Where Interaction Intersects Time

WHERE INTERACTION INTERSECTS TIME

by Zane L. Berge
MC Journal: The Journal of Academic Media Librarianship, v4#1, Summer 1996

Introduction

Educators normally do not have the opportunity or time to analyze individual students and tailor instructional materials or activities specifically to them. Students are usually grouped together into classes for economic reasons if nothing else. Varying the media selection, the methods used, and the class activities, is an attempt to compensate for the lack of individualized programming. This is as true for distance education as it is for place-based education.

Ellington (cited in Dekkers, et. al., 1990), suggests three classes of instruction: individual learning, mass communications, and small group. Historically, in distance education there were few ways to vary delivery and teaching methods. The correspondence model, an example of individual learning, was used nearly exclusively for the first 120 years of distance education in the United States (Moore and Kearsley, 1996). Earlier in this century, mass communications (i.e., radio; television) expanded the range of delivery tools. Still, the prevailing model is of students passively listening to or watching a program alone, attempting to make sense of the material. To check the students' "making of meaning" in what they read or saw, they are asked to submit a written paper to the instructor showing analysis, synthesis, or evaluation. What is missing are opportunities for the use of group learning models. Over the past two decades, emerging technologies have opened more opportunities to vary medium and methods, leading to significant changes in the way

distance learning can be accomplished. As Moore states, "Above all, the teleconference media allow a new form of dialogue that can be called inter-learner dialogue. Inter-learner dialogue occurs between learners and other learners, alone or in groups, with or without the real-time presence of an instructor. By audio-conference, video-conference, and computer conference, groups can learn through interaction with other groups and within groups. There are enormously significant implications in this potential, in every process of teaching-learning. In particular, such dialogue by learners to learners within and between groups makes it possible for distance learners to share in the creation of knowledge." (Moore 1993, 33)

When considering various channels of communication for distance education purposes, the strengths and limitations of each channel can be analyzed. Decisions can then be made concerning the best channel through which to present each instructional objective or learning activity. While there are dozens of factors that may be significant in the choice of media, this article will focus on two dimensions that can be used to characterize various channels of communication: 1) its synchronous or asynchronous nature, and 2) its capability of interaction (content or interpersonal). Strategies are given to promote the successful integration of several communications channels into a more comprehensive system of delivery for distance education.

Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication

Synchronous communication occurs in real time--as in a course delivered via video or audio conferencing. All participants in the interaction must be present, although not necessarily at the same physical location. Asynchronous communication among students and instructor is in some way technologically mediated and is not dependent upon the student(s) and instructor being present together at a specific time to conduct learning/teaching activities. Besides the potential convenience of students being able to work when and where they want, students can also control the pacing of instruction.

Interaction in (Formal) Learning Environments

From the learner's perspective there are essentially three types of interaction involved in the process of school (i.e., guided or formal) learning. These are interaction with the content, interaction with the instructor and other students, and interaction with the institution. While this article is not focused on how the institution promotes learning, it is an important aspect of interaction. In structuring and supporting the learning situation, the institution provides for a number of factors such as the development of learning materials, their up-front costs, and the projections of demand for particular courses.

Hillman et. al. (1994, p. 31) summarize interaction in an educational context as: "The importance of interaction in education is practically a 'given.' Shale and Garrison (1990a) state that "in its most fundamental form education is an interaction among teacher student, and subject content." Sewart (1982) proposes that all educational transactions lie somewhere on an interaction continuum, with learner-instructor interaction at one end and learner-content interaction at the other. Anderson (1987) and Keegan (1990) believe that interaction is the key to effective learning and information exchange. Moore (1989) considers interaction "a defining characteristic of education," (p. 2) and regards it as "vitally important" (p. 6) in the design of distance education. Booher and Seiler (1982) show that learners' avoidance of learner-instructor interaction harms academic achievement, while Thompson (1990) identifies interaction as a significant component in promoting positive learner attitudes toward distance education. Interactions between instructor and learner and interactions among learners provide opportunities for an educational transaction. Without interaction, teaching becomes simply "passing on content as if it were dogmatic truth," and the cycle of knowledge acquisition-critical evaluation-knowledge validation is nonexistent" (Shale and Garrison 1990b, p. 29)."

Generally, when a student and instructor have the opportunity to meet face-to-face in real time, the impetus is for the instructor to talk to students, rather than give a mediated

presentation (Bates, 1984). There are many reasons for this, one of the more significant is that often students request feedback on specific points (Howard, 1987). The same appears to be true in mediated communications. Clearly, a significant factor in determining whether a learning objective should be practiced by the learner alone using recorded media (text, video, etc.), in a small peer group, or in real-time with an instructor, is how much feedback and guidance is needed by the student. These teaching options affect the choice of media (Bates, 1991).

Interaction with Content

For learning to occur, either alone, or in a group, the student must interact with, and process, the content of the course. The content cannot merely pass before their senses but must be cognitively processed (Bower and Hilgard, 1981). Typically, in formal schooling, much of the content quickly becomes "inert" (Gagne et al., 1993) as it has little relevance to the life circumstances of the student and eventually becomes "lost" to retrieval. Hence, instructors, especially in business, are exploring the advantages of just-in-time learning. It appears that knowledge and skills acquired immediately prior to a need may reduce the need for retraining later.

Interpersonal Interaction

The importance of interpersonal interaction in learning is well documented (Fulford and Zhang, 1993). When students have the opportunity to interact with one another and their instructors about the content, they have the opportunity to build within themselves, and to communicate, a shared meaning, to "make sense" of what they are learning. Much of learning inevitably takes place within a social context, and the process includes a mutual construction of understanding (Bruner, 1971). Interpersonal interaction offers the opportunity for the student to gain the motivational support of fellow students and instructors, develop critical judgment, participate in problem-solving, and often has the potential for other incidental learning (Chacon, 1992).

