August 2001 — Features
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Online Lectures: Benefits for the Virtual Classroom
X@XOpenTag000Most Web-based courses rely primarily on asynchronous communication to deliver course information to students. With this form of interaction, instructors and students do not interact simultaneously. Instead, messages are posted on a forum, Web page, or are sent as e-mail. Some unspecified time later, a reply is provided. Any follow-up questions are dealt with through additional postings or messages with requisite delays. Overall, this process limits the amount and depth of interactions regarding course materials and procedures. Regardless of the exact method of interaction, asynchronous communication is slow and limits the type and amount of communication between instructor and student. Furthermore, this type of communication tends to remove any feelings of connection between the student and instructor.
Most courses would benefit from the addition of synchronous communication. This form of communication usually occurs in an online chat room where the students and instructor gather at a specific time to communicate directly with one another. Here, instructors can lecture to the students and questions can be answered immediately. Follow-up questions can also be addressed immediately at an appropriate level of detail. Moreover, the instructor can inquire as to whether the students are clear on aspects of the course material. The immediate responses ensure that all class participants understand necessary information, thus making students feel connected to the instructor and the course.
Sadly, very few instructors regularly schedule online chat rooms as a means of communicating with their students. There are at least two reasons for this. First, many distance education programs have developed large enrollment sections of Web classes, thereby reducing the chance of having effective interactions in an online chat room (an optimal number in a chat room should not exceed 25-30 participants). Second, even for instructors teaching smaller enrollment Web classes, there may be a tendency to think that their students can gather all the course information they need simply by accessing the links on the course Web site. This is a natural tendency because most instructors find that time spent on Web course preparation and maintenance exceeds the time spent on preparation for conventional courses. Either way, the frequent result is that instructors come to believe that forms of asynchronous communication are a sufficient means of interacting with their students. We think this is unfortunate because there are important benefits that synchronous communication via chat rooms can provide.
In this article we focus on the merits of regularly scheduled chat room interactions as an important component for Web-based instruction. Please note that we are not advocating the substitution of one form of communication for another. Instead, we believe that the type of interaction fostered by online chat rooms will enhance and clarify the information that is gathered via asynchronous interactions. Both types of information delivery systems are needed. Whereas we think of asynchronous communication as the "backbone and muscle" for course content, online chats are the "heart and hustle" of our Web-based classes. Indeed, given the advantages we have found using chats, we would not offer a Web class without incorporating this form of interactivity with our students. However, before discussing the advantages of regularly scheduled chat rooms, we should outline our experiences in the virtual classroom.
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