Collaboration Platforms for Online Education

When speaking of the many features online learning can support, perhaps one of the most openly used terms is collaboration. While there are so many proponents of online collaboration, there are just as many definitions of what effective online collaboration really means.

While the larger players in the learning management system (LMS) arena have become fewer in number, their products offer a mind-boggling array of features that are sure to drive the definition of effective collaboration to further distraction. If we add on less costly open-source technologies available from smaller vendors, now our collaboration concept becomes even more muddled. Given everything that's offered, it's no wonder we roll our eyes whenever we hear buzz about "new and improved" technology - of any kind.

In reviewing technology offerings to support online education, it's helpful to stay focused by asking four essential questions:

• Does this technology support your institution's current education process?
• Does this technology support a "wish list" of benefits and processes you hope to offer in the future?
• Does this technology benefit the core audience of online education: instructors and students?
• Can this technology be easily implemented and supported by your institution's IT department?

In reviewing the numerous features offered by prospective technology vendors, if the answer is "no" on any count, you can safely keep to task by eliminating from your consideration the product, product feature, or even the vendor in question. Remember: measurablebenefits - not trendy features - are at the core to successfully leveraging technology for online education.

Ultimately, you can identify requirements based on the current and future processes that technology can offer. This said, you can also finally define what collaboration means to you, and to the students and instructors you serve.

Determining Requirements for Selecting an Online Collaboration Platform

In the absence of clearly defined technology requirements supporting collaborative education, you can readily identify your requirements in several ways. Among the common factors are:

• Online delivery methodology: Fully online vs. Partially online
• Time-based delivery
• Educational Process
• Industry requirements
• Regulatory requirements
• Scalability
• Connectivity to other departments
• IT Support

Online Delivery Methodology: Fully Online? Or Somewhere In-Between?

From the beginnings of time, nearly all form of instruction began in some capacity as a very personal experience. From hands-on instruction to face-to-face discussion, this method of instruction evolved into what we know as our traditional "bricks-and-mortar" mode of education. However, with the advent of the web and the technologies it brings, we can now ride a wider range of possibilities not seen previously.

In getting past the first years of initial skepticism, we are now seeing a trend toward the opposite extreme. The push for doing everything online is upon us. We see it in all venues. Members of the younger generation meet each other and grow relationships on-line. We also see corporate email or discussion boards as emerging venues which attempt to replace meetings which were traditionally held face-to-face. While technology no doubt lends its strengths where it's best leveraged, what constitutes the effect use of online technology for distance education?

Educators have been hit hard by this question. With the on-ramping of other online education contenders, conventional educational institutions may feel pressured to implement their version of online offerings to remain competitive, as well as to accommodate the enrollment of tech-savvy students raised from the crib with a computer in their hands.

Setting aside market pressures for implementing an online learning management system (LMS), consider the following factors:

• Time-based delivery
• Process-Driven requirements
• Industry requirements
• Regulatory requirements
• Scalability
• IT Support
• Budget

The concepts are discussed in the following sections.

Time-Based Delivery

A commonly accepted application for educational content delivery uses a chronological succession of events on a timeline. Depending on whether a student must complete a course within a designated timeline or at her or his own pace, two common modes of interaction supporting courseware delivery may be facilitated through synchronous or asynchronous educational delivery.

Synchronous Education Delivery - Synchronous education is no newcomer to technology. It saw its start as early at the turn of the twentieth century with the invention of the ham radio. Students and instructors would tune in at a designated time and radio frequency for lecture and to discuss class topics in real time. In more modern times for those who do use this, they confer on the web, LMS, conference telephone, videophone, or similar resource. However, with the expanded geographical reach the internet now offers, students across the globe find themselves not being able to conveniently "meet" on the web at any one time with their instructors and classmates. For this reason, a similar technology − asynchronous education delivery − steps in as the preferred means of delivery.

Asynchronous Education Delivery - Asynchronous distance learning is more commonly used as it allows a just-in-time, on-demand student learning experience. Unlike synchronous training, students need not schedule their time around the instructor's predetermined plan for the class they are taking. In this way asynchronous training is more accommodating, and it comes in two forms: self-paced and facilitated. Facilitated asynchronous education allows for instructor-student and student-student interaction, but interaction does not take place in real time. The instructor may post assignments online, and usually include online reading and online research. Students communicate with one another in threaded discussions on moderated online bulletin boards, and may submit their homework to the instructor via e-mail or an upload portal.

Both synchronous and asynchronous delivery have their respective advantages and disadvantages. With synchronous education, students can ask questions of their fellow students or instructor, and provide comments through the phone line, web relay, or through a chat window. As mentioned earlier, asynchronous online education allows greater overall flexibility.

