Implementation of Virtual Classroom in Distance Learning Perspective of Bangladesh

   

 

   

Implementation of Virtual Classroom in Distance Learning Perspective of Bangladesh

   

Report on

Implementation of Virtual Classroom in Distance Learning Perspective of Bangladesh

Submitted to

Mohammed Shafiul Alam Khan

Assistant Professor

Institute of Information and Technology

University of Dhaka

Submitted by

Aklima Sharmin

Roll: 1207

&

Monjur Mohammad Shahriar

Roll: 1221

Institute of Information Technology

University of Dhaka

May 2012

   

December 20, 2001

Mohammed Shafiul Alam Khan Assistant Professor Institute of Information and Technology University of Dhaka Dhaka-1000. Dear Sir:

We are submitting to you the report, due April 29, 2012, that you requested. The report is entitled Implementation of Virtual Classroom in the Distance Learning Perspective of Bangladesh. The purpose of the report is to inform you of the current state of distance education and virtual learning in Bangladesh.

The content of this report concentrates on the basic concepts of virtual classroom and distance learning and it’s significance in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Open University is pioneer of this concept in our country. Their strategy is to use mass media to cover the whole country for distance learning. Now modern media like mobile phone, computer and internet has influenced peoples. So, it is time to use these media to provide distance learning. One of the most eminent ways of distance learning is virtually represent the classroom environment to learners.

Distance Learning is required in all levels even a farmer can be benefited through it. In remote areas students also can get better learning facilities from prominent educators. In a traditional learning environment a teachers can cover a classroom of limited students but through virtual classroom we can easily cover a large number of learners from different areas. That’s why it is a time demand.

We try to define the basic concepts that are relevant to this report. We also figure out the previous and current status of virtual classroom in Bangladesh. Based on that status we tried to show the implementation strategies of virtual classroom for distance learning. At the first stage if we are able to implement it in our distance education then we can keep our concern to other stage of education system.

   

Acknowledgement

First of all, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to our honourable teacher Mohammed Shafiul Alam Khan, Assistant Professor, Institute of Information and Technology (IIT), University of Dhaka, for his active guidance and valuable suggestion forpreparing this report. Without his inspiration, guidelines and co-ordination, it was impossible to do this work.

We appreciated our classmates for their support and cooperative attitude while we are working on this report

We would also like to extend our heartfelt gratefulness to Mohammad Hasan Mahamud Rana, who gave us all kinds of help and advice to acquire sufficient information to write the report.

We are also very much grateful to all the members of our family and all of our friends whose special co-operation and inspiration made the work easier.

Above all, our especial thanks and gratitude goes to Almightily Allah, without his help we can’t finish and submit this report properly.

Monjur Mohammad Shahriar

Aklima Sharmin

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Executive Summary

Universities are faced with a difficult problem of simultaneously keep pace with increased number of students and increased extent of knowledge that is to be delivered to students. And students expect to be taught by excellent teachers who have deep understanding of the subject. A Virtual classroom concept is a possible solution to the problem of increased number of students, when a set of smaller classrooms is interconnected and a lecture is given from one site to all connected sites

Use of videoconferencing technologies brings the virtual classroom concept a step further, giving access to teachers outside one university. Also, even individual students can directly participate, extending thus capacity of the virtual classrooms. However, the major drawback of using classical videoconferencing technologies lies in their limited video resolution. This shortcoming is removed by the High Definition (HD) videoconferencing technologies that are giving an opportunity to create almost natural virtual class environment, with a very realistic illusion of teacher’s presence in the remote lecture hall.

Virtual classroom approach describes how to we turn around our mass people toward creating a learning and skilled society. In this report we intend to show how we can leverage our existing infrastructure to deploy these technology. Our proposed deployment strategy is based on four basics fundamentals; standard openness, scalability, flexibility and productivity enhancements.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Introduction  .......................................................................................................................................  1  

1.1  Background  of  this  report  .....................................................................................................................  1  

1.2  Tittle  of  the  Report  ...................................................................................................................................  2  

1.3  Objectives  of  the  Report  .........................................................................................................................  2  

1.4.  Significance  of  this  Report  ....................................................................................................................  2  

1.5  Limitation  of  this  report  .........................................................................................................................  2  

Chapter  2  –Conceptual  Background  ...............................................................................................................  3  

2.1  Introduction  ...............................................................................................................................................  3  

2.2  Different  Concepts  ....................................................................................................................................  3  

2.2.1  Classroom  .............................................................................................................................................................  3  

2.2.2  Virtual  Education  ..............................................................................................................................................  3  

2.2.3  Virtual  Classroom  .............................................................................................................................................  4  

2.2.3.1 Explanation of Virtual Classroom  ........................................................................................................................  4  

2.2.3.2  Process  of  Virtual  Classroom  ...............................................................................................................................  5  

2.2.3.3  Characteristics  of  Virtual  Classroom  ..............................................................................................................  6  

2.2.3.4  Technology  for  Virtual  Classroom  ....................................................................................................................  8  

2.2.3.5  Importance  of  Virtual  Classroom  ......................................................................................................................  8  

2.2.3.6  Advantages  of  Virtual  Classroom  for  Distance  Learning  .....................................................................  9  

2.2.3.7  Limitations  of  Virtual  classroom  over  Traditional  classroom  .........................................................  9  

2.2.3.8  Different  Users  of  Virtual  Classroom  ............................................................................................................  10  

2.2.4  Distance  Education/  Learning  ................................................................................................................  10  

2.2.4.1  Concept  of  Distance  Education  .........................................................................................................................  10  

2.2.4.1  Roles  in  the  Instructional  Process  ..................................................................................................................  11  

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Chapter  3  –  Virtual  Classroom  in  Bangladesh  for  Distance  Learning  ..............................................  12  

3.1  Introduction  ............................................................................................................................................  12  

3.2  Description  of  Virtual  Classroom  in  Bangladesh  ........................................................................  12  

Chapter  4  –  Implementation  strategy  of  Virtual  Classroom  for  Distance  Learning  ....................  15  

4.1  Introduction  ............................................................................................................................................  15  

4.2  Concerning  Issues  for  implementing  Virtual  Classroom  in  Bangladesh  .............................  15  

4.3  Implementation  Strategies  for  Bangladesh  ..................................................................................  16  

Chapter  5  -­‐  Conclusion  .....................................................................................................................................  28  

Reference  .............................................................................................................................................................  29  

 

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CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION

1.1  BACKGROUND  OF  THIS  REPORT    

There is no suspicion that learning is a lifelong process. Every step in our life we need to learn. We live and work in a changing world. New laws are introduced that lead to the introduction of new policies. New ideas and approaches emerge. New problems arise and new solutions are sought. The world of work is therefore a constantly moving and evolving one. What this means, then, is that, if we are not constantly learning as we go about our day-to-day business, then each day we are getting further and further out of touch with the demands of the modern working world.

It can be dangerous to get into a rut whereby we continue to carry out our duties in much the same way as we have done in the past. Expectations change over time and, if we do not adapt to the new circumstances, then we will be steadily more out of tune with what is required of us.

With the ever-increasing popularity and accessibility of the Internet, it is only natural that the educational community should want to make use of this tremendous resource. Use of the Internet and Web are leading to significant changes in educational models. Effective exploitation of these changes requires adequate attention to understanding the technology, the educational processes and issues, student’s characteristics, etc.

