CAPÍTULO 4: ANÁLISIS DE LOS RESULTADOS Y DISCUSIÓN
4.1. TIPO DE EVALUACIÓN UTILIZADA EN LAS DINÁMICAS HABITUALES Y EN
4.1.1. Tipo de evaluación aplicada en las dinámicas habituales de EF
The initial phase of the research reported i n th is thesis involved a wide-ranging review of educational software. This included a more detailed investigation of about thirty systems, based upon perusing articles and papers by the developers, considering comparative reviews , visiting promotional web sites, and exploring sa mple software (Appendix A). This review qu ick ly established that there existed a vast array of programs aimed at coach ing very specific ski l ls, often at a qu ite elementa ry level. But in terms of on-line teaching at the un iversity level, the options were much narrower. If one-off prototypes are ignored , then the choice reduces down to a custom-bu ilt web site or one bu ilt u sing any of a small n u mber of established commercial course a utho ring products.
Some courseware systems such as Top-C lass (Lennox, 2000) have been specifically developed for the authoring and management of industry training progra m mes. Others l ik e WebCT (Goldberg , 1 997) and Blackboard/ Cou rse l nfo (Kubarek, 1 999) have been developed through u n iversity research projects and were initially geared towards supporting inte rnal u niversity courses. All h ave been promoted as suitable vehicles for u n iversity dista nce learning. In this section , their suitability for extra m u ral learning is critically appraised u sing the criteria developed in Section 3.2.
3 .4.1 Cou rseware fu nctional ity
How far does web-based coursewa re enhance extramural study? As a practical teach ing too l , it realises several of the learning features and functions potentially supported by n etwo rk ed computers, although with some additional l imitations in the extram u ral environ ment.
Chapter 3: Web-based courseware 43
The mai n coursewa re products have been extensively revi ewed and compared on web-sites, in magazine articles, and in resea rch papers (Appendix A). Brusi lovsky a nd Mi llar present a usefu l overview i n which they classify exi sti ng courseware from a number of different perspectives. Fro m the delivery poi nt of view they di sti ng uish three levels of sophisti cation - from a base level that relies on stati c HTML and medi a pages with stati c li nks, th rough to those systems that store course i nformati on and content i n a database and generate most o f the pages o n the fly. A system with a database core provides more functi onality and is more easi ly managed (Brusi lovsky et a l . , 2001 ) . More recent experience from Massey University's use o f courseware would suggest that, whi le more use i s bei ng made of database technology to manage individual students, most learni ng materi a l is sti l l being presented as a labyrinth of stati c HTML documents, through whi ch the student must navigate.
Courseware is typica lly insta lled on a central server a nd delivers cou rse content a s web pages viewed through a mu lti-platform browser on the user's computer. Thi s places g reater restrai nts o n fu ncti onality at the student interface compared to appli cations written for a si ngle platform or as a standalone system. Additional feature s a nd functi ons can be enabled b y providi ng speci a l software whi ch i s down loaded with the web page, or separately, a nd executes on the user's com puter.
Perhaps courseware's strongest contri buti on has been in helping teachers to a uthor a nd update learni ng materi a l . I niti ally, web-based uni versity cou rses were do-it-yourself (DIY) . Keen faculty members had to learn to bui ld web sites from scratch, make the best of authori ng tools included i n web browsers, or get what help they could from u nive rsity computing support servi ces. Together with course emai l li sts, they provided
on-li ne resources and s uppo rt for i nternally-ta ught cou rses and externa l
correspondence courses. Whi le i n practi se most DIY web sites were quite rudi mentary ,
based upon stati c HTML pages, in theory the only li mi t on thei r features was the programming abi lities of the developer and what can be down loaded vi a a web browse r t o the student's computer. The Open University of the United Ki ngdom warns that sites bui lt on a DIY basi s "are lik e n uclear power stations: they might seem to be a g reat
i dea at the ti me, but mai ntenance can be prohibitively expensive" (Watt, 2000 , para. 5).
One approach to reducing this "n uclear power" ri sk, rep resented by the CATALYST project at the U niversity of Washi ngton, i s to provide a support servi ce i n cludi ng j u st-i n ti me trai ni ng a n d a suite o f tools for faculty wis hi ng to develop course web sites (Donovan et a l . , 1 999). Another is to extend to the Web the concept of cou rse authori ng software, represented by products li ke Macromedi a's Authorware, that had been main ly developed to a uthor a nd deliver CD-ROM-based occupational trai ni ng.
