The Electronic College Selected Articles from the EKKO Project, Morten Flate Paulsen & Torstein Rekkedal. SEFU Norwegian Centre for Distance Education, 1990. 131 pages. |
VOL. 6, No. 1, 105-108
The selection of articles presented in this book covers a three-year period beginning in 1987 and describes from various points of view the EKKO project that was run by the NKI Electronic College of Computer Science in Oslo, Norway. The College is owned by the NKI Foundation and is a nongovernmental educational institution. EKKO is the name of the computerconferencing software that was written by the College and is at the heart of the project.
There is a great deal of overlap in this book, to the point that some articles are almost identical, and practically every article repeats much of what has been stated previously. To their credit, the authors have reviewed much of the distance education literature and quote from it extensively. However, the book would have benefitted had the authors chosen to analyse this collection of ideas and presented a synthesis under three headings: The Role of Computer Conferencing in Distance Education; How to Set Up a Virtual School Using Computer Conferencing; and The EKKO Experiment.
The first article looks at some of the theoretical points of view on distance education, including those of Keegan, Garrison, Moore, Erdos, Rumble, and others. It concludes by asking if computer conferencing constitutes a new paradigm for distance education. Because the term "paradigm" is not defined and because it is such an ambiguous concept, any answer would be quite meaningless. This point aside, however, the authors note that any shifts in technological developments and use in distance education are more evolutionary than revolutionary in nature.
The next four articles deal with computer conferencing and the creation of a virtual school. The virtual school is defined in terms of its responsibilities: professional, didactic, administrative, and social. Interestingly, because the articles were written at different times, they present different definitions of the virtual school. This allows the reader to observe the evolution of the term and how time can clarify even some of the most obscure concepts. A workable definition does emerge on p. 59 where the authors state that "virtual means hypothetical or imaginary. A virtual school needs no physical framework such as a school building with classrooms, offices, reading rooms, and libraries. Nevertheless it can be perceived as real because it attends to the functions which we expect a school to perform. A virtual school is an information system which can take care of the functions of a school without the necessity for a physical existence."
In different parts of the book the authors present requirements for a virtual school: (a) it must address the professional, didactic, and social tasks of the school; (b) it must be accessible from any geographic location and at any time; and (c) it must satisfy the need for interpersonal communication among members of the school. In describing technologies well-known to distance education they conclude "that computer-based conferencing systems can be used to establish a virtual school" (p. 28). This may be the case as long as we accept as necessary the requirements noted above. The question to be asked, however, is if this definition is descriptive or prescriptive.
The authors go on to describe the basis of a computer-based conferencing system, and for anyone not already familiar with such systems, this article would be a good introduction. The system is described under several headings, each corresponding to the different parts of the system: the host computer, the conferencing software, the framework, the information, the communication networks, the workstations, the users. The authors suggest, however, that it is not yet possible to establish an electronic college by relying exclusively on computer-based conferencing systems because these systems were designed for interpersonal communications and not for electronic conferences. This is not to say, however, that future developments will not overcome the present limitations.
The authors have examined most of the major software for computerbased conferencing systems, including COSY, and provide a brief description of each one. They also list some of the leading institutions presently using educational computer-based conferencing. These include the British Open University, Empire State College in New York, the Jutland Open University in Denmark, OISE in Toronto, and the Rochester Institute of Technology. This information alone would be very useful to someone wanting to examine more closely this type of distance education. The authors conclude this chapter by stating that "It is our firm belief that computer-mediated communication will gain a major position in the distance learning systems of the future" (p. 56).
The last chapters of the book describe how the computer-based conferencing system was set up to deal with course administration, instruction, registration, library services, evaluation, material management, and so forth. The system was organized in such a way that almost everything from registration to social life took place on the computer. Most of the courses offered via EKKO were offered simultaneously on campus and as correspondence courses. The printed material for the courses was taken from the correspondence courses with positive results, leading to the conclusion that specially prepared print materials were not required for the EKKO courses.
Few courses have adopted this technology, and few students (only those in the field of computer science) have used it. The total percentage of completed courses from 1987 to 1990 was 62. The authors have analyzed the experience in detail and have presented their conclusions in a clear, effective manner, bearing in mind the limitations associated with a small sample size. Anyone interested in setting up a computer-based conferencing school would find valuable information in these chapters.
Statistics are presented on course enrolments and completions for the computer-conferencing students and the correspondence-course students. The comparison is interesting because it involves the same courses and the same type of students, with one major difference: the computer-conferencing courses were paced and the correspondence courses were not. The completion rates for the computer-conferencing students were higher, and, interestingly, in the fall of 1989 the students on the network received significantly better grades than on-campus students. There were many confounding variables, however, making it necessary to review these statistics with caution. One major conclusion that may not require cautious interpretation is that "the greatest organizing challenge may be not to integrate the software, but the administrative staff" (p. 113).
This rather thin book is filled with a great deal of information for someone who has not had much experience with computer-based conferencing and would like to set up a school or even offer a few courses using this technology. As well, there are very useful bibliographies at the end of each chapter. It is unfortunate that there is no concluding chapter. The book would have benefitted from the authors providing: a summary of their experiences; some practical conclusions; and an indication of where computer-based conferencing is headed.