Technology such as the virtual classroom is becoming increasing popular (Flatley, 2007; Gilmore & Warren, 2007; Arbaugh, 2000a; Arbaugh, 2000b). Virtual classrooms are online environments that enable students and instructors to communicate synchronously using audio, video, text chat, interactive whiteboard, application sharing, instant polling etc. These features enable faculty and students to interact as if they were face to face in a classroom. Participants can talk to each other, view each other through a webcam, use emoticons, and work together in break out rooms. Some of the virtual classrooms on the market today are Elluminate, Adobe Connect, Webex, Centra, and Horizon Wimba. Freeware versions of the virtual classroom include DimDim and Wiziq. The interactive nature of the virtual classroom addresses the main challenges found in distance education, namely student involvement and participation (Arbaugh 2000a; Webster & Hackley, 1997; Alavi, Wheeler, & Valacich, 1995). Advantageously, the virtual classroom can be used in online and blended instructional delivery.

Currently, most of the literature on virtual classrooms is descriptive and focuses on practice (Halper, Kelly, & Chuang, 2007; Gilmore & Warren, 2007; Grosjean & Sork, 2007; Flatley, 2007; McKinnie, 2008; Anyanwu, 2003). The paucity of research on the virtual classroom focuses on MBA students (Arbaugh 2000a, Arbaugh 2000b). The purpose of this study is to compare undergraduate’s perceptions of the virtual classroom in an instructional technology course, in education, which is taught online and in a blended format. More specifically, the researchers examine the student’s perceptions of the features (e.g., whiteboards, text chat) and characteristics (i.e., interactivity, synchrony, usefulness and ease of use, and sense of community) of the virtual classroom. Competitive pressures and stakeholder expectations will continue to drive the push for more technologically sophisticated online courses into the foreseeable future (Arbaugh, 2000a). Research on the virtual classroom is necessary to help identify which contexts are most suitable for this technology.

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1.2  TITTLE  OF  THE  REPORT    

Implementation of Virtual Classroom in Distance Learning Perspective of Bangladesh

1.3  OBJECTIVES  OF  THE  REPORT    

The major objectives of this report are:

i. Define the conceptual background of distance learning and virtual classroom. ii. Explore the present status of virtual classroom for providing distance learning in Bangladesh.

iii. Find out the necessity of the distance learning through virtual classroom. iv. Describe some strategies to implement virtual classroom for distance learning.

1.4.  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THIS  REPORT    

We have a small country with large number of population. To convert this large population into skilled manpower we need to provide them specialized knowledge, skills and training. Meanwhile we have limitation in skilled resource and infrastructure. Considering these limitations we need to boost up our skilled manpower. Virtual classroom is a method to overcome these constraints.

In this report, we intend to focus how virtual classroom can be used to cover maximum learners while pondering existing restraints. We also figure out previous and current position of virtual classroom in distance education in our country. Moreover, we discussed in short how virtual classroom technology is implemented to provide distance learning in the rest of the world. Furthermore, we reviewed some strategies to implement virtual classroom in Bangladesh.

In brief, we believed that implementing virtual classroom in distance learning is basic requirement. That’s why we emphasized the issue in this report.

1.5  LIMITATION  OF  THIS  REPORT    

This report has been prepared for partial fulfilment of the subject Computer Fundamental in Post Graduation Diploma of Information Technology program. Considering the time and other resources allocation to the report it becomes necessary to impose certain limitation as noted below:

a. This report based on secondary data. b. This report has written by reviewing related documents. c. Though this report based on the secondary data, to some extent the authenticity of the

information is not verified. d. The strategies explained in this report are not practically vetted. e. This report suggested some strategies only applicable for Bangladesh.

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CHAPTER  2  –CONCEPTUAL  BACKGROUND  

2.1  INTRODUCTION    

The report developed on the basis of different concepts. These concepts should be elaborate properly. So this chapter has provided the concepts according to different documents.

 

2.2  DIFFERENT  CONCEPTS    

2.2.1  CLASSROOM  

A classroom can be defined as a communication system that makes it possible for a group of people/users to come together to dialogue about something they want to learn, and to look at visuals (pictures, diagrams) and text that might aid them in understanding. The conventional classroom is surrounded by walls that provide protection from outside noise and interference, contributing to a more effective learning process (Tiffin and Rajasingham 1995).

2.2.2  VIRTUAL  EDUCATION    

Virtual education is a term describing online education using the Internet also can be called e-learning.

Virtual education refers to instruction in a learning environment where teacher and student are separated by time or space, or both, and the teacher provides course content through the use of methods such as course management applications, multimedia resources, the Internet, and videoconferencing. Students receive the content and communicate with the teacher via the same technologies.

FIGURE 2.1 VIRTUAL EDUCATION / E-LEARNING

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2.2.3  VIRTUAL  CLASSROOM    

2.2.3.1 EXPLANATION OF VIRTUAL CLASSROOM

A virtual classroom, on the other hand, is a system that provides the same opportunities for the teaching and learning process, beyond the physical limits of the traditional classroom's walls, thanks to the use of computer communication networks. Due to the ubiquity and popularity of the Internet -- particularly the World Wide Web -- most virtual classroom implementations are Web-based.

The Virtual Classroom is a teaching and learning environment located within a computer-mediated communication system. The objectives of a Virtual Classroom are to improve access to advanced educational experiences by allowing students and instructors to participate in remote learning communities using personal computers at home or at work; and to improve the quality and effectiveness of education by using the computer to support a collaborative learning process. By collaborative learning is meant a learning process that emphasizes group or cooperative efforts among faculty and students, active participation and interaction on the part of both students and instructors, and new knowledge that emerges from an active dialog among those who are sharing ideas and information (Bouton and Garth, 1983; Whipple, 1987).

Some of the benefits of a Web-based classroom are its geographic, temporal and platform independence, and its simple, familiar and consistent interface. Some of the drawbacks are: limited access to the Internet worldwide; resistance to shift to new and alternative teaching and learning paradigms or methodologies; privacy, security, copyright and related issues; and a lack of uniform quality (McCormack and Jones 1998).

As this use of Internet is increasing, a traditional classroom has shifted to E-Learning. While advancements in communication tools were easily adapted to learning methods, it was the introduction of

FIGURE 2.1 VIRTUAL CLASSROOM

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the personal computer and the development of the Internet that would create the most radical transformation in higher education. Learning by computer can be as easy as communicating with your professor and fellow classmates via email, student utilizing an interactive CD-ROM.

Just as the term virtual means a simulation of the real thing, Virtual Classroom is a simulated classroom via Internet, which provides a convenient communication environment for distance learners just like traditional face-to-face classroom. A virtual classroom allows learners to attend a class from anywhere in the world and aims to provides a learning experience that is similar to a real classroom.

When we go to college we have a schedule of lectures, which we must attend. Student must arrive on time, and when he enters the classroom, he finds a teacher, fellow learners, a blackboard or whiteboard, LCD projector, optionally a television screen with videos. Likewise, a Virtual Classroom is a scheduled, online, teacher-led training session where teachers and learners interact together using computers linked to a network such as the Internet.

A virtual classroom enables to bring learners from around the world together online in highly interactive virtual classes while greatly reducing the travel, time, and expense of on-site teaching/training programs. It can be used as a solution for live delivery and interaction that addresses the entire process of creating and managing our teaching-learning process. It facilitates instructor and student in teaching-learning events, such as a seminar, online discussion or a live training for employees in company.

