaz et al. 2013, Murphy, Walker, and Webb 2013):

• It extends training beyond a mere event.
• It gives learners time and scope for reflection and to assimilate and accommodate new learning for as long as they need, and so releases face-to-face time for more practical, interpersonal, and skill-based activity.
• It saves travel time and expense, and reduces the cost of lost opportunity compared with classroom training with all its inefficiencies.

Ultimately people learn to perform tasks through practice under natural conditions—they learn by doing. Much of what is useful happens on the job through sharing, watching, and support from others. When trainers become involved it is generally to transfer knowledge and set it in the context of some aspect of a job or task. But telling and listening are not the same as modeling, practicing and doing. Effective online learning, as part of a performance-focused blend, provides for modeling, practice, and feedback on real-life accomplishment.

Since learning in the real world so often involves interaction with others, a well-run online learning strategy has a strong element of social interaction and collaboration so that learners are connected with other learners, tutors, managers, subject-specialists, and relevant published material in text or media formats. The needs and preferences of the learner are set at the heart of the matter. Choice, readiness of access, ease of use, and timeliness are the success factors. There are many logistical reasons why online learning is worth the effort. There are pedagogical and sociological reasons too. Individualization and learner-control are high on the list of those reasons.

To balance the argument Thomas Russell’s “No Significant Difference Phenomenon” case material, in print and through the Web (Russell 2001) charts cases from as early as 1928 to the present day and concludes that it is not the channel of delivery that makes the difference but rather it is the suitability of the match. Fraud and cheating on graded assignments, together with concern about the costs of e-Learning from the perspective of low-income and disadvantaged students have the potential to undermine the adoption of e-Learning instruction (Bell and Federman 2013).

15.1.2 A natural medium in all its many forms

According to a UK report almost half of all children in the age group 5–15 own some kind of mobile device (Ofcom 2011). Most own a smartphone and 1 in 4 use a tablet computer to access the Internet and to send an estimated 180–250 text messages every week. Even 3–4-year-olds (28%) were reported to be using a tablet computer at home in the UK.

In 2012/2013 the newspaper industry mounted a very competitive and aggressive campaign to market electronic versions of newspapers. Typically the offer was centered on the free gift of a tablet device with which to access the content. Very rapidly people who subscribed found that their daily news and magazine features were enhanced by being more interactive, more on-demand, and, with the inclusion of audio and video, more media rich. In sport, they would not just read about a goal, but watch the ball hit the back of the net and hear the reaction of the crowd. It is easy to suppose that we might be hearing the death knell of conventional newspaper publishing.

Evidence such as the OFCOM report (2011) suggests that for information, communication, discovery, reference, and instruction “online” has become a natural medium for children and adults, not only when they are working or learning inside organizations and institutions. At home, at school, at work, or on the move people are connecting to learning online. In the developed world it is ubiquitous, but it is also found in under-developed regions and in war and disaster zones, where education and communication have significance far greater than the promise of upward social and political mobility, or even of self-actualization. Where more traditional computer connections are beyond the capacity of a network, some users in Africa, for example, are viewing and responding to lessons in online virtual learning environments via mobile devices.

15.2.1 Planned or spontaneous

Learning might be planned and mediated or it might be spontaneous and self-directed, and so it fits both formal and informal learning and teaching tactics. To illustrate this point, consider how many people around you might own up to having taken an e-Learning course. Then compare that with the number who might have used a browser or an online video to obtain information or guidance on some immediate and necessary “how to … information. The Internet has empowered learners to take control over the method and content of their learning, and has increased their self-reliance. The mantra “resources, not courses” is echoed in many corporate training departments and boardrooms. To summarize, blended learning usually includes online learning and digital content in its many and varied forms. It need not exclude conventional ways of developing skills, such as work-based projects and assignments, coaching, tutoring, and simple teaching, whatever synonym is used to name it.

