Abstract
The application and use of telelearning technologies in post-secondary education is evolving from peripheral activities to central approaches. Educators are re-discovering collaborative education as they understand how electronic conferencing can support and empower teaching and learning. As students build knowledge collaboratively, asynchronous conferencing elevates engagement and participation, and increases thinking and understanding. This article presents the teaching practices of post-secondary educators who integrated asynchronous electronic conferencing in over one hundred mixed-mode courses at eight North American institutions between 1996 and 1999. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were applied to assess their practices and to further understand the correlation between the use of electronic conferencing and the degree of collaboration achieved. Based on the findings, pedagogical approaches for the use of electronic conferencing are provided, and are grouped according to the level of collaboration. As a result of this study, the authors present a suggested model for the networked classroom to foster and guide the transformation of pedagogical practice.
Highlights
Telelearning has been associated with distance education, wherein instruction is provided to students who are unable to attend campus-based courses
We argue that because the mixed-mode delivery is likely to become mainstream in post-secondary North American institutions, it is worth looking at the way it is being implemented in order to better understand its nature and contribution to teaching and learning
That the true definition of networked classroom lies within the level of collaboration that results from the integration of face-to-face and online socio-cognitive dynamics
Summary
Telelearning has been associated with distance education, wherein instruction is provided to students who are unable to attend campus-based courses. While initially delivered by mail, distance education courses were later enhanced with multimedia. Post-secondary campus-based education delivery is taking advantage of and adopting learning networks. Network-enhanced learning is applied as a collaborative learning activity for knowledge building purposes [4] [10]. Classrooms with extended capabilities, wherein asynchronous electronic conferencing is used to build shared collaborative spaces as a means to achieve set learning goals. The mixedmode is a combination of online and regular instructional strategies “in which a significant portion of a faceto-face or distance education class is conducted by e-mail or computer conferencing” [pp.77; 14]
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