The 21st Century Pedagogy Alternatives and Tricks/Tools of the Trade
For the condensed summary page go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateel.htm 

Bob Jensen at Trinity University

Myths About Education Technologies

Ideas for Teaching Online

Interactive Network Simulation Learning Example

Advantages and Disadvantages of Education Technologies

Chris Dede's Vignettes

An Example of a Low Budget and Very Remarkable Online Course

Knowledge Portals and Vortals
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/portals.htm 

History and Future of Course Authoring and Distribution Technologies
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/290wp/290wp.htm

For the condensed summary page go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateel.htm 

Introductory Quotation

The movie Dead Poets Society showed examples of why students recalled so much of their learning. There were changes in location, circumstances, use of emotions, movement, and novel classroom positions. We know that learners remember much more when the learning is connected to a field trip, music, a disaster, a guest speaker, or a novel learning location. Follow up with a discussion, journal writing, a project, or peer teaching.

E. Jensen (1998, p. 110)
Teaching with the brain in mind

Myths About Education Technologies

• Myth 01
  Online students must do all their learning from content stored on a computer.  This is true only in the relatively rare case of online courses that have no online synchronous classes in virtual classrooms, no electronic communications with a live instructor, no electronic communications with classmates, and no mentors or experts to contact for help and information.  Experiments show that communications tend to increase when students take courses online.
  
  A major advantage of technology today is the ease and efficiency of linking students to experts and mentors.
  
  

• Myth 02
  Students on average will perform worse on examinations if they only have online courses as opposed to onsite traditional courses.  There are so many variables and contextual factors that it is risky to make any claims on this one way or another.  With online courses so much depends upon the quality of the technology hardware, the quality of the specially-designed online learning materials, and the maturity and motivation of the students.  If the suitable materials are available and motivated students know what must be learned, there generally is no difference in examination performance.  There is some evidence that online learning is more efficient in the sense that students learn faster and there is less time wasted in travel, setting up meetings with instructors or other students, and in searching hard copy documents that are not available on a computer.
  
  The multi-million dollar, multi-year comparisons of online asynchronous pedagogy versus onsite traditional pedagogy tended to show that the online students than students in traditional classes and sometimes had higher grade distributions.  See http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm.
  
  

• Myth 03
  Students have deeper and more important communication in face-to-face encounters.  There are advantages and disadvantages of face-to-face communications vis-à-vis electronic communications.  Clearly there are advantages of face-to-face communications in learning social skills and in reading body language.  There are obvious advantages when the learning is physical (e.g., learning to play team sports, learning how to diagnosis patients, etc.).  Being able to read body language improves communications when students are weak in the language being spoken.  
  
  But there are many disadvantages in face-to-face encounters.  Some people are more shy, more easily intimidated, more bothered by physical defects.   Electronic communications make follow-up messaging easier.  So many times, students do not think of everything they would like to say at a given point in time.  An hour later, they may think of something to add or something to retract.  Electronic messaging may be strung out over days and are not limited to a particular meeting time.  Electronic messages are more easily translated into other languages.  Even when not translated, it is easier to deal with another language in text form than in audio form.  For example, students who can read French often have no idea what is being said on the streets of Paris.
  
  The major advantage of electronic communications is the ease of sending off a message at any time to most anywhere in the world.  Face-to-face encounters take more time to set up even if teleconferencing is of thehighest quality.
  
  

• Myth 04
  Virtual classrooms are vastly inferior to live classrooms.  Technologies for live audio and video virtual classrooms have vastly improved.  The advantages of bringing students face-to-face from all over the world to conduct live (synchronous) classes are obvious.  The worry is that the technology is unpredictable or that the learning is inferior to a traditional class meeting in a room.  Schools such as Duke University, the University of Virginia, Notre Dame, Northwestern University, Columbia University, Stanford University, the London School of Economics, and hundreds of other top-rated universities are praising the technologies of virtual classrooms.  For Example, the Global Executive MBA program at Duke University now has years of successful operations of virtual classrooms.  

