Communications tools are the heart of any online course. With the variety of synchronous and asynchronous tools that you can select from, across the spectrum of written, audio, and visual, the same material can be presented and discussions had in a infinite number of mixtures. However, as we know it is not only about the technology, but the purpose in which you use it. How will a specific communications technology better facilitate your learning outcomes? Most of the articles below not only discuss how you might use a specific communications tool, but also the more important question...why!

Lott, Chris. "Social Software Interaction." Online Image. 2. Nov. 2007. Flickr. Retrieved Feb, 16 2008. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/fncll/1829938057/>

The image on the left discusses the private versus public dissemination of knowledge in several ways that range from relatively direct, private (discussion board) & uniform to a public, customizable interface (wikis). Please click on the image to get a more thorough analysis from Devon Adams' blog post.














Strategies for Using Chat as a Communication Tool. Illinois Online Network: Education Resources. Retrieved 30 October, 2007, from:
http://www.ion.illinois.edu/resources/tutorials/communication/chat.asp
This extremely user-friendly page gives a number of quick and concise strategies for using real-time chat in your distance learning course. The page is organized into pedagogic uses and coping strategies related to chatting with online students. The pedagogic uses include a number of assessment techniques that can be used to determine (a) if a student is "getting" the content, and (b) that the student is doing his or her own work (e.g., writing his or her own research papers). The coping strategies offer sound advice for managing chats to make them as productive and time-efficient as possible.

• Comments by Linda: I appreciate the quick and succinct nature of the tips presented here and intend to make good use of them next semester. The pedagogic uses section stretched my concept of what chat can do beyond answering those "how wide do the margins have to be" kinds of questions from students. This is an excellent resource for distance educators.
• Comment by shabana04: Very helpful resource for diatance learning and teaching. I enjoyed the usefulness and clarity of tips presented here. I was already planning to add chat and who is online tools for my next semester online courses and these tips gave me better understanding of pedagogic use of this tool. The idea of virtual office hours will be helpful for students to stay connected and get a quick hold of instructors.
• Comment by Doug: Once these concepts have been articulated, don't they now just seem common-sense?
• I'm hoping to find, soon, how chats can be limited in distribution. Linda and I chatted last night and the transcript appears to be there for all to see in Gmail. The beauty about on-line is the apparent cloak of anonymity assumed by the student. If their every thought is published, will they start to withdraw, just like the slow learners in class?

Goldsmith, D.J. 2001 Communication, Humor and Personality: Student's Attitudes to Learning Online. Academic Exchange Quarterly 5.2, 108-113.
Article on the results of online student impressions from 72 different courses in the Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium. This research was a great comprehensive comparison of student's feelings at the end of the their online course. While this article did not address specific technologies on how to communicate with students, many of the reported comments from the results related to the student satisfaction with their communications with the professor. One of the most polar responses shown was satisfaction (or lack thereof) with the course, arising from the quantity and quality of feedback. The students loved the asynchronous, flexible nature of the course but still desired a direct link with their instructor and other students. Blogs seemed to help quite a bit but communications with the professor were paramount. They wanted quick, specific comments to their work. Additionally, if there were any ways that the professor could add humor or personal aspects to communications, these were highly regarded. (posted by Alex)

• Comment by Peter: I found what I was looking for...what's the difference between "online grading" and "online teaching?" From Goldsmith "While timely feedback, good communication, and accessibility are all viewed
  as necessary by online students, and emphasized as benchmarks of quality (Merisotis, J. & Phipps, R., 2000), courses that get the strongest evaluations from students have faculty, like good faculty in the classroom, who are completely present and bring their personality into the course in ways that enhance
  learning". That, and humor!

• Comment by Kay: The study confirms to me that faculty should play a role in distance learning as active as what they would do in face-to-face classes. Students clearly don’t want to be self-taught, no matter how comprehensive are the materials posted in the LMS. As Goldsmith commented, “Students are entitled to a professor who will teach and answer questions directly, just as in live classes.” The article gives me food for thought about designing classes that require my interaction with students.

