Virtual-U: Evidence-Driven TeleLearning Support

TL-NCE began with a vision of education transformed by networked, collaborative learning. Its researchers across Canada had had experience with aspects of the new technologies and learning strategies and realized their potential. Moreover, they believed that their knowledge, based in extensive research, could be built into a new generation of software that would offer far more effective support than the email, newsgroup and conferencing technologies then available.

To help realize the vision, a major research initiative was led by Linda Harasim, TL-NCE Network Leader and professor at Simon Fraser University. Her team built on her earlier research to develop and field-test Virtual-U, a comprehensive course management and delivery environment that incorporates the knowledge and experience of years of online learning research.

Virtual-U has many innovative features, including a variety of conferencing capabilities that go well beyond those typical of other course delivery systems using conferencing. The following list is taken from the Virtual-U website:

Features

Benefits

Conferencing (Asynchronous)

Supports multiple group structures.
Group and individual roles . can be changed at any time.
Multimedia message support for graphics, video or audio clips.
Custom list of conferences for each participant.
Multiple views of message listings including: all messages, only unread messages, headings only, and full text.
Multiple sorts of message listings including: by author, by date, and by thread.
Save or print an entire conferences for off-line reading.

Chat Tool (Synchronous)

Anyone can create a new chat room.
Avatars can be used.
Users can set their refresh rate.

Conferencing (Asynchronous)

Provides students and instructors a medium for easy communication and collaboration.
Individuals can have different roles for each conference, such as moderator or participant.
Conferences can be customized at any time: changing roles and access privileges, adding or removing participants, or creating additional conferences.
Including HTML and multimedia elements within messages can be used to enrich discussion.
Personal profile for each conference which retains the users viewing and sorting preferences.
Off-line reading is convenient for those with a slow or expensive network connection.

Chat Tool (Synchronous)

Useful for office hours, team discussions, or socializing.
Avatars make the space more personalized.

An additional courseware developed in collaboration with the International Labour Organization, called The Internet Course Reader, specifically adapts Virtual-U courses for students who have low-speed, costly Internet access by allowing them to download and upload course materials and communications all at once and then work offline.

Virtual-U has been the subject of what may be the world’s largest field trials. It supports the Global Educators’ Network, a worldwide community of educators committed to both leading and supporting the development and practice of state-of-the-art advanced telelearning models and technologies. Virtual-U is marketed internationally by Virtual Learning Environments, Inc. and supports major educational applications in sites across North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Australia.

Furthermore, VU Researchers are also in the process of developing ELETS, a web-based database driven application that offers tools and services for analyzing on-line activity and learning processes, which may be used by various groups of users, such as researchers, instructors, administrators and students. Types of analysis are categorized on the basis of the learner's active participation over time, read - only messaging and on-line collaboration with peers. An ELETS demo is available at: http://scaffold.cs.sfu.ca/demo/.

Project titles:
1.2 Educational Models for TeleLearning
5.4 Instructional Models, Collaboration and Group Interaction Tools
5.5 Pedagogical Models and Knowledge-building Tools
5.6 Assessment Models and Tools
5.21 Development of Structures and Templates to Scaffold and Study the Use of Advanced Pedagogies

Research outcomes: Virtual-U telelearning environment

Project leader: Linda Harasim, Simon Fraser University

Principal investigators: Marlene Scardamalia, Carl Bereiter, Richard Wolfe (OISE/University of Toronto), Alain Breuleux, Carl Fredericksen (McGill University), Tom Calvert, Philip Winnie (Simon Fraser University), Ronald Baeker (University of Toronto), David Darvill (MPR Teltech)

Other researchers: Jacqueline Bourdeau, Claude Ricciardi-Rigault (Tele-Universite), Gary Boyd (Concordia University), Ricki Goldman-Segall (University of British Columbia)

Research associates/students: Cindy Xin, Michelle Daly, Shawna Riebling, Milton Campos, Sylvia Currie, Larry Hopperton, Max Luk, Irene Jeremic

Collaborating organizations: Office of Learning Technologies, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, International Labour Organization (ACTRAV)

References:

Harasim L (in press). The Virtual University: A State of the Art. Advances in Computers, Book Series - Volume 54. Academic Press, London, UK.
http://virtual-u.cs.sfu.ca/vuweb.new/papers/harasim_aic_jul00.pdf

Harasim L (1999). A framework for online learning: The Virtual-U. IEEE Computer Society Journal "Computer" 32 (3): 44-49.
http://www.telelearn.ca/g_access/news/r9044.pdf