• Myth 05
  Only wealthy schools can set up virtual classrooms and conduct reliable distance education programs.  Technologies for virtual classrooms and high quality asynchronous course delivery are exceedingly expensive, especially in terms of the cost of backup systems for the primary systems.  These are sometimes too costly and too complicated even for the wealthy schools.  Fortunately, there are relatively inexpensive alternatives available from external providers such as eCollege, Blackboard, and HorizonLive.  For more details see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/290wp/290wp.htm
  
  

• Myth 06
  The most important goals of technology in education should always be to make learning unambiguous, easier, faster, cheaper, and more fun.  These are important goals and, in the 21st Century, technology advances (e.g., wireless communications, improved bandwidth, audio access, knowledge portals, ubiquitous computing, etc.) will take education and training to unbelievable heights.  The problem is that we are also discovering more about human metacognition and the fact that deep learning and deep memory  rely more upon discovering answers "on your own" with frustration, pain, anger, ambiguity, mistaken paths, making and correcting of mistakes, and serendipity. The fact of the matter is that students may be better off if instructors program in deliberate mistakes and fail to provide easy access to some learning content.

• Myth 07
  Knowledge portals of the future will be so fantastic that there will be little need for courses, instructors, or student interactions.  Knowledge portals such as Fathom at Columbia University will become bigger and better to a point where they will be described as panaceas to ignorance at all levels of knowledge.  But they will not likely be true panaceas to deep learning and deep memory.  Ironically, educators of the future may be needed to create ambiguity, difficulty, pain, and frustration to overcome the simplicity of knowledge portals.  Also there will be so much knowledge in the world's knowledge bases that educators will be desperately needed to put together curricula "cruises" that can be managed by students in a sea of knowledge.  See my threads on knowledge portals at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/portals.htm.
  
  

• Myth 08
  A major advantage of education technologies is that they make life easier for instructors.  Nothing can be further from the truth than the myth that instructional technologies make it easier to teach a course.  In fact, the major drawback is that use of technologies causes instructor burn out even among instructors who are proficient in the use of these technologies.  One of the burn out factors is the increased burden of dealing with heavy electronic communications from students and the monitoring of student communications in electronic chat rooms.  Another drawback is that learning materials should be designed specifically for an online pedagogy.  Old lecture materials cannot simply be pasted into a web server with the expectation that students will get as much from reading them as they did from listening to the lectures.  Lecture materials must be redesigned into hypertext and hypermedia format with gaps filled in where the lecturer tends to ad lib or interact live with students in class.  Messages from "daring professors" on their frustrations with educational technologies can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ideasmes.htm.
  
  

• Some Other Myths

Ideas for Teaching Online

Interactive Network Simulation Learning Example

SmartSims.com has its roots in a research group from the University of Auckland that formed in 1992. Its goal was to put together resources to improve the learning process for business students. Since we place a high value on experiential learning, we felt a simulation was 'the way to go' to get students more actively involved in the subject matter of their courses.

Our first product was an interactive simulation of a manufacturing company called Mike's Bikes. From the Mike's Bikes Project, we have broadened our horizons into a complete suite of resources for students and instructors. These products range from interactive business simulations and server administration tools to lecture notes, presentations, assignments and model answers. While universities are an important part of what we do (and who we are), we also do a lot of work 'out in the real world'. One of our core activities is helping companies to develop their internal staff development programmes.

Since its first release in 1997, Mike's Bikes and other SmartSims.com learning resources have been extensively used in corporate and academic (both graduate and undergraduate) business courses throughout the United States and Canada, Asia, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. 

Mike's Bikes Home Page --- http://www.netmike.com/about.asp   

Mike's Bikes is a state of the art internet-based, business learning simulation. By simulating a bike industry with market segments, distributors and firms, Mike's Bikes allows students to learn by doing and practice a wide range of business disciplines and skills effectively, in a compelling and responsive simulated environment.

Mike's Bikes Student Learning Outcomes:

An understanding of core business functions Ability to visualise a business as an interactive system of these components Opportunity to analyse company data using higly visual graphics Practice of quantitative skills required for management using MS Excel Development of the skills for effective team management.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Education Technologies

Chapter 2 of Jensen and Sandlin (1997) at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245ch02.htm 

Email Messaging and Paperless Courses Advantages of Email Messaging and Paperless Courses.
There are many claimed advantages that have undoubtedly contributed to the exponential growth of course messaging.

