In this chapter, we briefly describe the recent eLearning evolution of the University of Zaragoza, and we chose three case studies that highlight how eLearning technologies can help improve learning processes. The first case study describes how to exploit technology for developing on-line tutoring. We propose the use of graphic tablets in order to overcome the challenges that often arises when accomplishing on-line tutorship. For instance, the writing of mathematical formulae in the content of messages in an agile way. In addition to audio and video tools, Wimba Classroom also allows users to use whiteboards to share information. It also allows users to ask questions to the members in a session and to receive their answers, and to perform surveys and process their answers by displaying statistics. Another interesting option is to record sessions and make them subsequently available to the rest of the students. Thus, tutoring sessions can be reused by other students who have the same kind of doubts.
The second case study shows how the BSCW system can be exploited in order to manage collaborative work of a course with a hundred of students in an efficient way. From our experience, we consider BSCW provides great benefits in the management of these activities, because of its functionality, its easiness of use, its efficiency, its robustness, and its fault tolerance capabilities. Thus, it supports document re-use, document versioning, document access control (with different roles of users such as academics and students and with different levels of sharing). Moreover, BSCW also supports the creation of discussion boards (essential for collaborative work), helps users organize materials and information (by means of repositories), fosters effective communication among users, and promotes decision taking.
The third case study describes the experience at activities of programming of computers in practical laboratory courses. Initially, the programming activities were manages by using a set of ad-hoc scripting tools. We emphasize how the use of LCMS such as Blackboard has some disadvantages compared to the traditional ad-hoc approach, since it is not an ad-hoc solution. In contrast, it can exploit all the possibilities of an LCMS, such as the integration of many tools that can help promote learning processes in a better way. In particular, the communication skills during the learning process can be improved better with an LCMS rather than with an ad-hoc solution.
As a future work, it would be interesting to distinguish different roles for professors in an online course. This is technically possible when considering the way in which the platforms that we currently have in our university are configured, with different possible roles for a professor: the designer of the course, the designer of materials, the assistants, the tutors, etc. However, this design is not the usual one in the courses currently implemented in the platforms available in our university, which essentially offer an additional support for face-to-face teaching-learning process. Along the same line, different roles would be considered for a tutor: the academic one, the pedagogical and the personal. Each of these roles would be supported by appropriate ICT tools. There is still much work to do in the area of online academic tutoring, but we think that this is one of the strongest points in this education model, since a good utilization of tutoring for face-to-face students has been proved to be effective for increasing the results of the students.
Besides, if we analyze the strengths of tutoring in the framework of the European Higher Education Space, we find many advantages. For example, we can highlight that it facilitates the competency of the acquisition of a professional language. Regarding the weaknesses, we observe the need and the demand of training for teachers, especially in this case concerning ICT tools that facilitate an online tutoring (e.g., the aforementioned instant messaging applications) and that facilitate providing feedback to the student.
We would also like to emphasize the high workload usually derived from the monitoring and personalized attention in online tutoring models for courses with a large number of students. In our university, there are many courses with more than one hundred students. In the simplest cases where the students basically communicate through email, the number of emails could grow beyond what can be managed if this is not appropriately coordinated with other communication tools such as forums, chat rooms for students, virtual classrooms, etc. Therefore, we insist on the need of training, which should focus on both the tools and the management of online courses, time management, etc.
Finally, our research is focused on comparing these experiences with other technological platforms, so that we can analyze the outcomes of using one or another. In the case of the collaborative work, we also want to test alternative platforms to BSCW such as the new version of platform Blackboard (Blackboard 9.1).
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