Arun-Kumar Tripathi (tripathi@amadeus.statistik.uni-dortmund.de)
Sun, 21 Mar 1999 14:12:31 +0100 (MET)
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 14:12:31 +0100 (MET) From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi <tripathi@amadeus.statistik.uni-dortmund.de> Subject: ONLINE-ED Newsletter
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Greetings Thinkers, Professors, Experts on IFETS,
This I received from DR. Graeme Hart from Australia, Please join the
ONLINE-ED lists and enjoy the fragrance spread inside the Newsletter..The
article written by Prof. Patricia Cravener of Texas Woman's University
regarding THE EFFECTS OF INDIVIDUAL ANXIETY ON INSTITUTIONAL
DECISION-MAKING is very special...-Arun
PS: Please send the comments to "Prof. Patricia Cravener"
at <df_cravener@twu.edu>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 09:29:26 +1100
From: Graeme Hart <graeme.hart@whirligig.com.au>
To: online-ed@unimelb.edu.au
Subject: ONLINE-ED, 21 March, 1999
===========================================================
ONLINE-ED, 21 March, 1999. This is a free moderated mailing list delivered
to 1400+ subscribers in over 30 countries each Sunday during Australian
higher education semesters, providing topical articles from invited authors
- along with an overview of current activities in online education with an
emphasis on the World Wide Web - edited by Graeme Hart at Whirligig
http://www.whirligig.com.au/ Companion Website is at
http://www.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/online-ed/
============================================================
CONTENTS
THIS WEEK'S ARTICLE
THE EFFECTS OF INDIVIDUAL ANXIETY ON INSTITUTIONAL DECISION-MAKING
Patricia Cravener, Texas Woman's University
EDITOR'S NOTES
Annual Edutech Exhibition in Melbourne
New Learning Environments Colloquium at Griffith University
Latest Version of Webmcq Web-based Assessment System
RichLink Author Free Online Authoring Tool
Ed-Media 99 Seattle
WHAT'S ON? See below for related events
ARTICLES COMING-UP FROM...
Madan Rao (India) - Impact of ISP Policy on the Online Content Market
Norm O'Doherty (Aust) - Digital Data Enquiry: ACA Report
Glyn Rimmington & Paul Gruba (Aust) - Paradox, Fear and Community in
Online Learning
Patricia McGee (USA) - The Lure of the Internet
Leone Wheeler (Aust) - Success Factors in Establishing an Online
Community
Mal Lee (Aust) - A new global education system?
Veronica Pantelidis (USA) - Important Lessons Learned from Teaching
Online
Steve McCarty (Japan) - World Association for Online Education
WebForum - Open discussion on these topics
Graeme Hart - End of Semester Reflections
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THE EFFECTS OF INDIVIDUAL ANXIETY ON INSTITUTIONAL DECISION-MAKING
Patricia Cravener
Texas Woman's University
AS THE WEB HAS GROWN, computer-mediated education has become big business -
but not for most colleges and universities. In the U.S., for example,
although a Department. of Education survey
(http://nces.ed.gov/pubs98/98132.html) indicated many colleges and
universities were attempting to respond to the demand for online programs
of study leading to baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral degrees,
relatively few accredited institutions have managed to get programs online.
Computer-mediated distance education programs have been in the planning
stages at most universities for years, but most of their online offerings
come from the extension service instead of by academic departments. How is
it that people in businesses have been able to move forward rapidly while
universities have lagged behind in implementing programs for students who
cannot travel to campus?
FOR BUSINESS, including those established primarily to provide educational
services, online education is a new endeavor, a pristine field ripe with
opportunities for profit-taking. For universities, distance education is a
major change from traditional operations. When the faculty do decide to act
on a distance education program, what often ensues is either comedy or
tragedy - depending on how invested the viewer is in enactment of online
education.
CONSIDER THIS EXAMPLE OF PLANNING FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION: Charged with
bringing a course of study online, the faculty selected one class from the
program. Instructors gathered their currently enrolled students in a
computer laboratory instead of their regular classroom for one (2 hour)
class session. Faculty and students 'practiced' online education by
refraining from conversation while engaged in their assigned
teaching-learning tasks for the day, which they performed on their
computers instead of 'live'. Faculty concluded that (a) the students loved
using the computer for learning, (b) substitution of a computer-mediated
distance class for the current campus-based class would be a viable option,
and (c) the class no longer needs to be offered to students on campus. I
suspect similarly elaborate and ultimately futile, even destructive,
charades are being enacted currently at countless colleges and
universities. Others are being planned.