15.2.2 Facilitated

The learner’s circumstances need to be favorable and supportive. There must be enough support or encouragement of the right variety. The word “facilitator” is used as an over-arching term for teachers, trainers, tutors, instructors, and coaches. It refers to those who are actively involved in presenting content, assessing progress, and ensuring the full and active participation of all who are engaged in online learning. Inexpert facilitation is certain to cause problems. The absence of facilitation is correlated with the learner failing to complete an online self-directed course. For correspondence courses, Burgeson (1993) found attrition rates of 50–70%, that is, only a third to a half of the students completed the course. Zabel (1995) found completion rates of about 50% for university students studying at a distance. She identified a number of personality characteristics which enabled early prediction of success or failure. More recently, a study by Jordan (2013) of MOOCs found average completion rates as low as 7%. If a formal assessment is featured, then commitment is seen to strengthen, with 45% of those who complete a first assignment going on to finish the course. It is also worth noting that when a fee of any kind is involved, the number of learners who complete a course rises to as much as 70%.

A study from Columbia University (Jaggars and Bailey 2013) suggests that human interaction and support is the factor that most helps students to succeed in an online course. The research found that in Virginia, 32% of students failed or withdrew from for-credit online courses, compared with 19% for equivalent in-person courses.

Of enormous importance is feedback, which can reinforce confidence, close gaps in knowledge, and raise motivation to build and refine skills. Managers and colleagues must avoid active discouragement, otherwise motivation will suffer and conflicting demands or distractions will become irresistible. Where digital content is pre-packaged, it is important to move away from the trite “well done” and “Oops” feedback that has characterized some e-Learning in the past.

15.2.3 Taught, caught, or sought?

The traditional and conventional model of training and education is predicated on the idea of courses or classes. A course is a planned and structured event; it is scheduled and one may be admitted only by invitation. Usually there are prerequisites that must be satisfied before one is allowed to take part, for example to prove readiness or qualification to do the course under consideration. Online learning has shifted the rubric so that the main currency is no longer courses but resources. Resources may take many different forms and may be prescribed or self-administered. If they have been designed in a modular way and if they have been sensibly labelled with what the IT industry has come to call tags, then they can be configured into programs of learning that equate to old-style courses. Equally well they might be self-administered with no inhibition other than personal choice and preference. Online learning resources may therefore be “pushed” or “pulled.” Significantly, they may be accessible to one or more on demand, without the need to wait for a formal program to become available. An example is the MOOC, about which we will say more later. Of course this depends upon the extent to which the resources need to gather people together with other learners and/or a facilitator.

15.2.4 Connected

Online learning might be open to all or restricted to a particular audience. It might be intimate or a shared experience, distributed to huge multicultural audiences around the globe. The emergence of MOOCs has legitimized the idea that people have much to learn from other people, and that those other people may be strangers or peers and lay-people, and not necessarily experts or educators. A guiding principle is the cliché “none of us is as smart as all of us”. In this spirit of distributed wisdom and collaborative learning, online learning lends itself well to social and collaborative activity. It may be delivered to cohorts of learners who have common needs and interests. It need never be a solitary experience for those who prefer to involve others in the planning and execution of their learning, or in the reflection that follows it. However, a growing body of evidence and a daily scan of the press and media leads to the conclusion that without controls some people are inclined to use the medium to bully or abuse others (Tsatsou et al. 2013; Privitera and Campbell 2009). This highlights the virtue of having someone in the role of moderator/facilitator whose goal is to guide online learners towards a productive and harmonious collaborative online learning experience.

15.2.5 Synchronous and asynchronous

Synchronous learning usually brings to mind conferencing and webinar tools such as WebEx, social media such as Twitter, or chat, voice, and video combinations such as Skype. Of course it also refers to that most natural way of bringing people together, face-to-face. Effective and progressive blended learning strategies are likely to include some elements of human contact in the real world. Crucially such strategies are made effective by their determination not to exclude any method or medium from the mix. Web-conferencing has matured into a well-established medium for synchronous learning. The brands of the tools have become eponymous, so it is common to hear people say, “Let’s do a WebEx” or “Let’s Skype”. WebEx, Adobe Connect, Saba Meetings, and Blackboard Collaborate are widely used in organizations for live online learning as well as meetings. Some tools, like Cisco Telepresence, seem to take us in to a third dimension with immersive collaboration that emulates concrete in-person experiences between people, places, and events in their work and personal lives.