As  in  traditional  classroom,  there  are  professor  and  fellow  learners  present  with  the  student;  we  have  many  participants  present  in  virtual  classroom.  They  can  talk  with  each  other  as  in  the  traditional  classroom  via  chat.  Similarly  presenter  uses  whiteboard,  gives  notes/resources,  gives  presentation  as  given  in  traditional  one.  

 

2.2.3.2  PROCESS  OF  VIRTUAL  CLASSROOM    

 

The process of virtual classroom can be easily described by a figure. With the below figure we try to show how we can start work on the virtual classroom.

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FIGURE 2.3 PROCESS OF VIRTUAL CLASSROOM

2.2.3.3  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  VIRTUAL  CLASSROOM  

The features of the virtual classroom promote interactivity, synchrony, usefulness and ease of use, and sense of community (Arbaugh, 2000a). These characteristics are explained within this learning context.

a. Interactivity - It is widely agreed upon that interaction must be designed into instructional programs and that it is a vital component of online learning (Northrup, 2002). Although different conceptions of interactivity exist, Northrup (2002) summarizes interaction as engagement in learning. In the virtual classroom, students can interact with each other, with instructors, and online resources. Both instructors and students can act as facilitators and provide support, feedback, and guidance during live interaction (Khan, 2000). Dirckinck- Holmfield et al. (2004) and Arbaugh (2000b) highlight the importance of designing virtual communities to enable

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different patterns and types of interaction, for example, active participation and quieter periods of reflection. These types of interaction are feasible among participants in the virtual classroom (Arbaugh, 2000b). However it is unknown whether students in an online or blended course perceive more (or less) interactivity using this instructional method.

b. Synchronous - Gillmore and Warren (2007) describe synchronous technologies, as ones that “connect users at the same time, with each participant needing to be ‘logged in’ to the software to exchange electronic messages with one another as if they were exchanging words in a face-to-face setting (p. 585).” Students in online courses are used to asynchronous technologies (e.g., e-mail, websites, and discussion boards), which require more independence (Dumont, 1996). However asynchronous technologies can be taxing if students feel obligated to be online all the time. Students have found balance in setting a routine schedule to participate in online activities (Allan, 2007), which may be extended and facilitated by the use of the virtual classroom even though it requires time synchronization. While existing literature does not focus on perceptions of synchrony within the virtual classroom, several researchers have examined how synchronicity and asynchronicity affect student achievement, attitudes, and retention. They concluded that asynchronous instruction is more favorable in terms of student outcomes than mediated synchronous or traditional instruction (Bernard, et al., 2004; 2009). Bernard et al. (2004) asserts that knowing the influence of patterns, such as synchronous and asynchronous communication, can guide instructional design when instructors have choice. Therefore we seek to understand student perceptions of synchrony in the virtual classroom in both online and blended courses.

c. Usefulness and Ease of use - Usefulness is the functionality of the technology, whereas ease of use is how simple it is to become skillful in using the technology. Arbaugh (2000a) suggests that perceived usefulness and the perceived ease of use of a technology influences one’s beliefs and attitudes toward that technology. In his article on meaningful web-based learning environments, Khan (2000) indicates that well-designed course “interfaces can anticipate learner’s needs and satisfy the learner’s natural curiosity to explore the unknown. This capability can greatly reduce students’ frustration levels and facilitate a user-friendly learning environment” (p. 30). Khan acknowledges that access may be hampered by typical problems related to servers such as connection refusal. Students in online or blended courses may view the utility and ease of use of the virtual classroom differently, which has implications for instructional design and method, as well as learning.

d. Sense of Community - The development of virtual learning environments is based on the belief that learning should happen within communities (Allan, 2007). Hence, sense of community focuses on the students’ experience and their relationship with each other in the virtual classroom. Four elements are essential for a sense of community - membership, influence, integration and fulfillment of needs and shared emotional connection (McMillan & Chavis, 1986 as described in Arbaugh, 2000a). In support of this, Ardichvili (2008) asserts “people tend to actively contribute to online communities when they perceive that this enhances their professional reputations, and when they feel strong commitment to the community ... (p. 544).” Identifying student’s sense of community in online and blended courses may lead to adjustments that increase the effective use of the virtual classroom and learning outcomes.

 

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2.2.3.4  TECHNOLOGY  FOR  VIRTUAL  CLASSROOM    

Now various technologies have been developed to provide support for virtual classroom. From these we can easily select one and use it to maintain our distance learning facilities. Before selecting we need to go through these technical services we must aware about their different service packages. Different services provide different facilities. The renowned technologies are sited below.

Cisco WebEx - http://www.webex.com

Wimba Collaboration Suite - https://wimba.com/products/wimba_collaboration_suite/

Adobe - http://www.adobe.com

Moodle VLE - https://vle.wit.ie

Wiziq - http://www.wiziq.com/Virtual_Classroom.aspx

Visionet - http://www.visionet.in/index.html

2.2.3.5  IMPORTANCE  OF  VIRTUAL  CLASSROOM    

Virtual means something whose existence is simulated with software. Virtual classrooms are complete programs of learning. They consist of a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous events.

A virtual classroom is an online learning environment. The environment can be web-based and accessed through a portal or software-based and may require a downloadable executable file.

Just like in a real-world classroom, a student in a virtual classroom participates in synchronous instruction, which means that the teacher and students are logged into the virtual learning environment at the same time.

Many schools and businesses have rolled out virtual classrooms to provide synchonrous distance education. Virtual classroom software applications often employ multiple synchronous technologies, such as web conferencing, video conferencing, live streaming, and web-based VoIP to provide remote students with the ability to collaborate in real time. To enhance the educational process, applications may also provide students with asynchronous communication tools, such as message boards and chat capabilities

The educational methodology utilized for the concept of the Virtual Classroom (a classroom in an electronic space) reflects asynchronous group communications and collaborative approaches to education and training. The student is an active part of a learning group but proceeds to learn and understand on an individual basis independent of the speed of other learners in the group.

Learning can be perceived as a particular type of cooperative work. Studies of the use of computer-mediated communication facilities that form components of a Virtual Classroom environment have tended to support the point of view that for mature, motivated learners, this mode of learning can be more interactive and more effective than the traditional (physical) classroom (Welsch, 1982; Quinn, et. al., 1983; Davie and Palmer, 1984; Harasim, 1990; Hiltz, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1995).

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2.2.3.6  ADVANTAGES  OF  VIRTUAL  CLASSROOM  FOR  DISTANCE  LEARNING  

Following are some of the advantages of Virtual classroom over traditional classroom model:

¢ Removal of geographical barriers (Anywhere learning) - A virtual classroom allows learners and teachers to attend a single live training session from any place in the world, provided they have a computer and Internet connection.

¢ Sessions can be recorded - If learners miss a traditional classroom-based training session, they have very little opportunity to engage in the learning experience that took place. A virtual classroom has a facility to record the session so learners or teachers can replay it afterwards. Teachers too get an opportunity to review their own or their colleagues’ performance.

¢ Quicker to organize - Training can be organized more quickly than traditional classroom-based training. Classrooms and projectors do not need to be reserved; materials do not need to be distributed. The sessions are easier to schedule or reschedule since attendees will not be traveling to the venue of the session.

¢ One to one communication - In a virtual classroom environment, learners can talk to the teacher and to each other, and although this communication is not as rich in a traditional classroom, it still can help learners, since it is one to one.

Due to these advantages, concept of virtual classroom is getting very popular. Since it allows learners to attend sessions from anywhere in world, it is very useful for distant learners and for peoples who cannot meet face to face because of lack of time. Though it gives lots of advantages, it has some pitfalls also. Following section describes some limitations of virtual classroom.

