========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 09:56:18 -0500 Reply-To: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal Sender: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal From: Dick Banks Subject: Teaching and Learning at Diversity University @Copyright DUJVRE and Karen L. McComas mccomas@marshall.edu 1994 Karen L. McComas mccomas@marshall.edu 17 TEACHING AND LEARNING AT DIVERSITY UNIVERSITY Doing the Cha-Cha The Grand Plan Students majoring in Communication Disorders at Marshall University are required to take 6 credit hours in the area of Audiology and Aural Rehabilitation. This is typically done at the senior level, although additional coursework is offered at the graduate level. I teach the basic audiology course, which requires that students master the basic concepts of acoustics, the anatomy and physiology of the auditory system, and the basic test battery. While the first two areas can effectively and efficiently be taught in a traditional college course format, the basic test battery can only be conceptualized. True learning can only take place with actual practice with the process of administering the basic test battery and screening protocol. Clinical practicum opportunities in the area of audiology are typically reserved for graduate students. In addition, there is a limited amount of equipment available for use in either practice sessions or service provision. These two factors prohibit students in the basic audiology course from having sufficient opportunities to practice and develop their skills in the process of administering the basic test battery and screening protocol. In an effort to answer this dilemma, I created a virtual audiology lab to provide students with ample opportunities for practice. It is in this virtual environment that students do not suffer from the typical real time deficiencies (lack of access to equipment and lack of patients). The Cha-Cha Readers who are familiar with the cha-cha may quickly catch on to my analogy. For those readers who spend more time on their computer than on a dance floor, let me enlighten you about the analogy I have chosen to use to describe my experiences thus far. The Cha-Cha is a Brazilian dance. Described simply, it's one step forward and two steps back. For my first step forward I spent hours learning to program and completing the audiology lab to my satisfaction. Eagerly I awaited the start of the Fall 1993 semester to unveil my efforts to my students. Within the first week of classes I took my first step back. Not a single student in a class of thirty had an account on the university's computer system and only one out of the thirty had any experience with a personal computer. My second step back came shortly thereafter when my colleagues could only feign an interest since (1) only one other faculty member is an audiologist and would be capable of truly appreciating the potential of the virtual audiology lab, and (2) only one other faculty member (at that time) utilized the university's access to the internet. Karen L. McComas mccomas@marshall.edu 18 Taking Dance Lessons Encouraged by other individuals striving to use the virtual environment to facilitate teaching and learning, I adjusted my objectives and set my sights on taking another step forward. First of all, I offered bonus points to any student who sent e-mail to me and asked for the bonus points. [Fortunately for me, students will do just about anything for bonus points and not until the end of the semester did they realize that if everyone completed the task there really wasn't much of a bonus involved.] While their simple e-mail message was most certainly a step forward, in most cases it was followed immediately by two steps back since only a few students logged in more than one time throughout the semester. In the meantime, I began planning for my spring courses with an eye to the development of computer literacy skills in my students. Since I would have the same students that had fallen for the bonus point scam in the spring course, I had to be more creative and devious the second time around. This time, I utilized another area which I felt certain would motivate students. Throughout my teaching, I have always made every attempt to answer any question, any time, that a student may have regarding the material being covered in class. I have freely offered class time, prior to an exam, for review and even accepted phone calls at home the night before a test or the night before an assignment was due. I decided to continue that practice with a slightly different twist. First, I eliminated the use of a class period for exam review. My previous experiences had led me to the conclusion that what students really wanted from this period of time was either (1) the questions (or preferably) the answers or (2) all of the previous lectures given again. I offered, instead, to conduct the review on-line, on the weekend before the exam. The second change that I made had to do with those questions that students ask, the ones when they stop you as you are about to enter the bathroom or are trying to get to another class. I suggested to them that when they asked their questions in that manner, I was doing them an injustice trying to provide a quick answer without giving thoughtful consideration to the question. I asked them to send their questions to me via e-mail. That way I could devote the necessary time to considering their question and composing an answer that would do justice to the subject matter. The questions and answers could then be distributed to all members of the class (via a mailing list on the local mail program). In addition, when someone asked the same question for the tenth time, I could tell them that I had responded to that question and they could pick up the response via e-mail. Karen L. McComas mccomas@marshall.edu 19 Only one student routinely sent messages. I suspect that she was the only student who ever received the responses. In spite of this limited success, I knew that I had at least one student who had learned a different dance. Not only did she send e-mail relative to the course, she sent e-mail asking questions about different features available on the computer system, general messages just to make contact, and during a particularly stressful time of the semester for both students and myself, she sent a supportive note recognizing in it that she felt that students didn't realize how much we [teachers] actually did for them and that they tended to forget to thank us [teachers]. While I was highly encouraged by her success, my virtual audiology lab was getting dusty. A New Dance Begins In the middle of the spring semester, I was offered a unique opportunity. For some unknown reason, our department had extra funds for summer school and my department chair asked me if I would like to offer a computer course. Immediately I responded in the affirmative, but I had to guarantee that the course would fill. I developed some devious plans to ensure that the course would fill (at least through the census date) if I couldn't get it filled with our students. As the registration process began, I had committments from several students, but few registrations. As the spring semester ended, I was close, but still not full. I made flyers and recruited for the class everywhere I went (including the softball field where my daughter plays on a Little League team). On the first day of class, I took another step forward. With an enrollment of sixteen (I only needed 9), the course began. By all accounts, the course was a success. For me personally, the major success came as a result of the three students that continued to connect to MOO's even after the MOO assignment was completed. Currently there are about thirty students in the program that regularly utilize the computer resources available. Within a year, we have moved from no students participating in the traffic on the internet to thirty travellers. Karen L. McComas mccomas@marshall.edu 20 It's possible that we are no longer doing the cha-cha here at Marshall. The computer course was such a success that the faculty included a recommendation in our curriculum review that the course be developed as a regular offering to fulfill the computer literacy requirement for graduation. Each semester we have made gains in connecting students to the value of the internet. This semester Marshall opened a World Wide Web server and student papers are being "published" on the web. This has heightened their interest and encouraged several to start utilizing the resources available even when they don't get bonus points. As student awareness grows, and the computer course is offered again in the spring, I plan to make participation at Diveristy University a course requirement for next fall. In the meantime, I'll have to think of a clever name for a new dance. @Copyright 1994 Karen McComas mccomas@marshall.edu :.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.: Karen L. McComas Communication Disorders, Marshall University Huntington, WV 25755-2634 More info? finger mccomas@marshall.edu