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Courseware tools rep resent a n advance for teachers over DIY through: providin g templates t o help them structu re their cou rse material, a n d t o reduce or elimi nate the need for programming skills; integ rating communication functionality directly into the course structure; assisting staff with enrolment and other administrative tasks; and providing feedback, through o n l ine testing and tracking of students' progress through their cou rses.
Standard courseware integrates various media like video and text i nto a single b rowser-based environ ment. Its server-centred arch itecture means that it cannot easily i nteg rate materials stored at d ifferent locations into a student's course, although it can p rovide links that the student ca n p u rsue independently.
Generally, interactions with the student are q u ite limited , relying heavily on the presentation of learning mate rials to be read or watched , in combination with internet based d iscussion tools.
To B rusilovsky ( 1 999), cou rseware remained in essence mu ltimed ia-embellished HTML pages. Nielsen (200 1 ) considered it no more multi-dimensional and interactive than its 1 970s PLATO predecessor. Jesshope and his colleagues wrote that, until web based systems could interact dynamically with the individual student, all they wou ld do is p rovide a repository of information wh ich replaces the disk space on stand-alone computers o r hardcopies in traditional correspondence courses (Jesshope et a l . , 2000).
I ntere stingly, N ielsen, a u sability expert, warns aga inst trying to reproduce the textbook electron ica lly. "La rge amounts of text just do not work very wel l on a computer screen simply becau se it is painfu l and s low to read" (Nielsen, 2001 , para. 5). He considers that a book is better for transmitting l a rge amounts of informatio n .
The cou rseware teach ing systems characteristically cover thei r subject matter with a broader brush than adaptive systems do. Mu rray ( 1 999), a s a result, criticises commercial courseware for its shallow representation of content and pedagogy. The student is presented with the m aterial and then left to pursue things further on his/her own .
C h a racteristically, courseware is neither adaptive nor adaptable from the student user's point of view. From the system a d m i n i strator's viewpoint, commercial cou rseware such as Top-Class (Lennox, 2000) o r G E NTLE (Dietinger et a l . , 1 998) has the capacity to restrict individ ual student's access to some learning materials, or determine the order in which they may view it, in l ine with the requirements of education providers.
Chapter 3: Web-based courseware 45
educational appl ications that offer some amount of adaptivity a nd intelligence. These features are especially important for distance learning applications "since d istance students usually work on their own (often from home). An intellige nt and personalised assistance that a teacher or a peer student can provide in a normal classroom situation is not easy to get. In addition , being adaptive is important for Web-based cou rseware because it has to be used by a much wider variety of students than any 'standalone' educational application . . . [C]ou rseware that is designed with a particular class of u sers in mind may not suit other users" ( B rusilovsky, 1 999, para . 1 ).
In contrast to the individualised character of adaptive tutors , however, courseware systems ca n more easily accommodate collaborative study. WebCT, for example, is intended to facil itate communication and collaboration (Goldberg , 1 997).
Support for multi-dimensional /earning
While web-based courseware is not explicitly built around any particular approach to learning, in practise it relies heavily on the more passive lecture and textbook methods of study, what Brusilovsky and Miller cal l learn i ng by reading and watch ing (Brusilovsky et a l ., 200 1 ). Even then, learning by lecture is generally only supported in the sense of being able to store and display m u ltimedia files. A cou rse delivered in th is ways offers very little advantage to the extramura l student over the study outlines and texts of traditiona l correspondence learn ing. I n fact, Cheung (200 1 ) provides evidence that students may prefer hardcopy-based study to this form of e-learn ing.
Of the more active dimensions of un iversity learning, only learn i ng by collaboration is realised to any extent. Courseware facil itates co-operation and commun ication between students studying alone from separate locations . H owever, the anywhere , anytime requ i rement of extramural study means that the utility of synch ronous collaborative features such as conferencing and chat may be severely restricted . Many extramural students must rely upon the asynchronous fu nctions like email for collaboration.
Courseware does not support one-on-one tutorial lea rn ing beyond electronic correspondence with a h uman tutor.
None of the systems reviewed matched the potential of the textbook for exploratory learning. While a course web-site allows the freedom to explore , it is harder to navigate around, slower to leaf through , and easier to get lost in than a book. Some courseware systems have featu res built into them which mil itate against learning by exploration , by
Chapter 3 : Web-based cou rseware 46
imposing a predefined lea rning path upon students or restricting access to particular learning materials ( Len nox, 2000; Dietinger et al, 1 998).
3.4.2 Usa b i l ity concerns
Whatever its fu nctional deficiencies, a more fundamental barrier to the successfu l a pplication of courseware to extramural lea rning is concern about its usability. Courseware does not meet key usabil ity req u i rements for extramural study such as avoiding fu nction and feature overload a nd providing just-in-time and just-enough u ser help.
