Choosing & Using Technologies in Education & Training
The FirstClass community at Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE began in late 1996 when I developed the first on-line course for the institute. I was studying Teaching and Learning On-line, a professional development course funded by Open Training Services which was delivered on-line from Box Hill Institute of TAFE. The Deakin University had a FirstClass server, and the Teaching and Learning On-line participants were given access to some of its features. Although student connection difficulties caused problems in this case, the software offered a variety of very useful tools and I could see its potential value as an on-line classroom environment.
My on-line course trial group used Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Macintosh computers and this prompted me to do some research on the internet into various communication tools that would be platform independent. I had an image of a controllable space which was as easy to configure as possible, plus being very similar to a Windows or Macintosh screen. It was not my intention to spend a lot of time training the users. Cost was also a major factor. The initial cost under $400 for FirstClass server plus relatively inexpensive licences made the software attractive.
At that stage I did not have a server computer to work with, and it was through a mixture of luck and asking that I was able to utilise a test Windows NT server. This server now houses our on-line course web pages and FirstClass server. It is protected by the institute firewall.
The project consists of a FirstClass on-line network which currently consists of 600+ licences with applications for more licences by groups and individuals.
The project aims to provide synchronous and asynchronous communication and an on-line learning environment for teachers, students and project groups involved in and with flexible programs at Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE.
The current clients are a diverse group and therefore I will present three showcases which are intended to detail the variety of clients on FirstClass.
1. Project Teams: The On-line Flexible Delivery Team
The team commenced work on developing eight on-line modules and on-line course web site in January 1998. The team are all from Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE, but work in a variety of departments over several campuses. The time line for the project was very tight with work to be completed by mid April 1998. It was decided to meet once a week for one hour face to face, and communicate, collaborate, transfer files and train each other using FirstClass. Benefits included the ability to chat to several team members synchronously to solve a problem, reduced travel time, instant communication, and file transfer. Within three months the team had clocked up over 700 hours on-line.
The team currently meet face to face fortnightly and generally all other project work and business is conducted in FirstClass. Using this software, team members are able to send files which need immediate attention eg web pages, maintain project information and carry out synchronous communication to solve problems or discuss a project with several members. The team members log in daily including nights and weekends, often several times or for hours at a time. Minutes of meetings can be typed during the meeting and are thus immediately available for all members.
Wodonga Institute of TAFE
This team is preparing on-line materials. The group are on one site and use the software as a resource for on-line writers. The group folder offers a general message centre and two specialist folders. A member of the project team has undergone sub administration training with the Northern Institute on-line team.
2. Profile students: Buyer Behaviour
Buyer Behaviour, a module in several Associate Diplomas in Commerce, is offered in on-line flexible delivery mode. A conferencing folder has been customised for this class of fourteen on-line learners. It contains a general course discussion center suitable for general comments from tutor to learners and learners with each other; two tutorial chats which learners and tutor can double click in order to enter immediately into a synchronous chat screen; relaxation folders for students; archived tutorial folder; and file transfer folder for student assignments. A photograph album is another folder supplied. Any FirstClass user can copy and paste their photograph into this area.
It was decided that two real time tutorial groups should be formed as a group of fourteen was difficult to manage for the first-time on-line tutor. Each tutorial runs for 30-45 minutes. The tutor questions the learners on topics in the course and theory they have studied in their text book and Toolbook computer based training files.
The client group are often sales people who are travelling and it was decided to save on-line communication time and cost by running on-line tutorials. Most study and training is carried out using text and computer based training which can be run off line. Learners have enjoyed this mode enormously and have requested more of the Associate Diploma delivered in this fashion.
The on-line tutor was trained by the team in what to expect from on-line learners, and was mentored on-line. This was managed by running a private chat between tutor and mentor while the tutorial chat was running with learners. Learners were not aware that the private chat was in progress. The purpose of mentoring was troubleshooting likely learner problems and difficulties such as lack of windows experience and inexperience with the software, encouragement and how to manage a group on-line.
3. Professional Development
Teaching and Learning On-line
This professional development course for teachers is delivered by Box Hill Institute of TAFE. Currently approximately 70 learners and 5 tutors use FirstClass as part of the course requirements.