IT'S NO WONDER THAT DEGREE-PRODUCTIVE ONLINE PROGRAMS ARE RARE with
planning like that. Why is inefficiency in planning for distance education
so common? It isn't for lack of how-to information. College and university
faculties have had continuous access to a comprehensive body of knowledge
about online education (http://www.cravener.net/delinks.htm) including
well-established standards of practice
(http://venus.twu.edu/~df_cravener/standards.html). Reliable, scholarly
advice about how to set up successful online programs is easy to find.
Numerous hardcopy and electronic journals include or specialize in distance
learning topics and a substantial proportion of the online information
explosion seems to consist of reports of research findings, case studies
and scholarly summaries of distance teaching-learning experience.
Repositories of published articles have been building since the mid-1980s
as pioneer online educators/scholars analyzed their experiences, tested
hypotheses, experimented with a wide range of instructional strategies and
generously shared their findings. All the information needed to support
logical decision-making and efficient planning for computer-mediated
programs is available.
WHEN THE FACULTY DECIDE TO INTRODUCE ONLINE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS,
decision-making processes are often motivated at least as much by needs for
anxiety reduction and resolution of cognitive dissonance as by logic.
Institutional systems have to change to offer computer-mediated programs.
As indicated in the disjunction model
(http://www.cravener.net/articles/model.htm), university faculties tend to
have areas of interest and concern that inhibit adoption of distance
education. The use of the technology itself is anxiety-provoking for many
of our colleagues. Further, people have established bases of personal
power within the traditional structure and are loath to risk loss of status
in the new one. Thus, decision-making groups tend to be composed of
affiliated individuals - similar in seniority, rank, teaching specialty,
local social status, or whatever factor is most salient for participants.
Homogenous groups tend to make relatively poor decisions partly because
they are susceptible to group-think, usually exhibited as failing to
consider wide ranges of information sources or alternative goals. These
illogical decision-making processes arise from the anxieties people
experience have when faced with major personal and institutional changes.
FACULTY TEND TO MAKE DECISIONS after discussing issues with small groups of
trusted colleagues. Results suggest that the predominant process is often
group think. Group think occurs when group cohesiveness and unanimity in
decision-making is so highly valued that group members fail to
realistically appraise alternative courses of action. Signs of group think
include failing to consider a sufficiently wide range of goals and
objectives, failing to consider a sufficiently wide range of methods or
strategies for goal attainment, failure to seek out relevant information,
selective bias in processing information, and inadequate feedback or
evaluation mechanisms for both process and product. In the previous
example, for instance, the faculty involved failed to study the literature
about teaching and learning at a distance, did not consult with experienced
distance educators, and did not seek feedback or evaluation from other
distance education planning groups in their university. Group think is
characterized by rejecting information or advice from outside the ingroup,
and it is acted out on progressive scales: social groups, course groups,
committees, departments, institutions. The existence of multiple faculty
groups dealing with overlapping issues, with relatively little
communication among them, is an indicator of institution-wide group-think
processes.
GROUP THINK PROCESSES RELIEVE THE UNPLEASANT EXPERIENCE OF COGNITIVE
DISSONANCE: the experience of inconsistency among attitudes, beliefs and
behaviors that is aroused when individuals must choose between conflicting
beliefs and/or behaviors. (A good summary of the phenomenon is located in
Chapters 2 - 4 of T. Neilands' dissertation
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~neilands/psych/research/bigd/). Dissonance can
be reduced by adjusting the importance of one of the conflicting factors,
by adopting a new belief, or by changing the conflicting behavior. For
decision-making processes related to online educational programs, cognitive
dissonance will often be aroused by conflict between the educator's
beginner roles with instructional technology and/or Internet communications
and his or her normal view of the self as an administrative authority
and/or discipline expert. Too often, the distance education concept per se
is devalued to maintain cognitive equilibrium. Another application of the
principle: when faculty request continuing professional education about
something entirely new to them, like computer-mediated educational
programs, dissonance is minimized when the expert is brought in from
outside the institution. This mechanism serves to reduce anxiety by
maintaining the perception of equality among subgroups of faculty members
within the college or university.