Funaro, G. M., & Montell, F. (1999). Pedagogical Roles and Implementation Guidelines for Online Communication Tools. ALN Magazine, 3(2). Retrieved November 14, 2007, from http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/magazine/v3n2/funaro.asp.
This article reports out on a case study of 12 humanities faculty who used asynchronous discussion boards in their classes. It lists both ways in which the faculty use the discussion tools as well as tips for how to better facilitate discussions in that environment.

• Comment by Shelley: I'm a big fan of list/guideline articles when it comes to helping with my teaching. I especially like this article since they include a prompt to help students with their online postings.

Bell, M. A. (2007). Celebrating Communication: Focus on Listservs. MultiMedia & Internet @ Schools, 14(3), 37-39. Retrieved November 14, 2007, from EbscoHost.
This is a general "ra-ra" article about how listservs are useful to people. The author did informal research of how/why people like listserves and the following three reasons came up repeatedly:

1. collegiality
2. sharing ideas, information, and advice
3. finding quick answers to then pass on to others (other faculty, administrators, etc.)

Teaching with Online Communication Tools. Retrieved December 1, 2007, from
http://www.cites.uiuc.edu/edtech/teaching_methods/pedagogy/communication/index.html
Online communication tools, from email to chat, provide powerful platforms to enrich discussions among students, implement collaborative assignments, foster peer review, and encourage greater communication between students and instructors. As with traditional writing assignments and discussion forums, using online tools to facilitate writing, collaboration, and discussion requires attention to the planning and structure of these activities in order for them to be successful. In addition, it is important to match the proper tool to these online activities.

• Comments by Margarita: The author comments about how online tools can improve student writing, critical skills, and participation. He suggests for teachers to give clear directions and expectations for posting, grade postings, provide feedback for postings, and if you are teaching a hybrid course, it is important for you to integrate online discussions and writing with in-class activities. He also points out the importance of teaching with Asynchronous tools as teaching strategies such as: Cooperative/Peer Learning, Peer Review and Comment, Student-led Discussions, and Inquiry/ Problem-based learning. Finally, he comments on the benefits of teaching with Synchronous tools such as: Classroom communication, instructor-student communication, and group work.
  

http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html is a biblio on communications, how to post, more so on how to behave while online.
Rule 3 covers how to respond, basically don't be rude. However, it suggests that newbies 'lurk' for a while, ie read others posts until you are familiar with the content and style. It also points out something relevant to us right now: know where you are! We have so many participants in so many pages of so many apps, it is easy to become disoriented. I've discovered that del.icio.us is now my navigator around each of the apps.

• Comment by Shelley: I'm fascinated by rule 5; it included that fact that you need to "look good" and that means "good" writing. This actually resonates with a discussion that Greg just posted in his blog last week. I posted comments there emphasizing the rhetorical situation of posting (audience & purpose...and in teaching, desired learning outcome). Ultimately I think if an instructor insists on "perfect" writing, students will get caught up focusing on that requirement instead of learning the content they are writing about. It's like the "you'll lose a letter grade for every 3 grammar mistakes" assessment strategy; is that really helpful? Pratt...I can't seem to find something that links me to your blog. Please share the URL with me again (dang, I thought I subscribed to it!).
• Comment by Suecat: I think the rules are good and very important, however, I find it very distracting to try and read the point of someone's writing when it's practically written in text messaging format. I'm certainly not trying to criticize, but when someone doesn't even bother to try and use spell check I think we need to gently remind the person to use it. I think the point of their writing will be taken more seriously, at least by me. Now that I've said all that, I better use spell check myself. bye for now.
  

Yerks, AM. 1996. Pediatric Nurse The Internet and Pediatric Nursing: Guide to the Information Superhighway.
<http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FSZ/is_1_22/ai_n18607174>
article summited by suecat CIS237
The union between medicine and information technology, "telemedicine," is an important part of healthcare todayl (as it was in 1996). This article suggests that all healthcare professionals should be using this technology for information related to their practices. Radiology and diagnostic images can be obtained quickly, and useful in the treatment of patients, along with obtaining histories and pharmaceutical information that will allow the healthcare team to assess the patient's needs putting the whole picture together quicker. Likewise, health care administrators are able to communicate hospital guides, maps, updates and support contacts via computers located in lobbies or waiting rooms. Nurses and physicians can obtain needed information as well as utilize resources from a variety of sources by using the computer system. It used to be computer's were used for billing and financial systems, now the computer system is used to communicate so much more in the hospital environment.


