Communication Tools

The tools I chose for WebCT Vista were the voice board, discussion forums and chat room. All of these tools are found within the LMS.

Synchronous Communication – Vista Chat Room
Why I chose it: For synchronous communication, I chose the chat room within Vista because it helps track the students using it for group work. As well, the chat rooms are convenient for students who do not have external instant messaging clients to discuss group work with any team members or to discuss topics in general with any other students taking the course.

The educational experience: From an educational perspective, this tool would be beneficial for students who are not used to instant messaging or do not normally have access to it. The chat room would permit them to discuss topics with their peers in real time without having to wait hours or days for replies in the discussion forum.

Limitations: From experience, the limitations with using Vista’s chat rooms is that they will not load or function if a student does not have the correct version of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed. Also, network congestion can also cause the application to stall and disconnect a student. Its functionality may also be dependent on the type of computer operating system and browser that the chat is compatible with. For instance, before the most recent update of Java for the Mac OS, a couple students and I used to have the problem where links posted in the chat room could not be clicked on directly; therefore, the links would have to be typed out manually in the browser – not an easy task for long links with a sequence of letters, numbers and symbols. Often if the application takes too long to load, the browser tends to crash like it did as I was testing and typing this post.

Does it work? When I have learning forums for other ETEC courses, the chat rooms usually load for me while I am using either the Firefox or Safari browsers and my most recent test (within the last hour or so) using my Mac OS X with the most recently updated Safari browser (v. 4.0.1) has the chat rooms (with and without whiteboards) loading but I have not yet entered. I closed the window before it could load. I have yet to test on a PC to determine if the chat rooms are functional.

Asynchronous Communication: Voice Board and Discussion Forum
Why I chose Voice Board and what it does for the educational experience: The voice board was used for students to provide a personal introduction to their peers. I think this tool is a great way for students to hear each other and make the experience more personable rather than the chat rooms that are void of emotion and tone. Voice board also helps students become more comfortable with hearing their voice online. Because students are not limited to a single recording, they can re-record their message if they are not satisfied with it. I capped the introduction to a length of three minutes.

Limitations: Voice board is useless for students without access to a microphone and headset or speakers. It also appears to have the same limitations with Java. If the student does not have the most compatible version of Java on their computer then the application may not function properly.

Does it work? Voice board should be fully functional in the introduction module.

Why I chose the discussion forums and what it does for the educational experience: The discussion forums are more useful for posts that the entire class can see and contribute to. As well, the discussions can be made available for certain members of the class in case it needs to be used for team projects. At the end of the course, the students can archive the discussions by printing them out. Instructors can also choose whether or not to assign a grade to the discussions.

Limitations: Students may have to wait hours or days for a reply to their posting. Discussion forum posting and reading may become a tedious task, taking up more time than expected. Students may also be put off by the number of posts, especially if there are more than 10 long posts to read. Anonymous discussions or aliases could make it more difficult to identify and grade students.

Does it work? The discussion forums are functional.