Describes collaboration with a distance education course between Iceland University of Education and BSU and Athabasca University

1. Impact of place and culture in an
online environment:
Lessons from an international, collaborative
teacher education project
Debra Hoven
Athabasca University
debrah@athabascau.ca
Sólveig Jakobsdóttir
Iceland University of education
soljak@hi.is

2. Overview
• The collaboration with the online DE course -
history and origin – IUE+BSU
• AU+IUE collaboration
• Preparation 2007-2008
• Students’ activities and experiences
• Conclusions and suggestions

3. History and origin

4. The process
PhD students Faculty DE-course
1991-1996 members - • Design, piloting
Fulbright 2001 2001-2
• Sólveig • Iceland U of Ed • Co-teaching
Jakobsdóttir 2003-6
• Bemidji State U,
• Patricia L. Rogers MN

5. DE course(s) at IUE-BSU
Year IUE BSU Cross-cultural Communication, learning environment
no of no of communication
s’s s’s
2001 8 vc-lecture, sync WebCT (IUE)
2002 17 vc-lecture, sync WebCT (IUE)
2003 20 10 to 25 Student async WebCT (BSU)
2004 6 10 to 25 Student async WebCT (BSU)
Sharepoint, Webdemo, Smartmeeting
2005 7 10 to 25 Student async, sync D2L, Moodle, Smartmeeting (2D, 3D),
Skype
2006 4 9 Student async, sync D2L, Moodle, Skype, Skypecast, Vyew
Elgg, Wimba, YackPack

6. Cross-cultural DE collaboration:
rationale
• Students - number, experiences, ideas
• Expanding cultural horizons
• Language (the Icelandic students)
• Course content, enriching
• Learning environments – extending, trying out
new communication tools

7. Changes in 2006 to 2007
• BSU faculty member moved to admin/
another university
• IUE doubled size of course in credits (2,5 to 5),
• Change schedule, course moved
from summer session to spring semester;
• Taught two years out of three
• Result: no collaboration in 2007

8. AU+IUE collaboration

9. Instructor - preparation

10. Establishing a relationship 1../2
• E-mail
• Skype
• Wimba
• Elluminate
– Voice & chat
– Application sharing
– Whiteboard
– Web tours

11. Establishing a relationship 2.../2
Initial contacts Organization of collaboration
• Availability (time zones, • Set-up of student sites and
semesters, etc.) collaboration spaces
• Access to respective sites (Moodle, Wikis, Skype)
• Establishing personal and • Access and practicalities
professional credentials • Group sizes
• Common research
interests → pedagogies
• Exchange of sites
• Technical tools available

12. Ongoing discussion 1 .../3
• Personal interludes
• Practicalities e.g., articles, student groupings,
drop-outs and add-ons etc.
• Assignment design/adjustments
• Collaboration suggestions
• Sharing humour and teaching
• Student problems e.g. tardiness, lack of
cooperation, grumblings +strategies
• Mutual support and encouragement

13. Ongoing discussion 2 .../3
• Progress reports
• Reflection + springboarding of ideas & explanations
• Technical problems and troubleshooting
• Cross-cultural discussions, e.g. Valentine’s day local
holidays
• Division of labour
• Suggested technologies
• Personal teaching challenges+ mutual support
• Possible meeting time and place
• Guest session planning

14. Ongoing discussion 3 .../3
• Most sessions ended with a summary of what
we had talked about & decided + strategies for
next stage
• Post-course communication: discussion of
what worked and what didn’t, sharing of
reflections, discussion & debriefing of s’s
results and reactions.

15. Course comparison: AU+IUE
AU IUE
• 19 students (21) • 16 students (20)
• Background – varied, • Background – educators at
education, nursing.. different school levels
• Intro/mandatory course in • Elective course (DE intro) in
MDE program ICT in educ. M.Ed.program
• Flexibility in teaching low • Flexibility in teaching high
• LMS: Moodle (all courses) • LMS: Moodle (for course)
Varied assignments in both courses
LInk identified for assignment 2 in mid-
semester – 3 week period

16. Technologies
• Moodle – discussion forums, wiki (grouping,
skype usernames)
• Wiki (external, Wikispaces) – readings,
resources, groups
• Skype
• Wimba
• Elluminate Live (+vRooms)
• +Other tools by respective sites

17. Students – activities & experiences

18. Introductions - icebreakers
• Pictures of place
• Personal pictures: weddings+family, sport-
recreation activities, work/study-related
• Finding/establishing connections..

19. Introductions - photos from students
(examples)

20. Canadian student:
• Hi ya everyone...
Just from all the photos, I think it's safe to say
Iceland and Canada are two of the most
beautiful countries in the world...we are all so
very lucky...
Road trip anyone?
How's the beer in Iceland?
Chat soon.

