Cyberspace Assisted Responsive Education implemented on the Internet (I-CARE)

Ifay F. Chang, Li-Chieh Lin, Xiaolong Hao, Humbert Suarez and Jim St. Lawrence
Polytechnic University
Hawthorne, New York 10532

ABSTRACT
The Cyberspace Assisted Responsive Education (CARE) methodology uses advanced information and communication technologies to provide cost-effective education. CARE was first implemented on the Internet (hence, I-CARE) because the Internet provides an open platform and cross platform languages such as Perl and Java thus facilitating the construction and integration of a system capable of serving a wide base of learners regardless of their location or computer operating system. It is built on a generalized web server.

This paper describes I-CARE’s delivery platform which includes a set of communication, learning and research tools as well as courseware. The system’s design, implementation, and the operation of I-CARE and its functions are also presented.

A postgraduate course, Internet Informatics, was modularly constructed and delivered in the summer of 1996 to demonstrate how interactive asynchronous group teaching and learning can be practiced over the Internet. The experiences encountered in the delivery of this course are summarized. The future outlook for I-CARE is also discussed.

I-CARE’s complete solution can be accessed on the World Wide Web at: "http://pride-sun.poly.edu/icare" as well as through "Exhibits" in the GISSIC96 conference - "http://pride-i2.poly.edu/GISS".

I. INTRODUCTION

The need to address the multitude of recognized problems in education has prompted many educators to attempt to apply technological solutions to formal teaching and learning. With rapid advances in computing power and the growth of the information superhighway, technologies such as computer-mediated communications, electronic publishing, multimedia, group-ware, intelligent agents, video conferencing, virtual reality, and video-on-demand have all been explored and implemented in many iterations, from intelligent tutoring systems to distance learning, but with few significant gains. [1]

Today’s distance learning efforts exploit advanced telecommunications and computer technologies, but are primarily focused on overcoming distance issues and resource sharing problems.[2], [3] As most of these efforts have not addressed issues of pedagogy or teaching and learning methodologies, the effectiveness of distance learning is still in question. Fortunately, new systems for enhancing the effectiveness of distance learning and supplementing traditional classroom teaching are being designed. The NSF flagship project [4] , the Cornell virtual classroom for learning parallel computing [5], the Teaching and Learning Program for high performance computing [6], and the Phoenix project at the University of Chicago developing an integrated academic information system on the Internet [7] are just a few good examples.

Cyberspace Assisted Responsive Education is an education and training system inspired by observations of paradigm shifts in the way young people think [8]. It recognizes that younger generation learners thoroughly exposed to TV, electronic games, CD-ROMs, personal computers, and the Internet, have acquired a different, non-linear, non-sequential style of learning. It also recognizes that, in the information age, most industries require their employees to keep up with evolving technologies and constantly to develop new skills. On-the-job training however, tends to be delivered much more on an ad-hoc basis rather than being based on long-range planning. Hence, a learner-friendly system that can provide just-in-time learning or education-on-demand is greatly to be desired.

Classroom teaching has changed remarkably little over the years. Distance learning, as it is most commonly practiced, requires new tools and techniques to engage and involve learners. CARE exploits advanced communication and computer technologies for the purpose of developing learner- and teacher-friendly environments and is designed to provide new tools for teachers with which to explore pedagogical innovations. It makes two fundamental assumptions: That a non-sequential ‘hyper-learning’ style and a highly interactive group teaching methodology will result in more effective learning. These techniques have been practiced in traditional classrooms before, of course, but usually they have been limited by scant resources and hampered by space and distance limitations which make scheduling instructors and classrooms difficult.

Although CARE can be implemented using a variety of telecommunication and computer infrastructures, it can be very efficiently implemented on the Internet with ordinary PC technology. Because the Internet provides an inverted open platform [9], application developers can pick and choose system components independent of operating systems, thus allowing them to construct or integrate a complex application system such as that proposed in the CARE system [8].

We have implemented a highly interactive ‘hyper-learning’ system for group teaching and learning, based on the Internet open platform, which we have named I-CARE. The special characteristics of the I-CARE systems are:

• It is based on a total solution approach evolving with and accepting technology advances under the open platform architecture. It integrates useful solution components from the system administrator’s, faculty and students’ points of view.
• It incorporates both asynchronous and synchronous communication tools which can emulate the familiar teacher-student communication and interaction such as making appointments for phone conversations or computer chat 9 (Figure 1).
• It employs search engines to complement browsing and navigation and other on-line information resources to supplement the hypertext or hypermedia-designed courseware modules.
• It provides groupware to facilitate doing homework and engaging in collaborative project or peer group discussion.
• It contains an authoring tool, allowing instructors to modify hyper-linked teaching materials while teaching the course.

Figure 1. Left and right frames of the I-CARE learning environment conain
communications tools and utilities for easy access by students.
Click on image for larger version.

II. THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF I-CARE

The complete I-CARE system consists of three major subsystems: i) the courseware authoring system, ii) the teaching and learning delivery system and, iii) the assessment system. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of the delivery system (with an initial, simple version of the authoring tool).

We identified the following requirements for the system:

1. An administrative component for facilitating marketing, customer inquiry and registration functions.
2. A self-contained courseware component which could be imported into the delivery system.
3. Communications tools including e-mail, appointment books, and chat capabilities.
4. Virtual classroom learning tools including a bulletin board, communal calendar, discussion forum, and homework assignment facility.
5. Research tools including on-line dictionaries, archive/library, FAQ files, and other Internet links.

 
Figure 2. Open Platform (for I-CARE)
Click on image for larger version.

We have implemented these system components in modular form so that they may be added to or removed from the system at will. The architecture of the I-CARE system was derived from the Internet open platform concept described in [9]. Figure 2 depicts I-CARE’s generic client-server architecture. Above the dashed line, a web server and browser client system are shown. The I-CARE server and client components are represented as modular components (A1, A2, ...An, JS, JA and APPs; A and APP represent applications. JS refers to programs or application code written in JavaScript. JA represents Java applets). These components are integrated and interfaced to the Internet’s open interface with CGI scripts, Java Script and Java programs. The diagram below the dashed line simply indicates that the system uses the Internet’s common communication protocol, HTTP and TCP/IP. The I-CARE system components can run on different operating systems (i.e., web servers and browsers) hence making the integration of the system flexible with respect to the choice of an operating system.

 
Figure 3. The functional diagram of I-CARE

Functionally, the above system requirements and components may be represented by a diagram (Figure 3) which indicates how they may be integrated together in a common Internet user interface and employed together to provide a total solution for delivering group interactive hyper-learning courseware in an Internet virtual classroom. As shown, the outer ring is the common user interface, the web browser, which can access all the functional components for administration, courseware, communication, learning tools and on-line links. The inner circle represents the back end support for the application components running on one or more different operating system platforms.

III. DESCRIPTION OF I-CARE OPERATION

The functional diagram of I-CARE as represented in Figure 3 is accessible and visible to the users from the Internet browser. We have used the Netscape browser and Netscape web server in our system, although Microsoft’s Internet Explorer can be used just as well.

Since I-CARE is now operational on the Internet, one can easily access the system (http://pride-sun.poly.edu/icare). Operation is fairly intuitive. One simply clicks on a given application component to experience its function. For example, one can click on "pedagogics" to get a background description of the I-CARE philosophy or on "registration" to register on-line. After registration, one can log into the course using a provided password. Our system interface uses two side frames (columns) to list and link to the application components. It uses the center frame as the principal window for each running application. After entering into the course, or virtual classroom, one can see that the two side frames list all the system components which support teaching and learning. If one clicks on a function, the application is brought into the center frame thereby activating, for example, a course module, the calendar, or appointment book, etc.

Figure 4. Extra browsers are automatically generated allowing students continuous contact with lesson modules.
Click on image for larger version.

For some functions, we decided to create an additional browser because the user may need to refer to the first browser while working with the second (Figure 4). For example, while the user is browsing the courseware he might encounter a homework assignment or might feel like creating a discussion group on the topic he is learning. He can select the homework function or the group discussion function and create a second browser window. He can then proceed to do the homework while keeping his course material in display in the first window. Depending on the user’s screen size, he may have to move and/or resize the two browsers to achieve this multitasking capability.

There are numerous capabilities in each of the functions provided. For example, the appointment tool provides a choice of communication between teacher and student by telephone or by real-time computer chat (Figure 5). As another example, in the homework tool students can not only find homework assignments but also store their homework submissions. We made every effort to make these functions as intuitive as possible, however, subsequent experience suggests that a help menu, perhaps even a human help desk, may still be desired (see discussion below).

 
Figure 5. Using the appointment tool a student can request a phone call or an on-line chat with faculty.
Click on image for larger version.

IV. COURSE OFFERING AND EXPERIENCE WITH I-CARE

The first course to be offered using the I-CARE system was entitled Internet Informatics. It was offered during the summer of 1996 as a non-credit, one month course delivered entirely over the Internet without any physical classroom meetings. The course material was designed with hypertext containing very rich URL links to many relevant information sources. We provided a navigation tool in the course modules to facilitate ease of navigation and learning. In addition, we included a search engine in each course module page to facilitate dynamic searching of specific topics within the course material. This not only included a broad coverage of the course content, but had many pointers to further studies.

