September 2005 — Features

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Promoting Synchronous Interaction in an eLearning Environment

By Cheng-Chang (Sam) Pan and Michael Sullivan

During the first half of the chat session, students met in “Lecture Hall” within Blackboard Chat, where class announcements were made and course concepts were reinforced, which was followed by a question/answer session. In the second half of the session, learners were divided into groups of four and asked to brainstorm and respond to a given question or activity by group deliberation. Students could meet in groups using either Skype or Chat. In the Skype groups, a seat in each group was reserved for the instructor for monitoring and advising purposes. Each group, in both the Skype and Chat teams, assigned a secretary to post the group effort in the designated forum. Each group member was required to read and respond to at least one other group’s posting by the following midnight.

Collecting student evidence. Anecdotal evidence and Skype conversation during and after the chat session were collected to explain student use of Skype on the individual level. To acquire insight into the actual use of Skype at the course level, a set of eight open-structured questions was e-mailed to participants, followed by a content analysis. The questions were:

  • How important is synchronous interaction (e.g., chat, Skype, and phone calls) in a Web-based course like EDTC XXXX?
  • If real-time communication is significant in a Web-based course such as EDTC XXXX, one can simply use a land line or cell phone to conduct the group deliberations. Then, from your understanding of Skype, what is the value of Skype in this case?
  • What was your experience with Skype last night?
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of Skype in our chat session?
  • Whom were you using Skype to speak with?
  • What other tools (e.g., Blackboard Chat or Skype Chat) were you using with Skype at the same time? What is the rationale of your blended use?
  • Compared to a text-based chat room discussion, what difference d'es Skype make, as far as easing the communication issue (or making it tougher)?
  • What instructional use of Skype do you think we can include in this course in the near future? Or what can we do to make it better next time using Skype or other tools?

Major Results and Discussion

Preliminary findings suggest that the freeware program is an effective tool to build synchronous interaction, and to provide just-in-time clarification and information.

To what extent d'es Skype change the way the individual learner thinks of synchronous interaction in a Web-based course? Respondents report that their overall experience with Skype is positive. Student responses indicate that synchronous interaction in a virtual learning environment is needed, especially in a group project with time and space constraints. Compared to their prior experience with Blackboard Collaboration (aka Chat), use of Skype in facilitating synchronous interaction is promising. Some learners also note that talking via Skype makes them more aware of the topic, and that abstract topics seem to make more sense than when using Blackboard Collaboration. Not only are they conversing with others, they are having an intrapersonal dialog where the individual student is empowered to take an active and responsible learning role. Audio interaction seems to change the way individuals view synchronous interaction in a Web-based course.