TCC Presentations

1999 Paper Presentations

ONLINE CONFERENCING:ENCHANCING COMMUNICATION

Barbara Nubile, Chemeketa Community College <nubb@chemek.cc.or.us>

Online discussion remains one of the key concerns in developing an online community, whether an online class, professional committee work, or forum for open sharing of information. One of the continuing areas of concern for sharing information online is the use of a conferencing system that is able to meet these differing needs.

ISSUES RELATED TO ONLINE CONFERENCING
PURPOSE
The first step in identifying the type of conferencing system to use (if any) is to identify the purpose of the discussion area. Who is going to participate and what type of participation is expected? Are you anticipating many users and/or a high number of messages? How do you want to be able to share the information? How will the information be used? Answer these questions, then identify the structure that will best meet these needs.

CONFERENCING SOFTWARE
To identify what software might be the most useful, first identify if the purpose of the conference is collaboration between a group ("groupware"), an ongoing conversation, or both. Is the major sharing going to be in the "discussion" or with documents? Different software packages often do one or the other more effectively. Will asynchronous or synchronous conferencing be most useful? Will the purpose of the discussion be best met by people being able to post messages at any time of the day (asynchronous) or do people need to be able to share ideas at the same time (synchronous or chat)? Some software will only do asynchronous, some synchronous, and some both.

Some basic questions to ask about software capabilities are:

How much tracking of participation is needed? Can the facilitator find out how many times each participant has accessed the conference, as well as identifying the messages that have been posted?
Are the participants able to create active links to a URL in their messages?

To what extent can the moderator edit, move or delete comments posted by the participants?

How easy is setting up and managing the conference area?

What will participants know about each other when they access the site?

Can participants e-mail each other within the conference?

Can the facilitator post private messages for participants?

In the chat mode (synchronous discussion), can messages be saved or archived for future use?

Identify the price constraints. Some conferencing software is free for educational use, but may not meet your needs. One free site for discussion is the Milken Educator Virtual Workspace (MEVW), http://www.mevw.org/ , The Milken Educator Virtual Workspace (MEVW) allows people to use the Web to create and participate in collaborative on-line learning communities. The MEVW is free to those who submit educational project proposals and attain the Milken Family Foundation's approval. An example of free synchronous conferencing is ICQ ("I Seek You"). http://www.mirabilis.com/. ICQ notifies you who's online and enables you to initiate contact with those people. Among the functions available are: chat, message, e-mail, URL and file transfer. Whatever conferencing software is used, the facilitator must understand and be able to use the system.

Many web-based conferencing systems are available, each with their own strengths. A good comparison of these programs is at: http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/features/discussion/features.htm (Web-based discussion software: Summary of features, 1998).

FACILITATING ONLINE DISCUSSION
To be able to function effectively as an online facilitator, one must start with well-designed materials that can be easily used by the participants. Allow initial time to solve the technical problems that always seem to occur, as well as the needed technical support. Once the online discussion has begun, now the facilitator needs to focus on providing the structure and tone for the conversations.

The facilitator must provide an introduction on how participants can effectively and appropriately discuss topics, as well as functioning as a role model for appropriate sharing of information. Setting a friendly, safe forum for discussion is a key function of the facilitator. When participants first access the discussion area, they should receive a message welcoming them to the discussion, then the purpose and organization of the online conference needs to be restated. The "next step" needs to be clearly identified.

Facilitators must also initiate and guide the discussion. People are often hesitant to be "the first one" to type in a question or statement. The facilitator needs to use techniques that will get the discussion started and then keep the discussion on track. Participation in the discussion needs to be encouraged in a variety of ways. The facilitator will need to ask questions and encourage participants to be thoughtful about their responses. Consider the motivation of the participants and include incentives to increase participation whenever possible. The facilitator for an online class frequently must require active participation to prevent "lurkers" and to achieve the greatest sharing of ideas and information. Remember that with online conferences, participants will be online at different times and will address the topics at different times. An online conference is not in the same chronological order as a face-to-face class. Acceptable time frames for participation need to be explicit.

An additional area facilitators need to examine is the amount of group cohesion is desired. Is the purpose of the conversation group work or individual learning? If the focus is on group work, the facilitator will need to use techniques to encourage group rapport and activities. Be aware that each group of participants are different people so will require different approaches to get the desired results.