The forms of interaction that these tools support are shaped to an extent by the original interests of the provider and by the route along which the live online tool has evolved from other commercial interests. WebEx, for instance, might be traced back to online video-conferencing while Adobe Connect has its roots in electronic publishing. Blackboard Collaborate has pedagogy in its genes and was developed primarily as a teaching tool. Many of the providers of live online tools, either through development or through acquisition, have taken steps to integrate the synchronous into the asynchronous so that there are elements of a VLE with discussion and grade assignments etc., moving in an out of live online conversations, meetings, and lessons in the synchronous mode. The exploitation of mobile technology, touchscreens, and systems such as voice recognition and global positioning have brought us to the point where Web conferencing has become a versatile, important, and, most of all, a natural tool in education and training.

The basic features and functions of the tools are commonplace, you might say universal, but the method and ease of preparation and of connecting people may vary widely. Some tools need only a browser plug-in such as Flash or JavaScript, whereas others need the installation of proprietary software of one kind or another. The trend seems to point towards Web-conferencing in a browser or on a mobile device becoming simpler and more reliable to join and to connect with other systems. Until then the choice may be between systems such as Adobe Connect that use Flash so that users can join a session without the need to download or install anything, or systems such as Blackboard Collaborate whose breadth of functionality comes at the cost of a fairly weighty Java installation.

15.3.1 A range of applications

Two preliminary questions to ask whenever thoughts turn to the use of any technology or medium are “What am I trying to do?” and “Why do it this way?” The next question to ask when planning a live online event is “What sort of session is it?” As with any form of learning design, it is important to define the outcomes, and align the session with other associated activities.

Formal training is just one of a number of applications for which Web-conferencing might be useful. Workshops, seminars, tutorials, practice sessions, discussions, and lectures online often provide more frequent, close, and inclusive interaction than when face-to-face, especially between and amongst students. Speakers from anywhere in the world can take part in a session.

Mentoring requires frequent contact and might be done online to remove the need to travel or occupy a physical pace. The same is true of team meetings for those who might work remotely across distances.

Educational institutes are not the only users of live online conferencing tools. They also have wide applications in the workplace, where people use them for meetings, interviews, mentoring, coaching, sales presentations, conferences, surveys, and similar, for example external assessors might conduct interviews or review work live online. Product designers might hold virtual project meetings and use features such as application sharing to demonstrate prototypes and drafts, and develop design prototypes or program outlines. Webinars might be an aid to engaging the public with their community, for example by linking a local authority or a supplier with distant customers and other remote communities. As for support-on-demand, some managers, subject experts, and support services might reserve time online to take questions or resolve issues on a drop-in basis or at pre-arranged times.

15.3.2 Getting the audience ready

It is important to determine (in advance if possible) who has experience of a virtual classroom and who has not. Those who have limited experience might be directed to easy quick-reference material or to attend a practice session if it is feasible for to run one. A competent presenter will have designed icebreaker activities to give “safe practice” with the features they intend to use in the session. One can find reasonably common functions and features across the range of popular virtual classrooms. An ideal taster session will require a participant to practice using as many of these functions as possible in an interactive way. Table 15.1 sets out some of the features found in many such systems.

15.3.3 The mechanics of running a live online session

In most circumstances there will be three key players in a session:

• the host or moderator (process facilitator)
• the presenter (tutor)
• the participants (audience or learners).

The host leads and facilitates the session. With a very small group this may be done by the presenter. Those who are new to virtual classrooms sometimes find it a puzzle to work out why it is necessary to have more than one person running a session. There are many good reasons, but above all it is difficult for the facilitator of the content to keep a focus on the process of learning as well as to look after the mechanisms of the interface. Sometimes, as when a group is divided into separate breakout rooms, a competent participant might assume the role of presenter or host in a virtual room.

