3.8: Course Evaluation

Each student was expected to prepare a two to five-page evaluation of the course and its approach that should be submitted in electronic format.

The Course Takes Off

The course started on January 7, 2008 at 8:00 A.M. PST and 4:00 P.M. Ghana Time and 8:00 P.M. in Bangalore, India, with 35 students at Kwantlen University College, six students in Ghana, and one student in Bangalore, India. Initially, we anticipated twice the number of Kwantlen students taking the course from UGL. This was not to be, because the University of Ghana was closed due to the African Cup of Nations Football (Soccer) Tournament that was held in Ghana in the months of January and February. Thus, six graduate students ended up enrolling in the course, instead of about 70 potential undergraduate students.

The course was held in labs equipped with computers, projectors and screens at both sites—KUC and UGL. I had two course assistants, Kaelan Wong, a Kwantlen University College science major, and Sandy Hirtz of BCcampus. Dr. Darkwah was assisted by Mr. Patrick Kuti, webmaster for UGL. The lone student in Bangalore in India—Laura Johnson accessed the course through a computer terminal.

Division of Labour

Dr. Darkwah and I agreed at the planning stage that we divided the lecture and discussion sessions between us. I was to lead the lectures and discussions for the month of January and Dr. Darkwah was to take over in February. I was to take over in March and April. The lab sessions were conducted by course assistant Kaelan with assistance from me and Sandy.

Day one

A virtual interactive classroom was the first of its kind at Kwantlen University College. Naturally, day one was filled with anxiety and uncertainty, but also anticipation and excitement. Neither I nor my students and course assistants had any idea what to expect. I did my best to assuage the fears and uncertainties of my students by assuring them that the course was a steep learning curve for all of us—instructors, course assistants and students.

Sandy Hirtz is an expert in Elluminate, being the BCcampus Online Community Producer. Kaelan took training courses in Elluminate and Moodle during the Summer. I had gone through my own training a year ago, but to what to extent the amount of training will come into play could only be gauged when interacting with the students. Both programs seemed straightforward enough. The interface was laid out in a user-friendly format. Icons were for the most part appropriately assigned.

The first day was devoted to familiarizing students with the “bells and whistles”—the technological aspects of the course. This was done superbly by course assistant Sandy Hirtz of BCCampus. It was decided that it would be best if there was some way to record each lecture and have them posted online for student access. This would allow students to revisit the lecture should there be a technological failure that day. The first attempt was made by utilizing a digital video camera to record the lecture and then uploading it online. This method had to be abandoned due to the large file size of digitized two-hour lecture recording. The Moodle server was unable to host such a large file. Other programs were looked at as a possibility to record the lecture but in the end, the built in recording tool in the Elluminate program was used due to its simplicity and ease of access for students. Recordings were saved via the Elluminate website and a link was provided to each recorded lecture.

For the most part, Elluminate showed very little problems with execution. PowerPoint lectures were loaded onto the whiteboard in the program and students from both BC and Ghana can view them on their own computers. The audio was clear, although there was some delay when transmitting from Ghana. Due to this problem, audio output was only limited to one set of speakers. Multiple speaker outputs from different computers produced a garbled effect in that each computer were receiving the audio at different rates. The web camera was available for use to see students from both sides of the globe. This, however, was rarely utilized. The whiteboard was also used when students were asked for their input during lectures. A blank whiteboard would be put up and students would type in their ideas so that everyone can see it. Most students actively participated during these sessions. During lab sessions, students used the whiteboard to communicate with their fellow group members as well as compile their lab work.

There were complaints from a number of students that the whiteboard was not a very effective method for placing text. First of all, since its functions mirrored that of Windows Paint, it is limited in its word processing capabilities. Students have suggested that it should have a built in word processor for working on collaborative lab work. Also, frustration arose when students wanted to save their lab work and be able to edit it at home. The whiteboard can only be saved as a whiteboard file and so it was not compatible with other word editing software. Also, the file can only be opened in Elluminate.

The only option that students had was to use the “print screen” function and save an image of their work. This, of course, was not editable in Micrsoft Word. In addition, even though the print screen function was an instant solution for those who are more adept with computers; novice users found it to be both confusing and frustrating. These students resorted to using the whiteboard for brainstorming ideas and having one group member, taking the ideas and typing it in an alternate word processing program. Some students avoided using Elluminate during labs and, instead, used Messenger to communicate with their group. So, there was a mix bag of reactions from the students.

There was also apprehension when it came to using the microphones to communicate with the class. Students were each provided with headsets that had built in microphones but only a couple of students actually used it. When asked to participate in such discussions, students did not readily volunteer.

In Moodle online assignment submissions, one of most frequent problems encountered was that students tend to forget and spend long periods of time typing up their assignment in Moodle, only to have it “disappear” when the time out feature dissipated their work into virtual oblivion. Also, only one student can submit their work at any one time and the submission text box cannot be utilized by another student until they are done.

Project Hits a Snag: Internet “Inconnectivity”

The course hit its major snag in the second month of February. In February, it was it was Professor Darkwah of Ghana’s turn to deliver the lectures via Elluminate. The first lecture held on February 7, went fairly smoothly. However, the second lecture on February 14 was another matter altogether. The African Nations Football (Soccer) Tournament had come to an end and the University of Ghana students have returned to campus. With thousands of the students using the email, the network was overloaded and overwhelmed. Thus, Dr. Darkwah and her students could not connect to Elluminate. The solution was to have Dr. Darkwah record her lectures using audacity and have them posted on Moodle for the Canadian students. But this was not to be, as Dr. Darkwah’s lecture did not record. And this was a huge blow, because the students really enjoyed Dr. Darkwah’s lecture. Several of them made unsolicited complimentary comments after her first lecture and were anticipating her subsequent lectures. The second lecture lasted no more than 30 minutes when she was cut off. At this juncture, it became clear that until the problem of connectivity was solved, we both must conduct our lectures separately. Thus, for the rest of February, the lectures were conducted at the separate sites. My lectures were posted at Moodle for the Ghanaian students. Dr. Darkwah has promised to re-record her lecture own lectures and have them posted at Moodle.

Course Content

Students in general, thought that the course content was intriguing. Issues regarding globalization, poverty, inequities, etc. were put under a magnifying glass by a combination of articles, videos, and lectures. Students showed educational growth in their essays as their “eyes were opened” to the other side. Students were taught to look past the obvious when examining such issues.

Student Reactions

During the first few lab sessions, there were many students who expressed frustrations with using Elluminate and Moodle. This was understandable. Students’ training in both programs was short—one class session or three hours. Although students were constantly assisted and “re-trained” throughout the first few weeks, there was not enough time to really learn to use the programs, especially, Elluminate. In short, there was not enough training time to enable students to learn to use the programs competently and comfortably. One suggestion is that perhaps having a structured training session during the first two lectures to train the students in both Moodle and Elluminate. This will alleviate student frustration and confusion. Most students expressed the view that they were “confused most of the time” but they were happy with the timely responses to their inquiries and the availability of a course assistant to bridge the gap between them and the course instructor. They were further put at ease when they were told that this method of course delivery was new to both faculty and students and that any confusion and frustration that they were experiencing was to be expected. They were encouraged to voice their opinions throughout the duration of the semester. In fact, in my first lecture, I told the students that since the course was technology-intensive, it was going to be a steep learning curve for both students and instructors, and that there were likely to be technological glitches and blackouts.