The document discusses the use of synchronous and asynchronous video conferencing tools to support an online community of inquiry. It presents results from a study examining the use of Google Hangouts, Vialogues discussion forums, and WordPress blogs in an online instructional technology course. Semantic analysis of student contributions found that blogs contained more unique themes than Hangouts or Vialogues. Additionally, student writing in the different formats reflected different aspects of the Community of Inquiry framework, with blogs showing more cognitive presence and Hangouts demonstrating more social presence. The study provides insights into how different technologies can support different elements of online learning communities.

1. Synchronous and asynchronous video
conferencing tools in an online-course: !
Supporting a community of inquiry!
David Wicks, Seattle Pacific University!
Andrew Lumpe, Seattle Pacific University !
Janiess Sallee, Valley Christian School!

2. Poll: Use of
Asynchronous Tech !
Do you use asynchronous communication tools in
your online course?!

3. Poll: Use of
Synchronous Tech !
Do you use synchronous communication tools in
your online course?!

4. Introduc)on
• What
benefits/challenges
does
a/
synchronous
video
present
for
online
instructors
and
students?
• What
role
(if
any)
should
synchronous
video
conferencing
tools
play
in
online
courses?
• What
role
can
a/synchronous
video
play
in
advancing
a
community
of
inquiry?
4!

5. Asynchronous
Communica)on
Advantages
Drawbacks
• Convenient
• Flexible
• Grants
addi)onal
)me
for
reflec)on
and
prepara)on
of
responses
• Provides
record
of
ac)vity
• Text-­‐based
communica)on
lacks
nuances
of
speech
and
personality
• Delays
in
responses
can
create
feelings
of
disjointedness
or
isola)on
Borup, West, & Graham, 2012!
Carr, 2000!
De Wever, Schellens, Valcke, & Van Keer, 2006!
Garrison, 2011!
Meyer, 2004!
Song, Singleton, Hill, & Koh, 2004!
5!

6. Synchronous
Communica)on
Advantages
Drawbacks
• Bridges
perceived
distances
in
space
and
)me
• Learners
receive
immediate
feedback
• Audio
and
video
help
capture
personality
• Ac)vi)es
can
be
recorded
for
later
review
• Lacks
some
flexibility
in
that
par)cipa)on
requires
a
specific
)me
commitment
• Doesn’t
always
accommodate
learners
needing
more
)me
to
reflect
before
responding
• Not
all
students
want
to
broadcast
themselves
Caladine, Andrews, Tynan, Smyth, & Vale, 2010, p. 250!
Zhao, Lei, Yan, Lai, & Tan, 2005!
6!

7. Poll:
Prep
Time
•
•
•
•
Online
courses
take
less
prep
)me
than
f2f
Online
courses
take
same
prep
)me
as
f2f
Online
courses
take
more
prep
)me
than
f2f
It
really
depends…
7!

8. Poll:
Facilita)on
Time
•
•
•
•
Online
courses
take
less
)me
to
facilitate
than
f2f
Online
courses
take
same
)me
to
facilitate
as
f2f
Online
courses
take
more
)me
to
facilitate
than
f2f
It
really
depends…
8!

9. Poten)al
Challenges
for
Educators
• Exis)ng
belief:
process
of
preparing
for
and
facilita)ng
an
online
course
is
more
)me
consuming
• Need
to
rethink
approach:
move
from
teacher-­‐centered
to
student-­‐centered
approach
• Some
students
maybe
overwhelmed
by
uses
of
mul)ple
technologies
in
the
same
course
Allen & Seaman, 2013, p. 22!
Caladine, Andrews, Tynan, Smyth, & Vale, 2010, pp. 253-254!
9!

10. https://coi.athabascau.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/coiAS3.swf!
Community
of
Inquiry
10!

11. Prac)cal
Inquiry
Model
11!
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/fig/229_10_1108_S2044-9968_2011_0000004011.png!

12. Methods
• Mixed
methods
study
• Weekly
examina)on
of:
– Google
Hangout
transcripts
– Vialogues
)me-­‐coded,
threaded
discussions
– WordPress
blog
posts
containing
student
reflec)ons
• Par)cipants
– 13
grad
students
– Taking
online
instruc)onal
technology
course
12!

