I’ve just completed my report on the use of IM for enhancing the support for distance learners on the programmes I work on. II have suggested in the report that we do it on a trial basis for peer support and admin support and for academic support but I think we need to be cautious in integrating another way to communicate when the other ways aren’t working effectively yet. I think the motivation for using it is technologically driven, not pedagogically driven.
I was asked to do this report because the supplier of our virtual classroom also has an Enterprise Instant Messaging tool. I had to scope out how we could use it and I feel that instead of throwing another computer mediated communication technology at the students we need first to find a better way to entice them into the VLE, to discuss things with each, to want to share their learning experience.
As it stands, just under 20% of the cohort get involved in asynchronous discussion and about the same, or less, in synchronous online seminars. If people felt the desire through the design of effective e-tivities to come and engage with each other than I can see the purpose of more ways to communicate.
I do, however, very much agree the benefits of using a communication medium which heightens your sense of social presence. The benefits of a sense of increased social presence are hard to put into words but when I did my OU course, when it used FirstClass for communications, I enjoyed seeing who else was there but I didn’t always chat with them. It was nice to know someone else was working at the same time as you. When the next module decided to use Moodle for communication we lost the IM service, this was disappointing. In my report I use the analogy of walking into the library on a Sunday morning and seeing someone else there from your class working on the same assignment. You might not interact but it’s nice to know you are not the only one doing it at that time.
So I am suggesting that we proceed with caution, we trial it with small groups first to really be able to gauge the impact on both staff and students but we should not forget to focus on the bigger picture of getting students engaging in the first place.