No matter what the medium might be—paper, screen, or other media—once learning is packaged or remote, it has to be intrinsically attractive to the learner. If the content and style of the package is not appealing then it will not secure rapport and commitment. When speaking of how to engage learners, John Keller (2010) uses the term “attention” as the first point of departure in his well-known ARCS (attention, relevance, confidence, satisfaction) model of motivating learners. Many who have adopted Keller’s ARCS approach have invented creative ways of capturing attention, for example by setting a challenge to raise awareness of a knowledge or skill gap, by offering an incongruous or uncomfortable vision, by displaying a surprising statistic or an intriguing statement, or by asking a question to test prior knowledge or to gather information or opinions from the learners taking part.

There are some practices that raise the probability of success for synchronous online sessions in particular. A well-run live session ought to be a “sit-up” and not a “sit-back” experience, although the level of interaction will be determined by the purpose and content of the session. Simple presentation may be appropriate for some circumstances, although it may be hard to justify the use of a real-time interactive tool if participants have no need to interact in some way; it might just as well be a simple video or audio recording. One can quickly recognize whether or not a session is participatory by the extent to which the views, and indeed the very presence, of learners are acknowledged and respected. Table 15.2 provides a list of factors that characterize a truly interactive session. It is not a list of ingredients for a recipe that must be followed, but a useful indicator of where the locus of control resides when appraising a live online lesson.

Because voice is a key element of live online learning, it is important to speak clearly, especially since an advantage of being online is the removal of geographic boundaries and so an audience is likely to contain speakers of many different languages. The Campaign for Plain English (2015) offers useful guides that are free to download and advise on the words themselves, but it is also important to pay attention to diction, articulation, and the richness of intonation. RSVP is a mnemonic for rhythm + speed + volume + pitch, which you should vary in order to hold concentration and interest. Experienced online presenters will use their voice as a kind of auditory punctuation and for emphasis. Verbal tact is significant too, and it is good practice to apply active listening techniques and not to interrupt participants or talk over them. In a typical virtual classroom microphones or webcams are restricted to a maximum number, and the session host and presenter should work together to control vocal input.

It is really important to maintain activity. If people are not engaged, they will wander off mentally, physically, or both and it may not be apparent that it has happened. People working live online with others in their team might be distracted by incoming email, doorbell, phone, or television or the irresistible pull of the kettle in the background. Keeping people engaged is done by question and answer, recognizing disengagement and providing meaningful activity, calling a break or creating a diversion. Questions and polling are simple and useful methods of engaging participants (Sun 2014). There are four simple stages: design a poll, open it, close it, and display the results. This can:

• prove the whole team is paying attention
• clarify issues
• reveal members’ beliefs and understanding
• stimulate debate
• give more structured information than a show of hands
• keep people awake as well as involved
• identify individuals to call upon for comment
• give energy and focus.

There are many different ways of conducting polls. In an alternate response question participants might select a tick or cross or use an emoticon to respond to yes/no, agree/disagree, true/false etc. To answer a multiple-choice question, participants might select one or more from a series of prepared answers. Again there are many different alternative tactics. Off the cuff, the presenter might talk through the question and answers, and participants respond through spoken word or ticks and crosses. Another way is to type a response into a shared space or chat panel. The facilitator displays questions and alternatives, and participants respond in one of a variety of ways. Most virtual classroom software lets you prepare content in PowerPoint and upload the slides in advance. Questions and activities can be textual, graphical, or a combination of both. In a chat session a name can be displayed alongside an answer, and usually a number will indicate the sequence in which hands are raised. Once participants have voted, the presenter can close the poll and display the results as a graph for all to see. The host or presenter can clear the answers so the poll can be run again or a new one can be started.

A common feature in most of the popular virtual classroom and web-conferencing tools is the whiteboard. It is found in WebEx, Adobe Connect, Saba Meetings, and Blackboard Collaborate. Although these various tools each offer slightly different ways of presenting and interacting with it, the whiteboard is the shared space through which to display images, photos, documents, etc. so everyone can see them. Permissions or privileges can be granted to participants as a whole or individually to exert control over a session. For example, a session leader (variously known as the host, the moderator, or the presenter) can give or take away access to a microphone or to mark-up tools that let participants draw and write over anything that is displayed. With a high level of privilege, participants in a session can import files themselves, display Web content, files, or software from their own desktop, and use their own mouse to move the cursor and control an application on someone else’s PC at a remote location. An image may be imported or copied into the whiteboard, and in some systems a screen capture (or part of a screen) can be pasted to it. The host can usually manage the whiteboard by changing the sequence or adding/removing screens. Presenters and participants alike can usually modify or save content.