 

2.2.3.7  LIMITATIONS  OF  VIRTUAL  CLASSROOM  OVER  TRADITIONAL  CLASSROOM      

Everything has some limitations. Virtual classroom also has some restraints. Those are cited below:

¢ Familiarity - Teachers and students need to become familiar with the tools. Teachers and students are familiar with the workings of a traditional classroom, that is, they understand the concepts of hand raising, the whiteboard, assignments, and so forth. With a virtual classroom, all attendees must become familiar with the way the virtual classroom works before virtual classroom-based training starts.

¢ Time dependency - Time dependency for Live Sessions Attending virtual classroom training is restricted to a certain scheduled time.

¢ Infrastructure - Infrastructure for the participants PC needs to be prepared Virtual classroom sessions need to be scheduled, teachers need to be invited, and participants’ PCs need to be prepared.

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¢ Technical Limitations - Technical issues such as bandwidth, speed of the connection or power failure may create problem while presentation is going on.

2.2.3.8  DIFFERENT  USERS  OF  VIRTUAL  CLASSROOM  

There are different classes of users of virtual classroom based on the roles that they play. When presenter enters in virtual classroom, he has different work to do than participant. Depending on the user type, virtual classroom takes different form for each user. These forms can be categorized depending on the user's role. These roles are as follows:

Ø Presenter (or Administrator)

Ø Participant

2.2.4  DISTANCE  EDUCATION/  LEARNING    

The term distance education was given to the form of instruction that was available to the students by videoconferencing and interactive television in the mid-1980s. Currently, distance education is almost synonymous with the term online education. Though students prefer the asynchronous aspects of online education, which gives them the flexibility in time and place, very few studies have proved that asynchronous delivery is a better option than synchronous delivery (Bernard et al, 2004). With the new technologies being able to provide two ways interactivity, the online courses with a synchronous component might facilitate student learning (Machtmes & Asher, 2000). This study examines the synchronous aspects of online education, which gives the students flexibility in place, but not in time.

2.2.4.1  CONCEPT  OF  DISTANCE  EDUCATION  

Distance education or distance learning is a field of education that focuses on teaching methods and technology with the aim of delivering teaching, often on an individual basis, to students who are not physically present in a traditional educational setting such as a classroom. It has been described as "a process to create and provide access to learning when time and distance, or both separate the source of information and the learners." Distance education courses that require a physical on-site presence for any reason (including taking examinations) have been referred to as hybrid or blended courses of study.

The use of the Web for distance education has experienced explosive growth in the past two or three years. A plethora of Web-based courses in virtually any field of knowledge is now available worldwide. Despite the numerical growth on the number of online courses, it does not take too long them browse through some of them and realize that there are many poor implementations of the concept of virtual classroom and the lack of quality and authentic distance education (DE).

"Distance education is beset with a remarkable paradox - it has asserted its existence, but it cannot define itself." (Shale, 1988, p. 25). How distance education is best defined or differentiated from other educational approaches has been the subject of much debate. From the perspective of many educational technologists, distance education is "inexorably linked to the technology" (Garrison, 1987) and seems to be viewed as different from other

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forms of education, a factor which may contribute to course development and acceptance problems. Focusing on the distance factor and on technology takes the emphasis off the "dialectical relationship between teacher and student" which Shale feels is the foundational principle in the educational process (Shale, 1988, p. 25). To Shale, "distance" (and the technology which accompanies it) is an incidental consideration and not a "defining criterion" for education.

A broadening of the definition of distance education is urged by Barker, Frisbie and Patrick (1989) who acknowledge correspondence study as the historical foundation of distance education but suggest that there is really two forms of distance education. One is the traditional correspondence- based distance education which is independent study oriented and the second is telecommunications-based distance education which offers the teaching and learning experience simultaneously (1989, p. 23).

The Garrison and Shale definition of distance education (1987a, p. 10-11) offers a minimum set of criteria and allows more flexibility. They suggest that:

Distance education implies that the majority of educational communication between teacher and student occurs non-contiguously.

Distance education involves two-way communication between teacher and student for the purpose of facilitating and supporting the educational process.

Distance education uses technology to mediate the necessary two-way communication.

2.2.4.1  ROLES  IN  THE  INSTRUCTIONAL  PROCESS  

A team approach to the development of learning materials is often considered the most appropriate for distance education. The team would be responsible for assessing adult needs, designing learning packages, providing guidance, and assessing performance, and it would include academic content specialists, instructional designers, writers and editors, media specialists, and specialists in adult learner behavior and curriculum development (Verduin & Clark, 1991). These instructional development activities should support the institution's philosophy and goals, and the mission of the distance education program.

If anything is evident in this team approach, it has the potential to be complex and open to interpretation. The roles of academic content specialists, instructional designers, writers and editors, media specialists, and specialists in adult learner behavior and curriculum development can be seen to overlap and to not be very clearly defined. An educational technologist may have skills in instructional design, as a media specialist, in adult learning behavior and in curriculum development, and their job may begin with assessing program needs and end with product implementation. But their role may be perceived as someone working primarily to implement electronic technology into the learning system or simply be misunderstood. The counter problem is that "use of computers, television, teleconferencing, and other means of transmission does not make one an educational technologist" (Wagner, 1990, p. 62).

The relationship between distance education and educational technology is viewed as strong, but the problem of defining roles for instructional designers/ developers is difficult. And the role of the educational technologist may be defined, not by the field, but by the organization's philosophy of education and their broader educational goals. Wagner (1990) suggests that an issue to consider is whether "distance education can afford to emphasize technology" or whether "it must emphasize

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instruction" (p. 62). Wagner suggests that educational technology can serve as a holistic approach where process and product are both components of the system.

CHAPTER  3  –  VIRTUAL  CLASSROOM  IN  BANGLADESH  FOR  DISTANCE  LEARNING  

3.1  INTRODUCTION    

Bangladesh Open University (BOU) is the only national institution that is providing distance education in the country. Before starting Open University people cannot imagine this type of educational activities. It has extensive network throughout the country to provide readily accessible contact points for its learners. They still depend on traditional delivery method. Virtual classroom is not widely utilized by BOU.

In the recent past virtual classroom technology is successfully tested in two institutes with the collaboration with SIDA (Swedish International Development Agency). This is still in testing stage. We can set our further strategies to enhance virtual classroom for distance learning according to this project outcomes.

3.2  DESCRIPTION  OF  VIRTUAL  CLASSROOM  IN  BANGLADESH  

After passing of 15 years since its inception, BOU has lagged behind in using technologies. In the consideration of its limit to conventional method in teaching, a project was undertaken to test the effectiveness and viability of interactive television and mobile’s Short Message Service (sms) classroom and explore the use of available and appropriate technologies to provide ICT enable distance tuition. In this project, the mobile technology’s sms along with perceived live telecast was used to create ideal classroom situation for distance learning through the Question Based Participation (QBP) Technique.

FIGURE 2.1 VIRTUAL CLASSROOM IN BANGLADESH

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The existing videos of BOU TV programs were made interactive using this technologies and technique. The existing BOU TV program and interactive version of the same where showed to same learners of BOU to evaluate its effectiveness. It is found from the study that these interactive virtual classrooms significantly perform well in teaching than BOU video programs (non-interactive) which is used at present. This paper will describe the idea of virtual classroom setting and how this is effective for distance teaching Bangladesh. How far this idea is realistic, appropriate, cost effective and user friendly in rural Bangladesh. What will be the impact of this interactive classroom on the Distance teaching/learning mode of education in the country?

