Comparing on-site and remote students' attitudes toward compressed video instruction
(written spring semester 1997)
INTRODUCTION
Hundreds of miles of sagebrush, prickly pear cactus and elusive jackalope separate the communities of Wyoming, but many of the larger towns in the Cowboy State are connected by an educational compressed video system.
Compressed video classes normally involve delivery from a main campus to remote sites that may be hundreds of miles distant. Often, the remote sites will be located at junior colleges or high schools, and the learners will be community members who, for various reasons, cannot attend a university to complete their four-year degree.
But in Wyoming, there can be different instructional arrangements. Sometimes the remote site is located at the state's only four-year university and the origination sites are at two-year community colleges or branch campuses in other cities.
This paper will compare and contrast the attitudes of nursing students at the University of Wyoming who took two compressed video courses in which they were the distance learners with the instructors at other colleges, and one compressed video course in which they and the instructor were at the UW origination site. Their first video class was in fall semester of 1993 and originated from Rock Springs, Wyo. The second was in spring semester 1994 and broadcast from Casper, Wyo. The third was in fall 1994 and originated from the university.
The paper will also examine the learning experiences of the students and whether the experiences differed when the students were at the remote site or on site.
Methodology
Two former nursing students and one of their instructors were interviewed as part of the research for this paper. To promote candor and to follow research ethical guidelines, the students' names have been changed for the paper. Moon is a 43-year-old married mother of three who lives in Laramie, home of UW. She was interviewed at her house on March 9, 1997. Sally is a 37-year-old married mother of one who lives in Laramie. Sally was interviewed at Moon's house on March 27, 1997. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in which the students were asked simply what they liked and disliked about the compressed video courses. Followup questions were asked depending upon the students' responses. Notes of the interviews were kept as part of the data collection. Their responses were then analyzed to locate common words, phrases, events and themes. Data analysis basically followed the advice of Bodgan and Biklen (1992) about how to sort through and organize data sources.
If time had allowed, more members of the classes would have been interviewed, perhaps by forming a focus group, to collect more data. The interviews would have been tape recorded and transcribed for accuracy and reliability. Finally, the entire class would have been surveyed by questionnaire with questions based on responses from the focus group. Another useful data source would have been to interview or survey the instructors about their perceptions of student attitudes and experiences in the three classes.
FINDINGS
The data analysis resulted in three topics that will be examined in this section. Interpersonal communication includes how the nursing students communicated with students at other sites. Technical difficulties will include problems the students experienced with the compressed video system. Instructional effectiveness will cover their perceptions of the instructional quality in the two situations -- off-site and on-site.
To put the students' comments into perspective, it's important to note that their classes at the university consisted of 38-48 students, while the classes at the Casper site were 16-18 students. There were only two students at the Rock Springs college.
Interpersonal communication
Moon and Sally said there seemed to be some animosity between sites at times. "There was a problem with a certain student in Casper hogging the mike," Moon recalled about a course that originated from Laramie. "She wanted to answer all the questions ... The teacher didn't do anything about it." The students in Casper also seemed antagonistic toward students in Laramie. "When we came back after break one class, a student in Casper said she'd appreciate it if we turned off the mike before we talked about them," Sally said. "Everybody was kind of shocked. Everybody in the room was silent. I felt really bad because nobody I was aware of had anything against anyone in Casper." Neither Sally nor Moon ever heard what the comment was that started the problem. The instructor tried to calm down the situation by telling everybody that they were all one class even though they were located at different sites.
"People in Casper seemed to be angry that we had the instructor more often on site," Moon said. There were also complaints during other compressed video courses, she said, when someone would tell a joke and the other sites would get mad because they couldn't hear it.
Box (1995) noted that there can be perceptions by remote learners that on-site learners may be getting special treatment by the instructor. "In our experience, when there was a group on campus with the instructors, as well as numerous groups at distance sites, there were some (albeit joking) comments about the on-campus students being more of an 'in-group'" (p. 121).