Although the course was offered in a low-key manner, since one of our main purposes was to evaluate the I-CARE system, we received an enrollment of 30 students, mostly industrial professionals from large corporations. Corporate students paid a $600 course fee and were serious about their learning. The experience we gained as instructors, plus the feedback we received, led us to the following conclusions:

1. The students and instructors--some students in this course were professors--liked the open platform concept, with all functions integrated within a common browser interface, very much.
2. The students enjoyed the flexibility of learning at their own pace. They were able to choose where, when, and what to study, both from a physical access and from a course material point of view.
3. The students definitely learned a lot from the Internet resources, especially on topics related to web publishing because they could browse real examples and critique sites while they learned web publishing guidelines and techniques.
4. A help menu for the rudimentary problems of selecting a PC and a network provider, of how to log-on and how to proceed through the course, needed to be improved and perhaps needs to be supported with a human help desk. This seemed to be the major frustration for those who were not experienced with PCs and Internet access. (This conclusion may be extended to the I-CARE functions as well. Although most students did get to understand and to use all the I-CARE functions by themselves, some clearly could have used additional help) Because the level of students’ familiarity with computers and networks varied so greatly it might have been advisable to establish a prerequisite level or to devise a way to more closely monitor each student’s progress in this area.
5. We selected the approach of letting all students have access to all homework since it was a noncredit course. However, having the provision of doing and grading homework privately might have helped us to better assess each individual student’s progress.
6. Students showed most active participation in the first two weeks and then leveled off. The causes may be attributed to: i.) the course material was too difficult for half of the students (in this particular enrollment) as the learning progressed beyond the first two weeks (first two modules), ii.) the students needed more encouragement through instructor interaction as the course material got harder. Instructors have to be proactive in order to stimulate the students rather than just sit back and wait for questions. iii.) teaching assistants may be needed for large classes and concentrated learning. Some students felt apprehensive about asking too many questions of professors. TAs may also help to further stimulate students to engage in group discussions and group learning.
7. Although the system is principally an asynchronous learning system, synchronous communication tools are also included to supplement teaching and learning. However, we found that students did not use the chat tool to communicate with instructors and we should perhaps have structured appointment hours to encourage more synchronous communication. We should also have scheduled fixed chat sessions at the beginning of the course to allow students to introduce themselves to each other and to the instructors instead of relying on only the asynchronous discussion forums. This would definitely have helped later on in the teaching and learning process.
8. Students indicated a desire for a large catalog of courses to be offered through I-CARE. Feedback indicated that they would like to take other courses and would also recommend them to colleagues.
9. Students also wanted to have credit courses offered through the I-CARE learning system as part of their degree programs.
10. A mandatory post-course survey may be necessary to solicit more statistically significant comments and suggestions.

In addition to the above conclusions, the authors have received the following comments or questions which also deserve some consideration:

1. How do other solutions compare with I-CARE?

   It appears that more and more solutions are being developed on the Internet. At the moment, I-CARE is one of the first such solutions to evolve which integrates authoring, delivery, and assessment into one comprehensive system.

2. Do you expect I-CARE to completely replace classroom teaching?

   No, but as a complement to traditional education the advantage is obvious. In fact, the I-CARE system can be used in a computerized classroom to enhance classroom teaching, both in terms of adding resources (dynamic linkage to learning materials) and in terms of the teaching and learning tools it can offer (online library, search engine, etc.). In addition, its homework tool and discussion forum tool can be used to support classroom teaching. Obviously, the effectiveness of I-CARE is also dependent on the nature of the course content to be taught and the familiarity of the system to instructors and students. The growth of I-CARE usage is anticipated.

3. How easy is it for one to develop a course and offer it through I-CARE?

   We are in the process of repackaging the I-CARE system so it can be downloaded through the Internet and easily installed on any server. The UNIX system is ready now and the Windows NT system will be available shortly. The authoring subsystem is in progress. A simple version allowing an author to follow a template to develop course material with automatic conversion to HTML files is available now. Hyper links and other multimedia functions will be developed next.

4. Will I-CARE be licensed to course developers?

   Yes. We will license our system as a beta test system free of charge to course providers and developers. The test users will be obligated to provide us with feedback about our system.

V. CONCLUSIONS

It is apparent that there is now a clear mandate to acknowledge changing learning styles and to apply information technologies to improve the effectiveness of our education system. The issue is: how can maximum effectiveness be achieved? Distance learning has often been proposed but principally from the point of view of resource sharing and hardly ever from the standpoint of pedagogy. I-CARE has been developed as a group interactive ‘hyper-learning’ system for exploring and validating a new teaching and learning methodology. The prototype system and a course offering with the system have given us sufficient evidence to be encouraged in pursuing more rigorous course development as well as research on new pedagogy based on ‘distanceless’ learning through the Internet.

Based on our development experience with I-CARE, we expect that a total integrated solution, working seamlessly on the Internet’s open platform, with authoring, delivery, and assessment functions can be achieved in the very near future. The I-CARE delivery system is placed as an exhibitor item in the GISSIC96 conference. We hope to receive comments, criticism and suggestions from the conference attendees.

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