Bangladesh Virtual Classroom is a project run by Örebro University (Sweden), Soft-Ed Limited and Bangladesh Open University (BOU), the project is funded by SPIDER. Bangladesh Virtual Classroom project focuses on using electronic means to provide education to rural areas in Bangladesh. BOU is charged with the task of delivering education to rural areas, and has an extensive network of 1300 tutorial centers for its 19 programs throughout Bangladesh to provide readily accessible contact points. BOU currently delivers pre-recorded non-interactive TV programs for its lectures.. The efforts of the Bangladesh Virtual Classroom are to test a method that would make these pre-recorded lessons interactive. The objective of the project is to make the interactive pedagogy tested during the “Bangladesh Virtual Classroom” project sustainable at Bangladesh Open University. Project deliverables are:

§ The “Virtual classroom” as an established method of working at BOU, and as a universal transferable method. This includes interactive pedagogy as well as methods for production of interactive courses and for delivering these in an economically and technically viable fashion.

§ Validated test results from large-scale tests (estimated 30 000 students).

The project proposed will use mobile technology’s Short Messaging Service along with perceived live telecast to create an ‘almost’ ideal classroom situation for distance learning using the Question based Participation (QBP) technique. The method has been tested and found viable in our earlier project. The ideal face-to-face classroom situation is when each student follows the thread of the lecture and can answer the interactive questions posed by the lecturer/trainer/teacher. Implementing this ideal in a distance education context using existing contemporary methods such as the Internet is expensive and impractical for a developing country like Bangladesh. The technological requirements such as Internet access and computing resources required for both the student and the provider are difficult to meet, especially in the context of rural Bangladesh where the need for distance education is the most. In Bangladesh, the cost of Internet bandwidth is high and there is no internal infrastructure using which such solutions as countrywide video conferencing can be implemented. Another solution that does not depend on the Internet and has been tried in different contexts is distance learning, through national television. While this increases outreach, the telecast is only one way, and there is no participation or interaction between the students and the teacher. There is also no way of knowing whether anybody at all is watching a particular recorded presentation. It would be ideal if students could participate and interact with a perceived “live” lecture (as opposed to a pre-recorded telecast) just as in a face-to-face classroom.The project combines live telecast and SMS technology to deliver the content and get student responses. In Bangladesh, while using mobiles is still considered relatively costly, the coverage of the mobile telephones is now countrywide. Increased competition among the mobile phone service providers is also decreasing the costs and use is increasing rapidly. Our concept utilizes existing technological infrastructure in Bangladesh to promote learning via distance tuition. This means there is no immediate need for Internet and expensive bandwidth to establish interactive distance tuition. It should be noted, however, that the teaching methods and curricula developed are to the most part usable also as the ICT infrastructure improves. A prototype for the interactive distance education scenario has already been built

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and tested using BRAC university students in a simulated laboratory setting and as in lives classroom settings. It has also been field tested at Bangladesh Open University (BOU) as part of our previous SPIDER project. We now propose to proceed to large-scale implementation. To do this there is need for considerable method development at BOU; pedagogical method, methods (including feedback and evaluation) for smooth production of interactive courses, and methods for economic delivery throughout the country.

FIGURE 3.2 VIRTUAL CLASSROOM

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FIGURE 4.1 LEARNING LAYERS

CHAPTER  4  –  IMPLEMENTATION  STRATEGY  OF  VIRTUAL  CLASSROOM  FOR  DISTANCE  LEARNING  

4.1  INTRODUCTION    

At previous we came to know that a classroom can be defined as communication system that makes it possible for a group of people /users to come together to dialogue about something they want to learn, and to look at visuals (pictures, diagrams) and text that might aid them understand. The conventional classroom is surrounded by walls that provide protection from outside noise and interference, contributing to a more effective learning process.

A virtual classroom, on the other hand, is a system that provides the same opportunities for the teaching and learning process beyond the physical limits of the traditional classroom's walls, thanks to the use of computer communication networks. Due to the ubiquity and popularity of the Internet - particularly the World Wide Web - most virtual classroom implementations are Web-based. It is a perplexing devoir to assess the size of the Internet! However, according to Classroom Connect, more than 40,000 new Internet services and Internet information sites become available each month, providing services to approximately 20 million users in more than 50 countries - making the world a smaller place. In today's technology, the expression Web-based classroom and virtual classroom can be considered synonym.

4.2  CONCERNING  ISSUES  FOR  IMPLEMENTING  VIRTUAL  CLASSROOM  IN  BANGLADESH    

Before selecting any technique we need to point out the concerning issues. For implementing virtual classroom in Bangladesh we have to keenly observes the below issues:

¢ Select a qualified instructor.

¢ Provide complete instruction.

¢ Simplify tasks for learners.

¢ Manage teams and deal with problem learners.

¢ Enable interpersonal communication.

¢ Consider the speed of learners’ network connections.

¢ Layer learning activities:

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Above issues are generic issues; along with this there are also some few concerns especially for Bangladesh. We should consider these before implementing virtual classroom.

q When Creating a virtual classroom:

ü Who will use it and how they will use it?

ü Wholly online or a supplement?

ü Available for all the Internet users or only to those enrolled in the course?

q What is necessary in use of a virtual classroom?

ü Well-designed web pages.

ü Necessary equipment.

 

4.3  IMPLEMENTATION  STRATEGIES  FOR  BANGLADESH  

We tried to set different steps for implementing virtual classroom in Bangladesh. According to our view the steps are:

Ø Assess the needs and the necessary conditions to satisfy specific target group

Ø Estimate the development cost, effort, and implications

Ø Plan the virtual classroom

Ø Design the virtual classroom

Ø Prepare and distribute contents

Ø Enable communication

Ø Implement online student assessment methods Teaching

Ø Implement class management procedures

Ø Set up the system

Ø Maintain and update the virtual classroom

These steps described below:

Step One - Assess the needs and the necessary conditions to satisfy specific target group

We begin assuming that the reader have very basic knowledge of virtual classroom concepts, pros, and cons and wants to perform a feasibility analysis before proceeding into actual implementation. The main

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purpose of this step is to assure the existence of a need for the proposed virtual classroom and the basic infrastructure to develop it. Simply you assess 'what is', current state of conditions, available system, etc., and 'what ought to be,' desired output.

By assessing what is and what ought to be, you have assessed the need and figured out a gap to be bridged. Thus, some questions that should be answered at this stage are:

a. Are there remote students for that course?

This is simple, though essential, question of economics. Unless there is a minimum number of (remote) students who will benefit from the virtual classroom implementation, the initiative will be seen by the upper management as a waste of time, money, and resources.

b. Will they be able to access the course site and perform all the necessary interactions?

Web-based education assumes the remote student will have the necessary technical conditions to access the course contents from his/her personal computer. The minimal hardware, software, Internet connection requirements must be assessed in advance and their costs estimated.

c. Is there institutional support and interest?

A virtual classroom is normally too big of a task to be carried out alone without the explicit support from the institution. Support must be present in terms of funding, time allocation, technical resources, and investing in a well-trained staff - a valuable human capital investment.

d. Are there administrative policies and procedures for these cases?

Implementing an online version of an existing course or creating a new, Web-based only, course will probably require changes in some administrative policies and procedures. Some of these are: registration, admission, fees, prerequisites for taking the course, and withdrawal from the course, to name a few. There ought to be a clear agreement on those issues before the course is offered.