Slides may be the primary visual stimulus for online learning. They are prepared using an office presentation tool such as PowerPoint or Keynote, or compiled into a library of whiteboard images. These images help to keep participants engaged and the facilitator on track, but they have a fundamental purpose that goes beyond mere passive presentation. Interaction should be incorporated every 2–3 minutes and slides can serve as the prompt for interaction. Some more dynamic systems allow for graphical and other objects such as blocks of text to be dragged and dropped around the whiteboard. This supports interaction such as sequencing, ordering, grouping, and ranking.

A limitation of imported slides such as PowerPoint presentations is that they are converted to flat images that become separate whiteboard screens, and so they do not retain animations or hyperlinks. With creative and tactical use of the tools that suppliers build into their whiteboards, it is usually possible to compensate for this absence of movement by overlaying pointers, highlighters, masks, and the like.

Principles such as the Gutenberg rule (Bradley 2013), the z pattern, and Nielsen’s F pattern (Nielsen 2000, 2006) propose that the eye will always follow a natural path across a Web page. They seem to suggest ideal zones in which to place important information on a screen. It may be no surprise if readers in the Western hemisphere tackle a screen dominated by text by scanning from top/left to bottom right, just as they habitually read printed text. The strategic placing of non-textual visual stimuli, labels, and sign-posting may drive the user to follow a different route through a sequence of information. The use of eye-tracking technology (e.g., see Pan et al. 2004) makes it possible to examine in detail how learners actually work with information on a computer display. Buscher, Cutrell, and Morris (2009) have studied users' performance in searching for information through Web pages and have produced a model for predicting how they view individual page elements.

Success with online learning depends on creating optimal conditions, but even then, while connected to external networks and reaching out to a myriad of computers all configured in different ways, it is crucial to manage the expectations of those who take part. As well as ignorance of the possibility of hindrance due to connectivity, the user might have an ideal view of what it will be like to take part in an online community. If technology or other members of the group seem to perform badly, then they are likely to withdraw prematurely from an activity or from the entire experience. When a group has established norms, set realistic expectations, and made contingency plans, they are more likely to deal with problems and remain tolerant when things go awry.

15.3.4 Strong leadership and guided choice

All members of a virtual team should be working towards common goals regardless of status or background. A facilitator keeps them on track with praise and constructive criticism. People test out one another’s ideas but the most successful use the leader as mentor, coach, and role model. The leader typically helps the group to develop, agree, and apply its own ground rules for oral and written interaction. Then it is up to the manager, facilitator, or e-moderator to coax and coach members of the team so they make satisfactory progress with tasks and interact with other team members. In a traditional workspace, people learn what is acceptable and gauge the mood of the team through body language as well as verbal cues. Because a virtual workspace is not face-to-face, the facilitator must explain the rules for instruction and feedback. It is easy for written words to give offence. People are usually willing to submit to having others look over their work, accept feedback, and are driven by a desire not to let the team down. In a threaded discussion people can discuss issues they have in common. There has to be an agreed etiquette for what is appropriate. The facilitator should make occasional contributions and questions without dominating the discussion.

We have already spoken a little about motivation and commitment. It is rare for a polite person to walk out of a face-to-face classroom. In marked contrast, people will leave online courses that demand too much time, or are difficult or too basic. They will not accept the dumping of information through endless passive video or slide-driven lectures. Learners reject courses with weak structure, and quit when they are not helped to understand and adapt to the technology and format of a course. Research has shown that the reduced social cues and social anonymity of computer-mediated communication result in antisocial behavior (Kiesler, Siegal, and McGuire 1984; Short 2014). Antisocial behavior in discussion forums is regularly given as a reason why people are alienated from courses.