13. Model
for
using
synchronous/asynchronous
video
tools
Google
Hangout
on
Air
Real-­‐)me
web
conference
Share
video
with
YouTube
PollEverywhere
Audience
response
system
Polls
used
to
encourage
discussion
Asynchronous
video
discussion
Interact
with
the
)me-­‐
challenged
Students
reflect
on
learning
Shared
publicly
to
encourage
quality/
interac)on
Vialogues
WordPress
13!

14. Hangouts
on
Air
14!

15. Using
PollEverywhere
in
Hangouts
15!

16. Vialogues
16!

17. bPor`olio
using
WordPress.com
17!

18. Prac)cal
Inquiry
Model
Find & Share Resources!
Hangout Participation!
Assigned readings!
Vialogues Participation!
Instructor Prompt in Bb!
WordPress Reflection!
18!
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/fig/229_10_1108_S2044-9968_2011_0000004011.png!

19. Seman)c
Analysis
• A
form
of
text
analy)cs
was
applied
to
the
student
posts
from
Hangouts,
Vialogues,
and
Blogs
• All
text
was
compiled
and
inserted
into
an
Excel
file
• The
Semantria
(hbps://semantria.com)
program
was
used
to
apply
seman)c
linguis)c
algorithms
• All
text
was
analyzed
for
two
components:
– general
FACETS
which
represent
meta-­‐themes
of
the
students’
wri)ng
– Community
of
Inquiry
specific
CATEGORIES
represen)ng
the
degree
that
students
wrote
about
teaching,
social,
and
cogni5ve
aspects
19!

20. Results
20!

21. Research
Ques)on
1:
What
did
the
students
talk
and
write
about?
• Semantria
Facet
Analysis
• Analyzed
each
student’s
blog,
Hangout,
and
Vialogues
separately
• Students,
learning,
technology,
and
schools
were
the
most
common
Facets
• The
number
of
Facets
in
the
blogs
far
exceeded
Hangouts
and
Vialogues
(see
next
ques)on)
21!

22. Word
Cloud
–
Hangout
Facets
22!

23. Word
Cloud
–
Vialogues
Facets
23!

24. Word
Cloud
–
Blog
Facets
24!

25. Research
Ques)on
2:
Do
the
number
of
themes
in
students’
wri)ng
vary
across
Hangouts,
Vialogues,
and
Blogs?
• Generate
seman)c
Facets
for
the
three
text
sources
• Count
the
number
of
unique
Facets
generated
• One-­‐way
ANOVA
to
compare
means
of
themes
• Tukey
post-­‐hoc
tests
25!

26. Results
Differences noted in post-hoc tests!
• Blog Facets > Hangout Facets (p = .001)!
• Blog Facets > Vialogues Facets (p = .001)!
26!

27. Research
Ques)on
3:
How
do
the
student
text
data
reflect
aspects
of
the
Community
of
Inquiry?
• Set
up
special
queries
in
Semantria
• Queries
included
terms
related
to
Community
of
Inquiry
– Teaching
– Social
– Cogni)ve
• Means
compared
via
one-­‐way
ANOVA
– No
significant
differences
in
CoI
related
themes
found
across
Hangouts,
Vialogues,
and
Blogs
27!

28. CoI
Teaching
Example
“I
got
some
really
good
feedback
on
how
to
improve
my
WebQuest
and
just
this
whole
way
that
you’ve
laid
this
out
that
we
communicate
with
each
other
is
brought
my
learning
that
much
further
down
the
road.”
From
a
Hangouts
transcript
28!

29. CoI
Social
Example
“Even
though
I
haven't
been
able
to
acBvely
parBcipate
in
the
hangouts
because
I
work
nights,
I
have
really
enjoyed
this
opBon
as
an
alternaBve
to
asynchronous
discussion.
The
asynchronous
discussions
seem
so
much
more
disingenuous
to
me
and,
conversely,
I
actually
appreciate
being
able
to
experience
others'
thought
processes.”
From
a
Vialogues
entry
29!

30. CoI
Cogni)ve
Example
“At
this
Bme
my
understanding
of
design
process
involves
the
planning
with
story
boarding,
which
would
translate
into
composing
acBviBes
for
performance
ensembles.
Much
more
thought
needs
to
be
made
in
this
area.”
From
a
blog
entry
30!

31. Research
Ques)on
4:
What
rela)onships
occur
between
variables?
• Variables
included
– Number
of
Hangouts
par)cipated
in
by
each
student
– Community
of
Inquiry
(CoI)
survey
scores
• Teaching
• Social
• Cogni)ve
– General
seman)c
Facets
in
Hangouts,
Vialogues,
and
Blogs
– CoI
related
Themes
in
Hangouts,
Vialogues,
and
Blogs
• Spearman
correla)ons
due
to
small
sample
sizes
31!