West (1994) also found that there is potential for friction between remote classes and on-site students. He said it is common "that some students at the origination site prefer not sharing the instructor with the distant sites. On the other hand, some at the distant sites report that they feel neglected or are receiving a lesser educational benefit" (p. 72). Other research (Aizley, 1994, p. 10) suggested that students at the primary site don't like having to "share time" with remote students.
Sometimes, friction can be caused by students missing the non-verbal cues of students at other sites. For example, West (1994) found that a student at one site may be speaking and receiving positive feedback from other students at his or her site, in the form of nods and other affirmative gestures. At the same time, students in a remote site may not be able to see the approving responses at the other site. The remote students may form a dissenting opinion and react with disapproving facial expressions and gestures. When the student who is speaking sees the dissent over the monitor, he or she may be surprised and become angry at the remote students.
Not all of Moon and Sally's inter-class communication was so negative. "Sam the Weatherman" was a student in Casper who would give a computer presentation of local weather conditions at the start of classes. "That helped relations between the two classes," Moon said, adding that she found it interesting to talk to students in the other towns over compressed video.
It's difficult to determine whether the animosity between the Casper and Laramie students is common in compressed video classes. Similar classes elsewhere have resulted in close relationships between remote and on-site students. In Minnesota, for instance, students at an origination and remote site developed a camaraderie. Analysis of class discussion revealed humor, trust, self-disclosure and kindness among students at both sites (Rutherford & Grana, 1994).
But Sally said that she never spoke to another student at a remote site over compressed video. Until she met the other remote students at graduation, Sally had only spoken to one off-site student who came to Laramie one day to take the class. She said she didn't feel "comfortable" using the microphones. A study that compared interactions between students in a traditional classroom and those in a television classroom found that microphones can contribute to communication apprehension, "which resulted in less interactive participation" (Ritchie & Newby, 1989, p. 40). They also found that other factors may cause student anxiety about interacting, such as the student's assertiveness and the instructor's willingness to encourage interaction.
Technical difficulties
Sally's reluctance to speak because she felt uncomfortable using the microphone seems more of a behavioral effect than a problem with using the technology. However, there were problems with the compressed video system that possibly prevented better communication between classes. Both students noted that sometimes students at different sites would be pressing the button to speak at the same time. Moon said that watching the class in Casper on the monitor prevented her from paying attention to what the instructor was saying. Her distraction could be due to the "television watching" phenomenon in which students become passive observers rather than active participants in compressed video courses (Rezabek, Cochenour, Bruce & Shade, 1995, p. 134). Nursing students in Nevada (Aizley, 1994, p. 11) came to see their instructor as a "TV star" because they only saw her over a monitor. However, this phenomenon may be just as likely to happen with students on site. An Iowa study found that most students in the transmitting classroom generally watched the instructor on the monitor rather than looking at him or her directly (Rees & Safford, 1992).
Sally mentioned that she didn't like the lack of eye contact when the instructor was at another site. "It seemed like the instructor was looking at her class and directing questions toward them," she said. Quick movement by instructors on compressed video "made them look like they were jumping around," which also bothered her. Part of her trouble in adjusting to compressed video instruction seemed related to her previous experience in UW's nursing program. For the first two years, she was in a traditional classroom with the professor. In her junior year when compressed video instruction began, "it was really strange after having the instructor in the same room with us for two years. It was weird to be looking up at the screen instead of having the instructor there," Sally recalled.
Distance education research has explored the conflicting benefits and flaws of technology used for educational purposes. While technology can open new opportunities for distance learners to continue their education, it also challenges them to adapt to the limitations of offering classes via technology, and some students may not be able to adjust. Granger (1995, p. 166) called distance education "either a welcome tool of liberation ... or a disruptive tool upsetting an established order and pattern."