Step Two - Estimate the development cost, effort, and implications

At this point, it is assumed that the basic needs and the necessary conditions to satisfy those needs have been assessed. In other words, the approach looks feasible enough to move one step further and start talking about numbers. The main purpose of this step is to reach a clear, accurate, quantitative estimate of the overall cost of developing the virtual classroom. Some important questions at this stage are:

¢ How long is it going to take develops the virtual classroom?

It is always hard to estimate the duration of a project and the development of a virtual classroom is no exception. A good way to break down this question and achieve a reasonably accurate estimate would be to quantify (in persons-month, PM) each and every stage of the detailed implementation plan.

A warning is in place here: content creation, conversion to digital format, and manipulation takes much longer than one might originally expect.

¢ Which tools will be needed? How much will they cost? Which equipment will they require?

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A complete list of hardware and software tools, their cost, and corresponding hardware/software requirements should be produced. It is always important to keep in mind that there is minimum sets of requirements (hardware and software to produce and distribute a pure HTML-based course) that can incrementally (and sometimes, exponentially) grow as more sophisticated features are added. Be sure to draw the line at a reasonable compromise of technical features versus cost.

¢ How many people with which specific will be needed?

Creating and maintaining a Web-based course is certainly not a one-man effort. There are many tasks complex enough to be assigned to specific people with the required technical skills. Examples of those are: graphical creation and manipulation, CGI-based programming, software assessment and evaluation, Java programming, network setup and maintenance, to name a few. Assigning these independent tasks to different people with the proper background will reduce significantly the overhead on the instructor's routine, at the expense of hiring and maintaining the technical staff. At the bare minimum we dare to suggest an instructional technology staff of two versatile, motivated, and creative individuals: one for graphics/media creation, digitization, and manipulation; another one for Web-based programming and instructional design.

¢ How much will the development impact the instructor’s workloads?

Developing a virtual classroom will add a significant amount of work to the instructor's (already busy) daily routine. This extra effort should be quantified (and limited to a certain maximum, if possible) beforehand and measures should be take to work around the impact of the new tasks on the instructor's overall schedule. One of these measures includes hiring technical support staff (see previous question).

¢ How much will it impact the teaching methods used so far?

Teaching a course using the Web is, or at least should be, much more than merely converting the course notes into HTML format and adding appropriate links. There is a whole adaptation process (in which it will result in many changes to policies, strategies, administration, curriculum offerings, and the way by which the course is delivered and learning is assessed) that will take place. In academia, the Internet is not a mere entertaining media or an electronic recreational medium. Its existence in education should be utilized to meet educational purpose and achieving learning and teaching goals. If utilized with such a purpose and goals in mind, learning by exploring and discovery, in such a context rich environment, will result in a meaningful learning, the development of students' metacognitive skills, and the development of higher order thinking skills that will strongly impact the learning and the teaching process. Thus, if an institution sensed the need for such changes, a committee composed of computing and technology professionals should be appointed to approve or disapprove the need for changes - in order to ensure the quality and consistency of the institution's offerings. Even when this is not the case, it is nevertheless important to predict the changes and smooth out the transition and adaptation process.

¢ What are the institution's Web publishing and Internet access policies?

It is essential to check whether the institution has a Web publishing policy, what does it say, who is responsible for enforcing the rules and whether or not there are tools to help developers meet the policy's specifications.

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¢ How much of the total contents are already available in electronic format? Considerable time and work can be saved if part of the course contents already exists in electronic form. Text can be easily converted into HTML format. Digitized images, audio, and video can be edited and incorporated into the virtual classroom much more easily than when text typing, image scanning, audio recording, and video shooting have yet to be performed.

¢ What will be the software/hardware requirements for the client (student) machine?

The student's machine must follow a minimum set of specifications including hardware (CPU, RAM, and disk size), operating system, and application software (Web browser and plugins, e-mail software, word processor) requirements. Of course these requirements will always be changing and must be updated accordingly.

¢ What will be the software/hardware requirements for the server machine?

The Web server specifications include hardware (CPU, RAM, disk size, etc.) operating system, and application software (Web server, mail server, newsgroup server, CGI server, etc.) requirements. Once again, these requirements must be updated as technology evolves.

Step Three - Plan the virtual classroom

After having estimated the overall cost of developing the virtual classroom, assessed its impact on existing structures, and established some of its minimum requirements, it is time to look more closely at the project from an educational perspective. Some questions to help assessing the pedagogical feasibility of the proposed project are:

¢ What are the educational goals?

The primary purpose of building a virtual classroom should be to improve the experience of the students and instructors, rather than to play with new technology. Developing a list of educational goals is an essential part of the planning process. It is strongly advisable not to go ahead without figuring out which goals must be reached. Difficulties in coming up with such a list might be a warning about the overall validity of the approach. Examples of such goals are:

Ø Ensuring that all students and teachers have equal access to instructions and receive all instructional material on time.

Ø Providing students with on time, continuous and frequent feedback opportunities to assess their understanding and skills of subject matter.

Ø Supplementing theory with a variety of practical tutorials and activities. Theory and application should be intertwined and inseparable entities.

Ø Increasing student-to-student and student-to-instructor - in and outside lectures.

Ø Systematic planning based on the realization that the purpose behind any technology in education, is for it to be utilized as a tool to aid the learner's knowledge construction, a tool for exploration and discovery, an interactive and creative context to support learning-by-doing, a social medium to support learning by conversing, sharing, and debating information and constructing knowledge.

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¢ How will these goals be accomplished?

After having set educational goals to be accomplished, it is time to specify how to achieve them. It is brainstorming activity whose effectiveness can be increased by following some guidelines such as:

q Try to innovate approaches (be creative) and do not restrict yourself to existing methods or traditional strategies.

q Keep in mind the class's characteristics, needs, and know your audience.

q The Web is only one of the tools. Do not use the Web for everything.

q Use diverse approaches of reaching your educational goals and reaching out for your students.

q Share your experiences with other educators and attempt to learn from their own experience.

q Try our new maxim: "Keep it simple and creative!" (KISAC).

¢ Which goals will possibly not be accomplished and how can we compensate for them?

It is known from the beginning that a virtual classroom will present several limitations. It is important to anticipate those shortcomings and derive ways to overcome them. In a purely distance-based course, there will probably be little left to do. In a hybrid (live + Web-based) approach, live interactions should prioritize these goals and engage students in activities that will contribute to their achievement.

¢ Which approaches could be used to achieve a given goal? Which of them is more viable?

It is very easy to understand, or at least accept, that even within the realm of Web-based distance education, there are several different ways of achieving the same educational goal. Student-to-instructor communication, for instance, can be achieved through e-mail, live chat, audio or video conferencing. A Web-based education project in [8] used a What-Why-& How table in its initial development stage to track down the desired educational goals, the reasons why each goal was listed and the several ways by which that goal was listed and the several ways by which that goal could be accomplished. In a later, stage, the various alternatives to implement the same goal were evaluated and the best overall option (taking into account issues such as: cost of implementation, hardware/software requirements, user friendliness, etc.) was implemented.

Step Four - Design the virtual classroom

Now that the pedagogical aspects of the proposed project have been assessed, it is time to start the actual design process. Here are some questions to help at this stage:

¢ How will the (maybe thousands of) HTML pages be structured?

The HTML pages containing the course material should be organized in a way that makes navigation easy, simple, and consistent (from the user's point of view) and reduces the amount of work necessary for site maintenance (from the instructor's/administrator's point of view). Part of

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these objectives can be achieved by providing a suitable overall structure for the pages. There are several good ways of organizing the pages and their interdependencies, such as hierarchical tree, or linked list. Regardless of the organization strategy, the final outcome should always provide for a user-friendly, easily maintainable, navigation scheme.

