Web technologies in e-education provide a great spectrum of possible communication channels . The lecturer/instructor should promote different types of communication, where the participants should be given instructions about which channel of communication is appropriate depending on the importance, urgency and privacy of a message, as well as the type of the issue, needs and questions that they have . Participants of e-education rarely personally visit their lecturer/instructor in their office, even when that is physically possible, and if it does happen, it is usually the case of a very important or urgent, as well as a complex or private problem. In e-education telephone calls are more usual than personal visits, since the participants do not have to physically come to the lecturer’s/instructor’s office, although even the use of telephones is usually rare and present only in exceptional circumstances.
There is a whole range of related technologies in online communication that are based on sending e-mails. Some technologies are primarily intended for the sending of private messages to a single receiver or a smaller number of receivers. Other types of technology enable the sending of moderately public messages intended for only a certain number of receivers. The third type of technology is not very common in distance education, but is the most open and very public as the senders usually do not personally know all the receivers of the message, since they are usually sent to a certain interest group that tracks the published news.
E-mail
E-mail can be sent from within the LMS by using addresses from the user lists and the usual e-mail clients (e.g. Microsoft Outlook, Netscape Messenger, Eudora etc.). E-mail is one of the private communication forms in distance education, where the lecturer/instructor will send a participant an e-mail when there is a chance that the message sent through some other public technology may be uncomfortable for the participant because the other participants might read it (e.g. if the instructor cautioned a certain participant because of their behaviour in a discussion group).
The participants are often prone to sending e-mails to the instructor, using this more private communication channel when they want to present their problems, ask questions etc, because through e-mail they can avoid having to share certain information with the other participants. In such case the instructor should respect the level of privacy chosen by the participant and answer through private e-mail as well. Experience shows that it is useful for the instructor as well as for the participants to write the rules of mutual communication at the beginning of a course, as that prevents different undesired situations such as for example blocking the instructor’s inbox with the participants’ messages.
Mailing lists and mailing list servers
The instructor can send group e-mails to participants, i.e to a larger number of them, when they are sending urgent notices etc. as we have explained before. Such type of e-communication is called broadcast e-mail . It remains an open question whether the participants should be allowed to send group messages. It can be allowed, however, very rarely, with a warning that it must not be abused. Through the LMS configuration it can be specified which participant category can send group e-mails.
There are special programs on the servers which enable management of e-mails based on list memberships . The administrator for specific groups of participants creates special e-mail lists and authorises the lecturer/instructor to manage them. List membership can be open , where any person can join the list independently , as well as closed , when a responsible individual (so-called moderator, in most cases the lecturer/instructor) authorises requests for joining. The advantage of mailing lists lies in the fact that the message is sent to a unique list address, while the server sends it to individual addresses of all the list members. This communication type is suitable in the case the LMS does not provide the participants (especially the lecturer/instructor) with the possibility to send e-mail messages to a larger number of other participants.
Newsgroups
Working with newsgroups requires a special program on the server which enables working with such messages (news) since they do not use the same computer protocol as e-mail. For that reason the users (lecturer/instructor, participants) use special newsgroup management programs . Newsgroups are a form of discussions based on certain interest groups (technical, social-political, expert, scientific, hobbies, humour etc.) within which news are sent and read. The system administrator can create a new newsgroup within a hierarchy of groups and specify its characteristics (public/private, when will a certain piece of news expire etc).
Nowadays, there are several thousand newsgroups on the Internet, and the possibility to join a group depends on the newsgroup server to which the users have to connect. Each user “subscribes” available public newsgroups according to their individual interests. In order to join a private newsgroup the user has to know a user name and password. Individual subscriber can post a message with which they notify the other subscribers of a group about certain content related to the group topic. According to (usually unwritten) newsgroup rules, it is customary that commercial and such messages are not posted to the group if they are not thematically related to the topic of the group. The most common discussions in newsgroups are related to certain events, problems etc. related to the topics the group deals with . Users can easily and simply follow a certain discussion since software provides them with different options of viewing the news (according to topic, the time a message was posted, the author etc.). Newsgroup subscribers can be passive or active discussion participants.
There is a significant difference between e-mail messages and newsgroups, as e-mail messages arrive to the inbox of the user where they will open and read them, while newsgroup is located in one place on the newsgroup server , and every user can see it whenever they want to for as long as the message is valid. Newsgroups are a suitable discussion substitute in the case when LMS does not provide the users with the possibility to exchange messages in discussion forums.
Forums (Fora)
Forums are discussion groups on the web . Lately the forums have become the most popular form of communication between the users of LMSs in distance education . The main reason for that is the simplicity of work they enable since the work of the users happens within a familiar user interface of the web browser . Forum software has been developed with the goal to enable the easiest possible installation on the server, as well as easier work for the participants . Forums are increasingly becoming a substitute for newsgroups as their software adapts more easily (public/private forums, browsing the messages etc.), and does not require special actions such as subscription to particular groups etc if the user changes the computer or works on somebody else’s computer. The best indicator of the usefulness and usability of forums is the fact that it has become one of the standard tools of most LMSs.