Expectations for participation must be very clear. The participants need to know what the facilitator expects from them and what they can expect from the facilitator. How much time online is expected? How frequently? What is the process for discussion? Who will create the topics for discussion? When will the facilitator be responding to messages? Expectations need to be given at the beginning of the conference and then periodically during the discussion process.
Return to top of document

WEBBOARD
This presentation will focus on WebBoard conferencing software by O'Reilly Software (http://webboard.oreilly.com). WebBoard is a software program that allows for synchronous and asynchronous messaging. I have several different WebBoard sites that I manage. Three of these are one I use for an online class, one as my faculty "webpage", and the one used by a statewide organization for Associate Degree nursing programs. In each of these sites different features of WebBoard are the most important.

Online class: conference areas enabling threading of messages, management of a large volume of messages, automatic archiving or deletion of messages, identification of users and tracking individual use, e-mail capability, option of private conferences, and potential for synchronous chat.

Faculty webpage: ability to post web pages, providing links to resources, and ability to add or archive conferences very easily.

Nursing organization: automatic notice of posted messages and easy management of conferences. WebBoard is much easier to manage than a ListServ type of communication system.

To explore each of these areas, I have developed a WebBoard tutorial site (WebTutor) that conference participants are invited to use.
Return to top of document

WEB TUTOR
Once you select the site for WebTutor, you will get the following screen.

Sign on as a new user by typing in your name and a password. If you check the box "Remember my password", you will not have to sign on the next time you access the board unless you log off, which I will review in the tutorial.

The address for WebTutor is: http://sirius.chemek.cc.or.us/webboard/$webb.exe/~webtutor
Return to top of document

REFERENCES

"Adding Discussion Forums to Your Site", Rex Baldazo, CNET,
http://builder.cnet.com/Servers/Threads/ , published October 21, 1997.

"Choosing Web Conferencing Software," David R. Woolley,
http://thinkofit.com/webconf/wcchoice.htm#whatis , published 1996.

"Creating a postgraduate virtual community: issues for authors and students as authors," Shirley Corrent-Agostinho and John Hedberg, OLA Virtual Conference Paper, http://www.ola.edu.au/virtcon/corrent/paper.htm , accessed February 1999.

"Development of Communication Conventions in Instructional Electronic Chats," K.L. Murphy, Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, Illinois, http://disted.tamu.edu/~kmurphy/aera97a.htm , published March 24-28,.1997.

"Discussion Software: It Ain't No Party," Esther Schindler, PC Magazine Online, http://www.zdnet.com/sr/stories/issue/0,4537,381684,00.html , published February 17, 1999.

"Discussion software: Meeting of the minds," Greg Alwang, PC Magazine Online, http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/features/discussion/_intro.htm , published February 17, 1999.

"Discussion Software Summary of Features," PC Magazine Online.
http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/features/discussion/features.htm , published February 24, 1998.

"Facilitating Interaction in Computer Mediated Online," Mauri Collins and Zane Berge, Background paper for our presentation at the FSU/AECT Distance Education Conference, Tallahassee FL, http://star.ucc.nau.edu/~mauri/moderate/flcc.html , presented June, 1996.

"The Future of Web Conferencing," David R. Woolley,
http://thinkofit.com/webconf/wcfuture.htm , published June, 1998.

"How To Build An Online Community," Esther Schindler, ZDNet,
http://www.zdnet.com/sr/stories/issue/0,4537,2176543,00.html , published February 17, 1999.

"Making Online Forums Work for Community Networks," David R. Woolley, http://thinkofit.com/webconf/afcnart.htm, published 1998.

"Moderating Discussions in the Electronic Classroom," Rae Wahl Rohfeld and Roger Hiemstra,
http://star.ucc.nau.edu/~mauri/moderate/rohfeld.html , published 1995.

"Moderating Educational Computer Conferences," Morten Flate Paulsen, http://star.ucc.nau.edu/~mauri/moderate/morten.html , published 1995.