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AROUSES ANXIETY. Further, anxiety is triggered by
situations that involve decision making and anxiety inhibits learning
complex tasks, creating a 'double-whammy' for faculty faced with developing
a distance education program. Each of us has our habitual ways of coping
with anxiety (http://www.cravener.net/articles/defenses.htm). Some are more
functional (http://www.cravener.net/articles/levelsdf.htm) or more
SO, WHAT ARE OUR CHANCES OF SPEEDING UP THE DEVELOPMENT OF ONLINE PROGRAMS
of study by increasing the proportion of logical, productive
decision-making to defensive processes? The simple fact is just as the old
joke has it: the light bulb has to want to change. On the other hand, the
faculty are expert learners. The more any individual understands about
defense mechanisms in the abstract, and the more willing he or she is to
introspect, the more free he or she can become from the mindless acting out
of unproductive defenses. I used to engage students in a game - 'Spot the
Defense Mechanism' - to help them understand these complex concepts. Each
day, each person identified one specific defense mechanism in the self or
others, and discussed it with the group. For example, one young man shared
this experience: he was talking with his cousin at an outdoor car wash.
When a homeless man passed through, pushing his shopping cart of
belongings, his cousin quietly handed the man $5. That was a good example
of altruism. What do you think our chances of getting colleagues to play
the game would be? I doubt it too - and that's a shame, because most people
are fully capable of rising to more productive levels of defensive
functioning, once they have converted abstract information about defense
mechanisms.
WE ALL DEFEND AGAINST ANXIETY CONTINUOUSLY, some of us all the time and all
of us some of the time. Perhaps the best any of us can do, especially under
stressful conditions, is to learn to use levels of defenses that tend to
promote productivity (self-assertion, humor, self-observation, sublimation)
instead of less functional levels (displacement, devaluation, denial,
passive aggression). If we, the faculty, could free ourselves from the
tyranny of mindlessly acting out our defenses against anxiety, and proceed
logically and systematically with the tasks of structuring online
educational programs, we would be so much more effective. Perhaps, then,
our best allies for establishing online degree programs are in the
psychology department? Or we could bring in a consultant from an outside
company.
Patricia Cravener
Texas Woman's University
[ABOUT THE AUTHOR - Patricia Cravener (cravener@cravener.net) is an
Assistant Professor at Texas Woman's University. Her research interests
include the interactions between psychological traits and adoption of
distance teaching - learning technologies in higher and adult education.
Previous research reports and publications are available at
http://www.cravener.net]
============================================================
EDITOR'S NOTES
THE ANNUAL EDUTECH EXHIBITION at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention
Centre, 23-25 May 1999. Only held in Melbourne in 1999 - For educators
seeking challenges and opportunities in new communication and information
technologies. The three day exhibition 'Window to the Future' offers a
display of the latest technologies in the learning context and thirteen
professional development seminars which address topical issues. Attendance
into the exhibition is free and seminars cost $25 per session. Registration
is necessary and available online from 01 April 1999
-(http://www.infosalons.com.au/edutech). For more details telephone Jessie
Tan in Melbourne on 03 9819 0211 or facsimile 03 9818 8553 or email
edutech@a-t-e.com.au.
RESEARCHING NEW LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS: Logan Campus of Griffith University,
Australia July 1-2. This colloquium will be a gathering of individuals
engaged, or interested, in researching the educational implications of the
development of on-campus learning environments which share, to various
degrees, decreasing reliance on face-to-face teaching, and increasing
reliance on information and communication technologies (ICTs), particularly
the use of the Internet. The purpose of the gathering will include: sharing
of research projects in-train; identifying additional issues for research;
and developing strategies for collaborative research of these NLEs. It is
expected that participants will be working out of a range of disciplinary
perspectives. This gathering will be relatively small with no more than 50
participants to maximise sharing and the potential for involvement. A
Colloquium Dinner is included in the registration fee of $150.00. For more
information contact: Peter.Taylor@mailbox.gu.edu.au
WEBMCQ RELEASES LATEST VERSION OF WEB-BASED ASSESSMENT SYSTEM. Version 1.1
of WebMCQ includes many new features and improvements for using multiple
choice questions (MCQs) for educational assessment and teaching. New
features include new question types, student email options, more security
options, and greater detail about use in previous sessions for both
students and teachers. A unique new feature called "user workgroups" can be
used by teachers to allow students to access a section of the system where
they can create their own MCQs and feedback. Student attempts at creating
MCQs can then be used as a basis for discussion of content and comparison
of MCQs among student groups. This approach to using MCQs in education
fosters higher order learning than the traditional use of MCQs in
assessment. For further details contact info@webmcq.com.au or visit
http://www.webmcq.com/
RICHLINK AUTHOR, a free online authoring tool designed to allow the
creation of multiple layers of annotation for any word or phrase on a page.