When using a forum the lecturer/instructor can deliberately encourage discussion about a certain topic and let the users express their opinions and attitudes . Exchange of messages can be very intensive even in a relatively short period of time, due to which the lecturer/instructor sometimes has to interfere in the discussion, especially if the discussion had gone in an unplanned direction.
Forums can also be used in situations when the participants face some problems and ask other participants or the instructor/lecturer for help . For example, when they are selecting certain software and are looking for the most cost-effective stores where to purchase it, as well as software installations, or when solving certain problems within a larger project etc.
From the position of the lecturer/instructor forums are very useful as in most cases the participants help each other on their own, so there are less problems the instructor/lecturer will have to help them with.
The users of a forum can also be passive or active discussion participants . LMSs with advanced forum support can ensure the lecturer/instructor with different statistical data on how much the forum is used such as the number of messages viewed and posted by a certain participant, as well as other information. Such overviews enable the lecturer/instructor to monitor and evaluate the behaviour of individual participants in forums since there are usually individuals who do not participate in discussions, but only read messages . On the other hand, there are individuals who think it necessary to comment every message posted in the forum by other participants. The first type of participants should be encouraged to join the discussion using appropriate methods, while the other type of participants should be considerately cautioned to alter their behaviour through personal communication channels (e-mail etc.) or additionally engaged if they show particular interested in joining other activities. Practice has shown that activating passive participants can be successfully done by defining in advance the minimum number of posts each participant has to make , or the number of discussions in which they have to participate in the rules of the course/subject . The other method to include the passive participants into discussions is to have the lecturer/instructor publicly invite a certain passive participant to express their opinion and contribute to the discussion.
Forum software can generate a document containing all the discussion texts . The lecturer/instructor will find the discussion forums to be a very useful source of information for FAQ documents.
Chat
With asynchronous types of communication (e-mail, mailing lists, newsgroups and forums) the sender does not know whether there are any active receivers logged into the LMS or on the net, and whether they can expect immediate answer. With synchronous types of communication, such as chat, all the discussion participants know the number of other users , as well as some identification of the other users (e.g. their nickname). Every message in the chat room is immediately sent to public information space shared by all active participants, who will receive it immediately (in real time or with only a couple of seconds delay).
Many LMSs also have a built-in chat . On the user end it can be incorporated into the browser or seen as a separate program which has to be additionally installed. Sometimes the participants have certain problems with using chat rooms if the system administrators do not want to open their communication channel, since the chat software can be a security risk for the whole system or the user’s computer. Servers with free chat software outside the LMS can be used, whereby the problems with installation and configuration on your own server are excluded.
In order for a chat to be efficiently used as a communication tool, it is necessary to set and plan the goals, topic, beginning and duration of a chat session in advance . A chat can be organized by the lecturer/instructor, as well as the participants themselves if they wish to communicate in real time.
Chat software often allows "private rooms" within the chat area in which only invited users can participate, while it is closed for the rest. Software also sometimes enables mood display of the author of a message by using appropriate icons selected from a group of available icons and, along with the message, sent to the other participants of a chat session.
Chat software can usually generate a document containing the transcript of the discussion . After the discussion the lecturer/instructor can put together a short record with the conclusions or leave that task to one of the other participants. In chat discussion the lecturer/instructor can find useful information for Frequently Asked Questions.
Interactive whiteboard
Since chat is used for textual communication every participant creates their own visual image which does not have to correspond to those of the other participants. Interactive whiteboard is used with the purpose to combine the textual and visual elements in communication because participants can share a "graphic desktop" within which the can write, draw, insert images, graphs, sketches etc in real time. It needs not saying that the simultaneous work of several users of the whiteboard can lead to chaotic results . For that reason a code of conduct should be established, e.g. specify that each user will be assigned a colour in which their text and drawings will be displayed , as well as that inserting a graphical element should be announced so that the other participants wait for it to turn up on their screen. Once the desktop of the whiteboard is full, it is usually saved as a graphic file so that it can later be used as a working document. After that a new desktop is opened if there is a need.
Interactive whiteboards use special software which has some similarities with the software used for chat, as it can be integrated into the browser or implemented as an independent program. For the user there is the same dependence on the system administrator who can limit or prohibit the interactive whiteboard has motivated many LMS manufacturers to build it into their software, either as their own product or as an adjusted version of a specialised interactive whiteboard by a different manufacturer.
For the use of the whiteboard to be efficient, the goals, the rules, time and duration of such activities should be determined in advance , much like with chat rooms, since they are both synchronous technologies. The lecturer/instructor should also prepare in advance the necessary pool of visual elements related to a certain topic which will be used for working. Once they start working with the board, the participants usually expect to finish within the acceptable/set time limits, which means that the lecturer will not have time to search for suitable graphical elements on their computer or the Internet, or to draw them in during the session. Working with the board can be organised by the lecturer/instructor, or by the participants themselves if they wish to communicate graphically/visually in real time.