As far back as 1975, Davison noted a similar dichotomy caused by instructional technology: "Educational technology optimizes the use of specialized knowledge and skill; at the same time it maximizes the distance between teacher and learner and weakens the traditional framework of interpersonal exchange" (Davison, p. 20).
Even though Sally seemed to dislike the compressed video technology more than Moon, she recognized that it is probably "the wave of the future" for higher education. She added that if she pursues a master's degree, she would "appreciate the convenience" of taking compressed video classes instead of having to travel to take classes out of town.
Among other problems, there weren't enough microphones for each student, so two students had to share one mike. Sometimes the microphones didn't work. Moon said that at first she was bothered by how people's voices weren't in synch with their mouth movements over the monitors, but that she got used to it and didn't pay any attention to the effect after a while. A study of interactive teleconferencing in Kentucky found that students often experience discomfort with using microphones and other equipment in the studio-classroom, "but with use this discomfort level decreased" (Freels & Patton, 1992, p. 70)
Other problems mentioned by Moon included transmissions breaking off in the middle of a class or transmission difficulties causing class to start late. Overall, however, she found that while the technology was new to her at first, using the compressed video system "was kind of interesting."
Instructional effectiveness
Both students indicated that they tended to be self-directed learners and were highly motivated to take the compressed video classes because the courses were required as part of the bachelor's of science in nursing curriculum. Granger (1995) noted that when a distance education class is part of a degree program, motivation is enhanced. Neither student noticed any difference in their grades between on- and off-site video classes or traditional classes. In Nevada, nursing students in telecourses also showed negligible differences in grades when on- or off-site (Aizley, 1994). However, Sally said that once instruction started, she felt less motivated in the compressed video classes than in traditional classes. "It was real boring to sit there for three hours," she said. "It was like the instructor was just reading verbatim out of the course manual." She also thought that the professors' grading policies were more lenient in the compressed video classes. "They didn't seem to expect as much from us."
Two of her instructors seemed comfortable teaching over compressed video, Moon said, while one did not. "She wasn't good with it. She didn't follow her outlines. She showed videos and they didn't come over well over compressed video. We couldn't understand them," she said. Much of the literature on compressed video suggests that the success of courses depends on the instructor using various teaching methods. For example, a study in Utah found that students don't like telecourses in which instructors use only the talking head lecture format (Daines, Egan, Jones, Sebastian & Ferraris, 1994).
Moon liked an obstetrics class that she took via video because the subject was interesting, adding that "it didn't matter that I was off-site." However, in general she felt more comfortable and involved in classes and was able to pay closer attention to the instruction when she was on-site. "I felt like I was more part of the class." Sally also preferred having the instructor on-site because instruction was more personal. She said there were also more distractions in remote classrooms because people would talk and walk out of the room.
Sally learned more when the instructor was in her classroom, largely because of the interaction that took place after class and during breaks in the instruction. Sally said she only received individual attention from the instructors when they were on-site or in their offices. The only time she asked questions in video classes was during breaks when the instructor was either on site or visiting the university from the community colleges. Both students agreed that instructors needed to visit the remote sites more often. One instructor scheduled four visits to Laramie. Sally recalled that when the instructor visited the university, "a lot of us crowded around her after class." The other instructor from the community college visited the university for about half of her classes. "They made an effort to come" to Laramie, Moon said. "I would have liked them to come more often, but I understand the problems with travel, especially in Wyoming."
None of their classes utilized instructional aides for the remote sites, although there was a technician at each site to run the equipment. Sally, who never asked a question during a compressed video class, said she would have been more likely to raise her hand and speak if there had been an aide in the classroom. Utah students also felt isolated and discouraged when they couldn't communicate with instructors or teaching aides (Daines et al., 1994).
