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A virtual campus: The experience of postgraduate students studying through electronic communication and resource access

Author: Elizabeth Stacey

Deakin University, Victoria

Keywords: Postgraduate students, Deakin University, electronic communication, flexible learning, distance education, Faculty of Education, part-time study, education doctorate, Interchange, student discussion, FirstClass conference, staff participation, conference moderation.

Article style and source: Moderated. Original ultiBASE publication.

Contents

Abstract

This paper describes Deakin University's Education Faculty's experiences in developing a 'virtual campus' for postgraduate students. The quality of resource access and communication that this provides for both on and off campus students and the issues it raises for staff and students are discussed.

The 'Virtual Campus' at Deakin University

Interchange provides that sense of contact and 'belonging' which, at times, is the only thing keeping this part-time and distance post-grad. student going.
Comments such as these from one of our Education Doctorate students evaluating the first year spent using our new system of electronic access, Deakin Interchange, positively support the purpose and philosophy behind our efforts to establish a 'virtual graduate school'. Because the Deakin Education Doctorate course is offered exclusively in distance education mode, ensuring quality access to resources and people has been attempted through providing students with electronic access to the campus.

As the electronically accessible course outline describes, the Education Doctorate assumes that students will study part-time and will research from their workplace (which in fact reflects the reality of much postgraduate study). Therefore Deakin Interchange attempts to provide students with the required access to the course team and to supervisors for discussion of the content of their study, to bibliographic databases and library catalogues for `virtual' library access, and to a 'virtual' public campus structure for interaction with other students, academic staff and administration, all without students physically leaving their workplaces or remote locations. Consequently our student cohorts are comprised of participants from every state in Australia and increasingly from overseas, yet these students potentially share the same quality of academic interaction and resource access.

The EdD is designed to encourage students to share a common discussion about their research and reading which overcomes the isolation of doctoral research and actively engages students in reflecting on the whole field of research and associated issues. The electronic medium makes this possible wherever students are located as well as making accessible a world of experts through Internet group or individual discussions.

More importantly perhaps is 'the sense of contact and belonging' quoted earlier. Many graduate students, whether studying on or off campus, are beset by physical and time constraints of the workplace and family commitments which preclude much interaction with staff or other students. Many give up their studies too easily when they feel that they are not meeting required standards or can't understand aspects of their study. Electronic communication enables them to share that sense of being part of a larger group battling the same problems and asking the same questions, and this often provides enough motivation to complete tasks and courses from which they might otherwise withdraw.

In providing this access, however, there are issues of technological and pedagogical e-quality that have to be addressed. Issues such as the hardware and software difficulties that computer mediated communication can raise, pedagogical issues of how best to incorporate such a technology into course use and assessment as well as issues of staff use and involvement within an increasing 'invisible' workload of electronic communication.

Deakin Interchange

Deakin Interchange is a suite of software which provides access to a variety of networked services at Deakin. Students and staff connect to Deakin either by direct network connection on campus or through AARNet or Internet connection or via modem from off campus locations and effectively share the same easy to use graphical user interface.

Computer conferencing through FirstClass has been provided to answer a need the EdD team saw as an integral part of the professional doctorate: a space to facilitate student-to-student communication and share the combined wisdom of a student body which represents research into a range of workplaces, literature and professional practices. Previous sharing of their ideas and writing had been attempted through mailing of print contributions from each student to others within course units and attempts at discussion of these contributions though other methods from print to audiotape to teleconferencing. Electronic conferencing was seen as a means of expediting this sharing and interaction and its best use has been considered and debated by the course team and students (Reid et al, 1995).

The EdD conference is the 'public' forum for the electronic community of staff and students to communicate with one another and it emulates a physical campus with spaces for discussions for each of the coursework units of the first two years of the EdD and for each component of course interaction. A 'lobby' for introductory comments and signposts to other conferences, a 'corridor' for social interaction for the whole community (where some of the best quality far-ranging conversations are often found, as in real campus corridors), and administrative areas for providing information and discussion spaces for staff and students about course and electronic access issues.

