from Inquiry, Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 1998, 52-56
© Copyright 1998 Virginia Community College System
Abstract
Based on his teaching experience and observations of students at a "distance" site during a history course taught by compressed video at two campuses of Germanna Community College, David Shaheen discusses problems, challenges, and possible approaches to using this medium.
Compressed video, a technology in which classrooms are directly linked by video and audio connections, has proven to be a valuable tool of distance education. Students living many miles from a main campus can gain access to instruction using remote sites, while reducing travel time and associated costs.
In the summer term of 1997 at Germanna Community College (Locust Grove and Fredericksburg, Virginia campuses), Dr. Richard Gossweiler, a professor of history at the Locust Grove campus, and I conducted a history course covering the American Civil War via compressed video between the two campuses. Dr. Gossweiler led the classes "live" as the professor at the Locust Grove campus with approximately 20 students, while I directed the learners at Fredericksburg as an observer-participant on the video end. Our course was taught using the lecture-discussion method commonly used in teaching history.
Of specific interest to us in evaluating the use of compressed video in the history course was how well the students interacted with the technology, how their learning outcomes were affected by the format, and whether significant differences developed in student learning between "live" and video locations. We found that both technological and pedagogical problems need to be addressed to make a compressed video course the equal of a "traditional" classroom learning experience
Student Responses And Evaluation
Student perceptions of the compressed video system were tabulated using an evaluation instrument given at the end of the course. Twenty-one students completed a three-question written evaluation form, giving us a general picture of their attitudes toward compressed video.
When asked, "Would you have preferred taking this course without the compressed video system as part of the course," 12 of the 21 student respondents (57 %) indicated they would have preferred taking the history course without compressed video as a part of the course, perhaps indicating a desire for a more "traditional" classroom environment. In response to, "Were you more or less willing to be involved in class participation and discussion in a teleconference video course as compared with a "standard" classroom course?" 14 of the 21 (67%) students indicated they were less likely to participate in course discussions. Eleven of the 21 (52%) students responding indicated only fair or poor understanding of the instructor at the opposing location, in response to the question, "How would you rate your hearing and understanding of the professor at the opposite location from where you were?"
Students’ comments demonstrated the need for improving the delivery of this compressed video course. Although reports written on compressed video have proposed using the cameras to zoom in on people at distant locations to familiarize everyone with students at the various learning sites (Bruce and Shade 19), the students at Germanna complained about camera movement and the instructor’s attempts to zoom in on speakers with the cameras, mentioning how distracting such movement was to the learning environment.
Another student complaint was that people in the back of a room at the distant location could not be clearly seen or heard. One Fredericksburg student mentioned that she would "never be able to recognize students (from Locust Grove) if she met them on the street."
Instructor’s Observations
Audio problems were a constant irritation in teaching the Civil War course with compressed video. Locust Grove students sitting and talking near a classroom microphone were so loud that it became necessary to consistently adjust the volume level at Fredericksburg, taking the instructors’ concentration away from academic concerns and diverting student attention. An approximately two-second delay between speech at one location and transmission to the other kept groups at both locations from engaging in quick, spontaneous interaction. Students became fearful of interrupting a speaker at the distant location, as they might have begun to speak before they could hear a question addressed to them.
Another concern was loss of attention among students at the location listening to and watching lectures on the television screen. As Dr. Gossweiler spoke about causes of the Civil War and the problems with the postwar reconstruction of the South, students at the distant location in Fredericksburg seemed to lose interest. The students at Dr. Gossweiler’s Locust Grove location, however, maintained a greater degree of attentiveness to the "live" lectures, perhaps reinforcing the idea that students at distant sites react more passively to lectures via compressed video, while the lectures appeared more stimulating for students in the "live" classroom setting.
Conclusions / Implications
While our experience in using compressed video to teach history at two campuses of Germanna Community College was not a total success, the experience provided valuable insight on the use of compressed video in instruction.
Technology challenges need to be addressed. Faculty need intensive training in order to use compressed video, preferably prior to conducting a course via the medium. Colleges also might assign trained audio visual specialists to operate or assist in the operation of the technology in the classroom, allowing faculty to devote more time to instructional concerns. Faculty selection for teaching compressed video course sections is another important component in ensuring good instruction using the technology. Research has indicated that a successful instructor in a traditional setting may become a hesitant, ineffective communicator in a distance learning course (Sponder 14-15). Administrators need to assign faculty who are comfortable with the technology to compressed video course sections. If a community college feels a compressed video system will play a large role in its future course offerings, the selection of new faculty should include persons eager to employ the technology in their classrooms.