¢ Can we provide a (preferably consistent) "look-and-feel" for the Web pages? The course's HTML pages must necessarily have something in common, both for aesthetic as well as functional reasons. Much work is saved if a small set of pages with little or no content is developed before the actual course contents are converted into HTML format. These pages can be useful to test the "look-and-feel" of the whole site, and can eventually be used as templates for everything else. Spending some time at this stage can save substantial amount of maintenance work down the road.

¢ What should be the layout for a typical course page?

After having decided on the basic template for the course pages, it is time to refine it, making sure all the necessary and desirable elements will be there. Navigation buttons are of utmost importance, regardless of their appearance. At the very least the user should be able to know, just by looking at any HTML page, where she is, how to move forward, backward, up, or down, and how to go back to the course main page.

¢ How fancy should the pages be? What is the related hardware/software/ technology impact?

Developing Web pages with today's tools make it very tempting to include images, animations, applets, sounds, links, and even excessive plain text that might clutter the pages, slow down the transfer of information to the remote clients, and contribute little, or not at all, to increase the effectiveness of the project. Before adding any item to a page one should ask how much that piece of data will add to the overall educational goals of the course and what is the price to pay (slower transfer, more strict hardware requirements, need for special plugins, etc.). It is essential to strike a balance and use discretion when adding objects to the course's site.

Step Five - Prepare and distribute contents

¢ Which authoring tools should be used?

Writing pure HTML code in a text-based editor may still be the preferred way to go for several people with computer programming background, but there are more, friendlier, and better alternatives to it. It is strongly advisable to research, compare, and evaluate Web-design tools and supplementary software before adopting a certain set of tools. Changing lanes at the middle of the road might be costly and troublesome. For HTML editing, one can choose from simple, free tools, such as Netscape Composer (companion to the Navigator browser), to fully featured packages such as Macromedia Dreamweaver or GoLiveCyberStudio. Platform capability is an important issue. While products such as Adobe Page Mill have both Mac and PC versions, other are bounded to a specific machine/operating system, such as GoLiveCyberStudio (available only for the Macintosh). Using more than one tool to edit the same page can lead to problems, ranging from the harmless though annoying "war" between their extra HTML meta tags to serious compatibility issues. A final suggestion is in place: we need to try before buy. Many of those tools

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have downloadable demo versions available on the Web. Essential to try them out and choose the one that best suits for our needs.

¢ How to import, create, and edit images?

Images can be acquired in several ways, such as: scanning printed pictures, taking your own pictures using digital still cameras, capturing digitized video frames, or buying CDs containing collections of high-quality images related to a certain subject. Images can also be easily created, edited, processed, and manipulated using numerous software titles, such as: Graphic Workshop, ACDSee, PaintShop, etc. The final result should always be stored in either GIF or JPEG format to be easily and directly included in an HTML page.

¢ How to import, create, and edit sounds?

There are several possible sources of sounds and many tools (some of them available in the software bundle that comes with a new PC) to import, create, and edit digitized audio files. Low quality sound recording is easily accomplished using an inexpensive desktop microphone. High quality sound recording and processing requires more expensive devices and software tools and is a much more difficult and time-consuming task. Moreover, the higher the quality of the audio file (stereo, high number of bits per sample, high sampling rate, etc.), the longer it will take to transfer it through the network. There are many audio file formats currently in use, such as .WAV, .AU, .AIFF, and the new .MP3 (MPEG-3) format.

¢ How to import, create, and edit graphics and animations?

Before reading further a question is in order. If you don't have anyone in the supporting staff (including yourself) specialized in graphics and related areas, forget extensive use of animations, graphics, virtual reality and so forth and move to the next question. If you do, make sure you address the impact of the hardware, software and time required for these tasks and be prepared to justify the pedagogical reasons for using a given amount of graphics in your courseware. Depending on the course contents, there may be many or none at all. The most popular way of animating pictures is client-side animation using the GIF89a graphic file format. There are numerous tools available on the Web for animated GIFs creation and editing as well as for converting digitized video into animated GIF format.

¢ How to import, create, and edit videos?

Video creation, processing and distribution normally require extensive and expensive hardware and software support. Digital video cameras are just starting to appear in the market, and meanwhile the best solution is to use an analog camera and a VCR and convert the resulting video into digital format using specialized digitizing boards. Very large hard disks should be set aside to store digitized, compressed video clips.

There are several popular video formats such as: MPEG (.MPEG or .MPG), QuickTime (.QT or .MOV), and Microsoft's .AVI. The final quality of previously downloaded video exhibition will strongly depend on the client's hardware and will very likely be poor in terms of resolution, size and/or frame rate. If synchronous video transmission is desired, several network parameters (bandwidth, delay, congestion, and jitter) will also play a role and contribute to degrade the playback at the client machine even further.

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Despite the power of video as an educational tool, the relatively high cost and low quality of today's digital video transmission across the Internet puts a limit on its usefulness and cost effectiveness.

¢ Where will the Web pages be posted?

The virtual classroom should be hosted in a fast, reliable, machine, with a high bandwidth connection to the outside world.

Step Six - Enable communication

Effective communication between instructor and students and among students themselves should be a high priority issue during the design of the virtual classroom. Some pertinent questions are:

¢ Which form of communication?

There are basically two possible ways of implementing communication between instructor and students in a virtual classroom: synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous communication tools, such as ClassPoint or NetMeeting, allow the instructor to teach live lectures through the Web using resources such as audio and video conferencing, white board and text-based chat. Students can interact by asking questions, normally using a text window. Some type of floor control is normally desired, to prevent chaos and ensure that students will have their questions answered in a First Come First Served (FCFS) basis. Asynchronous tools allow information to be placed for future processing. Some common examples are: e-mail, bulletin board systems, mailing lists, and the course pages themselves. A successful virtual classroom implementation should use both synchronous and asynchronous techniques to enable one-to-one (normally instructor-to-student), one-to-many (typically instructor-to-class) or many-to-many (e.g. threaded discussions) interactions.

¢ Which tools should be used?

At this point we are back to the What-Why-How model described before. It must be clear which educational goals are to be achieved using communication tools, why are these goals important, and which ways are available to implement them.

Let us take the popular concept of virtual office hours as an example. Why do we want virtual office hours? Basically to make the instructor available to answer students' questions in predetermined days and times. How can we implement that concept? Anything from conversational e-mail to fancy, sophisticated video conferencing will do it, each of which has different costs, requirements, and effectiveness. Today's virtual classrooms can use e-mail, chat rooms, mailing lists, Usenet newsgroups, audio and video conferencing, MUD (Multi-User Dimensions)/MOO (MUD, Object Oriented), and many other tools to enable various forms of interaction between instructor and students and among students themselves.

Step Seven - Implement online student assessment methods Teaching

Implement online student assessment methods Teaching without assessing the amount of content that has been learned is hardly acceptable. It is well known that even the most conscious, mature students do not

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reach their highest potential limits if some sort of systematic evaluation does not challenge them. The following questions address the problem of assessing the student performance in the virtual classroom environment.

¢ Should the virtual classroom contain quizzes?

An online quiz is typically a form, displayed in a browser window, with questions and spaces where students place their answers. When the student is done answering the questions, she presses a button to submit it for grading.