Becoming virtual

The provision of electronic access to the Education Doctorate was initially part of the piloting of Deakin University's new electronic system. The story that has unfolded has been also one of a group of students who mainly used computers for word processing alone, trialing a new technologically sophisticated system of computer communication with our technical staff of developers and support people. Installing new software, establishing remote access and fixing 'bugs' in a developmental software required a level of computer equipment, understanding and usage that many of the EdD students and staff had not reached and required more support from technical staff than they had anticipated as well as taking longer to achieve than was predicted and planned for by academic staff.

The technology equality issues which emerged may represent similar groupings of postgraduate mature age students with a range of ages from 35 to 55 and a wide range of computer experience and confidence.

Gender Average Age Connection method Did not connect
Female Male Direct dial Austpac Network Female Male
EdD 13 13 47 1 7 8 7 3

Table 1: Demographics of student participants in the pilot project

Achieving technical equality

Graduate students in education or training situations do not always have personal access to the level of computer equipment and the modem required to participate in an online program. In establishing this group of users, 19 out of 26 students needed to organise new hardware to successfully run Interchange. All dial-in students needed to purchase or arrange access to modems while 15 students needed upgrades of existing equipment or new equipment. Because all EdD supervisory staff are included in the conferences and the use of Interchange, 18 staff members were included in the piloting of the new system and 6 of these also needed new computers - a problem of equipment upgrading that many institutions face.

Inequality of experience

Students often had a limited amount of computer experience and required time to seek assistance loading software and learning to communicate electronically. Some staff, too, had a similar range of computer inexperience though all were competent at word processing and as electronic mail users. Helping remote students come online was a more difficult experience for technical staff than anticipated. The two groups often had difficulty in sharing the same language and computer understandings, attempting to communicate and problem solve together. The evaluation of the pilot program during 1995 (Goodwin et al. 1995) highlighted some of these problems and provided data that suggested that users would become more comfortable and confident as their experience increased and once successfully using Interchange were enthusiastic about its potential to their study. However some students who had used computers only minimally before, were left 'feeling inadequate, incompetent and lacking in confidence because they could not understand explanations which were given by support staff.' (p. 35).
EdD MBA Total
Operating system - DOS 5 (28%) 17 (85%) 22 (58%)
Windows 6 (33%) 17 (85%) 23 (60%)
Macintosh 15 (83%) 6 (30%) 21 (55%)
Word Processing 16 (100%) 19 (100%) 35 (100%)
Spreadsheet 12 (80%) 18 (95%) 30 (88%)
Database 8 (53%) 17 (94%) 25 (76%)
Communication 5 (31%) 18 (100%) 23 (68%)
Electronic mail 11 (61%) 18 (100%) 29 (80%)
Computer conferencing 3 (20%) 15 (83%) 18 (55%)

Table 2: Previous computer experience
(The table indicates prior use only. Percentage figures represent the proportion of respondents to the question in each group who answered yes.)

The Virtual EdD

Early experiences

Because of technical problems and student equipment needs, access to Deakin Interchange had only been achieved for a small group of participants by the end of the first semester. The conferences which were based around units of the EdD coursework had a small memberships of students and a lifespan that lasted only the semester that students were working on that unit. By Semester two more students were gaining access and coming online though many took months to achieve this.
  Melbourne Geelong Country Vic. Interstate Overseas
EdD 3 1 5 14 3

Table 3: Geographic location of student participants in pilot study

When the virtual conferences began, of those online, seven were from country Victoria, three were in Melbourne, two in Darwin, two in Hobart, one each in Perth and Brisbane and one was in Canada. This type of geographic spread has continued in the EdD with the inclusion of a number of students from New Zealand also successfully joining the conference. As Internet access provision has become addressed actively by telecommunications providers, solutions are beginning to be found for the variability of telecommunications quality at the student's end of the connection which can often add to the frustration and workload of providing remote access.