• It is markedly easier and more timely to use email to clear up confusions about assignments and course content.
• Email communications are great sources for published FAQs and answers.
• Instructors can communicate announcements without having to wait until the class meets.
• Some students communicate more openly when they are not face-to-face with the instructor or in a classroom setting.
• Email communications are "in writing" and can be easily filed and word searched.
• Email messages can be printed and filed in a traditional manner.
• Word processor files, spreadsheet files, or other files can be appended to an email message and broadcast to all subscribers (students).
• Email aids in building team and communication skills.
• Email aids in communications with experts and students in other locations.
• Other advantages and disadvantages reported by educators are mentioned in Page (Document) 4 at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen  .

Disadvantages of Email Messaging and Paperless Courses.
There are many problems that have undoubtedly contributed to the frustrations of course messaging.

• There can be chaotic turmoil when setting up and maintaining course electronic mail.
• Students are prone to losing stored messages and work in progress.
• A system is needed to verify that student email submissions have been filed by the instructor.
• Communicating with a student by email is analogous to having a "recorded" discussion with that student.
• Email communications may be permanently filed by students and passed on to future students.
• Attachment files such as Microsoft Word DOC or Excel XLS files sent as email attachments to instructors and/or other students may be infected with viruses.

Distribution of Student Work on the Internet Advantages of Publishing Student Work on the Internet.
Probably the main advantage is improved quality and honesty of student work.

• Students gain self confidence and take pride in having their work made public.
• Scholars in other parts of the world can access the works of a student or the student's professor.
• Students become familiar with how to publish WWW Documents.

Disadvantages of Publishing Student Work on the Internet. 
There are technical things that must be learned about WWW publishing and this may add heavily to the workload of the student and the instructor.

• Glitches in the college's web server system can be frequent and troublesome.
• If WWW publishing is specified in a required course, the student who does not want his or her work made public should be given some other alternative.
• The published work of some students may embarrass the instructor and college. This is especially the case since plagiarizing is so much easier to detect using WWW search engines.
• The published work of some students may put the college or university at risk for lawsuits and criminal complicity if no policy is in place for removing some dangerous web Page (Document) s from web servers.

Computer Aided Teaching (CAT) Synchronous CAT Presentation Lecture Aids Advantages of Using Synchronous CAT Presentation Lecture Aids. 
CAT presentation aids might benefit both local and synchronized distance education classes.

• You can enhance research presentations at conferences and seminars.
• You will be better equipped for today's generation of young people weaned on television, videos, and electronic games.
• You will discover that hard copy handouts and chalk boards just cannot compete with the visualization, animation, audio, and video powers of computers.
• You will be forced into giving more thought and attention to course preparation and teaching creativity.
• You can make available (in a computer lab or campus-wide on a computer network) both the material you present in class plus added material and problems that you want students to study outside the classroom.
• You can randomly access your lecture notes during a presentation.
• You can avoid chalk dust. What you put on the "board" earlier is not permanently erased and can easily be repeated in animated evolution just as it was the first time it was presented.
• You can record a lecture-aid CD or use a network server to contain multiple courses, research papers, literature abstracts, and other materials that would fill a large room in hardcopy equivalents.
• You can use CAT software to randomly select students to answer questions in class or respond in case discussions.
• You can achieve greater curriculum uniformity (e.g., in 10 discussion sections of basic accounting taught by doctoral students, for instance) by having multiple instructors teach using identical CAT aids, thereby facilitating greater uniformity of coverage.
• You can interact in class with students via electronic response pads or ideally via entire keyboards.
• You can set up remedial lessons and tests on networks that allow slow learners and students who miss class opportunities for self-help.
• You will discover that new technologies are vastly superior and cheaper than anyone anticipated.

Ways to Avoid the Dangers of Using Synchronous CAT Presentation Lecture Aids. 
Use electronic transparencies and other computer presentations sparingly in class meetings.

