• Introduction
• Some Organizational Background
• Ongoing Conversation about Learning
• Shared Learning
• New Opportunities for Learning
• A Word about the Writing
• A Non-Conclusion
• References
• Printable Text of Article

© Copyright 1998-99 by Anne Agee (aagee@gmu.edu), Susan Kehoe (skeho1@gmu.edu), Cindy Lont (clont@gmu.edu) and Ann Palkovich (apalkovi@gmu.edu).  The right to make additional exact copies, including this notice, for personal and classroom use, is hereby granted. All other forms of distribution and copying require permission of the author.

Section Three: Shared Learning

Ann: This ongoing conversation about learning leads to shared learning experiences where all the participants can gain new insights.  Here again, we see this aspect of the scholarship of teaching as an important part of our role in the University.

Susan:  If being a learning community involves shared learning, then GMU-TV is definitely leading the way.  Shared learning is a cornerstone of our mission.  When we broadcast instructional material for Mason's faculty, it reaches half a million homes.  People are watching, and not just the folks who have to watch as a course assignment.  We're finding that students are sharing their learning experience with others in their homes.  Families are gathering around their television sets to see what Ken Kovatch, Jane Flinn, and Richard Rubenstein have to say about management, psychology, and conflict resolution.  Organizations throughout Northern Virginia encourage their employees to watch GMU-TV to earn continuing education credit.  High school students catch a glimpse into the nature of college courses. If we want to be successful--and we think we are successful--we have to pay a lot of attention to how people learn and how to use the visual media for effective learning. Our work opens up the learning community well beyond the number of students that might be part of it in a traditional classroom.

In fact, ask any of the folks at GMU-TV about psychology, labor-management relations, or communications research, and you might be surprised by the depth of their knowledge. Osmosis is a wonderful thing!   We like to think of ourselves as "poster children" for lifelong learning.  In the video business, as in the teaching business, a successful producer/director never reaches the pinnacle.  Each new production builds off the creative successes of the last.

Anne:  So the learning community is really much bigger than just the students.  There has to be shared learning involved in creating and developing these instructional modules.  When I watch something like Star Muir's new series on communications research, I'm impressed by the collaborative efforts involved.  It's clear that the production team is part of the learning community along with the faculty and the students. 

Susan:  Actually, GMU-TV's incorporation into DoIIIT allowed us to think about creating a new form of telecourse, which Star Muir's course in Communication Research illustrates.   Because we could work collaboratively with the IRC and STAR, we had access to more staff and additional equipment so that we can incorporate a variety of technologies into a telecourse.  Working with Star Muir, we created a learning community whose goal was to investigate, design, and complete a new approach to teaching research skills to upper-level undergraduates.  It took us almost a year to work out the details of the course.  All of the key work is done before a single frame of video is shot, before a single graphic is created, and before one word of narration is recorded. Fortunately for us, Star's a great performer.  He's not above donning costumes and acting like a genie if it will help to clarify a point for his students.  But kudos also have to go to Sandy Taylor, Rich Eggleton, and Richard Wood who put in literally hundreds of hours on the production, even making cameo appearances in some modules.

Cindy:  That was certainly the case in my experience also. When the final outcome works (like the video modules), the staff has to become part of the learning community.  If it is just the professor out there trying to make it happen, it won't.  And if the professor believes that s/he knows all there is to know about putting together something like a video module, it will ultimately fail in the same way as if the production team does not listen to the professor.  When one uses something like a video format, it is no longer the lone teacher in the classroom with the students, but an entire team working together.  Some faculty can handle that situation and some can't.  It's important for all concerned to realize the collaborative nature of the process.

Anne:  Well, I haven't had this experience with television, but I have had this kind of shared learning recently in another instructional arena. 

Through my work with the University Web Team, I became aware of a need in the University for help in creating web pages for various campus offices. I thought this would be a good way to help students develop technology skills, teamwork skills, and communication skills and provide a much-needed service. DoIIIT would help provide the expertise to mentor the students and the participating faculty members would build this project into their courses. This spring, we were able to pilot this concept with Mary Lou Crouch's Cyberculture course in New Century College. Mary Lou provided her basic syllabus and then sat with an instructional designer from DoIIIT, an electronic publications specialist, Cara Determan, and a Web design expert, Allyn Summa, to figure out how we could help students learn about Web pages and provide tools to help them work on the planning, design, and implementation of their projects. Each of us had expertise to contribute and it was a wonderful shared experience. The two professional staff members taught sessions with the students, and all of us helped review and critique the students' proposals. The planning of this course seems to me to model exactly what we're talking about here. 

Cindy:  The student mentors at web.STAR also work collaboratively with fellow students to help them with the design and creation of Web sites.  The mentors help students not only in what and how to use certain kinds of Web programs, but also with how to design effectively. 

Ann:  We see the same kind of thing in the Instructional Resource Center as we work with faculty who want to create course Web sites using Web CT.  It's very much a collaborative enterprise as we bring not only technical support for the software and instructional design expertise but also experience from the library in using electronic reserves as part of the course and help in  exploring policy questions about copyright and posting of grades.   We've also found that instructors' use of email and online discussions creates another whole dimension of shared learning as students and professors participate in a different way through these visible dialogues.

Next Section: New Opportunities for Learning

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