The interactive space for communication via the FirstClass conference was seen as a public area for student discussion as well as for discussion of tasks to be incorporated into the coursework units. We found when a course required students to interact they did, and many were constant readers of the conferences, but only a few conversed on the conferences continuously and provided the dialogue for the whole group which we had foreseen would involve larger numbers.

Ongoing experiences

As the conference has continued the initial hesitancy to join the conference has decreased. As new cohorts have joined the EdD in 1996 and 1997, new students have accepted this form of communication as an established part of the course and have been active in joining the discussion. Again, required participation in the early units has been the motivation to start communicating and once the pattern of communication has been established, students have continued participating actively. The early experience of dependence on constant staff interaction has been less obvious as the experienced students have taken ownership of the discussions and the course team members have only had to participate at appropriate times in the ongoing discussion. This has made the staff role a more manageable teaching commitment.

The numbers of active participants have more than doubled the number in the original group which has been an important aspect in providing an ongoing discussion. Many students still often keep to their defined unit space and as they reach different stages of the doctoral program these spaces change. (Pre and Post Colloquium spaces have been added as well as spaces for visiting Thai students and spaces for specific short term discussion such as one on Case Study methods of research). As they reach the stage of more individual research, students' regular participation decreases but they are still reading the conference regularly and many will answer a group query from newer students or raise discussion points and joining in ongoing discussions.

The sharing of experiences and resources has been a strength of the conference as students have posted whole literature reviews and colloquium documents for other students' use. This community spirit is very obvious at face-to-face meetings of the EdD which are organised each year. The students and staff meet as old friends even if it is their first meeting as they have made each other's acquaintance online and early barriers of new acquaintance have already been overcome.

Pedagogical issues

Quality time

In the early stages our expectation of students wanting to initiate communication with one another in a public forum was not fully realised. The group of students led busy professional lives and had not previously had to make more time for electronic communication and many of them were not as motivated to make more time for gaining access and for interaction. There was a sense that to participate, any words they wrote electronically had to 'count' in their coursework assessment and mostly those students with the necessary hardware and electronic access who were required to post to a conference for their course interaction became active. As one EdD student reflected on his reasons for electronic inactivity in a way that was typical of many:
I have done absolutely nothing for six weeks; I had the School magazine and I finish my 150 reports today ( I think). I'll start on Deakin work this week. I'm not in too bad a position but school has been a tad busy for the last few weeks.
However in the following year as new students joined the conference (which was now technically more stable so access was easier to attain), they accepted its role in their learning. Once the novelty factor wore off when the 'I'm here at last' comments became less frequent, the quality of the interaction about the content of the EdD and the research process became much higher. Staff messages posting comments and questions modelled this quality which the students then continued. However the informal comments were still an essential part of communication as they established the sense of friendship and community that is an important purpose of the EdD conference.

Required Participation

The issue of required conference contributions - making electronic discussion a required part of the early unit curriculum was a very important factor in students coming online and learning to participate in the discussion. Some students expressed an initial shyness when entering the virtual space 'like entering a party that has already begun and everyone knows each other' was the way one student described it. By having to post their initial contributions as a requirement of the unit, they overcame this fear. Heller recommended this approach in describing a study of a graduate course using Bulletin Board technology which advised 'Having an ongoing series of assignments tied to the subject matter is critical.' (1995, p. 136). This encouraged student discussion with a quality of thoughtful interaction and is an issue which must be considered.