• Don't overwhelm students with masses of visual material and/or rapid successions of images.
• Request that your students be patient with your "first-draft" presentations and possible limitations of your display equipment.
• Try to make all or most of your presentation materials available to students before and/or after class.
• Provide font size controls.
• Avoid displaying masses of text that students can more easily read or search outside the classroom.
• Unless there is a reason to change background colors, font colors, font sizes, and formatting styles, try to be consistent.
• Use animation sparingly with stop, pause, and continue controls.
• Avoid overuse of color or frequent changes in color schemes.
• Plan ahead in making color choices by knowing what colors work best on your LCD or other projection device.
• On some LCDs, pastel colors do not show up well. With portable LCDs, white backgrounds sometimes light up the room better than dark backgrounds. With some portable LCDs, however, white is a poor background for vivid contrasts. Cursors tend to show up better on dark backgrounds. If you plan to convert your computer lessons into analog videos (e.g., videotape), avoid reds and other colors that tend to bleed and/or show more flicker in digital-to-analog conversions.
• Don't necessarily display all of your lecture notes.
• Don't simply become a parrot reading aloud what you flash on the screen.
• Don't expect a lot of advance preparation to eliminate the need for before-class preparation.
• Don't use electronic materials as an excuse to not change textbooks.
• Remember that it is usually more important to inspire students to want to learn than it is to have them learn technical content in any particular course.
• Obtain student feedback on classroom presentations.
• Watch out for copyright violations.

Computer Aided Learning (CAL) Asynchronous CAL Modules and Courses Advantages of Asynchronous CAL Modules and Courses. 
The main advantages of asynchronous CAL are that student learning is self-paced and interactive.

• Educators can experiment in creative ways using unique and intriguing WWW sites.
• Other advantages are remote delivery of cost-efficient and conveniently distributed "virtual" courses.
• Cross-cultural and cross-functional teams of students can be formed in virtual education and research.
• Networked learning combines fun and education for students as they surf the Internet in teams or on their own.
• Colleges are expanding their markets with CAL in lifelong learning programs.
• Both better student performance and higher evaluations of instructors can result.
• You must ultimately adopt new learning technologies in your courses and program curricula.
• You can experiment with paperless courses.
• You can become a part of a world wide movement of researchers experimenting with new and creative ways to utilize modern technology in education.
• You can react to appeals of the Accounting Education Change Commission.
• You will find funding sources for technology research and application increasing at a much faster rate in the future.
• You may discover that new technology can lead to more cross-discipline research and applications.
• You can avoid teaching toward obsolescence.
• You can play a greater part in developing and sharing learning materials with professors and students in foreign nations, notably underdeveloped nations.

Ways to Avoid the Disadvantages of Asynchronous CAL Modules and Courses. 
Try to resist temptations to dehumanize some courses by eliminating face-to-face encounters.

• Asynchronous CAL can be extremely effective for learning technical material before coming to class. However, be reasonable about the time expected for network learning outside of class.
• Delete as well as add material with each revision (or create optional rather than required links to material of less importance in the course).
• Obtain student feedback on CAL modules.
• Avoid requiring rote memorization of CAL online material.
• Try to avoid getting the image of being a computer hacker more interested in the machines per se than what they can do for your teaching and research.
• Remember that it is usually more important to inspire students to want to learn than it is to have them learn technical content in any particular course.
• Remember the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) rule.
• Students lose socialization benefits in virtual universities.
• There are risks of obvious and not-so-obvious copyright violations even in uncontrolled distributions on CDs, intranets, and the WWW.
• There are risks of copyright violations due to uncertainties in Education Fair Use Laws covering new technologies.
• Research on effectiveness of CAL is often futile due to the pace of technological change, the variation in learning ingredients, and Hawthorne effects.

Virtual Learning and MUD-Type (MOO) Interactions Advantages of Virtual Learning and MUD-Type (MOO) Interactions. 
Virtual settings, especially VR settings, are increasingly more realistic.