Student interaction through small group discussion techniques can help compressed video be a success. Having students share assignments may help in personalizing courses at remote sites, creating a comfortable ambience while lessening the fear of technology that students may feel when confronted with the cameras. Instructors using compressed video in the classroom also need to concentrate on achieving educational parity between live and distant sites. Simple access to a classroom using distance education does not automatically mean an equitable learning environment once students settle into their seats. Teaching strategies should incorporate techniques to generate the same comfort level at the distant sites as exists in an instructor’s on-site classroom. Small group activities can encourage this process, allowing students at each location to get to know one another. Group discussions can help develop classmate solidarity at distant sites, providing a level of comfort for students and reinforcing the fact that they aren’t being monitored as solitary figures from another site. Small group activities and shared assignments also help to combat passivity, as without them students can become "conditioned" into modes of watching others on television rather than participating themselves.
Instructors using compressed video might also use teaching strategies that elicit debate between the various locations. Debates allow students at each location access to the diversity of ideas held by students outside of their own classroom. For example, in American history courses, a debate on the reasons the United States entered the First World War might have one class defending the ideas of socialist leader Eugene Debs, while another location might support former President Woodrow Wilson's reasons for American entry into the conflict. An additional class could air the views of German-Americans during the war about what constituted a "just war." The opportunities using compressed video for such activities are plentiful; classroom interaction incorporating the various locations can go far to stimulate learning.
Lecture formats might work effectively using compressed video if instructors understand some limitations of such a teaching style when using the technology. In my observations of the Civil War course at Germanna, students at the distant site (Fredericksburg) seemed to lose interest after fifteen minutes without some form of classroom interaction. Instructors should be aware that, as students often tire of lectures quickly in a regular classroom, those students watching an instructor on a video screen become distracted even more quickly. Yet, lecturing can be effective using compressed video because cameras can focus on students as well as the speaker during lecture. Lecturing also allows for the direct transmission of knowledge between locations, supplementing a student's outside Teaming activities and class discussions.
Teaching with compressed video, as with most classrooms, should be done using the variety of media at an instructor's disposal. Compressed video has the capability of transmitting films, overheads, and sound recordings to the various classroom sites from a central location. Using a variety of instructional aids helps to maintain students' attention and alertness by diversifying activities. Furthermore, instructors can appeal to the varied Teaming styles of students by varying instructional mediums, helping instructors reach each student with some kind of activity while using compressed video. In a course using technology as the basis for communication, interactive material helps to bring a greater equality of educational opportunity to students at all locations by bringing information to them on the same level-the shared video screen.
The applicability of compressed video to community college systems nationwide is unquestionable. The ability of a college to have a professor at one location teach a course to several locations simultaneously should be quite agreeable to college administrators and financial planners. The system is designed for cost effectiveness, as the need for additional faculty at ancillary locations will be greatly diminished. The possibility that a student in central Virginia could take a course in Mandarin ' Chinese through compressed video from another site in Virginia is quite an attractive one. Without compressed video, such an educational opportunity would probably be unavailable due to geography and the lack of a Chinese instructor at the home institution. Not surprisingly, studies have shown that the further from a campus a student lives, the more favorable are his or her evaluations of televised courses (Johnson and Silvemail 438).
Although my experience using compressed video to teach history at two campuses of Germanna Community College was less than a perfect one, it provided a valuable teaming experience. Despite the problems encountered with using the medium, the Germanna Community College faculty and students recognized that compressed video will be a future asset to the college as it expands educational access. Utilization of compressed video will inevitably improve-as instructors continue working to perfect the audio, video, and instructional components of this exciting educational format.
References
Bruce, Mary Alice, and Richard A. Shade. "Effective Teaching and Learning Strategies Using Compressed Video." Tech Trends 40.4 (1995): 18-22.
Johnson, Judith L., and David L. Silvemail. "Impact of Interactive Television and Distance Education on Student Evaluation of Courses: A Causal Model." Community College Journal of research and Practice 18.5 (1994): 431-440.
Sponder, Barry. Distance Education in Rural Alaska: An Overview of Teaching and Learning Practice in Audioconferencing Courses. University of Alaska monograph series in Distance Education. 1. Fairbanks, AK: Center for Cross-Cultural Studies, 1991.
David M. Shaheen is adjunct professor of history at Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria, VA., Charles County Community College in La Plata, MD., and Germanna Community College, Locust Grove, VA. He is currently working on a Doctor of Arts degree in Community College Education at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.