Herding Chats
Reflections on a Synchronous Online Interaction

The night before teaching my first synchronous online class I dreamed that I lost my notes and I couldn't remember the file name for the electronic version either. Suffice it to say, I felt a little uneasy going into an hour-long training with 20 participants the next day Apprehension can apparently evolve to meet the digital age just as education is evolving to advantage itself with technological advances.

My plunge into online instruction was in teaching a faculty "tech" camp. I was asked to be the instructor of this training because of my role in faculty development as an integrator of technology with teaching and my experience in training instructors to use interactive TV. However, I had minimal experience with online instruction.

The class was part of a week-long tech camp for faculty. Our institution has conducted 13 such camps for approximately 20 faculty members, each of whom submitted a project proposal for developing a course incorporating technology. The first dozen camps were held face-to-face, but the most recent one was offered completely online—no face-to-face. Not even a telephone.

My role as a long-time instructional development consultant was to provide awareness of and some process for converting face-to-face courses into a hybrid or online-only format without loss of the strengths of face-to-face instruction. That meant I, too, had to teach online.

Thinking back on what was almost the class from hell, I learned useful lessons from my synchronous online interaction.

Use an Interactive Process
Long an advocate of tending to the affective or emotional aspects of learning while tilling the fields of the cognitive, I have been concerned about the social and motivational side of the educational transaction in teaching online. How would meaning be constructed in a less fertile social environment? How could students become engaged at a distance? How could I, the personification of active learning, prevent myself from being a talking head and, gasp, taking a step backward pedagogically?

There was only one way to begin to answer these questions: dive in, reflect, request the reflections of the learners, look at the results, and formatively assess the situation for myself.

One major goal for my session was to raise the learners' awareness, as well as my own, of how their students would experience online instruction, how that experience informs the choices they would be making in teaching online courses, and how to become as metacognitive as possible. I wanted them to think not so much about what they were learning, but how they were internalizing it and feeling about it.

Try it. Think and feel about it. Fix it. Try it again.

Match Platform to Goals
Working within the confines of our given system (UMConnect), I focused on emphasizing the chat box as my aid to active and effective learning. My primary strategy was to embed questions in a synchronous PowerPoint presentation, which would invite students to enter the process and uncover issues and answers for themselves. While is possible for students to view the slides after the fact, all of us were online at the same time and communicating via the chat feature.

Complement Medium with Message
I based my presentation on questions from the well-researched work of Rena Palloff's and Keith Pratt's Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom: The Realities of Online Teaching, (67-92). I also integrated Maslow's hierarchy of needs. We were studying how to convert a face-to-face class into an online class while we were doing it.

Practice Online
One thing I learned was that online instructors need to not only prepare their materials. Also whenever possible practice them with others.

In retrospect with the tech camp, I found a number of serious flaws: "so much content, so little time," to quote Marilla Svinicki's classic article; a presentation script with font too small to read while broadcasting; too little practice with a newly installed webcam; and too many questions embedded in my presentation.

A small, unanticipated but amusing interruption occurred when a custodian came into my office where I was broadcasting on a quest for my wastebasket. Next time, I will put an "on the air" sign on my office door. ("Next time" is what this article is all about.)

Simplify the Message
While the topics of teaching online and getting online students to connect surely overlap and intertwine, my faculty "students" would have been better served with two separate lessons: one on transforming a face-to-face class into an online class and one on relating to one another and coalescing as a class online. In a more traditional environment, I would be able to read their facial reactions and know how to adjust my plan accordingly, and, more importantly, to know when enough was enough.

Herd the Chats
In an online, synchronous course, text-chat is essential, but for it to be effective, the instructor must know how to manage it.

On the credit side of the ledger, my plan to depend on chat heavily for interaction worked, but probably too well. It became a kind of "sorcerer's apprentice."

Delayed responses can lead to several simultaneous discussions, which can be confusing to follow. Additionally, when several people chat at once, it is difficult to track what everyone has said. The instructor must forestall confusion by responding to the chats and keeping the group together. Facilitating while instructing is not easy.

Expect the Unexpected
How many chat entries should you expect? In my first experience, I was surprised to learn at the end that, not counting the housekeeping comments at the beginning ("can you see/hear me?") to the "thanks" at the end,, 86 chats were posted by 20 participants and staff! Was that more chats than a class can handle?

Did I "herd" the chats well? Did I ask too many questions to produce such a litter of chats? In planning and estimating time for the session, I thought I had been generous in allowing three minutes per question for feedback. However, their answers and my responses unexpectedly took more time than that.

Plan to Be Distracted
How can instructors facilitate student interactions while maintaining their interest and attention? So much needs tending simultaneously that it's easy for the instructor to feel out of control, engaged yet distracted. Multitasking is a mature way to describe what I was doing, but a child would have said it was harder than rubbing my stomach and patting my head at the same time.

Reflect
Most text-chat clients record a history of all chats in a session, which instructors can re-read and analyze later, and I recommend they do!

At the end of class, I read and reflected on both the chat history and a Critical Incident Questionnaire (CIQ) that the learners completed. The questionnaire gave me more insight into how learners' interactions and interest might be encouraged and maintained. Participants' chat comments were invaluable for gauging the frequency, length, and depth of the responses.

For example, the first 22 comments were succinct and precisely on track in answering some initial questions that we discussed about teaching online versus in face-to-face settings. What differences do you see in online teaching versus face-to-face? What one thing do you prize in face to face that you will lose in online? What capabilities will you gain in online?

The next cluster of comments took a detour, leading to a rich, unplanned discussion when one participant asked whether online pictures of students might produce prejudice. However, it was difficult to know when to move on and get back to the planned content. In this instance, one of the participants finally wrote, "How far do we need to go with this idea?" to close the door on the discussion.