• Students and trainees can become immersed in very realistic harmful situations without getting harmed.
• Students and trainees can repeatedly be placed in settings that are rare events in real life.
• Students and trainees can be placed in places and times that are not possible in a literal sense.
• Participants find virtual learning more exciting and motivational than traditional books, lectures, and case discussions in class.
• Participants are active rather than passive learners.
• Learning can be more contextual. You can create interactive and animated hypermedia graphics and simulations that bring students closer to realities and experiences of the outside world. Students may also create hypermedia in their own learning projects.
• Simulations can adjust to the abilities and aptitudes of the participants.
• MUD-like simulations stimulate creativity and cooperation among students who previously showed little imagination or willingness to enthusiastically cooperate.
• Instructors can try different approaches with students in MUD settings by assuming different anonymous avatars.
• Anecdotal and scientific research on virtual learning is generally positive (subject to complications noted in the following section).
• Disadvantages of Virtual Learning and MUD-Type Simulations Good VR is very capital intensive.
• Good VR facilities that exist on some campuses are only available to a small subset of faculty.
• VRML is less capital intensive, far less realistic than VR, and not yet a uniform standard.
• MUD-type simulations are radical departures from traditional learning paradigms.

Update on MOOs and MUDs  
"Instructors Try Out Updated MOOs as Online-Course Classrooms" 
Jeffrey R. Young, The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 24, 2000 
http://chronicle.com/free/2000/10/2000102401u.htm 

The updated MOO systems aren't as graphics-heavy as three-dimensional "virtual worlds," in which virtual spaces are rendered in constantly-updated drawings. Both types of software encourage group activity, but in MOOs the written word is still king and the pictures merely serve as links between areas of a text-based environment.

One such updated MOO system, called enCore Xpress, is distributed free of charge online, provided that users agree to share any improvements they make to it. The software was created by Cynthia Haynes and Jan Rune Holmevik at the University of Texas at Dallas, where Ms. Haynes is director of rhetoric and writing and Mr. Holmevik is a visiting scholar in arts and humanities. Together, the two scholars also run Lingua MOO, which serves as an environment for online classes and a meeting place for people studying arts and humanities.

By making the chat environments easier to use, they hope to "bring MOOs into the mainstream," says Mr. Holmevik. "We have probably seen over 100 to 150 educational MOOs start because of our software."

Among the professors using enCore Xpress for online courses is Joel A. English, an assistant professor of professional writing at Old Dominion University. Last spring, he used the MOO to teach an advanced composition course.

Ten of his students logged in to the classes from their homes via the MOO, while the rest of the students sat in a classroom. Mr. English used a video camera to stream his lectures live over the MOO. The students in the MOO could type to each other, or type questions for the professor, while they watched and listened to the lecture. A teaching assistant moderated the online chat and voiced students' questions to Mr. English.

"That may sound cumbersome," Mr. English says, "but it was just my attempt at making sure that those students sitting at home at a computer could add to the discussion just like everybody else."

Mr. English says he doesn't mind if online students chat among themselves during his lecture -- provided they discuss the material. "If they're talking so much about course content that they miss something I say, then something right is going on," he says. "The best classrooms are those which are active, where students have active participation and don't just sit there sucking down content." He says the MOO students developed a stronger sense of community than the ones in the traditional classroom.

Other professors who've taught in MOOs report that the environment encourages free-for-all discussions rather than lecturing to a group.

"It can feel like you're herding cats online," says Linda G. Polin, a professor of education at Pepperdine University. She says the trick for a professor is to allow students to drive discussion without losing complete professorial control. For her courses, Ms. Polin uses a MOO-software package called Tapped In, which is similar to enCore Xpress.

Even with the updated MOO software, however, it can take a few weeks for students to get used to the environment, the professors say.

"The biggest challenge for students, by the way, is typing," says Ms. Polin. "Some students are very fast and some are not."

At its best, Ms. Polin says, the software can provoke discussions that are richer than traditional class sessions. "It can fulfill that fantasy we faculty all carry around in our hearts of the intense late-night coffeehouse intellectual discussion."

Background articles from The Chronicle:

• Virtual Reality on a Desktop Hailed as New Tool in Distance Education (10/6/2000)
• College 'MOOs' Foster Creativity and Collaboration Among Users (2/09/1996)

A veteran MOOer in tax education is that funny (I mean doubles-you-up kind of funny) Professor Robert C. Rickets, Haskell Taylor Professor of Taxation, Texas Tech University.

Chris Dede's Vignettes on Distributed Education
"Advanced Technologies and Distributed Learning," by Chris Dede, Higher Education in an Era of Digital Competition Edited by D.E. Hanna (Madison, WI:  Atwood Publishing, IBN 1-891859-32-3, 2000, pp. 771-92.

