What is it about?
Science teacher-education students must pass a high-stakes exam for licensure in New York State (NYS). In this 100% online course, the instructor was challenged to create a community that could support these students in their preparation for the licensure exam while still having the students meet other course objectives. By creating a virtual-reality avatar-based setting, student met synchronously and discuss the many challenges that were involved in passing this portfolio exam. (The exam was geared towards reform-based approaches which most of the students had seldom experienced outside the teacher-education classrooms.) Though at a distance, the students worked synchronously in teams to address some of the problems they would face when taking this exam. At the same time students in the course were also required to make their own self-videos about the different topics within the science-education course itself. During the course, a community developed among the students as was evidenced in the interactions, reports, and student-created videos which help them to progress in their understanding of the exam they would take several semesters later.
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Why is it important?
This instructor had to turn this 100% online course into a community of soon-to-be teachers so that they could grapple with the problems that they would face in a later semester on a licensure exam that would be delivered by an external accrediting body. Since the course had many other objectives, the instructor chose to leverage the “telepresence” (where students feel as though they are in the same room through the use of avatars) of the virtual reality environment to put the students into groups to discuss the NYS requirements. During these synchronous meetings, groups met independently, however, the instructor did periodically visit the different groups. Students needed to develop their own understanding of high-stakes test requirements. By watching the course carefully, particularly the student-created videos that were submitted throughout the course, the instructor was able to see the areas of the students’ knowledge that needed to be bolstered, making consequent adjustments within the course itself. Although it was not possible with this study alone, to determine the individual contribution made by these two student-sharing activities, by the end of the course, a study of the final student-video revealed language and a social familiarity that showed a caring community had developed. In addition, the students’ online discussions of the high-stakes test demonstrated that they were more knowledgeable of what they would have to do in the future. Using the virtual-reality meetings created the academic culture that often only can happen during a face-to-face meeting.
Perspectives
As the instructor/author, I had the onerous responsibility of preparing students for a high-stakes test that would be given semesters after my course— and by external reviewers. I also knew that the exam was going to require the type of science inquiry teaching that my students had seldom experienced, outside of teacher education classes. I had to get them talking to one another and I had to get them doing in a way that was supportive of their learning while at the same time could give me sufficient opportunities to “listen” to what they were saying so I could remediate as might be necessary. The virtual-reality environment gave me the opportunity to have the groups meet together without my being present all the time so that they could develop their own understanding. I tried to extend the community by having the students also create videos of themselves talking about the licensure exam and about the other course content areas. Things that might be mediated rather easily in a face-to-face classroom had to be designed into online courses in different ways. Since virtual-reality environments are now open-source and quite readily available, I was able to use this environment to create a non-hierarchical, non-teacher dominated discussion space among my students joining at a distance from around NYS. Overall, I deemed the knowledge and community building to be successful. I had the intuitive perspective as I worked to the course itself; I had the additional time through the data analysis to find out that the process was working quite effectively. What I hope to encourage other educators to do, particularly if they teach online, is to look at these virtual-reality, avatar- based spaces as a way to connect people across distance. They can be used in many ways and my particular application is only one illustration. I would encourage readers to please get in touch with me to find out how I create and use these environments. I would be interested in creating a community within higher education who might share these virtual-reality resources and opportunities. Plus, with the many video capture products available today, it becomes quite easy to have students turn the camera on themselves as they talk about their academic work. The student-videos creates a personal statement, even within an asynchronous environment, and can illuminate the ways that students reasons through topics and activities.
Eileen O'Connor
Empire State College
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Developing Community and Building Knowledge Online Using a Virtual Reality Environment and Student-Created Videos, Journal of Educational Technology Systems, October 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0047239517736874.
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