For the extramural student, especially the less experienced computer user, using courseware is a far from trivial task. This is not a pro blem of the learni ng system alone. Even where the student interactions with the courseware have been ca refully thought out, or the student's path through cou rse mate rial is constrained, it remains a component of a larger computer environment. The cou rseware interface is p resented within the web browse r interface, which in turn is presented with in the operating system interface. Accessing particular learn ing materials may cause new windows to be opened. The result is a visual clutter in wh ich the student can become lost, confused, or distracted (Figure 3 . 1 ) .
T h e online h e l p system poses the same layers o f complexity t o the user. Each open application provides its own help database which the u ser must try to query . There is a rea l likel ihood of the i r being overwhelmed by too much information.
In short, cou rseware adds additional layers of com plexity to a computer system whose complexities the extram u ra l student may already be struggling with . lt req uires a level of computing experience beyond what can be assu med of an extra mural student working alone at home.
Cou rseware reflects a more general problem in e-learning that the design of the student interface has not been prioritised (Kruse, 2002; Murray, 1 999). Kruse considers the interface between students and computers to be the "single most neglected topic in the field of e-learn ing" a nd a major reason for students expressing a preference for classroom-based over computer-based instruction ( Kruse, 2002 , pa ra . 1 ) . Bork criticises the tendency of ed ucational softwa re developers to incorporate the standard Windows a nd web browser interface features and functions, such as menus a nd tool bars, even though these items have no connection with the learning task. They a mount to "visual garbage" which distracts the student from this task (Bork, 200 1 a) .
Chapter 3 : Web-based courseware 47
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Because of their promotion as a uthoring and management tools, cou rseware systems emphasise the requirements of ed ucational o rgan isations and businesses, ahead of the requ i rements of students. From th is perspective, the most important end use r - the distance student - is viewed as the object rather than the subject of the system, or the back-end rather than the front-end.
3.4.3 I naccess i b i l ity
The e ssential req uirement for a wholesa le sh ift from correspondence-based to computer-based extramural study is that all the learning material be available anywhere, anytime. Cou rseware is unable to achieve this.
Theoretically, cou rseware is accessible from every home or workplace with a telephone connection. In practise, however, the vast majority of households in the world do not have telephone service . Even among those that do, the quality of the service for those living outside the most developed u rban a reas may mean pa infu l ly slow a nd u n reliable Internet connections (2.3. 1 ).
Poor communications infrastructure is fatal for courseware, because it relies upon the learner maintain ing a live con nection with the server on which the cou rse is stored . First, some extramural students may not be able to down load their lessons. Second, a
Chapter 3: Web-based courseware 48
slow response time frustrates and distracts the student and inhibits learning (Nielsen, 2001 ). Third , a slow connection restricts the content of the course. If the course makes
extensive use of the multimedia capabi lities of the tech nology, as some proprietary applications like the Cisco networking courses (Cisco , 2002) do, then it simply will not work u nder these conditions. Fourth, it gives an unfa ir advantage to those students with access to high speed com munications technology.
Histo rically, extramural university study h as existed in the first insta nce to provide tertiary educational opportun ities where they would not otherwise exist, viz. in developing cou ntries and in the more remote parts of developed countries. But it is precisely in these a reas where web-based coursewa re is least effective .
3.4.4 S u m m a ry
From this review it is concluded that web-based cou rseware systems have been primarily desig ned as learning management systems to support company training prog rammes o r i ntern a l un iversity courses . The emphasis is upon cross-platform capabilities, and u pon the requirements of education and training providers such as a uthoring a nd cou rse administration . They p rovide a complex, multimedia environment that req u i res a fast and reliable network service and assumes that user training and support will be at hand when needed . Neither can be assumed in the extramura l environ ment.
Coursewa re is a usefu l o ption by which experienced computer users with good Internet access can study a cou rse without having to sit in a class or lecture theatre. This form of distance education is often called flexible learning.
As a tool which enables teachers to author e-learning material without recou rse to a skilled prog ra mmer, a nd which facilitates collaboration and commun ication among students, web-based courseware has contributed g reatly to the explosion i n online education.
F rom the perspective of the extramural student, courseware's limited interactivity and individualisation offers l ittle advantage over email-and-book-based extramural study. Moreover, courseware's management from a central web server means that learning materials and featu res may not be accessible by the distance student "anywhere, a nytime" because of u n re l iability and slowness in the telecommunications system . And the complexity of the computer environ ment in which the user interacts with the learn ing material, and insufficient attention to interface design, poses usability concerns that further limit the learn ing functions and features available to the extramural student.
Ch apter 3 : Web-based courseware 49