The annotation can be done automatically using databases of information.
You can also use a WYSIWYG editor to add custom teacher notes or web links.
RichLink are seeking to work with faculty who are teaching on-line to
explore areas in which this technology can be put to best use. The
RichLink language Annotation Suite will be available later this month. It
will consist of an English language dictionary and six bilingual
dictionaries. It will be followed by material that will allow the
automatic annotation of content in the sciences and professions. The
Professional version of RichLink will allow faculty to develop RichLink
databases of their own. More information ->
http://www.sentius.com/sentius/downloads/rla_bw.pdf or contact Steven
Epstein (sepstein@sentius.com).
ED-MEDIA 99 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, USA JUNE 19-24. You are invited to attend
and become an active participant in this annual world conference on
Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications, sponsored by the
Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). An
annual forum for the discussion and exchange of information on the current
research, development, and applications on all topics related to multimedia
/ hypermedia and distance education. Over 600 presentations in 28 major
topic areas, spanning all disciplines and levels of education and training.
Keynotes and Invited Speakers, Papers, Panels, Roundtables, SIG
Discussions, Pre-Conference Tutorials, Pre-Conference Seminar on WWW-Based
Course Support Systems and Poster/Demonstrations. More information ->
http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/advprog.htm
============================================================
WHAT'S ON?
Send mail to 'online-ed-request@unimelb.edu.au' to have your event details
included here.
MARCH 22-23, ELECTRONIC SERVICE DELIVERY FOR REGIONAL & RURAL AREAS TOWARDS
THE 21ST CENTURY. The conference will highlight QUEENSLAND SOLUTIONS in
the area of: Telemedicine, Distance Education, Tourism & Travel,
Transportation, Resources & Environmental Management & Government Service
Delivery. The conference is being convened by CenEx (Centre of Excellence
for Regional & Rural Areas) which is part of the Office of Regional
Development, Qld Department of State Development. More information
http://www.cenex.com.au.
APRIL 9 TOOLS FOR FLEXIBLE LEARNING WORKSHOP The workshop is to be held at
The University of Sydney and includes: keynote speaker Roy Lundin from the
Queensland University of Technology; demo/discussion sessions; contributed
papers; and posters. More detail, including the programme, can be found on
the UniServe Science web site at
http://science.uniserve.edu.au/workshop/flearn/
APRIL 13, ONLINE TRAINING-THE NEXT STEP A one day seminar designed for
educators and trainers who have already been involved in online education
and want to go 'The Next Step'. Topics include Online instructional design
and the Victorian Virtual Campus, Online Tutoring, Designing Online Lesson
Plans, Taking Your Online Training out into the Community using community
models, Developing Industry Models, So You Made Your First Web Pages,
What's Next? The seminar will be from 9.30am-4.30pm at the Epping Campus
of NMIT in Melbourne. Cost $50 includes morning tea and lunch. Phone 03
9269 8339 or email margareta-adm@nmit.vic.edu.au for a brochure.
APRIL 17-20, AusWeb99. Fifth Australian World Wide Web Conference at
Ballina Beach Resort, Ballina, NSW. Contact Southern Cross University.
More information -> http://ausweb.scu.edu.au/
APRIL 20-22, INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON NETWORKED LIFELONG LEARNING,
Innovative approaches to education & training through the Internet.
University Of Sheffield, Centre For The Study Of Networked Learning,
England. KEYNOTE SPEAKERS to include: Tony Bates, Director, Distance
Education and Technology, University of British Columbia, Continuing
Studies, Nick Stewart, Director General of Employment & Lifelong Learning,
University of Sheffield. More Information -
<http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/projects/csnl/nll.html or E-mail:
nll@sheffield.ac.uk
23-25 MAY, ANNUAL EDUTECH EXHIBITION at the Melbourne Exhibition and
Convention Centre, Victoria, Australia. Only held in Melbourne in 1999 -
For educators seeking challenges and opportunities in new communication and
information technologies. The three day exhibition 'Window to the Future'
offers a display of the latest technologies in the learning context and
thirteen professional development seminars which address topical issues.