A well designed interaction about content can move learning from lower levels of cognitive work such as recognition and comprehension to the higher levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation (Bloom, 1956; Howard, 1987; Moore, 1993). The content of much formal schooling best occurs in situations where intellectual operations can be practiced with adequate feedback from the community with whom the scholar, or apprentice scholar, is attempting to build meaning. As the instructor encourages interaction, learners can become personally involved (Hackman and Walker, 1990). Such interaction is essential to effective mediated learning.

Characteristics of Instructional Media

Correspondence education, which is still mostly print-based, has persisted throughout the last century and is still utilized intensely around the world as the most appropriate media under many circumstances. However, as technology used in distance education becomes more multiple-media, more choices and decisions need to be made (Stahmer et al., 1990) regarding how to best shape the learning environment to meet the instructional objectives of the particular program. In mediated learning such as using radio, television, and computer based instruction (CBI), the part of the instruction and content that changes slowly or not at all can be recorded, using very sophisticated techniques, before it is used in the classroom. The content that changes rapidly, or requires novel, individualized feedback to the student by the instructor, or in some other way, cannot be predicted with accuracy, requires selecting a communication channel that is more synchronous in nature. This and other media characteristics, along with teaching functions, practical factors, and specific features of the distance-learning situation contribute to selecting the media mix that is right for the job.

Interaction and Synchronous Communication

Figure 1 shows selected media distributed along the dimension of a synchronous-asynchronous communication continuum and an interaction continuum. "Synchronous/asynchronous continuum" was chosen because, while a printed textbook is clearly asynchronous, and the telephone operates in real-time, there are varying degrees of rapid asynchronous communication, such as fax or email, that at times can appear as synchronous conversation.

Each of the four quadrants have some unique characteristics compared to the others. Although there is some overlap among the quadrants, the attempt here is to place each medium along these two dimensions at the place where it would be used most appropriately for instruction. Computer conferencing appears in several different quadrants. It could be appropriately used in a much broader scope than any other single medium. For instance, computer conferencing is used to deliver text, audio, and graphics; it supports asynchronous interaction (e.g., email) and synchronous communication (e.g., "chat" or MOOs). It is not found in the synchronous/content interaction quadrant because it is not appropriate to deliver high density content in real-time using computer conferencing. Two important reasons for this is that it is hard to read large blocks of text on screen (i.e., the appearance of lecturing), and also the pacing is too fast in synchronous use of computer conferencing for high density content.

Structure

Together with interaction and content is the idea of "structure", (Moore, 1993). "With regard to the media, a recorded television programme, for example, is highly structured, with virtually every word, every activity of the instructor and every minute of time provided for, and every piece of content predetermined. There is no dialogue and therefore no possibility of reorganizing the programme to take into accounts [sic] inputs from learners.

There is little or no opportunity for deviation or variation according to the needs of a particular individual. This can be compared with many teleconference courses which permit a wide range of alternative responses by the instructor to students' questions and written submissions." (Moore 1993, 26)

How accommodating a particular medium is to novel feedback is one hallmark of a medium's placement along the dimensions shown in Figure 1. In the upper, left quadrant are the "broadcast" media--what Reynolds and Barba (1996) describe in their taxonomy of interactivity in telecommunications as "information reception." The hallmarks include a one-to-many format, but without an "instant reply." If the content is very dense, students cannot pace the instruction or study.

The lower, left quadrant contains media in which the designers of the instruction usually have a vision of "one-alone"--of a student interacting with content, at each individual student's own pace as high density information, (i.e., large amounts or novel) is processed. Information selection would be one way to describe this interactivity (Reynolds and Barba, 1996).

The media in the upper, right quadrant can be used in a many-to-many fashion. The ability to teleconference has permitted educators to design programs with student-to-student interaction at a distance. Located in the lower, right-hand quadrant are media that are the most varied along the continuum. Sometimes these asynchronous communication channels can appear to

be real-time. A fast exchange of email or facsimile messages, or posts to a computer discussion group may happen very quickly among two or more persons. These media can be used appropriately in one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many formats to exchange ideas or test hypotheses, rather than to learn large amounts of information. (See for example, Ellsworth, 1995; Paulsen, 1995; and Silberger, 1995) for discussions regarding one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many formats.) These two quadrants on the right side of the figure contain media that are well suited for interpersonal interaction and are what Reynolds and Barba (1996) refer to as "collaborative."

Conclusions

Regardless of the media used, it is the responsibility of the institution and instructor to provide a learning environment in which the learner has the opportunity for appropriate interaction with content and with others (Moore, 1993). A mismatch of the use of interaction and technology can lead to the loss of the student's attention, information overload, or frustration, proving costly in time lost. Even students actively engaged in the learning activity constantly fight distracting thoughts while processing new information; these distractions can be related to or unrelated to the content being presented. One challenge, therefore, for those designing the learning environment is to seriously consider which media will best enhance and empower the learner. Of course, whatever media is selected, each student

must have access to it (Chacon, 1992) and know how to use it. As content is increasingly stored and manipulated in digital form the World Wide Web or technologies derived from it will be the medium in which time and interaction intersect.

The use of a variety of delivery formats is essential for presentation (especially if synchronous learning is scheduled for relatively long periods of time) with each aspect carefully chosen and designed to meet specific instructional objectives. The creation of the student's opportunity to interact with content, instructors and peers in ways that enhance the construction of meaning is essential to the success of distance education.

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Zane L. Berge is Director, Training Systems, ISD Graduate Program, University of Baltimore County, Baltimore, Maryland.
E-mail: berge@umbc2.umbc.edu

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