'Analog vs. digital instruction and learning: Teaching within first and Secind Life environments'

Hi All,


This study compares the learning experience of students in traditional visual communication course to those taking the same course via online instruction. Students’ knowledge of course content and attitudes concerned with the instruction were analysed with pre- and post- surveys. One group of students was taught completely in a traditional face-to-face classroom setting while the other group was taught completely online with Blackboard and Second Life softwares. The features of the Blackboard software include, grade checking, discussion board assignments, course material links, paper depository, classroom discussion recordings and examinations as well as the synchronus feature known as the “virtual classroom”. In the online classroom, students are shown with slides with words and pictures, websites and video clips as the text-based discussion continues. Second Life is an avatar-based virtual social community of residents where they can walk, fly, drive and teleport to various rural and urban simulated environments and to engage in different kinds of activities. A total number of 334 undergraduates took part in this study; 161 of the participants were taught in a traditional face-to-face visual communication lecture course and the other 173 took the same course via online instruction.

The survey results demonstrate that students’ experience in a visual communications course conducted online compared positively with traditional face-to-face instruction. Moreover, the results did not uncover any significant initial differences in perceived competencies between online and traditional students. The attitudes of the online students remained moderately constant from the start of the course to the end, whereas the attitudes of the face-to-face students dropped a little. It is an encouraging sign that the attitudes of the online students remained constant because it shows that students’ expectations can be met by courses delivered in an online format. Student evaluations collected at the end of the course suggested some polarization of opinion in both class formats regarding the way the material was presented. The abundant use of examples, video clips and the like was mentioned in the traditional course, while in the online course, the comments were predominantly focused on the Second Life format. This study also suggests that with the increasing number of students are requesting more flexible teaching schedules and more creative learning environments and administrators are becoming more concerned about space restrictions with over-crowded on-campus lecture rooms, teaching experiments with software products like Blackboard and Second Life are necessary in the development of the teaching profession.

Reference

Lester, P. M., & King, C. M. (2009). Analog vs. digital instruction and learning: Teaching within first and Secind Life environments. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 14, 457-483. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01449.x