Screen sharing
Although they have advantages, chat and interactive whiteboard cannot convey some important events in real time , such as conducting a certain program (e.g. computer simulation) on the lecturer’s/mentor’s computer. You can use special software which enables the lecturer/instructor to allow the participants to connect to his/her computer and see what is displayed on his/her screen . When doing so, the instructor/lecturer can usually limit the access to what the users can see on their screen, e.g. whole screen, selected application, certain windows within which a certain part of the program is conducted etc.
Screen sharing requires special software which is usually not included in the LMS since its characteristics exceed the scope planned for LMS. The main disadvantage of screen sharing is the need for fast data transfer , i.e. fast communication channel. Modem connections (57.6 Kb/s) which the participants use to connect from home typically cannot enable enough speed to download the data from the screen when the lecturer’s/instructor’s screen is displaying dynamic content.
For working with the board to be efficient the instructions for installation and connecting to the instructor’s computer should be published, as well as goals, time, duration and methods of work determined in advance . The lecturer/instructor should prepare in advance a program (e.g. for a simulation) which they will later present to the participants, while showing only those parts of it which can meet the minimum requirements of display on the user end. It is also important to caution the participants with slow modem connections not to use other programs using the same communication channel simultaneously in the background, as that additionally slows down the data transmission. Screen sharing can be organized by the lecturer/instructor or the participants if they wish to exchange the performance of certain programs in real time.
Audioconferences
Web technologies enable the use of the Internet as a communication channel for conversation between two or more people by using, instead of a telephone, Voice-over-Net or Voice-over-IP . This type of verbal communication is suitable for participants that are distant from the lecturer/instructor, thus saving the telephone expenses . Audioconference requires software which is most often not included in the LMS, since its characteristics transcend the scope planned for LMS. The main disadvantage of audioconferences is the need for fast transfer of data , i.e. a fast communication channel.
Modem connections (57.6 Kb/s) which the participants use to connect from home typically ensure a relatively poor sound, which usually causes delay in the reception of the sound or other reception problems, which eliminates the purpose of audioconferences. This is especially true when there are many audioconference participants who wish to have an active role in the discussion. Audioconference software can usually save digitized audio records as files which can later be used for putting together a transcript of the discussions or to download the audio record (entire or partial) from the web.
For audioconference to be efficient, its goals, time, duration and code of conduct should be set in advance . If a presentation to the participants is scheduled, the lecturer/instructor should prepare and rehears it in advance. Before the beginning of the audioconference it is recommendable to check the voice volume by using the testing equipment and adjust the distance at which the microphone is placed or turn off the devices which can cause noise. It is also important to mention to the participants that in the case of using a slow modem connection they should not use background programs which transfer data through the same line, as that additionally decreases the possibility of information transfer between them and other participants of the audioconference. Audioconference can be organized by the lecturer/instructor or the participants themselves if they wish to communicate vocally and in real time. ®
Videoconferences
Videoconference software is usually not included in the LMS. The main downside of videoconferences is the need for a very fast data transfer , i.e. a fast communication channel. Modem connections (57.6 Kb/s) which the participants use to connect from home can provide only bad picture quality of a very small size, although the sound quality is slightly better, with transmission delay and problems with synchronisation of the sound and picture, due to which the usability of videoconferences is significantly reduced. This is especially true in the cases when several people participate in a videoconference and want to have an active role in the discussion. Videoconference software can usually save the audiovisual file of the videoconference, used later for download of the audiovisual record or for writing notes (transcripts) of the videoconference.
Apart from setting the goals, time, duration, code of conduct and, sometimes, the “scenario” of the videoconference , the lecturer/instructor (and participants) should thoroughly prepare and rehearse verbal and non-verbal communication for their presentation . Before the beginning of the videoconference it is recommendable to test the picture and tone and set the distance of the camera and microphone, adjust the light and turn off devices that could potentially cause noise in the communication channel. When using slower Internet connection it is better not to use other programs which transfer data through the same line, as that will make the videoconference more difficult or even impossible.
Tips & tricks: Determine all possible types of contacts with participants for different activities during their online education (notices, instructions, counselling, presentations, demonstrations and simulations, dialogues, group discussions, problem solving, project development, feedback, result analysis, knowledge assessment etc.). Specify the desirable characteristics of individual communication (synchronous/a synchronous, individual/group, private/public, within/without the LMS, simple/complex, with or without additional software, necessary speed of the communication channel etc.). Choose one or more communication types or technology for particular educational and/or social educational activities and check it in practice before using in an online classroom. Instruct the participants about the methods of work and rules for the use of a certain type of communication technology. Encourage the participants to use the predicted types of communication technologies, and award and compliment them for their participation and possible contributions.