The class has a communal conference folder which contains a general message area, a set of course unit folders, a course chat icon and photograph album. All users can double click to enter the chat area. All learners also have access to a useful shareware folder. Some tutors have private tutorial group folders which have been named by their groups eg ‘Seagulls’ and ‘The Optimists’ are names chosen by my tutorial groups (I am a tutor in this course). A folder on the Virtual Campus is maintained by the course coordinator and is available to a select trial group. The tutors also have a private folder for arranging meetings and discussing the course. On three occasions during the course a focus folder is added for one week and then archived. The purposes of FirstClass include introducing teachers to this form of communication and providing learners with opportunities to collaborate.
Northern On-line Professional Development
This professional development course for teachers in on-line education is delivered by Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE. It is a combination of face to face and on-line components.
Learners have a communal folder with general message area, useful shareware folder, photographs, upcoming conferences and events, archives, tutorial chat and folders for each mentor. The main purposes of the communication is to connect learners over distance, manage the mentoring process, uploading of files especially web pages, and cross pollination of ideas. In 1998 it will be a vehicle for course notes as NOPD will be offered both in its current mode and mostly on-line.
The opportunity for a face to face induction was extremely valuable with both courses this year as the teachers were confident that users would be able to cope with the on-line environment after an initial training session.
Teaching, Learning and Technology
This on-line community includes formalised tutorial style training, informal sharing of information, collaborative learning and ‘on the spur of the moment’ skills development. Teachers and sub administrators have found the program very easy to learn and administrative procedures generally simple to master. We have found that users rarely use help menus and files, but learn faster when given small achievable tasks regularly. This may be simple ‘how to’ messages in general message areas, set tasks for on-line students and quick help comments during chat sessions.
Two web pages were uploaded to our on-line course web site early in 1997 at http://online.nmit.vic.edu.au which give simple instructions for using the software and download/installation instructions for both Macintosh and Windows. The hit rate on these web pages indicates they are visited often. Users also email and phone to contact us about connection and configuration difficulties. The Teaching and Learning On-line course includes a link to Deakin University’s on-line manual on using FirstClass.
The technological requirements for FirstClass are available on the Canadian company’s web site at http://www.softarc.com The server will run on either Macintosh or Windows NT. There is no UNIX version. All messages and files in the version we use (version 3.1) remain on the server which means the hard disk needs to be large enough to cope with the traffic. A user is able to start FirstClass on any internet connected computer and obtain all files s/he has permission to see which has proved extremely handy when travelling and using other computers. A CD ROM can be placed on the server and an appropriate folder placed on users desktop that allow them access to the CD ROM. We choose to run entirely using a TCP-IP protocol (over the internet), however FirstClass can run using an IPX and other (internal network) protocols. We will eventually upgrade to a later version, but are quite satisfied with the ease of use associated with a smaller version.
Our FirstClass system is managed as a three tiered system. The first tier is an overall administrator which is me. As administrator I am able to maintain the system profile, granting and declining rights over the entire system. I am able to maintain statistics for all purposes. The most common purpose at present is to ascertain that a student has met student contact hours required to pass the course. I have remote access to the hard disk of the server and am able to run a variety of programs from any computer including the FirstClass server. I spend approximately 20 minutes per day in purely administration tasks.
The second tier is a group of sub-administrators. These trained people are able to create privilege groups with certain rights, create conferences, add and delete users, monitor the system and control user permissions. A sub administrator is normally responsible for a group of students in a course or a project team. Once set up, very little time is needed to maintain a course on this software. Setup time depends on the structure or design i.e. numbers of folders and privileges of the group.
The third tier are the general users who have control over certain personal preferences, personal resumes and email preferences. We have found that a face to face opportunity to learn FirstClass significantly decreases the time required to learn basic features. Generally speaking one should allow up to a month for a student to feel confident using new software.
The cost of the server is quite low (under $400) and bulk licences can be purchased quite reasonably. We choose to charge a small fee for use of the licences by project groups and students studying with other institutes, but not for internal students.
Our experience with our on-line community and FirstClass software leads us to the following reflections.
Report by Margaret Aspin, Team Leader, Flexible Delivery, Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE, Victoria
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