The learner’s circumstances need to be favorable and supportive. The needs and preferences of the learner are set at the heart of the matter. Success factors include choice, readiness of access, ease of use, and timeliness. There must be enough support or encouragement of the right variety. Technology must be reliable. Managers and colleagues must avoid active discouragement, otherwise motivation will suffer and conflicting demands or distractions will become irresistible.

15.3.5 Create a sense of community

The notion of transactive memory (Wegner 1986; Lewis and Herndon 2011) suggests that individuals in a group have no need to remember everything the group as a whole needs to know; all they need to hold in memory is who knows what. Groups develop highly complex collective memories that go beyond the capacity of any one person alone.

Thus learners in an online cohort find it easier to collaborate when they have accepted one another’s backgrounds and memories. This process of finding out “Who’s who; what do they know and what can they do?” can be done at a distance, but groups who have met and worked face-to-face tend to do better when they subsequently collaborate online.

Virtual teams often commit to stay in touch to share progress on the projects they began in the classroom. A distinct benefit of online forums and social media is that it can help groups to sustain their connections. Thus the learning experience is not artificially constrained within the “glass window” of the computer screen.

It takes time for members of a virtual group to build rapport; only then do they feel ready to place trust in one another. Without personal and physical contact, it may be difficult to interpret written or oral communication. This can be a particular problem when working in a multicultural environment (De Brito Neto, Smith, and Pedersen 2014).

Where the goal is to remove the need to travel the world, the idea of first meeting face-to-face may seem to make little sense. Nevertheless there is merit in giving time for relationships and trust to develop in a natural environment. Virtual groups’ acceptance of new thoughts and ideas depends on their belief in the knowledge, experience, and understanding of others. The building of trust, belief, and confidence is made easier when the agenda, the basis of relationships, the expectations of the group, and the process they will follow is clear to them from the start.

15.3.6 A well-designed live online session

Surveys (e.g., Towards Maturity 2014; Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 2013) tend to show that organizations are delivering learning via virtual classrooms but few possess the skills to do it effectively. A good session employs a variety of well-combined methods and techniques. Not only facilitators, but learners too will be active through conversation, questions, polls, and activity. As a rule of thumb, every participant ought to be called upon to make at least one response of some kind every 3–5 minutes. Table 15.3 shows an example of different transactions in a session, used in combination.

Ideally learners come together to produce real data and materials collaboratively. What they build or find out themselves is more meaningful than listening to words of wisdom from experts. It helps to test ideas and opinions on others and this removes the sense of working in isolation with only a computer for company. It is valuable to make use of real experience too. When virtual classrooms blend with work, the outcome can be very high-quality experiential learning, as long as the virtual component is linked closely to relevant work-based activities.

In a face-to-face setting it is easy enough to overlook the needs of less outgoing learners. Online it is even easier for an introvert to adopt a passive stance and to avoid rapid or contemporaneous responses. Of course there are periods of exposition and reflection in learning when it is appropriate to have reduced levels of interaction and arousal. An effective facilitator takes care to judge when it is necessary to intervene and will not allow those with the most expressive personalities to dominate proceedings. Some people prefer asynchronous classes and are likely to contribute more if they have time to prepare. Individuals who resist speaking out in a group because of natural reticence or because English is not their first language find it easier to hide. But giving time for all to speak can be difficult. Classrooms tend to reward students who are skilled in debate. Because the virtual class is in their own home or workplace, some find it to be a less threatening environment than the real classroom.

While it is virtuous to treat learners as individuals, there are some advantages in anonymity. No-one knows if the learner is black, white, male or female, beautiful or ugly etc., so there is less risk of low self-esteem or prejudices about potential clouding the perceptions of those taking part.

The proverb “Speech is silvern, silence is golden,” from a novel by the 19th century essayist and social critic Thomas Carlyle (1831) is highly applicable to live online learning. A practiced presenter will not speak or write or comment too fast, too loud, or too long. Without visual cues or written feedback, silence may seem interminable, but thinkers must be given time to think without interruption. In asynchronous learning, everyone goes at his or her own pace, but even in a virtual classroom it is virtuous to allow time for reflection and self-analysis.

