5. Feature Article: An Online Open Learning Campus?

The workshop envisaged possibilities of asynchronous course delivery through a low-cost community based electronic network facility. We simulated the user interface for an Online Open University as it can be provided by Pegasus Networks. This enables distance education students to access lectures, interactive tutorials and a knowledge base. Virtually any brand of computer and modem is suitable for online access.

During the last year one formal and one informal course have been delivered via Pegasus Networks. We reported about an English Freshman Composition Class from a California based college which has been "attended" online by a Byron Bay student; and an informal journalism course with 7 participants, conducted by the Extended Learning Network, Sydney.

Successful distance education requires library access. We presented existing links between the NSW library network ILANET and Pegasus Networks and discussed further possibilities of library and database access for online students.

The workshop demonstrated clearly that interactive computer-text based communication technology will not replace but enhance traditional audio-visual teaching and learning media and thus can be of great benefit for distance education students.

Increasingly computers are used in distance education. As a universal tool their function can easily be adapted to the needs of teachers and students alike. Computers not only revolutionize our ways of teaching and learning, but also affect the way we communicate with each other, creating a new era of human development. Dertouzos (1991) wrote: "The agricultural age was based on ploughs and the animals that pulled them; the industrial age, on engines and the fuels that fed them. The information age we are now creating will be based on computers and the networks that interconnect them."

The workshop focused on the use of computers and networks for course delivery. We showed how a low-cost community based network such as Pegasus, originally designed to meet the communication needs of NGOs, can in fact be tool and carrier for distance education.

The following parts are summaries of the workshop presenters, who jointly presented experiments in course delivery via Pegasus.

PART I. PEGASUS NETWORKS: THE COMPUTER COMMUNICATIONS PROVIDER

Gert Gast introduced the Australia based grass-roots network, Pegasus, and demonstrated the flexibility of the Pegasus user interface, simulating an "online" campus.

Pegasus Networks has been founded by Ian Peter and has become new force in Australian electronic communications ( Sinton 1991 ). It is a network committed to putting low cost electronic mail and information services within reach of individual computer users. Pegasus aims to move computerized communications out of the domain of specialists. It intends to make this technology available for the broader community such as individuals of all age groups and small community-based organizations. Potential users are community services, small business, and educational institutions. Pegasus Networks provides not only electronic mail but also carries a tremendous knowledge base. More than 1000 conferences covering virtually all areas of interest are available online.

Pegasus has achieved a remarkable degree of technical stability and reliability and provides excellent customer support. It offers gateways not only to its APC partner networks but also to other services such as Keylink, Dialcom, AppleLink, and Internet.

PART II. THE ONLINE CAMPUS

Is a low-cost community based electronic network such as Pegasus Networks a suitable carrier for distance education course delivery ? This question has been of our concern for some time. Ever since the inception of Pegasus we felt that this electronic mail and conferencing service with its global accessibility and interconnectivity has a strong potential for distance learning.

Pegasus is able to create a "network" within the network. This means that educational institutions may use the technical facilities of Pegasus and create their own unique user interface, exclusively tailored to the needs of their lecturers and students. The following figure shows a computer screen as it would appear for a hypothetical student logging on to a hypothetical University from home with a computer and a modem.

ProComm online to PEGASUS 2400 DIRECT
2400
login: (? for help): student
Password: (? for help): xxxxxxx
Terminal = vt100 (hit  or enter new terminal type):
Welcome to the Online Open University!
______ ______
/\____/\ /\____/\ /\ /\ School for Health Sciences
/ / / / / / / / / / / /
/ / / / / / / / / / / / Unit Name : Pathogenesis 1
/_/___/ / /_/___/ / /_/___/ /
\_____\/ \_____\/ \_____\/Bachelor of Health Sciences in Nursing
______________________ Semester 3, Autumn 1992 _______________________

PART III. THE CERRITOS COLLEGE ENGLISH TEACHER'S COMMENTS

This section summarizes the English teacher's comments made during the conference presentation regarding a freshman composition class taught completely online via PC and modem over the Pegasus computer network between Byron Bay,Australia, and Norwalk, California.

