Written by Dick Carlson
The University of Aveiro is one of Portugal’s youngest universities — and very involved with Computer Science and Telecommunications. They’ve been doing lots of “virtual” teaching, and have published some of their research on how to be successful. (It’s nice to hear so much anecdotal knowledge actually verified by investigation.)
I’ve paraphrased their results for you:
- Don’t replicate real life These tools allow immersion in actual learning, rather than just lectures and reading. “Instead of recreating a clinic for giving classes on cardiology, build a model of the human heart!”
- Informality leads to better communication This breaks down barriers between the “expert” and the “dummies” so instead of one-to-many you get more of a mentoring relationship.
- Virtual classes are much better than real life ones Research seems to show that classes are well prepared, students arrive before time, materials are plentiful, the teacher keeps in touch with students after the class — students are even motivated to help each other when the teacher’s machine crashes.
- Virtual environments level the ground Text-based commenting allows shy students to speak up, the instructor can quickly review comments from participants, and a protocol is quickly established so that everyone gets their turn.
- Conferences mix real and virtual A physical conference can allow participants with laptops to chat with each other, send questions to presenters, and still watch and participate in the virtual stream
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