Echoic memory is a term that concerns how we retain sounds that people have just heard (Neisser 1967). Whereas we can extend and provoke our visual memory by scanning an image over and over, sounds enter our ears and then are gone; they are transient. In general we can recollect sounds for a little longer than images, but we receive auditory stimuli one after another and so we need to be allowed time—an interval in which to process and understand words and phrases (see Chapter 2). The theory says that we keep a sequence of sounds in our echoic memory without making sense of it until we hear the next sound. We can hold quite large amounts of auditory information in this way but only for a very short period of time (3–4 seconds).

It is easy to imagine how a listener can suffer overload when a speaker rushes ahead and gives answers before the learner has had time to replay, think, and make sense of the previous sounds or utterance.

15.3.7 Keep things fresh, up-to-date and on time

Although a virtual workspace may be a same-time experience, the preparation and follow-up may be asynchronous. Facilitators must provide enough challenge, resources, and feedback to keep people engaged and make sure deadlines and milestones are met.

15.3.8 Meet special needs

Before a session, hosts should check if any participants have special needs in order to gain access to the session. Typical virtual classrooms have accessibility functions. Presenters can run presentations in full-screen mode. Most mainstream virtual classroom tools support the use of a screen reader to assist those with extreme visual impairment. Other common accessibility features include closed captioning, which can also serve as a transcript of the session. Most leading webinar tools pick up user-defined color schemes from the operating system, and the user can resize content areas, such as the whiteboard, application-sharing, live video, and chat or view panels and pods or presentations in full-screen mode. For those who cannot or prefer not to use a mouse, keyboard short-cuts are available. Some well-established and shared principles guide the usability and accessibility of web-based information. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international organization that develops and maintains open standards to ensure the long-term growth of the Web and provides widely used guidelines on accessibility (World Wide Web Consortium 2015).

15.3.9 Ancillary material

People gain knowledge and information from one another, for example they share materials, and lend and borrow books. It is even more important in a virtual setting for facilitators to predict, prepare, and make available the resources participants might need to obtain or exchange while working remotely from one another. It is also vital to create a visually rich environment. Real classrooms are often decorated with items of interest—objects to intrigue, books to inform, posters and notices to capture interest—presented in an aesthetically pleasing way.

The virtual classroom can stimulate with electronic media: moving and still imagery, text and animation. The risk is to overload the senses, so every element on a screen should be there for a reason and not merely to be decorative. It is prudent to take care with video. It may capture attention more easily than text, it may take the learner to places and times and situations they could not normally see, but on a computer it may be small and jerky. It lacks the cinematic impact of the large screen. So while it is desirable to create a visually rich environment, one should follow simple, accessible Web design principles.

It takes extra time and effort to plan and run virtual learning. In their study of an Australian higher education institution, Tynan, Ryan, and Lamont-Mills (2013) found that this additional effort is often grossly underestimated and that staff who were initially enthusiastic had concerns about the increased time and effort they had to commit. In a training context, for example, webinars for a major telecommunications company and for an international humanitarian NGO spanned the globe. For students in Asia Pacific the facilitator saw a very early dawn and then had to summon up the same levels of energy for an audience in Europe in the early afternoon.

15.3.10 Who’s sitting at the front?

It is easier to remember who said what if they have a physical presence. In a physical classroom, body language reveals if someone is losing interest or struggling to understand; this is not the case in a virtual classroom. One way of ensuring that everyone is included in the discussion is to prepare in advance a job aid in the form of a matrix of participants and their current situation.

In a world of mixed modality it is very easy to lose your way. There is a confusion of sensory data; at one and the same time you must control your presentation and listen to learners’ comments. Think of a newsreader on television, following an autocue. The words on the lips are out of sync with the words on screen. The newsreader must think ahead; he or she must multitask. In a virtual classroom, someone must keep a watchful eye out for instant messaging, text boxes, and icons that signal calls for technical help, for attention, or for control. It is most helpful to have an assistant to remove this burden from the tutor.