• Good News Vignettes

1. Students who are silent and passive in classroom setting may "find their voice in an interactive medium." (Maria's story)
   
2. Distributed education will educate more people at a lower cost per student (Karen's story)
   
3. Distributed education will educate in smaller groups with easier and unprejudiced access by all. (Vesper's story)

• Bad News Vignettes

1. Distributed education is counter to privacy as instructors track every learning move and monitor learning in real time.
   
2. Education will become a highly competitive medium with possible harm to long-term quality and creativity.
   
3. Education will be more risky for innovators who may take heavy hits on evaluations and market choice by students.

An Innovative Online Low Budget Synchronous International Accounting Course on Multiple  Campuses Around the World http://WWW.Trinity.edu/rjensen/255light.htm

Introduction

The Course is Globally Synchronous On the Internet

The Main Purposes of the Course

Invited Guests are Also Online

Technology Software Successes and Problems

Coordination and Course Credit Problems

Student Evaluations of the Course

Advantages and Disadvantages from a Faculty Perspective

Professor Lightner's Acknowledgements

Conclusions by Bob Jensen

The course syllabus is located at http://www.aznet.net/course/doors/ 

Introduction

A highlight for me at the November 6-7, 1998 AICPA Accounting Educators Conference was a presentation by Sharon Lightner from San Diego State University and Linard Nadig from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.  This presentation followed a ceremony presenting Professors Lightner and Nadig with the $1,000 AICPA Collaboration Award prize.

The course syllabus is located at http://www.aznet.net/course/doors/ 

The Collaboration Award was given for an online course that is now offered to a class comprised of five students from each of six universities in the United States, Japan, Switzerland, Spain, Hong Kong, and the United States.  I videotaped the presentation by Professors Lightner and Nadig.  The purpose of this document is to provide you with a summary of the highlights of this innovative international accounting course.

The course has some highly innovative features including the online participation of accounting standard setting bodies in the various countries mentioned above.  The course is also innovative in that students in class and in team projects see and hear one another over the Internet in a manner much like they would see and hear each other if they were all in the same classroom.

The Course is Globally Synchronous On the Internet

At San Diego State University (SDU), the course is given as ACCT 596 Experiential International Accounting course with focus on international accounting standards and standard setting.  The course is simultaneously given on six campuses in Switzerland, Japan, Spain (two campuses), and Hong Kong.  Each school provides five students.   Hong Kong was added in the second year of providing this course online.  A professor from each of the campuses is assigned to jointly teach the course (in English).  

The course meets once each week at the same time.  This means that SDU students must assemble in a computer lab at 11:00 p.m. at the same time students from other parts of the world assemble in their computer labs.  Other starting times were at 8:00 a.m. in Switzerland and Spain, 12:00 p.m. in Japan, and 4:00 p.m. in Hong Kong.   In addition, student teams must assemble at times when all team members can participate online.  Grading is based primarily upon class participation and team project performance.  The course professor from each campus also is online for each class.   In addition, one or more staff members from the standard setting body of each nation is online for some of the classes.

A helper for the course is an Internet training online introduction called   "Opening Doors to Internet Knowledge" that is described at http://www.treuhaender.ch/10-96/Rechnung/14dnadig/14dnadig.html   Anyone can register for the online training materials.  A summary of the training course is given below:

The Main Purposes of the Course

The main purpose is to  allow students from other nations to simultaneously study international accounting standards in a formal course.   Accounting standards differ between nations in many ways due to differing cultural, economic, and financial histories.  As business becomes more global, understanding of these differences and efforts to harmonize these standards grow in importance.

Another purpose is to conduct a unique experiment in synchronized online learning in the presence of students from other nations, professors from other nations, and accounting standard-setting officials in other nations.

The course deals with both cultural issues and accounting issues having the greatest differences between nations.  

Other purposes deal with technology and innovation.  The course is an experiment in the efficiency and effectiveness of selected computer, networking, email, chat line, audio, and video technologies for delivery of synchronized lectures, cases, and class discussions simultaneously via the Internet.

Other purposes included experimenting with remote submission of student projects via FTP transfers across the Internet.  Students also communicate via chat rooms and bulletin boards.

