Electronifying oral communication: refining the conceptual framework for online instruction

College Student Journal, March, 2007 by Roy Schwartzman

This essay examines three issues that emerge from the literature on computer-mediated instruction and from the experience of teaching online oral communication courses: (1) To what extent can online courses realize economies of scale to reduce cost and increase enrollment? (2) What productive potential does tracking and monitoring online communication hold? (3) How does online instruction affect the relationship between information quantity and educational quality? The author suggests that future discussions depart from treating online environments as ways to increase the quantity of instruction and instead address methods that can improve the quality of communication, information management, and instructional techniques.

**********

Instead of neatly tying up loose ends, Howard Rheingold concludes his modern classic The Virtual Community with a challenge. The final sentence says simply: "What happens next is largely up to us" (Rheingold, 1993, p. 300). Rheingold's call to action comports well with the agenda of this essay. Shunning technological determinism, Rheingold emphasizes that the fate of electronic communication depends less on the hardware of technical wizardry than on the ingenuity of how people use technological tools. Similarly, this essay contends that the complaints and compliments attendant to "electronified" learning--defined as web-based or web-augmented instruction--often stem from the ways the technology is used rather than features inherent to the technology itself. Many of the commonest claims and concerns about online education reflect erroneous attributions of characteristics to the technology itself. In reality, several hopes and concerns attached to online education per se reflect problematic conceptualizations or applications of particular technological tools. Thus many contentions about the nature of online learning actually represent commentary on specific--often flawed--uses of electronic pedagogy, not virtues or vices of the technology itself.

Online education has come under increasing scrutiny as instructors of these courses encounter unanticipated demands on their time (Easton, 2003), unclear or absent data regarding online learning outcomes (Turman & Schrodt, 2005), and uncertainties about how and why students learn online. This investigation responds to such concerns by refining theoretical models of online learning in light of extensive experience in developing and teaching an online oral communication course. The present essay indicates that many reservations and objections to online teaching and learning reflect improperly designed or conceptualized courses rather than limitations inherent to computer-mediated communication or online education. The experiences of developing and teaching a fully online introductory oral communication course since 2001 interface with the literature regarding online education throughout various disciplines. The unique situation of an online version of a required oral communication course covering interviews, conversations, group collaboration, and public speaking offers insight regarding the kinship and divergence between the theory and practice of computer-mediated instruction. Specifically, the online basic oral communication course receives critical examination in light of research regarding several aspects of online instruction. First, to what extent can--or should--online courses realize economies of scale to reduce cost and increase enrollment? Second, what implications and opportunities emerge from the ability to track and monitor online communication? Third, how does enhanced capacity to produce information online affect the processing of that information? The broader issue stemming from the final question is the relationship between information quantity and educational quality.

The Illusion of Infinite Scalability

A major concern of faculty who teach online has been that online courses become subject to unreasonably high enrollment caps because administrators believe online teaching is more efficient than traditional instruction (Easton, 2003). Theoretically most mundane, time-consuming tasks of the traditional classroom (such as repetitive course preparation and assessment) could be replaced with automated, virtually maintenance-free electronic components. This erroneous belief has been bred by the assumption that online education automatically generates economies of scale with less time expenditure per student. The myth of infinite scalability rests on the faulty assumption that economies of scale have virtually no limits. Such misconceptions have been nurtured by early claims that online course enrollments will reach into the thousands per section with tuition of $100 or less per student (Draves, 2000). These estimates fail to account for performance-based courses such as online oral communication, where the addition of one student means at least half a dozen additional oral presentations to view and evaluate. Furthermore, the start-up time for developing online components coupled with conscientiously updating course materials rarely receive recognition (Shedletsky & Aitken, 2001; MacDonald et al., 2005). Another factor overlooked in the claims of infinite scalability is that online courses may require substantial individual communicative interactions with students to approach the perceived personalization and immediacy of traditional courses (Lane & Shelton, 2001; Carrell & Menzel, 2001). There is more to an online course than sheer information content. Very little attention has been devoted to these affective components in online course design and administration.