Gary Motteram, Language and Literacy Studies in Education, University of Manchester and Joanna Teague, Learning Teaching and Assessment, University of Manchester.

A paper presented at the Networked Learning Conference, 2000.

In the Faculty of Education at The University of Manchester we run a Master’s degree in Educational Technology and English Language Teaching (ELT) which is offered both in distance plus residential (a summer school), or fully distance modes. As part of the programme participants take one module that is run fully on-line. Other modules make use of more traditional distance learning technologies, with on-line support via email.

The module in question is called 'Computers and Video as a Resource' (CVR) and is usually taken as the last of six taught components. The reasons for delivering this module on-line are:

• Course participants experience different kinds of computer mediated communication (CmC) as an integral part of their distance learning rather than just reading about them.
• Participants can then reflect on their use of CmC and consider how they might be used in their own professional context. We look at issues such as teacher education, testing, research and management.

There is a current trend within education that looks at what added value a course can provide particularly with respect to transferable skills. This has always been an important aspect of the course’s philosophy. However, in addition to the skills side of the course we feel that there is something more fundamental. In this paper we argue that the Master’s course we offer is "transformative". Our interpretation of transformation matches with that described by Corder et al (1999:103):

Our course participants are postgraduates and are mostly in full-time employment when they take CVR. They work for employers such as universities, private language schools or as freelancers. CVR is assessed via an assignment, which consists both of a rationale and a more practical application of the ideas. Assignments are related to a participant's own professional context or one in which they would like to move into. We have extended our course into the virtual world as we are aware that this is increasingly where our participants will be expected to perform and we give them the opportunity to both learn about and evaluate their experiences in this area. This is one aspect of transformation.

However, as Mezirow (1990:8) states, "Not all learning involves learning to do". Participants on CVR undertake a number of tasks which can be collaborative, or individual, and they are required to report and reflect on these experiences via a dedicated email discussion list and in email journal entries. Critical reflection is a fundamental aspect of transformative learning. Mezirow (1990:xii) defines transformative learning as:

Wetzel et al (2000:16), paraphrasing Cranton, illustrate what is meant by "acting on these insights":

With the emphasis being on reflection, we wanted to look further at the kind of transformation that had occurred and evidence of what Toohey (1999:9) calls a "deep approach" to engagement with the material.

We argue that "deep" learning means going beyond the basic input from the module and looking beyond the discussion that occurs on the email list. The participants are encouraged to read widely around the module themes and to make links between the ideas that are presented, their own ideas and ideas that are expressed within the literature. In order to receive a high grade on an assignment participants are expect to show a high level of critical analysis and awareness, to have a broad knowledge of relevant literature and to present their ideas in a cohesive and coherent way.

Although we were looking for evidence through journals and the final assignments, we were also interested in the way that CmC can have an impact on the development of deep thinking about ideas. This idea of a deeper understanding of issues coming from work in an asynchronous environment comes from studies and reports by writers such as Harasim et al (1985) and Mason & Kaye (1989) amongst others. They suggest that if participants are engaged in writing, rather than talking, they are able to attain a higher level of analysis of ideas. There are a number of reasons why this might be the case:

• students have more time to think about the responses;
• they are able to engage with developing arguments;
• they have time to follow up references and read literature, so that responses can be more detailed and argumentative;
• more of the group are able to participate in interactions;
• contributions can be seen as being more objective and anonymous;
• there is a group record of the debate that can be used as an accurate reference at a later date (such as the assignment stage).

In earlier work by Teague (1999) and Motteram (under consideration) we explore the nature of the relationship between synchronous and asynchronous communication and argue that there is research evidence to show that both synchronous and asynchronous communication have distinct roles to play in on-line distance education. This paper takes these ideas further.

This paper focuses on the experiences of three participants who were part of an initial cohort of 16 students registered on the distance module described above. 15 of these were registered on the module and were expected to complete an assignment. One took the module as part of another course, and was an observer.

The three case studies selected for this paper were chosen because they began this module with differing skills and experience in terms of using new technologies and in terms of distance education and also reflected different outcomes in terms of what they got from the module. The first, K, defined herself as an "internaut novice" at the start of the module as she had only used email for a year and had no experience of email discussion lists. However, her two previous experiences of distance education had included teaching in distance mode with teleconferencing. She had also completed two modules at CELSE in distance mode.

The second case study featured S, who was also new to all but email in terms of the CMC tools used to deliver this module. This module was his first experiences of distance education as he lived near The University of Manchester and had attended on a part-time basis for his previous modules. Because of his status as a local part-time student, S was also in touch with the tutors by phone and in person. He had a number of meetings during the year to discuss the module and the assignment.