1. Background

   • The student from Byron Bay, Australia, was enroled in a regularly scheduled freshman composition course which originated from the Cerritos Community College campus and was taught completely online by computer and modem.
   • The students who lived locally called into a BBS (electronic bulletin board) hosted on a computer in the instructor's office. As these students lived nearby, the calls were free, except for usual monthly telephone service charges.
   • The costs for the Byron Bay student to call California to send in work to the BBS would have been prohibitive; therefore, the student exchanged her writing assignments and other lessons through Pegasus, the Australian computer communications network. The instructor used Internet, a computer communications system which interfaced with Pegasus.
   • By using Pegasus the student reduced her expenses to no more than what she would have spent for gasoline and parking had she attended class in person. The expense for the instructor was less as he had access to Internet, a computer communications service paid for by the college.
   • This online class originated from an experiment undertaken during the fall of 1988 to test the feasibility of offering a regularly scheduled freshman composition class online by computer and modem. At that time, ten students were enroled in a specially designed home-study writing class which required participants to have their own PC's and modems.
   • The success of that test cleared the way for the offering a regularly scheduled class during the fall, 1989, session which has continued to this time.

2. Summary of Instructional Findings

   • That the quality of instruction afforded students online especially with reference to writing essays was superior to that which could be given off-line without a computer.
   • This phenomenon emerges from the fact that online students interact with the instructor on a personal, one-to-one basis. Interaction of this type in a classroom in the presence of 25 to 30 students is not possible.
   • That the quality of academic performance on the part of the students studying online was comparable and in some instances superior to that of students taking the same class in a traditional classroom on campus.
   • That taking an online humanities class in no sense depreciates the sense or elegance of vitiates the meaning of the word "humane" expressed with reference to a humanities class.
   • That collaborative learning can be more effectively accomplished online than in the confines of a traditional classroom with appropriate instructional design in conjunction with mature, motivated learners.
   • That teaching and taking a class online can and does foster a sense of community among students and between instructor and students.
   • That taking a class online for many student enhances their sense of self-worth and dignity because of the extra time and attention given to each person.
   • That the essential element of a personal relationship between instructor and student is not physical proximity but emotional accessibility of one for the other.
   • That students who take online classes do not care or need to participate in the socializing process that goes on in the traditional classroom; those that do, do not enroll in online classes.
   • That the greatest resistance to establishing an innovative program will more often than not come from fellow faculty members rather than from the administration.
   • That even with such an overwhelmingly autonomous group of people, instructor and student must stay in periodic contact, but not necessarily by voice phone or in person.
   • That the greatest problem a student will have in taking an online class is with the process of sending in and getting files from the BBS.
   • That a clear tutorial, either in person or by means of a self- guiding computer lesson, must be given to the student before instruction begins.
   • That there must be a resource person to whom the student can turn to for extra help when need.
   • That the contact between the resource person and the student does not necessarily have to be in person or by voice phone.
   • That students who completed an online course have reported a high degree of satisfaction with their own sense of accomplishment.

PART IV. THE STUDENT'S POINT OF VIEW

As the student of the Trans-Pacific computer-text based Distance Education Course: Freshman English Composition, Jenny Ounsworth reports on her experiences from the student's point of view.

The course was facilitated in Australia by Dr. Gert Gast. He assisted me, as I was not familiar with the computer to begin with; however, I did have keyboard skills. After two weeks training on the computer, and on accessing the network, I was fairly fluent, but still needed occasional assistance. After a couple of months, I was confident on the computer and able to send, receive, and manage the files successfully.

The course worked for me, the student, for many reasons. Firstly, as in all distance education courses, I had the advantage of being able to work at any time and at my own pace.

Receiving written messages via the computer, however, had an immediacy which enhanced the aliveness of the course, and the contact with the tutor. Part of this immediacy was due to the fact that email messages could be exchanged within a 24 hour period. I was unable to attend a university physically because of other commitments and because of the long distance from my home to the university; so for me the distance education course was the ideal way to study and gain qualification.

I was not, however, able to access on-line data-bases (which was part of the course). Instead, I researched local libraries and universities for their capabilities for accessing national and international data bases, which was present; and their availability to students, which I found was nil. On-line data base searches could be made, however, via a request to the librarian.

I was also not able to interact with the other students at Cerritos through a bulletin board, which could have been helpful for discussing the course in a tutorial-like mode, although I did have e-mail contact with some members of the class.

In conclusion, I found the course to be perfectly suited to my needs as a distance education student, and that after initial difficulties with becoming familiar with the medium, it was a most productive and rewarding experience.

PART V. THE JOURNALISM TEACHER'S PERSPECTIVE

Over a five week period, from early September this year, I taught what was the first online adult or continuing education course to be run on Pegasus Networks. The online journalism course was the brainchild of my partner Martin Chadwick, who suggested that I translate live seminars on journalism and creative writing I had been giving into a distance education course. The course was industry-based as I have been a journalist for the past twelve years. The Pegasus Networks offered a good vehicle for this kind of course because of its low subscription rate ($50 per annum) and diligent support system.