Attendance into the exhibition is free and seminars cost $25 per session.
Registration is neccessary and available online from 01 April 1999
-(http://www.infosalons.com.au/edutech). For more details telephone Jessie
Tan in Melbourne on 03 9819 0211 or facsimile 03 9818 8553 or email
edutech@a-t-e.com.au.
JUNE 2-4, INTERFACE 99 12TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE, Alberta, Canada. Conference
Theme: The Evolution of Learning and Technologies. This annual conference
will provide current information on the theory, tools and techniques for
the development and delivery of technology supported instruction. The
pre-conference workshops will offer hands-on opportunities to experience
design hardware, software and instructional strategies. The conference
will be of interest to educators from universities, colleges and schools;
consultants and trainers using emerging training technologies; as well as
educational multimedia and software developers. Presented by The Alberta
Distance Education and Training Association (ADETA) Computer Managed
Learning Alberta Provincial Users Group (CML PUG) and hosted by The
Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT Calgary, Alberta More
information - http://www.avc.ab.ca/Interface
JUNE 19-24, ED-MEDIA 99 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, USA. An annual forum for the
discussion and exchange of information on the current research,
development, and applications on all topics related to multimedia /
hypermedia and distance education. Over 600 presentations in 28 major
topic areas, spanning all disciplines and levels of education and training.
Keynotes and Invited Speakers, Papers, Panels, Roundtables, SIG
Discussions, Pre-Conference Tutorials, Pre-Conference Seminar on WWW-Based
Course Support Systems and Poster/Demonstrations. More information ->
http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/advprog.htm
JUNE 28-29, EUROPEAN LEARNING STYLES INFORMATION NETWORK (ELSIN) 4th Annual
Conference. An international, multidisciplinary sharing of knowledge on
learning and cognitive style differences. Keynote speakers are Guy
Claxton, pioneer in learning styles research and author of 'Hare Brain,
Tortoise Mind: Why intelligence increases when you think less' and Steve
Newstead, British Psychological Society. Deadline for abstracts April 16.
For more information, visit the ELSIN web-site: http://elsin.org.uk or the
conference site: http://www.uclan.ac.uk/commerc/elsincon.htm
JULY 1-2, RESEARCHING NEW LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS: Logan Campus of Griffith
University, Australia This colloquium will be a gathering of individuals
engaged, or interested, in researching the educational implications of the
development of on-campus learning environments which share, to various
degrees, decreasing reliance on face-to-face teaching, and increasing
reliance on information and communication technologies (ICTs), particularly
the use of the Internet. The purpose of the gathering will include: sharing
of research projects in-train; identifying additional issues for research;
and developing strategies for collaborative research of these NLEs. It is
expected that participants will be working out of a range of disciplinary
perspectives. This gathering will be relatively small with no more than 50
participants to maximise sharing and the potential for involvement. A
Colloquium Dinner is included in the registration fee of $150.00. For more
information contact: Peter.Taylor@mailbox.gu.edu.au
JULY 12-16, 30TH ANNUAL ISAGA CONFERENCE - International Simulations and
Gaming Association (ISAGA) 'Anticipating the Unexpected' - a celebration of
the role played by simulations and games in education, future planning,
crisis/continuity management and technology simulations (including the 2000
Olympic Games). Papers and Workshops are invited from subscribers to
online-ed who are involved in any of these or related fields. More
information -> http://www.education
OCTOBER 25-30, WebNet 99, World Conference of the WWW and Internet,
Honolulu, Hawaii, Sheraton Waikiki Beach Resort. More info -
http://www.aace.org/conf/webnet/.
NOVEMBER 4-7, ICCE 99 7th International Conference on Computers in
Education. The Conference fosters the creation and dissemination of
knowledge about the use of information technology in education throughout
the Asia-Pacific region. The conference theme, " New Human Abilities for
the Networked Society ", indicates a focus on the new education needed in
the near-future societies that are rapidly developing in the region. New
technologies including the Internet, multimedia, communication satellites
and artificial intelligence open up exciting possibilities. Educational
communication and collaboration are becoming regional and even global. At
the same time the effectiveness of school and industry education must be
improved, and continuing education expanded. The challenge is to find the
best ways to exploit technology to enhance the creativity, collaboration,
and communication that will be at the heart of the new education for the
next century. More information - http://www.ai.is.uec.ac.jp/icce99/ or
contact Geoff Cumming, La Trobe University, Australia Email
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