The third case study looked at the experiences of C, who had completed her previous modules in distance mode and summer attendance mode. C had worked as an Audio Visuals Assistant in UK HE for six years some time before the programme and had been using email and reading from the WWW regularly for four years by the time she began Computers and Video as a Resource. She introduced herself at the start of the module as 'childishly enthusiastic about anything related to educational technology'.

C's prior experience of distance learning included a one-year post graduate Diploma course which she had studied and which she described as 'a typical correspondence course' She also had experience of distance teaching having successfully taught business English to a distance student who was imprisoned for embezzlement part-way through her language course.

By the end of the module K had contributed approximately 70 email messages, S had contributed approximately 75 email messages and C had contributed approximately 64 email messages to the module electronic discussion list or the module tutor. These messages ranged from one or two lines of text to messages which represented two to three pages of printed text. They had also all made contributions to various synchronous discussions that are not discussed as part of this paper.

As we considered the data certain patterns emerged which could be related to the literature on transformative education. In order to highlight these patterns we have divided the main features of transformative education into a series of five inter-linked parts in the following table:

The key research questions in our minds were therefore twofold:

• Did transformative education take place as part of the module?
• Was "deep learning" taking place?

The following case studies uses the five level scale of transformative education with extracts from the research data to support our affirmative answers to these research questions.

During the module S demonstrated that he was developing new skills and reading the input materials. He was beginning on the transformative education scale and his reading at this level fed into his assignment. After each synchronous meeting students were asked for their reflections on the meeting. In this particular instance the synchronous CmC telecommunications tool was a Multi-user Object Orientated environment (MOO) called SchMOOze. In this environment participants communicated via the WWW by writing text messages. In reply to the tutor's message entitled 'How was it for you?', S gave the following reply:

However, this frustration did not deter S from using SchMOOze again. Instead, he soon mastered the skills for MOOing and later used his experiences of learning to use CmC software as a starting point for co-operative work with the other course participants on the module. As part of the module units, course participants were asked to design a questionnaire for others on CVR. S's reflections on his own frustrating experiences of learning to use CmC software were apparent in his questionnaire as he asked participants to describe what they liked and disliked about the different CmC environments:

The results from this questionnaire provided S with answers he could use to compare with his own and this clearly contributed to his thoughts on the potential of CmC in his professional context. His assignment described how he was later to compare the different packages in order to select one for working with his work colleagues.

S developed his skills and interest in using synchronous CmC during the module and when he reached the module assignment stage he was interested in looking into the possibilities of MOOing in greater depth. It is at this stage we can see that the reading, reflection and on-line communication with the other students on the module facilitated his progress as he moved from the early levels of the transformative education scale to the third level.

S assessed different synchronous CmC packages and introduced SchMOOze to his colleagues. He designed and managed a small research project with his colleagues in order to investigate how synchronous CmC could be used effectively for place-flexible staff meetings. This move into using different ways of working with his colleagues can be seen as both innovative and inspirational. He stated on the email discussion list:

This project formed the empirical element to his module assignment. In the conclusions to this assignment he described not only how the findings from his research indicated how CmC might be best used in his professional context, but he also indicated how this project was likely to grow in the future:

We can see S working at two parallel levels. He has gone beyond learning about effective CmC to transferring his newly learned skills to others. The confidence building may relate both to his colleagues and to himself.

In the post-module interview S described how this project had led to a number of projects where he now had a 'finger in many pies'. He felt he was beginning to create a professional niche for himself as more and more colleagues identified him as the person to ask when it came to CmC projects. This, he felt, would not have happened if he had not taken this module. The exciting list of further developments included the following:

• Firstly, his assignment project captured the imagination of his work colleagues and was to be presented at the next international meeting of Trinity Colleges in order to explore larger scale development.
• Secondly, the language learners' email project, which S had described earlier in the module, had developed into a project with funding from the Further Education Development Agency (FEDA).
• Thirdly, it seemed that this could be developed into an international project in the future. S was still in email contact with one of the module participants who was based in Portugal and they were both interested in starting an international e-pal link between their language learners.

