Bridge the Virtual Gap:
Using New Technology
to Enhance Interaction in Distance Learning

Introduction

DyKnow is educational software designed to engage students in learning in a pen-enabled environment. Standing for dynamic knowledge transfer, DyKnow originated from an idea of David Berque, a professor of computer science at DePauw University. Its intent is to switch students’ focus from copying notes in the classroom to understanding the learning content and to increase collaboration with the instructors and other students in a pen-enabled environment. It can be also used on a laptop or desktop with limited functionalities.

DyKnow software includes two parts: DyKnow Vision and DyKnow Monitor. Vision is a teaching and learning tool while Monitor is a classroom management tool used to control and reduce electronic distraction in the mobile learning environment. To implement this software, an institution needs to buy the server license, which enables the live synchronous sessions and access to the notebooks on the server.

DyKnow can do many things to enhance teaching and learning. For example, an instructor can transmit learning content to student computers for annotation, which can thus save note-taking time and allow students to focus on understanding the learning content. Moreover, an instructor can ask students to collaborate on a shared whiteboard and give shared whiteboard control to one or more students. As the student presents, the teacher and other students can see the presented content on their individual computers. Additionally, DyKnow has some other features such as polling and chat which enhance online communication.

Sponsored by the Provost’s Office, Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas started a DyKnow pilot project during the summer of 2006. To represent distance learning classes, an Internet protocol television (IPTV) class was selected to participate in the pilot. This class was a four-week summer course in the area of special education and included 12students: six students on campus and six students at two remote sites with three students at each site. All the students used tablets from a mobile cart provided by the University, and the instructor delivered tablets to the students at the remote sites. All the students were restricted from taking the tablets home and could only use them during the formal class sessions.

Literature Review

Learning should be an active process in which interactivity is encouraged (Northrup, 2001). Vrasidas and McIsaac (1999) define interaction as “the process consisting of the reciprocal actions of two or more actors within a given context” (p. 25). Keegan (1996) thinks of interaction as the key to effective learning and Moore (1989) considers interaction “a defining characteristic of education” (p. 2).

Interaction has a variety of functions in the educational process, and the value of other people’s perspectives, which can be often gained through interaction, is a key component in constructivist learning theories (Jonassen, 1992). In addition, interaction is critical to creating the learning communities advocated by Lipman (1991) and Wenger (1998) who focus on the critical role of community in learning. Moreover, Sims (1999) argues that the word “interactive” implies “better experiences, more active learning, enhanced interest and motivation” (p. 257). He has listed dimensions of interactivity to demonstrate the multi-faceted nature of interaction. These dimensions include such functions as allowing for learner control, learner participation and communication, facilitating program adaptation based on learner input, and developing meaningful learning for learners. Chickering and Ehrmann (1996) sugegst seven principles of good practice with computers and telecommunication technologies, and four of them are related to interaction: encouraging contacts between students and faculty; developing reciprocity and cooperation among students; using active learning techniques and giving prompt feedback. These principles emphasize the interaction between students as well as between teachers and students.

Moore (1989) outlines three types of interactions that have become a framework for the study of interaction: learner-content interaction, learner-instructor interaction, and learner-learner interaction. Learner-content interaction is defined as “the process of intellectually interacting with content that results in changes in the learner’s understanding, the learner’s perspective, or the cognitive structures of the learner’s mind” (Moore, 1989, p. 2). It refers to the process in which learners process the course information for their own knowledge understanding and knowledge construction.  Learner-instructor interaction is communication between the instructor and the students in a course, and attempts to stimulate and motivate learners to learn with the instructor’s facilitation for understanding the content in the learning process. Learner-learner interaction is communication between one learner and another learner with or without the real-time presence of an instructor. In distance learning, instructor-learner interaction and learner-learner interaction often occur via computer-mediated communication although it may include other forms of interpersonal communication, online or offline, which occurs during the duration of a course.

Hillman, Willis, and Gunawardena (1994) have added another type of interaction in the electronic learning environment: learner-interface interaction. This type of interaction is defined as “process of manipulating tools to accomplish a task” (p. 34). They remarked: “When dealing with any tool, it is necessary for the user to interact with the device in a specific way before it will do his or her bidding” (p. 34). Learner-interface interaction refers to the interaction between the learner and the technological medium while the learner interacts with the content, instructor, or other learners. Learners who do not have the basic skills required to use a communication medium spend more time learning to interact with the technology and have less time to learn the course content. Therefore, it is important for students to learn how to use the mediating technology in distance learning.