A key purpose is to experiment with the ability of student teams to work efficiently and effectively online.  Students were members of two teams.  The first team is comprised of students on the same campus.  The second team is comprised of one student from each of the six campuses.

Invited Guests are Also Online

A unique feature of this course is the presence of invited guests to appear live online (in audio and video) in selected classes.  The accounting standard setting body in each nation provided one or more assigned staff members to participate in the course.  For example, in the United States, the Financial Accounting Standards Board representative is Thomas Porter.  From Connecticut, Tom must arise before 2:00 a.m. to appear on a course commencing in California at 11:00 p.m.

In addition, online guests included employees of accounting and business firms from various nations.

Technology Software Successes and Problems

Each computer on each campus and guest participant site had a camera to transmit images of students, instructors and guests.  HoneyCom multi-purpose video software was used for that purpose.  The Honey Software home page is located at http://www.honeysw.com/   This company has a variety of software downloading options.

Audio around the world was transmitted via Onlive Talker software multi-person audio from Onlive Inc. at http://www.onlive.com/

Text messaging, chat lines, and file transfer software used ICQ software from Mirabillis at http://www.mirabilis.com/    Professor Lightner reported that one thing she liked about ICQ chats is that up to six different screens can be viewed simultaneously from six different users.   She also liked it that messages could be viewed as they were being written rather than having to wait for a message to be completed and then transmitted. 

Professors Lightner and Nadig reported general satisfaction with the hardware and software technology.  The main problem seemed to be bandwidth and Internet connection speed, especially in Spain.  At times, students must shut off the video in order to get reliable online audio.

Coordination and Course Credit Problems

One problem is that all six universities have different semester starting and ending dates. 

Another problem lies in giving academic credit for the course.  Issues arise regarding having multiple instructors from multiple countries.  Course topics do not necessarily fit neatly into the curriculum plan for each university.  Admission standards are not uniform for all students across all countries.  Each campus controlled its own admissions of students to the course.

Comparing and grading student performance on teams is always a challenge and having team members only meeting on the Internet adds to this challenge.  Professor Lightner felt, however, that student performance to date has greatly exceeded the expectations of all the instructors.

Student Evaluations of the Course

The most frequent complaint by students was in the difficulty of scheduling online meetings of their team members.  Time zone differences were particularly troublesome.

In this course there are both national and international projects.  Making these projects due the same week was troublesome for some students.

Students enjoyed being exposed to the advanced internet communication technologies.  However, these technologies were also troublesome at times.  For example, having to shut down the video images in order to improve audio communication can be troublesome.  Also, having to write messages in English that are viewed in real time while the messages were being viewed around the world must have been troublesome for Japanese, Swiss, Spanish, and Hong Kong students.

In general, student evaluations of the course are very high.

Advantages and Disadvantages from a Faculty Perspective

At the AICPA Educators Conference, Professor Nadig from Switzerland discussed the advantages and disadvantages from the perspective of a faculty member in the course.   Advantages included improvement of student and faculty communication skills and technology skills.  It is far better to experience these newer technologies first hand than to merely read about how others use them.   Close interaction and teamwork by international students obviously improved communication skills and team building skills.

Other advantages included cultural exposures, interactions with professional accounting standard setters and accounting practitioners in six nations, and networking both during and after the course.  The students had team projects much like projects they may encounter in their careers following graduation.

Professor Nadig did not dwell on disadvantages.  I suspect there are hurdles to jump over.  Admission standards are not identical for all students.   Other problems included different semester dates and time zones across six nations.   Student evaluations by multiple instructors having international online teams is obviously a great challenge.  It was not mentioned by Professors Lightner and Nadig, but obviously communication is somewhat difficult in written and oral communications by students whose primary language is not English.  This becomes even more difficult using ICQ software where messages appear before foreign students and foreign faculty have a change to read over the message and correct the phrasings in English.

Professor Lightner mentioned some difficulty in getting students into the course.   Each campus had a somewhat different process for admitting students.  She mentioned that some students as SDU balked at having a course meeting at 11:00 p.m.  She did assert that students who ended up in the course exceeded the expectations of faculty in terms of course performance.

Bob Jensen's homepage is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/