The developments in S's professional context were exciting and encouraging. Within a month of completing the module there was already evidence that S had progressed through the scale of transformative education and was happy about having done so. In the post-module interview he stated:

K began this module with no prior experience of using email discussion lists. Nevertheless, within the first few weeks of the module she demonstrated that her skills and reading in this area were developing at a pace and within a month of starting the module she was eager to move to level two of the transfomative education scale and start using an email discussion list with her language learners. This she did with the support of her tutor and the other module participants. She posted the following message to the tutor:

This request for tips was forwarded on to the email discussion list and an open reply from the tutor provided advice in terms of personal experience and further literature in this area. The following day K responded to the tutor:

Three weeks later K posted a journal entry to the email discussion list. One can see that at this stage she was working through the first, second and third levels of the transformative educational scale. Initially she was learning how to gather and then manage the vast amounts of information which she received via the Internet:

One can also see from the above reference that K was progressing with her reading in this subject area as a result of the on-line communication incorporated into this module. The Mindweave reference (Mason & Kay 1988) was one that had been identified by the tutor in response to her earlier call for CMC moderator tips.

In this same journal entry K began to describe how she was trying out her new ideas in her own professional context. This can be seen as an example of level three of the transformative educational scale:

Her reflections on this experience were later described in an on-line feedback activity. K posted the following message in which she described what happened with a rather disappointed tone:

However, although this summary paints a somewhat disheartening, but not untypical picture, this experience captured her imagination and contributed to her thoughts on how one could be an effective on-line teacher. She explored this subject further with the tutor during the module and in her discussions with the tutor her reflections included the following:

At this stage in the module the tutor set the module participants a reflective task to complete on-line and modelled the first stage with a description of her own reflections on the subject area. For a few months prior to this she had encouraged the participants to use the list in a more independent way and there had been less email during this period. This change of teaching style stimulated a flurry of reflective email from the module participants, as K was to note:

It was with the module assignment that K fully presented her views on how to effectively manage on-line learning. Her use of the literature and her analysis of her on-line questionnaire findings clearly demonstrated that she had developed her understanding of many of the key factors required in such circumstances. In her assignment she assessed how the CVR email discussion list had been used and how module participants felt about this. Her email questionnaire to the others on the module was made up of the following questions:

The answers to these questions were added to the CmC contributions K had saved from the module and her own journal entries. K analysed the needs, wants and expectations of the module participants in terms of the four stages of group formation designed by Tuckman (1965): Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. Among her findings she noted the need for opportunities to allow participants to develop a sense of community with their virtual peers. The need to feel that this would be a supportive and caring community.

K discussed the need for distance learners to have not only the practical skills but also the sense that they were autonomous learners with the opportunities to...

Although K did not then relate these conclusions to how she would have used an email discussion list differently with her language learners, she did demonstrate that she had reached level four of the transformative educational scale and had established a personal view of how one could used email discussion lists for effective distance education.

The evidence in the data concerning C didn't paint such a coherent picture of progress through the transformative education scale as it had for K and S. However, extracts indicated that C had experienced elements of this scale during the module.

Prior to this module C had not had any experience of developing a web site. In the early part of the module she read input materials about how to approach content, navigation and presentation design to construct a web site for her own professional context and began to learn the necessary skills. Four months into the module she noted that she was 'making progress with' her web pages and a month later they were ready for uploading.

Having passed through stage one of the scale and having moved into stage two she gave thorough feedback on web sites constructed by her peers, recommended appropriate research articles and reflected on the work she had undergone in the light of her reading and developing technical skills. In a post module interview she noted:

In fact when C produced her first web site she had missed the deadline for submission and so she failed to receive any feedback on her work from her peers. However we can see from her comments on this that she had moved into stage three and maybe even stage four of the transformative education scale as she had started to gain independence and become confident with her new skills in her own professional context:

She later noted that she was offered a job partly on the strength of having produced these same web pages. This would suggest that she had reached stage four of the transformative education scale as she was able to go it alone and present her new skills in a job interview with confidence.

And for her assessed work for this module C produced a further web site for her own professional context. In the examination report form the formative report from her examiner included the following comments:

However, although we have evidence that C experienced the first four stages of the transformative education scale we do not have evidence that she was then involved in transferring knowledge and skills to others as a result of having studied this module.

This research demonstrates that course participants are engaging with the material and ideas presented in this module in a deep and meaningful way. It demonstrates the validity of online education for practitioners such as those in ELT who are able to learn new skills and ideas, relate them to their own context and then reflect on these experiences in terms of the literature and their deeper thinking. They have clearly gained new knowledge from their experience in the on-line environment and have gone far beyond the basic facts to a level where they are beginning to make use of both knowledge and skills within their own professional context. We suggest that this does not always happen in the full-time face-to-face environment as ELT participants are less likely to have the time and access to their professional context to progress through the five levels of the transformative education scale as they progress through their module. We can show that it is clearly possible to run an online module that takes the participants well beyond a basic knowledge and skills level and transforms them in a positive and effective way. We feel that in the context of this module we can say that we witnessed online transformative education.

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