Data Collection

Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through an online survey conducted with the students and the instructor after the IPTV course was completed. The instructor sent the online survey to the students via e-mail and asked them to complete it by a certain date. A 28-item survey was sent to all the students and a 32-item survey was sent to the instructor. The questionnaires included multiple choices items, Likert-scale rating, and open-ended questions. The items were rated from 1 to 4 on a Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 4 = strongly agree), with 4 being the highest.

Data Analysis

Nine out of 12 students completed the survey, with a response rate of seventy-two percent. Among the survey participants, seventy-five percent were seniors and twenty-five percent were juniors. All of the students were female and Caucasian Americans. Most of the students were non-traditional students: twelve percent were 26-30 years old, forty-four percent were 35 or above 35 years, and the reminder were 20-25 years old. About eighty-nine percent of the participants used DyKnow only during the class and eleven percent used it both during the class and at home on their own computer. About fifty-six percent of the participants used DyKnow ten hours per week, and thirty-three percent used it five hours per week, with eleven percent using DyKow 15 hours per week. All of the participants used DyKnow on a tablet and it was the first time for all the participants to use DyKnow in a class. Students used all the primary features of DyKnow Vision, including note-taking, content sharing, re-play, chat, and private notes. The top three features students used in the class were note-taking, chat, and private notes.

In the IPTV class students can hear and see the instructor at remote sites. While using DyKnow software and tablet PCs, students and instructor liked the new technology and enjoyed the new learning and teaching experience. In the following section, the data are analyzed based on four types of interaction: learner-content interaction, instructor-learner interaction, learner-learner interaction, and learner-interface interaction.

Learner-content interaction

Learner-content interaction is an internal process for learners to transform the information passed from another, and construct it into knowledge with their own personal understandings and applications. Students learn and process the learning materials for knowledge construction through many ways such as reading, listening to a lecture, note taking, doing a project, and writing a paper.

Table 1

Learner-Content Interaction

According to Table 1, most students (eleven percent agreed and sixty-seven percent strongly agreed) thought that it was fun to use DyKnow in learning. Most of them (fifty-six percent) also thought that DyKnow software facilitated learning for this course. Some qualitative data derived from answers to the open-ended questions also demonstrated that DyKnow helped students to learn the content through more personal presentations, enhanced note taking, easier access to the instructor and classmates’ feedback and better ways of reviewing notes and learning materials. In general, students expressed that the new technology tool made their learning more engaging, personal and interactive. 

When talking about what they liked most about DyKnow and how DyKnow helped them in learning, students commented:

• “I liked the fact that the teacher could share her PowerPoint on the tablet. This makes it easier for the ITV students to see the PowerPoints.”

• “I liked Dyknow because you could listen to the instructor, follow along with the PowerPoint and take notes (by either typing or writing them down). I really liked the pen, this made taking notes much easier, especially if the instructor shows you a chart, you can easily add it to your notes in one convenient place.”

• “I really liked having the PowerPoint presentation in front of me instead of on a TV screen. It seemed more personal when the teacher was writing on the screen instead of just reading it.”

• “It makes learning more interactive and personal.… You can save your notes to study from later, plus have input from the instructor and other students to look at.”

• “I liked that the teacher was able to put up the notes and make her own notes on the slides and we were able to see them right in front of us.”

• “I liked drawing on the slides truthfully. I doodle when taking notes, and it was fun to add color to the slides through the pen function and the highlighters. It was also nice to be able to write it on my own instead of typing notes. I learn through actually doing something, so using the pen was nice.”

• “One of the advantages that I felt using DyKnow was that I was able to see when the instructor was making an important part on the PowerPoint because she would underline or highlight this information and there it was right in front of you! There was no distractions at this point and time.”

• “The PowerPoints were easier to use and I took better notes because I liked the feel of the pen on the tablet.”

• “I liked using the tablets to follow along with the lectures. It helped me organize my notes much better than if I write them down. I have problems going back and reading my written notes at times, especially when I write them fast. I can usually type faster than I can write.”

• “I liked the fact that I could listen to the lecture without having to write everything down.”
   