32. Correla)ons
32!

33. Discussion
• Students
talked
(Hangouts)
and
wrote
(Vialogues,
WordPress)
about
the
most
important
themes
from
the
course
content.
• The
number
of
meta-­‐themes
shared
in
blog
posts
(WordPress)
was
significantly
higher
than
the
number
shared
during
synchronous
(Hangouts)
and
asynchronous
(Vialogues)
video
indica)ng
that:
– Students
expanded
on
themes
discussed
in
synchronous
and
asynchronous
video
conferences
during
personal
reflec)on.
– Blog
reflec)ons
did
not
have
a
)me
limit
• Synchronous
and
asynchronous
video
serve
as
scaffolding
tools
for
blogging,
promo)ng
reflec)on.
• Content-­‐focused
video
and
text
transcripts
plus
small
sample
size
may
have
limited
occurrences
of
CoI
elements
within
the
dialogue
and
wri)ng.
33!

34. Benefits/Challenges
of
Synchronous
and
Asynchronous
Video
Benefits
• Reduc)on
of
procedural
ques)ons
by
email
• “Absent”
students
like
interac)ng
with
video
conference
recording
• Students
appreciate
exposure
to
mul)ple
technologies
• Video
promotes
“gejng
to
know
each
other
beber”
Challenges
• Finding
mee)ng
)me
• Group
size
• Synchronous
video
requires
planning/prompts
• Too
many
tools
for
some
students/professors
• Camera
shy
Allen & Seaman, 2013, p. 22!
Caladine, Andrews, Tynan, Smyth, & Vale, 2010, pp. 253-254!
34!

35. Student
Evalua)on
• Google
Hangout
allowed
for
personal
connec)on
Vialogues
was
a
convenient
and
useful
method
to
interact
with
students
if
you
were
not
able
to
abend
the
Hangout,
s)ll
felt
like
I
got
to
know
classmates
beber
that
par)cipated
in
the
Vialogues
even
if
they
weren't
gejng
to
know
me
blog
buddies:
helped
create
a
network
of
other
educators
who
passed
on
helpful
resources.
35!

36. Student
Evalua)on
• It
was
hard
to
focus
on
one
component
of
the
class
because
it
seemed
like
there
were
too
many
layers.
Between
the
Google
hangout
or
Vialogues,
readings,
blogging,
responding
to
blogging,
and
skills
test
I
felt
I
couldn't
go
in
depth
with
any
of
them.
36!

37. Limita)ons
• Self-­‐reported
• Single
instructor
• Single
course
37!

38. References
Allen,
E.
I.,
&
Seaman,
J.
(2013).
Changing
course:
Ten
years
of
tracking
online
educa)on
in
the
United
States.
Retrieve
from
hbp://sloanconsor)um.org/publica)ons/survey/changing_course_2012
Borup,
J.,
West,
R.
E.,
&
Graham,
C.
R.
(2012).
Improving
social
presence
through
asynchronous
video.
Internet
and
Higher
Educa)on,
15,
195-­‐203.
Caladine,
R.,
Andrews,
T.,
Tynan,
B.,
Smyth,
R.,
&
Vale,
D.
(2010).
New
communica)ons
op)ons:
A
renaissance
in
videoconference
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In
G.
Veletsianos
(Ed.),
Emerging
technologies
in
distance
educa)on
(249-­‐266).
Edmonton,
AB:
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Carr,
S.
(2000).
As
distance
educa)on
comes
of
age,
the
challenge
is
keeping
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46(23).
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Wever,
B.,
Schellens,
T.,
Valcke,
M.,
&
Van
Keer,
H.
(2006).
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analysis
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transcript
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6-­‐28.
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j.compedu.2005.04.005
Garrison,
D.
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(2011).
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D.
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Anderson,
T.,
&
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W.
(2000).
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text-­‐based
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Meyer,
K.
(2004).
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Four
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8(2),
101–114.
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L.,
Singleton,
E.
S.,
Hill,
J.
R.,
&
Koh.,
M.
H.
(2004).
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doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.
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Swan,
K.,
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Zhao,
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Lei,
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38!

39. Study
Contact
David
Wicks
– dwicks@spu.edu
– @drdavidwicks
on
Twiber
– hbp://google.com/+DavidWicks1
on
G+
39!