In considering either or both of these two time-based delivery modes for your educational offerings, make certain to select a learning management system (LMS) that can support them.

Process-Driven Requirements

In considering a collaboration platform for your online courseware, think also of process-driven requirements inherent to the kind of interaction you need to host.

Do the courses you offer require frequent student-instructor and student-student discussion? If so, will all of these virtual communications be shared? Will students, instructor aides, and instructors require the capability to post documents to accompany their inquiries and answers? Will students be required to download documents of large files sizes? Likewise, upon completion of their assignments, will they have to upload documents of similarly large size?

Courseware topics requiring close and frequent monitoring by instructors may require one-on-one technology such as chat or instant messaging, email, whiteboards, screen sharing, VOIP or video conferencing.

If you plan to host all of these capabilities, make certain your platform can effectively and quickly serve up these "classroom" process-driven capabilities.

Industry- or Community-Driven Requirements

One benefit of the online content age is its ability to propagate information in many forms to many places. The educational industry is no exception to this phenomenon, and even had a relatively early start at information sharing. Among the requirements you may need to consider for your online collaboration platform may be the ability to share content with sister schools. Perhaps your LMS would need to be able to export and import course content "packages" using content-sharing conventions such as those mentioned here.

SCORM − Of the several education-specific content sharing conventions available is the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM). SCORM is a specification of the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative, which stemmed originally from the Office of the United States Secretary of Defense. The initiative started in 1996, and was followed by a US Department of Defense mandate in 2003 that required all e-learning to be SCORM-compliant. As time progresses, we see more and more SCORM-packaged educational offerings showing up along with the collaboration platforms that support them.

Proprietary Course Packaging − Growingly popular educational content packaging methods include proprietary offerings similar to e-Pack technology produced by Blackboard, Inc. e-Packs allow for the sharing or distribution of educational content among Blackboard Learn platform users. Plans for easier sharing of content among other platforms such as the WebCT and Angel platforms are in the works also.

XML and Other Open-Source Content − Aside from the above proprietary solutions, the move toward less-expensive open-source (non-proprietary) solutions for collaboration standards continue to grow, albeit at a slow pace. Of the more popular standards in the open-source venue is Extensible Markup Language (XML). Derived from its predecessor, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), we see educational content being developed more frequently in XML. While XML as a standard may be considered by some as "too open" for ready use in packaging and sharing educational content, it can easily be used to produce basic educational pieces such as text-based e-book content, which in turn can be easily shared among educational facilities supporting XML-authored content. Because of its open-source nature, XML code frequently serves as the underlying framework for some proprietary content packaging.

Regulatory-Driven Requirements

When considering requirements for the deployment of your online collaboration platform, make certain to check for compliance required by local, provincial, and national authorities.

For example, in the United States accessibility features for certain information technology resources are required by federal law to be compliant with Section 508 guidelines as provided by Title 29 U.S.C. 794d. Related legislation for accessibility of educational resources by disabled citizens includes directives from the Assistive Technology Act of 1998.

Scalability

Another requirement to consider for your online collaboration platform is its ability to grow as your educational institution grows. Bear in mind that growth can be both quantitative and qualitative.

Of the most readily identifiable quantitative attributes your collaborative platform should support is the volume of students it is designed to host. Not only does your online collaboration platform need to support relatively static content for your student population, it also needs to be sufficiently "robust" to support complex activities such as downloading and uploading assignment files. It needs also to facilitate and even make recordings of communications among students and instructors in its many forms, including chat and instant messages, email, whiteboards, screen sharing, VOIP and video conferencing.

As time goes on, trends in online education may change. Flexibility for change in any qualitative features supported by your scalable online collaboration platform has to be factored in as a requirement. In considering the fact that your online student population grows, so must your ability to meet their diverse needs grow also.

IT Support

Of the most frequently misunderstood set of considerations are those surrounding the information technology (IT) support required by your online collaboration platform. Sufficient IT support must be available for effective planning for your collaborative platform's implementation as well as for its ongoing operation.

Aside from the easily identifiable need for scalability of rising student volumes, qualitative features may need to be scaled up for the effective management of so many students. For example on the front end, as student enrollment increases, more funds may become available for the implementation of more features that support a more rich online experience for both students and instructors alike. On the back end, instructors and administrators may be interested in mining data that lend insight to valuable trends in student enrollment and activity.

Conclusion

Remember: measurable benefits - not trendy features - are at the core to successfully leveraging technology for online education.