Staff participation

Anticipation of a discussion which involved supervisory staff was not realised either for a range of possibilities including the time pressures of large student to staff ratios and the change in to a shared supervisory role which the EdD has implemented. Of the staff given access and initial training on software use, most logged in as readers of the conference, but with mainly the three active course team members involved in discussions. However one staff member who supervised several students studying in the same discipline area requested a space for their discussion which was an encouraging sign that the extended supervisory team were becoming more willing to participate in the role of expert . Some supervisory staff have not logged into the conference at all after their initial introduction to it and though this reflects technical problems in some cases it also reflects a use of electronic mail as a preferred communication for supervision. Further involvement of these staff members in conference discussion would probably need more structured requests and requirements as many are unused to a type of supervising which involves more than a one-to-one process between student and supervisor.

Conference Moderation

The 'critical mass' needed for active discussion between students has been an important part of our experience as growth in the numbers has led to a much more active electronic discussion. In the early phase there seemed to be an expectation by students that staff facilitate these conferences and there was little interaction on unit conferences if this did not occur. As the conference has developed, the students have become much more confident at running their own discussion. Our students are educators themselves and can often take the lead in discussion informally.

Paulsen (1995) wrote about the importance of the moderator role and this has been our experience in the early stages of the EdD conference: 'Despite the shared responsibility of all conference members to participate, it is the moderator who makes the difference between a successful conference and an unsuccessful one. That individual nurtures the conference to accomplish objectives and create a productive experience for all participants.' Even though the active communicators among the students readily use the other areas of the 'virtual campus' to communicate, the course related conferences seem to require the 'teacher's' presence. However as the students become more experienced and confident at electronic conferencing this presence, though still required, can be less frequent making it a more manageable teaching role.

Conclusion

Providing a high quality of academic support and provision of resources to postgraduate students who are often studying within the time constraints of busy working lives and family commitments is a difficult process for institutions even when students are within an accessible geographic distance from the campus. Deakin's provision of electronic access through Deakin Interchange helps answer this problem while opening up access to students in other states and countries.

Such a system opens up new pedagogical possibilities of an interactive 'virtual' campus which suit the educational philosophy on which the Education Doctorate Course is premised. It also raises problems and issues of equality when attempting to bring all students online. However in evaluating this provision students were positive in their reception of all of the facilities Interchange offered. The community of researchers sharing their experiences and their resources has become a reality in the second year of the conference and continues to be an active and varied discussion space. Though some students are sometimes 'invisible' on the conferences, being readers not writers, it provides them with the support and information they need to reduce their isolation and make them feel part of an extended 'virtual' campus.

References

Goodwin, C., Rice, M., Stacey, E. & Thompson, L. (1995). An evaluation of Deakin Interchange pilot program. Evaluation report, Deakin University.

Heller, R. &. K., G. (1995).'Using a computer bbs for graduate education: issues and outcomes'. In Z. L. &. C. M. P. Berge (Ed.), Computer mediated communication and the online classroom. Volume III: Distance learning. Cresskill: Hampton Press.

Paulsen, M. F. (1995). 'Moderating educational computer conferences'. In Z. L. &. C. M. P. Berge (Ed.), Computer mediated communication and the online classroom. Volume III: Distance learning (pp. 257). Cresskill: Hampton Press.

Reid, J., Stacey, E. & Henry, C. (1995).' The Getting of Information: Integrating CMC and postgraduate distance education'. In proceedings of Annual Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education. Hobart.

Deakin Interchange can be found at :

url = http://www2.deakin.edu.au/deakin_virt/teleteaching_2.htm

An earlier version of this paper was originally written for the Quality in Postgraduate Research - is it happening? conference, Adelaide, April, 1996.

About the author

Elizabeth Stacey
Faculty of Education
Deakin University
Burwood Victoria 3125

Email: estacey@deakin.edu.au

Copyright © Elizabeth Stacey, 1997. For uses other than personal research or study, as permitted under the Copyright Laws of your country, permission must be negotiated with the author. Any further publication permitted by the author must include full acknowledgement of first publication in ultiBASE (http://ultibase.rmit.edu.au). Please contact the Editor of ultiBASE for assistance with acknowledgement of subsequent publication.
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