21. Major collaborative task
Similarities in assignment 2 – IUE adopted description
from AU:
• Student groups (2 - 4 s’s from each U)
• Select, read and review one article
• “Present” it to others in the course.
• Provide the 'reader' with summary (analyze and
critique)
• Read as many as possible of the other student
presentations
• Make at least two comments or queries about at least
two other presentations.

22. Guest lecturer + debriefing & Q/A
• Professor Terry Anderson: Reducing the
loneliness of the distance learner using social
software (2007)

23. (Informal) student survey (Iceland)
• Reflections during/at the end of course, + survey
e-mailed one year later end of April 2009
• 16 students completed the course in 2008:
9 reflected on the communications
• Students asked to reflect on their experiences
regarding the course/communication with the
Athabasca students. Including what was most
memorable, whether to continue collaboration,
how to improve the collaboration

24. Student reflections:
What they remembered most?
• The communications with students at Athabasca University in Canada and the coming to
terms with Moodle. That is getting to know the system, my experience had been negative at
first but it all ended well.
• These were enjoyable communication, it was wonderful to be connected with such a large
group. One gained a stronger belief in distance education and the learning materials were
very good and the whole organization regarding interaction and projects.
• I found it very interesting to communicate with the pupils in Canada and comment each
other responds. It was also interesting to get to learn all the distance learning systems as
Moodles, Elg, Skype etc.
• Probably I learned to use some new software and also I enjoyed the communications with
Athabasca. The work I did on the final report I wrote about distance education in my home
town with a fellow student has also been useful.
• Fun experience with the foreign student group and how incredibly active the students were
and how high quality the contributions were from the student group in their master's
program about DE at Athabasca University in Canada.

25. Student reflections
• Canadian student: Great moodle forums, as this was a very
interactive bunch and definitely the exposure to the
students from Iceland. Reflective learning since the course
occurred.
• Also from a general evaluation after the course (Canadian
student):
• The experience with the Icelandic students, the Elluminate
sessions, and the session with Terry Anderson were all
great additions to the course. I am sure it took a lot of
planning and additional time outside of regular
responsibilities and work schedules. I cannot express how
grateful I am that she took the time to do so.

26. Student reflections
Whether collaboration should be continued
• Absolutely - keep the collaboration going and develop it...
• Yes I think so. I at least thought this was interesting.
• Yes, that is for sure.
• Yes, I think one learns a lot even if it is time consuming.
• I thought it was interesting to communicate with Athabasca and it
enlivened the course. I am aiming for adult learning as a specialty
and am highly interested in distance learning and teaching. In the
two courses I have completed in the master's program there have
perhaps not been that many people who have had the exact same
interest area and therefore it was fun to find immediately one with
the same interests among the Canadian students. We chatted a lot
and I think it is likely that we will continue our communication. I
recommend that the collaboration will continue.

27. Student reflections
Whether collaboration should be continued
Canadian student: Absolutely yes...it is so wonderful to
gain an international perspective of learning, I firmly
believe we are all connected.

28. Student reflections
How to improve the collaboration
Put in course description, weigh more in grading, group people
by interest areas and/or have interactions in smaller groups,
have the whole course not just one assignment together
• However it has to be in the course description. I did not know about this when I
registered for the course and was startled when I got to know that I was expected to
work with people in Canada in a language I had not used productively for many years -
only to listen and read. There are many people studying at the university who have
much worse English than I have and could not work like that. Such students would likely
not choose this course.
• I would have thought that these communications and projects connected to them could
have weighed more in the grading because they took so much time.
• It would be a good idea like someone pointed to at the Wimba meeting yesterday to divide
the group by interest areas.
• Well, maybe it is a bit long since the course was held for me to think of something...
maybe increase the number of courses like this or have a whole course organized
together not just part of it.
• Canadian student: More partnered mini-assignments

29. How to make it work?
Necessary Desirable
• Instructors’ interest & • Instructor agreement
commitment about workload
• Common objectives distribution
and/or content • Inclusion in course
• Usable, accessible descriptions
common spaces • Funding
• S’s willingness
• Institutional facilitation/
non-intervention
• Sharing of ideas and
resources

30. Importance of place and culture?
• Initiation (to establish common links) –
identification of shared contexts, e.g. isolation,
extremes of climate, remoteness, cultural
influences from immigration, tolerance and
flexibility, risk-taking + opportunity to experiment
• Learning: experience of distance – geographical,
temporal, cultural
• Social/emotional presence: affirming identity;
locating in place – connecting
• Organizational: DE culture, flexibility &
permeability

31. Thank ! – Takk!
Any questions or comments?

32. Impact of place and culture in an
online environment:
Lessons from an international, collaborative
teacher education project
Debra Hoven
Athabasca University
debrah@athabascau.ca
Sólveig Jakobsdóttir
Iceland University of education
soljak@hi.is