Driscoll, Kelly. Collaboration in Today's Classrooms: New Web Tools Change the Game.MultiMedia & Internet@Schools. May/June2007, Vol. 14 Issue 3, p9-12Education Research Complete. EBSCO Publishing. Mesa Community College Library, Mesa, AZ. 21 Feb. 2008 <http://web.ebscohost.com>. Persistent link to this article
(since this is a subscription database, you may need to log in with yor MyMCC username and password)

The article talks about how the new Web 2,0 tools such ad wiki's, podcastss and blogs have made it easier for online instructors to accomplish specific communication tasks, and how there is a movement away from the constraints of the big, cumbersome course management systems that we have all been dependent on in recent years.
There's a description of each of these three communications tools, which I found useful, since I'm such a newbie.
The article indicates that Shelley's approach to course communication with "different and loosely strung together technologies" is one that is gaining popularity as teachers seek out inexpensive and easy to use tools that accomplish a specific task, and how our social networking generation of students come with some knowledge of how they operate.
One point made in the article that I never really thought about, was that this technology has evened the playing field, as the smallest K-12 systems have access to the same tools as do the large research universities -- no added costs of servers & IT maintenance since it's all self-hosted.
(submitted by Lorna)

Preparing Instructors for Quality Online Instruction. Yang & Cornelious, Spring 2005. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, Volume VIII, Number I; State University of West Georgia, Distance Education Center.
This paper has a great section on communication titled "Developing an Interactive Online Teaching-Learning Community." In a nutshell, the key to a rewarding class for instructors and students both lies in creating community. There are three levels of community: (a) making on-line acquaintances or friends; (b) building community conferment, which is like a membership card for the community of learners. This level requires online learners to be part of a long, thoughtful, threaded discussion on a subject; and (c) camaraderie, which was achieved after long-term and/or intense association with others involving personal communication (from Brown 2001). Effective tools include e-mail, listserv, threaded discussion, and chat room. Of course, the technology is changing fast but the underlying principles remain relatively constant. (research & review by Peter)

Online Discussion Tutor Tips
eLearning and Online Tutoring Support Materials for UK eUniversities, (no date), "How to be an eTutor”, [online] available from http://www.jd.org/lmd/app_root/level2/lmd_tutor.htm ,[Accessed Feb. 23, 2008]

Although this website is not an academic paper and was developed as tutor support material, it contains many useful and creative ideas for starting, moderating, managing, and how to get students to participate in online discussions.
(submitted by Lea)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/12389/On-Micromedia-Microlearning?ga_related_doc=1
Added by Doug: Let me be the first to add this splendid view of the future culled from an MCC email sent by Jennifer Waters. A unique interpretation of what on-line education is becoming. It considers it to be a much more comprehensive approach than simply using a bunch of tools. However, we have to know what the tools are and how to use them - hence CIS237.

Angelique Davi, Mark Frydenberg, and Girish J. Gulati, Blogging Across the Disciplines: Integrating Technology to Enhance Liberal Learning. Merlot Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, Vol. 3, No.3, September 2007. http://jolt.merlot.org/vol3no3/frydenberg.htm Posted by Kay from CIS237.
Researchers used the same assignment and assessment tool in three different courses (across disciplines) and in all cases they found that requiring students to complete assigned readings and respond on a course blog to posted discussion questions in advance of in-class discussion had the effect of engaging students and creating enhanced classroom discussion.
The article provides good information about the technical aspects of blogs (including the use of RSS to manage communication of content) and the value of blogging as a pedagogical tool to provide real benefits to a course. The study gives evidence that use of blogs serves to engage all students, even those not likely to volunteer comments in a face-to-face discussion.
Comment from Doug: I'm going to try this during the summer, if I can figure out how to run a class blog on Blackboard. I'm looking for ways to get students to open up and identify their areas of ignorance. They are usually happy to tell another student they don't know something. I'm anticipating that all bloggers will remain anonymous.