"Online Conferencing: Lessons Learned," Lyndsay Green, Office of Learning Technologies Canada Human Resources

TCC Online Conferences
Kapi`olani Community College
University of Hawai`i
Honolulu, HI




Welcome About 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007	1999 Paper Presentations ONLINE CONFERENCING:ENCHANCING COMMUNICATION Barbara Nubile, Chemeketa Community College <nubb@chemek.cc.or.us> Online discussion remains one of the key concerns in developing an online community, whether an online class, professional committee work, or forum for open sharing of information. One of the continuing areas of concern for sharing information online is the use of a conferencing system that is able to meet these differing needs. ISSUES RELATED TO ONLINE CONFERENCING PURPOSE The first step in identifying the type of conferencing system to use (if any) is to identify the purpose of the discussion area. Who is going to participate and what type of participation is expected? Are you anticipating many users and/or a high number of messages? How do you want to be able to share the information? How will the information be used? Answer these questions, then identify the structure that will best meet these needs. CONFERENCING SOFTWARE To identify what software might be the most useful, first identify if the purpose of the conference is collaboration between a group ("groupware"), an ongoing conversation, or both. Is the major sharing going to be in the "discussion" or with documents? Different software packages often do one or the other more effectively. Will asynchronous or synchronous conferencing be most useful? Will the purpose of the discussion be best met by people being able to post messages at any time of the day (asynchronous) or do people need to be able to share ideas at the same time (synchronous or chat)? Some software will only do asynchronous, some synchronous, and some both. Some basic questions to ask about software capabilities are: How much tracking of participation is needed? Can the facilitator find out how many times each participant has accessed the conference, as well as identifying the messages that have been posted? Are the participants able to create active links to a URL in their messages? To what extent can the moderator edit, move or delete comments posted by the participants? How easy is setting up and managing the conference area? What will participants know about each other when they access the site? Can participants e-mail each other within the conference? Can the facilitator post private messages for participants? In the chat mode (synchronous discussion), can messages be saved or archived for future use? Identify the price constraints. Some conferencing software is free for educational use, but may not meet your needs. One free site for discussion is the Milken Educator Virtual Workspace (MEVW), http://www.mevw.org/ , The Milken Educator Virtual Workspace (MEVW) allows people to use the Web to create and participate in collaborative on-line learning communities. The MEVW is free to those who submit educational project proposals and attain the Milken Family Foundation's approval. An example of free synchronous conferencing is ICQ ("I Seek You"). http://www.mirabilis.com/. ICQ notifies you who's online and enables you to initiate contact with those people. Among the functions available are: chat, message, e-mail, URL and file transfer. Whatever conferencing software is used, the facilitator must understand and be able to use the system. Many web-based conferencing systems are available, each with their own strengths. A good comparison of these programs is at: http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/features/discussion/features.htm (Web-based discussion software: Summary of features, 1998). FACILITATING ONLINE DISCUSSION To be able to function effectively as an online facilitator, one must start with well-designed materials that can be easily used by the participants. Allow initial time to solve the technical problems that always seem to occur, as well as the needed technical support. Once the online discussion has begun, now the facilitator needs to focus on providing the structure and tone for the conversations. The facilitator must provide an introduction on how participants can effectively and appropriately discuss topics, as well as functioning as a role model for appropriate sharing of information. Setting a friendly, safe forum for discussion is a key function of the facilitator. When participants first access the discussion area, they should receive a message welcoming them to the discussion, then the purpose and organization of the online conference needs to be restated. The "next step" needs to be clearly identified. Facilitators must also initiate and guide the discussion. People are often hesitant to be "the first one" to type in a question or statement. The facilitator needs to use techniques that will get the discussion started and then keep the discussion on track. Participation in the discussion needs to be encouraged in a variety of ways. The facilitator will need to ask questions and encourage participants to be thoughtful about their responses. Consider the motivation of the participants and include incentives to increase participation whenever possible. The facilitator for an online class frequently must require active participation