Instructor-learner interaction:

Instructor-learner interaction refers to the communication between the instructor and the students in the learning process. Traditionally, this type of interaction is primarily initiated by the instructor rather than the students. The instructor initiates communication with students by ways such as giving lectures, asking questions, providing assignments, and offering feedback on assignments. However, DyKnow is unique in that it enables another direction of interaction that is initiated by the students and the instructor. Students can easily ask questions, demonstrate projects, make comments, and express confusion or misunderstanding via DyKnow features such as chat, whiteboard sharing, polling, and participant status.

According to Table 2, most of the students thought that using DyKnow enhanced interaction with the instructor (forty-four percent agreed and thirty-three percent strongly agreed).

Table 2

Instructor-Learner Interaction

In answering some open-ended questions, students commented:

• “I liked the interaction between the instructor and students.”
• “I also liked the fact that I felt more connected to the other sites, because we were able to see the instructor as she wrote on the notes.”
• “It's very visual and hands-on and more personal with the instructor and other students.”
• “I really liked having the PowerPoint presentation in front of me instead of on a TV screen. It seemed more personal when the teacher was writing on the screen instead of just reading it.”

From the instructor’s perspective, data revealed that using DyKnow enhanced interaction among the students as well as between the instructor and the students. The instructor also agreed that using DyKnow helped provide timely feedback to the students.

When talking about how DyKnow helped her in teaching, the instructor said: “DyKnow helped me to establish a true learning community much quicker and easier. For example, it allowed immediate access to class members’ thoughts (as well as their personal hand-written writing styles), and thus, added an additional visual element to student's verbal discussions.”

Learner-learner interaction

Learner-learner interaction is the communication among students, alone or in a group setting. Traditionally, this type of interaction is neglected in distance learning. With features such as content transfer, whiteboard sharing, and chat, Dyknow makes it possible and easy for the students to share ideas, view sample assignments, and peer review projects. 

Table 3

Learner-Learner Interaction

The survey data in Table 3 show that most students thought that using DyKnow enhanced their interaction with classmates (fifty-six percent agreed and thirty-three percent strongly agreed). Some students also commented on their experience regarding this type of interaction: 

• “I also liked the fact that we could still chat with the IPTV students if we lost our visual connection.”

• “The advantage of Dyknow in this class was the ability to use the chat feature. Many times we lost our bridge connection through the IPTV, so we were able to chat with the instructor and other students. This was great, because we didn't miss out on anything going on in class and they did not have to wait on us to get connected again to resume class.”

The instructor remarked on her experience in using DyKnow software in her IPTV class:

In my IPTV class, one of the advantages of using DyKnow was that it allowed students to communicate via their tablets over hundreds of miles. For example, once when there were Internet problems and students from remote sites were unable to be heard or seen, it was still possible to communicate via the chat feature of DyKnow...totally cool! Also, when completing team projects, the students could submit their panels and teams from sites "across KS" could see what had been submitted by their peers.

Learner-interface interaction

Learner-interface communication indicates that students need to learn how to use a technology tool in the electronic learning environment. Their skill in handling the mediating technology directly affects their capability to interact with the content, the instructor, and the classmates. In the early stage of distance education, the instructor only needed to mail the learning materials to the distance learners and the students mailed their assignments back to the teacher. Communication at that time was primarily performed via paper, pen and mail. With the advancements of technology and telecommunications, students need to know how to handle the mediating technology tools in order to succeed in a distance learning course.  

Table 4

Learner-Interface Interaction

According to Table 4, most students thought it was not difficult to learn the new tool on tablet PCs. Twenty-five percent of students strongly disagreed and thirty-eight percent of students disagreed that using DyKnow was frustrating in the learning process. Most students thought it was necessary to learn Dyknow (twenty-two percent strongly agreed and sixty-seven percent agreed). Most of them also enjoyed using DyKnow in their study (sixty-seven percent agreed and eleven percent strongly agreed).

Conclusions

It appeared that the instructor and the students enjoyed using DyKnow software and tablets in the IPTV class. They thought it was fun to do teaching and learning in a new way, and in particular, the IPTV students really liked the chat feature as it helped them to connect with the instructor and students at other sites when they lost the bridge connection.

Although the pilot class was only four weeks in duration, which is a short period of time for applying a new tool, both quantitative and qualitative data show that DyKnow functionalities enhanced the four types of interaction in the IPTV class and made learning a more fun experience. All the students were white female Americans with fifty-six percent of them were non-traditional. More investigation is needed in this area with a more diverse population and longer course duration.

References