Getting timely instructor feedback on their assignments, tests and papers or contacting instructors at the colleges also were problems for the university-based students. Sally would have liked to contact them more often but said one reason she didn't was because of the cost of a long-distance phone call. Moon called long distance once or twice, but said she might have called more often if a toll-free phone number had been available. Feedback was always quicker when the instructor was on-site. One instructor at the community colleges was slow to return assignments, tests and papers, Sally said. However, the same instructor was efficient in preparing class material for the remote sites. She would send her lecture notes weekly to the university's copy center where students could buy them before class. Moon, though, reported that the instructor didn't always follow the notes when she lectured, causing many students to get lost. "We'd try to listen to her and follow along with the outline, but we couldn't do both." The Utah research also discovered that students unanimously criticized poorly integrated learning activities and course materials, such as when the televised instruction didn't relate to the written material for the course (Daines et al., 1994).
The attitudes and experiences of the two Wyoming students are similar to the findings of research on other telecourses. In a comparison of students in a studio classroom and a remote site, it was revealed that the studio group enjoyed the instruction significantly more than the remote group; that the studio group believed it had more chances to ask questions; and the remote group felt significantly less involved in the instructional process (Ritchie & Newby, 1989).
CONCLUSION
Although Wyoming is unique because it is the only state with one four-year university, student attitudes and learning experiences with compressed video courses are remarkably similar to those in other states.
Much of the findings of this paper echo a 1994 study (Magiera) of a finance course offered by compressed video in Wyoming in which the origination site was in Casper and the remote site was at UW. That study showed that the students at UW didn't like the compressed video course, wanted an instructor in their classroom and didn't like using the push-button microphones.
These may be valid comments from students who planned their education so that they could attend the main campus of the University and who may have perceived that they were not getting their money's worth with a compressed video format .... It may be preferable to broadcast the class from the main campus to an extension site rather than the reverse (pp. 276-277).
A survey of seven interactive video classes at the University of Northern Iowa revealed that most students -- 59 percent -- considered having the teacher in the classroom with them to be a real advantage (Bozik, 1996). However, the students still had a positive educational experience in the classes with 87 percent responding that they would be willing to take another video course.
Other studies have also found that students are receptive to telecourses, despite their shortcomings. In a survey of the attitudes of students who took several interactive TV courses, McCleary and Egan (1989) found that by the third class, students rated it higher in quality than a conventional class.
In general, students seem to appreciate the convenience and availability of televised courses, even if they would prefer that the instructor be in the classroom. The Iowa Communications Network's student assessments have been positive overall. "A general reaction is that it is not as good as in-person instruction, but students are pleased that it's possible to take coursework at all" (Rees & Safford, 1995, p.66).
Considering the attitudes and experiences of Moon and Sally, and similar responses of other compressed video students, there appear to be several factors in providing a successful telecourse:
-- Whenever possible, the course should be delivered from the site with the largest number of students. In Wyoming's case, the instructors in Casper and Rock Springs could have traveled to the university once a week for a three-hour seminar transmitted back to the community colleges. This would give them contact time with the university students for a day, and then they could spend the rest of the week with their students at the community colleges. In the case of winter road closures, the classes could have originated from the community college and the university students probably would have been tolerant of the situation.
-- An efficient means of feedback must be provided to remote sites. If a qualified teaching aide is available and the institution can afford to hire one, an aide should be in each remote site. Otherwise, a toll-free phone number would encourage remote students to contact the instructor during hours scheduled solely for the remote classes.
-- To improve communication and build relationships among students, instructors should take advantage of compressed video's interactive capabilities. Instructors should encourage dialogue between sites, perhaps starting each class by having each site tell a joke. An instructional method might be to require collaborative group research projects and presentations among the sites. Again, the availability of a toll-free would facilitate dialogue among students at different sites, as well as student-instructor contact.
-- The instructor should also take advantage of compressed video's visual powers to augment lectures with computer presentations, graphics, charts, outlines and videotapes. However, these should be tested before class to make sure each site is receiving the visuals clearly.
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