The technology should remain out of sight, but it is hard to overstate the need for administrative and technical support. Although using the technology has to become as routine as picking up a telephone or opening a book, some senior managers still need help to send instant messages and emails, and transfer files.

Privacy and confidentiality are also considerations whenever learners and tutors have to deal with concerns or sensitive questions. It would be wrong to neglect the individual in order to maintain the momentum of learning for the group. Learners benefit from time and feedback to synthesize what they have learnt, and facilitators must provide frequent, timely, clear, and supportive feedback for all. As they learn their craft, newcomers to the world of moderating online learning would do well to follow guidelines such as those set out in Table 15.4, which is loosely based on Garrison’s learning design principles (Garrison 2011).

15.4.1 Social matters

When you are looking for success factors, it is tempting to focus first on hardware, software, and the systems and networks that enable online learning. While the technology is important, the processes and procedures of creating an online community are of even greater significance. Communities are fundamentally social entities, so the best starting point is an understanding of the social elements of online interaction.

Some studies indicate that self-regulated communities can succeed (Tsai, Shen, and Fan 2013) but it is undoubtedly helpful, if not essential, to have a facilitator for welcoming and encouraging everyone. The facilitator may be someone from an institution or organization, someone self-appointed, or someone chosen by the group itself. Someone has to be responsible for ensuring the basic needs of each participant are met: do they have a username and password, do they know how to log in and read and post content?

Most importantly, someone has to model the expected behaviors and help the group to define the social norms of the site. If collaborative learning is the goal then establishing how people will interact with each other online is critical to the success of a community of learners. Setting the tone is particularly important during the start-up phase.

To be effective, an online course must first establish a warm, friendly but disciplined environment where people value and support the exchange of good practice. It has to be a place in which it is safe to foster warm human relationships and develop group identity and altruism, and by that means the group has the best chance of staying together and of helping its individual members to accomplish a shared goal. For those reasons, effective but non-intrusive leadership is of the highest importance.

Many of the guiding principles for effective moderation shown in Table 15.5 apply to groups of both synchronous and of asynchronous online learners.

15.4.2 Developing good practice

The core focus of a community of practice is to build continuous performance improvement. A facilitator can help create the environment in which that will happen. The community should be a place where people work together to find and share the best possible way of doing things, and that requires communication and collaboration. The points in Table 15.6 are derived from personal experience of working to help others to create a community in which people help people through positive criticism, collaborative development, encouragement, and open discussion.

15.4.3 Guidance and direction

The facilitator has a crucial role to play in keeping content fresh and reliable, encouraging contribution and collaboration, and ensuring that an online community develops in the intended direction.

The third set of suggestions (Table 15.7) is to maintain a balance between providing guidance and direction, and giving a community enough space to grow.

15.4.4 IT and support

We might accept that effective online learning is not exclusively about systems and machinery, but of course it does have some reliance on technology. In the ideal world that technology is invisible, in the background, and does not inhibit anyone from playing a full part. The website that learners use ought to be simple and straightforward. Even so it is vital to provide adequate support. This does not mean that the leader or facilitator has to become a technical expert. However, the community will see them as the first point of contact who will direct them towards technical help when they need it. Online learners might need someone with whom they can discuss their goals and plans, the content of their learning, or the best way in which to do something. So success may depend upon robust support mechanisms for both technical and non-technical issues, and everyone knowing what they are and how to use them. Table 15.8 lists what has to be done.

To quote the poet Burns (1786), “The best-laid schemes o’ mice and men gang aft agley.” It is true that when one works with technology, it is always possible that something will go wrong. While it is not feasible for a facilitator of learning to provide the level of service of an IT helpdesk, it is easy enough to deal with some basic and recurring issues. Good planning and organization can pre-empt disaster whether due to human error or system failure. The most typical problems fall into three areas: before a session begins, during a session, and after a session. In all cases it is essential to have a “candle plan”—a candle and matches in case the electricity fails! A well-organized facilitator will have an emergency recovery plan in case of hardware or system failure and in synchronous situations will use a second computer to track refresh rates and view what the participant sees.