The main motivation for quizzes lies in the need for fast, frequent feedback, both for the instructor and the student, about the amount of information learned so far. Some of the problems found with online quizzes are:

§ encouraging rote learning,

§ encouraging cue seeking,

§ and fostering a false sense of confidence.

There are several tools for creating online quizzes, such as Jquiz, Test 2000, and Test Creator. Moreover, fully featured packages, such as WebCT, have their own quiz creation module.

¢ What about online assignments?

Assignments, as opposed to quizzes, aim at evaluating whether the student have acquired a more thorough competence in a topic or just understood the basics of it. For a more complete comparison between assignments and quizzes,

¢ Should we provide some kind of student evaluation?

An evaluation is another method of assessing the student's activities or abilities and can appear in several forms, such as:

§ peer review, § self-review, § access records, § level of participation in discussions, § and so on.

The communication tools discussed in step six and the course management tools normally available in packages such as WebCT could be combined to provide multiple ways of students' evaluation.

¢ How tests are implemented online?

Online tests can be considered a special case of quizzes, in which extra restrictions (e.g. number of attempts, time to finish) are added and a more strict way of student's identity verification and cheating prevention is used.

¢ What about cheating?

The main issues behind cheating prevention are: impersonation and security. Some possible solutions involve: requiring the presence of a proctor close to the student while she is taking the

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test; establishing a time window during which all the students should attempt the test (avoiding impersonation of a colleague at a later time), using randomly selected and sorted questions out of a (much) larger repository of possible questions.

No matter the strategy, there will always be the possibility of cheating, as there has always been in conventional classroom environment.

¢ How will assignments, tests, etc. be submitted, graded, and returned to students? Online quizzes and tests will normally be made available through a Web-based form and submission of results should be as simple as pressing a button when done. For other assignments, the most common way of submission is e-mail with attachments. There are, however, better automatic ways for assignment submission, such as the HWSAM system. Grading will strongly depend on the nature of the assignment, quiz or test. An online quiz composed only of multiple-choice questions can easily be graded (and the grade immediately sent back to the student, if desired) automatically. An extensive assignment or project might require manual intervention of the instructor, sometimes working on a printed version of it.

Step Eight - Implement class management procedures

Class management tasks are the clerical and administrative tasks necessary to ensure that a classroom operates efficiently. These are tasks that many educators wish they did not have to perform, even knowing their importance for the operation of a class. It is natural to expect a computer-based virtual classroom to have some automatic tools to make these tasks easier and in fact many tools, such as WebCT, include class management modules. Some questions that may arise are:

¢ Which type of class management information is relevant?

The exact list of items that should be kept track of by the instructor may vary from course to course or even for different instructors of the same course, but they will very likely be a subset of the following:

q Student tracking, to check students' progress along the course.

q Timetabling and scheduling, to ensure that all students know when, where, and what they are expected to do in order to complete the class.

q Class promotion, to ensure a minimum enrolment and to clarify the purpose and requirements of the class to enrolled students.

q Student counselling to provide the help students might need to complete their studies.

q Information management, meaning the retrieval, update, and management of students' personal and academic data.

q Assignment management, including submitting, distributing, grading, and moderating assignments.

q Grades collection, moderation, and distribution.

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q Archiving of class-related information and records.

¢ Which tools can be used to perform those tasks?

It is very unlikely that a single tool will provide the necessary help for all the different management tasks. Instructors can use built-in tools, such as WebCT's "Student Tracking" module, create and maintain their own databases, or rely on separate tools for specific tasks, such as HWSAM, for assignment submission.

Step Nine - Set up the system

It is now time to get a little more technical and discuss some issues involved in setting up the system and making the virtual classroom available. Some of the relevant questions are:

¢ Which hardware and software components are necessary?

The first step is to select the computer that will act as a Web server and its operating system. The choice of operating system is a critical one, since many other software components (Web server, mail server, etc.) will depend on the underlying operating system. The combination of UNIX-based machines running the free Apache Web server is a very common one.

¢ What is needed to install, configure, and protect the virtual classroom contents?

Installation, configuration, and security protection of a virtual classroom are too detailed and lengthy steps to be mentioned in this paper . At this point it is strongly advisable that the instructor and her technical support team rely on specialized books, tutorials, and the experience system administrators.

Step Ten - Maintain and update the virtual classroom

Creating a virtual classroom demands a lot of work, but that is just the beginning. As with any other computer-based information system, the virtual classroom requires maintenance and frequent updates to retain its usefulness. Some of the questions involved are:

¢ What are the media, software, and policies for backup?

Backups are essential maintenance measures in any computer-based system and virtual classrooms should be no exception. The most common contemporary backup devices are zip disks, tape drives, and magneto-optical disks. Many backup utilities (several of them operating system-specific) are available to make the task easier and reduce the risk of human errors.

There are some issues of backup policy that have to be established and strictly followed, such as:

q Scheduling policy (when are backups performed)

q Frequency policy (how often)

q What to backup

q Who is responsible

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q Which media to use

q Where to store the backup

q What about software and hardware upgrades and maintenance?

An inevitable side effect of the rampant progress in computer technology is the frequent need for software and hardware upgrade. Provisions should be made for these tasks, both in terms of cost as well as in the possible technical consequences of such upgrades.

¢ Should the site contents and links also be maintained on a regular basis?

The answer to this question is a big "yes". Once you have actually put the course site online, the real challenge lies in updating and maintaining it. Keeping your site fresh encourages people to return. Poor maintenance is a sure way of getting rid of visitors, perhaps permanently. Outdated (also known as "dead") links are among the most annoying problems found in many Web pages. There are several site maintenance tools in the market to help keeping the links accurate and up-to-date, such as Adobe SiteMill.

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CHAPTER  5  -­‐  CONCLUSION  

In this report we summarized the process of conceiving, planning, designing, implementing, and maintaining a virtual classroom in ten easy-to-follow steps. The report is aimed to define the conceptual background of distance learning and virtual classroom, to explore the present status of virtual classroom for providing distance learning in Bangladesh, find out the necessity of the distance learning through virtual classroom, and describe some strategies to implement virtual classroom for distance learning. Those have a previous understanding of the basics of Web-based education and want a structured simplified view of the steps that ought to be taken in order to successfully implement a virtual classroom.

Now all most every district has the Internet facilities. PC’s, Laptop are become familiar to mass people. More people have the access to telecommunication facility. By taking advantages of modern technology it is now easier to integrate virtual education in distance education. If we bring more people under virtual education program, we will get more skilled people who will contribute to overall development of our country.

In June 2010, a survey was carried out to explore access to digital technology, attitudes to digital technology and approaches to studying across the adult life span in students taking courses with the UK Open University. In total, 7000 people were surveyed, of whom more than 4000 responded. Nearly all these students had access to a computer and the Internet, but younger students were more likely than older students to have access to other technologies, to spend longer time using those technologies and to have more positive attitudes to digital technology. However, there was no evidence for any discontinuity around the age of 30, as would be predicted by the “Net Generation” and “Digital Natives” hypotheses. Older students were more likely than younger students to adopt deep and strategic approaches to studying and less likely to adopt a surface approach to studying. In addition, regardless of their ages, students who had more positive attitudes to technology were more likely to adopt deep and strategic approaches to studying and were less likely to adopt a surface approach to studying.

It is the right time to take such initiatives for our people. Both government and private agency should take right strategy to implement virtual classroom in distance learning. To cope with next century’s requirements we could utilize this technology.

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Manuscript received 14 Nov 2009; revision received 3 Mar 2010.

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