The course cost students $55. Seven students from varying backgrounds enroled in the online journalism course - most had had tertiary education. Given that the course was not a formal one, I believe the students were the best judges of its educational value. The response to a student survey was that the course was interesting and that it met students' needs, however some students had difficulty with the technology and some said the workload was too heavy.

Being industry-driven and task oriented, I was alarmed that no students completed all exercises in the course, even though they were offered an industry reference on completion of all work. After some analysis, I concluded that the course had been too intensive for the purposes of continuing education students and that following courses needed to be longer and lighter. It would also seem that offering accreditation for completion of all work as an option could be valuable, if it is just that, rather than making completion of all work obligatory. I also concluded that providing some training with the technology would be of benefit.

From a personal perspective I enjoyed teaching the course, was impressed by the standard of students' work and found the online communication stimulating.

PART VI. PEGASUS AND ILANET

She described the relationship between ILANET and Pegasus Networks and the electronic gateway that allows ILANET customers to visit Pegasus and come back again.

Sandra covered some of the advantages of computer based education. These included:

• seven days a week.
• that computers are non-judgemental, and that they do not care what you look like, where you live, what your morals, politics and ethics are, or, most importantly, how fast or slow you go.

"Being online to a network such as ILANET, and more so with Pegasus, means you have access to a whole range of resources not normally so readily available. Access to people who share similar thoughts and interests and to information in a fast, cost-effective way. This type of access is a saviour for people learning by distance, for people with disabilities who cannot use conventional resources, and even for people who find constant interaction with others, sometimes difficult!"

The potential for co-operation between ILANET and Pegasus Networks was also discussed with a number of possibilities put forward. These included:

• searching ILANET's online public access catalogues for information on bibliographic details.
• placing electronic "subject" requests to the State Library of NSW's General Reference Library.
• sending electronic mail between the two Networks.

The contributions of this workshop showed that rather simple and low-cost technology can be successfully implemented in distance education course delivery. It cannot replace traditional means but enhances them. The new element in Computer-text Mediated Communication (CMC) applied for learning purposes lies in the fact that students are forced to express themselves in clear and concise writing, that the medium is highly interactive, and that it decreases physical and emotional isolation in distance education students by creating a "virtual" classroom atmosphere. Thus, our experiments confirmed findings of other researchers (Hedberg & Harper 1991, Hiltz 1988, Davie & Wells 1991). We believe that further exploration of the medium is necessary.

The potential for collaborative groupwork (Winograd 1988) in an online learning environment is certainly one of the challenges for future online distance learning via networks.

For further information contact:

Dr. Gert Gast
Education Coordinator
Pegasus Networks

Byron Bay
email: ggast@PEG.APC.ORG

Davie, Lynn E., R.Wells.1991. Empowering the Learner Through Computer-Mediated Communication. The American Journal of Distance Education Vol 5, No.1, pp 15-23.
Dertouzos, Michael L. 1991. Communications, Computers and Networks. Scientific American, Vol 265:3, p 30-37.
Hedberg, John G., B.Harper. 1991. Providing Quality when the Distance Is Half-Way around the World. A.S.P.E.S.A Biennial Forum, 15-16 July, Forum Papers, Vol. 2.
Hiltz, Starr Roxanne. 1988. Collaborative Learning via a Virtual Classroom: Highlights of Findings. New Jersey Institute of Technology. Found in ERIC, June.
Weiser, Mark. 1991. The Computer for the 21st Century. Scientific American, Vol 265:3, p 66-75.
Winograd, T.,F.Flores. 1988. Understanding Computers and Cognition. A New Foundation for Design. Addison-Wesley. Reading MA.

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May 1992 -- Presented via the World Wide Web April 1999 by
Tina Evans Greenwood, Library Instruction Coordinator, and Mark Deavors, Library Instruction Assistant,
Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado

GLOSAS NEWS was orinally posted to the WWW at URL: http://library.fortlewis.edu/~instruct/glosas/cont.htm by Tina Evans Greenwood, Library Instruction Coordinator, Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado 81301, e-mail: greenwood_t@fortlewis.edu, and last updated May 7, 1999. By her permission the whole Website has been archived here at the University of Tennessee server directory of GLOSAS Chair Dr. Takeshi Utsumi from July 10, 2000 by Steve McCarty in Japan.