to prevent "lurkers" and to achieve the greatest sharing of ideas and information. Remember that with online conferences, participants will be online at different times and will address the topics at different times. An online conference is not in the same chronological order as a face-to-face class. Acceptable time frames for participation need to be explicit. An additional area facilitators need to examine is the amount of group cohesion is desired. Is the purpose of the conversation group work or individual learning? If the focus is on group work, the facilitator will need to use techniques to encourage group rapport and activities. Be aware that each group of participants are different people so will require different approaches to get the desired results. Expectations for participation must be very clear. The participants need to know what the facilitator expects from them and what they can expect from the facilitator. How much time online is expected? How frequently? What is the process for discussion? Who will create the topics for discussion? When will the facilitator be responding to messages? Expectations need to be given at the beginning of the conference and then periodically during the discussion process. Return to top of document WEBBOARD This presentation will focus on WebBoard conferencing software by O'Reilly Software (http://webboard.oreilly.com). WebBoard is a software program that allows for synchronous and asynchronous messaging. I have several different WebBoard sites that I manage. Three of these are one I use for an online class, one as my faculty "webpage", and the one used by a statewide organization for Associate Degree nursing programs. In each of these sites different features of WebBoard are the most important. Online class: conference areas enabling threading of messages, management of a large volume of messages, automatic archiving or deletion of messages, identification of users and tracking individual use, e-mail capability, option of private conferences, and potential for synchronous chat. Faculty webpage: ability to post web pages, providing links to resources, and ability to add or archive conferences very easily. Nursing organization: automatic notice of posted messages and easy management of conferences. WebBoard is much easier to manage than a ListServ type of communication system. To explore each of these areas, I have developed a WebBoard tutorial site (WebTutor) that conference participants are invited to use. Return to top of document WEB TUTOR Once you select the site for WebTutor, you will get the following screen. Sign on as a new user by typing in your name and a password. If you check the box "Remember my password", you will not have to sign on the next time you access the board unless you log off, which I will review in the tutorial. The address for WebTutor is: http://sirius.chemek.cc.or.us/webboard/$webb.exe/~webtutor Return to top of document REFERENCES "Adding Discussion Forums to Your Site", Rex Baldazo, CNET, http://builder.cnet.com/Servers/Threads/ , published October 21, 1997. "Choosing Web Conferencing Software," David R. Woolley, http://thinkofit.com/webconf/wcchoice.htm#whatis , published 1996. "Creating a postgraduate virtual community: issues for authors and students as authors," Shirley Corrent-Agostinho and John Hedberg, OLA Virtual Conference Paper, http://www.ola.edu.au/virtcon/corrent/paper.htm , accessed February 1999. "Development of Communication Conventions in Instructional Electronic Chats," K.L. Murphy, Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, Illinois, http://disted.tamu.edu/~kmurphy/aera97a.htm , published March 24-28,.1997. "Discussion Software: It Ain't No Party," Esther Schindler, PC Magazine Online, http://www.zdnet.com/sr/stories/issue/0,4537,381684,00.html , published February 17, 1999. "Discussion software: Meeting of the minds," Greg Alwang, PC Magazine Online, http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/features/discussion/_intro.htm , published February 17, 1999. "Discussion Software Summary of Features," PC Magazine Online. http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/features/discussion/features.htm , published February 24, 1998. "Facilitating Interaction in Computer Mediated Online," Mauri Collins and Zane Berge, Background paper for our presentation at the FSU/AECT Distance Education Conference, Tallahassee FL, http://star.ucc.nau.edu/~mauri/moderate/flcc.html , presented June, 1996. "The Future of Web Conferencing," David R. Woolley, http://thinkofit.com/webconf/wcfuture.htm , published June, 1998. "How To Build An Online Community," Esther Schindler, ZDNet, http://www.zdnet.com/sr/stories/issue/0,4537,2176543,00.html , published February 17, 1999. "Making Online Forums Work for Community Networks," David R. Woolley, http://thinkofit.com/webconf/afcnart.htm, published 1998. "Moderating Discussions in the Electronic Classroom," Rae Wahl Rohfeld and Roger Hiemstra, http://star.ucc.nau.edu/~mauri/moderate/rohfeld.html , published 1995. "Moderating Educational Computer Conferences," Morten Flate Paulsen, http://star.ucc.nau.edu/~mauri/moderate/morten.html , published 1995. "Online Conferencing: Lessons Learned," Lyndsay Green, Office of Learning Technologies Canada Human Resources TCC Online Conferences Kapi`olani Community College University of Hawai`i Honolulu, HI