Welcome Humor
Chats 36-41 responded to my query: "If learning is relational (and complex), how will you create opportunities for your students to relate in your online class?" One responded with refreshing humor: "I plan to hold a rave at my house the first week of class. Not really." That was the first of only two humorous posts, more's the pity!

Prod for Deeper Responses
"Who are your students?"-leading into Maslow"s hierarchy of needs--elicited a disappointingly light treatment by them: a mere five responses. My fault. I did not prod and prompt enough to help them become more deeply descriptive of their students, their lives, responsibilities, credit load, technological prowess and reasons for taking the class (Pratt & Palloff, 70).

Set Up Protocols in Advance
To prepare to orchestrate the dialog, set up expectations that you will be a conductor of discussion. Once involved with a question, there needs to be a way politely to say "cut" or "moving on," Giving them directions to a discussion forum, a wiki, a blog… if they wanted to contribute further would have been prudent.

Be Alert to Diminished Energy
Face to face, I know when learners are less than alert. Glazed eyes, slack jaws, and inattentive faces are not hard to miss in person. Online energy levels are harder to detect. In what ways can you meet students' social needs online?" produced ten chats. Feeling a lull here and diminished energy on both our parts, I asked them if everyone was still alive.

Be Sensitive to the Ebbing Hour
All planned questions were answered but most begged for exploration which there was no time to provide. Exploration can be a luxury or a necessity. To leave room for the richness of exploring a topic and digging deeper, it may be better to omit some content.

But, marching relentlessly forward, I called their attention to an online Merlot article about student engagement in discussions. That prompted a quip, "And a good wine, too!" which was a breath of fresh air in what was beginning to feel like a stagnant conversation to me, and I'm certain to them as well.

Assess
I felt as if my guests had all rushed home from my party before I found out if they had a good time. To solicit their reactions, we sent them to the course management site to fill out and submit online Classroom Critical Teaching Incident Questionnaire adapted from Steven Brookfield's model http://www.ntlf.com/html/pi/9601/article3.htm. It asked them, "At what moment during the UMConnect session did you feel most engaged; most distanced; most affirmed or helped; most puzzled or confused; most surprised. Finally, they were asked how this synchronous session compared to or differed from asynchronous learning modules?

In brief, here is their take. Their observations help me make sense of what and how they were learning as well as help me to plan for more effective online classes in the future.

About the Author
LeAne H. Rutherford, an Associate Professor in her 40th year at the University of Minnesota Duluth, directs the Instructional Development Service (IDS). She consults with faculty who want to enhance their students' learning in an evolving educational environment. Her mantra is "learning how to learn." LeAne helps faculty members and students become self-directing and reflective connoisseurs of information.

References
R.M. Palloff and K. Pratt, Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001, pp. 67-92.
T.A. Angelo and K.P. Cross, Classroom Assessment Techniques, 2nd Ed., San Francisco: Jossey- Bass, 1993.

Classroom Critical Teaching Incident Questionnaire Summary

Tech Camp 2010

The following questions were asked of the learners following the session described above. I am grateful for these revealing comments, which give me more than enough valuable feedback to inform future performance. It is entirely possible to decrease the number of scratches involved in herding chats online if you reflect on your practice and enlist the aid of your students. —LeAne H. Rutherford

1. At what moment during the UMConnect session did you feel most engaged?

Their responses to the question coincided with my goals for using the chat feature of UMConnect for engagement. The majority was engaged when they were asked questions, and could answer or comment, when humor surfaced, when connections were made between students and their needs, and when the instructor appeared to be relaxed. The beginning of the session captured their attention the most, but it was difficult to sustain that level of engagement for more than 15 minutes.

2. At what moment during the UMConnect session did you feel most distanced from what was happening?

Online participants were put off by any deviations from the perceived linearity of the presentation. They wanted to go from Point A to Point B without any discoursive excursions. On the other hand, any content that they found to be "too facile" or familiar to them personally distanced them from what was happening.

The UMConnect session was viewed as most helpful when the instructor solicited or suggested techniques for helping students get to know one another and to create a sense of belonging to the class. In addition, participants were validated by taking the role of students and experiencing the online version of what their students would experience. Reading the chats and being recognized by name for their contributions were also seen to be encouraging.

4. What part of the UMConnect session (instructor or participant input) did you find most puzzling or confusing?

Several were confused by the speed at which the communication moved:

"When several people chat at once, it is difficult to track all of the chat entries."
"It is difficult to type fast enough to add a comment before someone else said the same thing."

These were typical reactions which supported the observation that it was "easy to get side-tracked or miss good comments due to quick responses, length of responses and general timing of responses."

Some used the word "awkward" to describe their disequilibrium. Others called for changes in UMConnect's format: a larger chat window or the ability to scroll through the PowerPoint slides (which only the instructor controlled.)

5. What about this online session surprised you the most?

The surprises were bimodal: pleasant and unpleasant. They were happy "to know what people are thinking right then and there." But they cautioned that "communication needs to be done with care because we can put people off unintentionally which, nevertheless, can interrupt or hinder learning," and lamented "not being able to communicate expression."

6. How did your involvement in this synchronous online session compare to/differ from the asynchronous learning modules?

Reactions were mixed. Most did not have enough experience to have an opinion on this question. But for those who like to set their own pace and liked independence, asynchronous was the choice. Some felt it was,

"Great to relate in real time. [It] felt like I was in a classroom and accountable to everyone as a participant. There was some added pressure and partly, anxiety of using a new tool that made me very alert.

Similarly, another added, "[With synchronous] I was definitely listening more and thinking faster."

We hoped that asking the question would prompt them to think about how they felt while in the student role and apply that to teaching their forthcoming online classes.