Content area
Full Text
The rapid acceleration of online course offerings presents a design challenge for instructors who want to take materials developed for face-to-face settings and adapt them for asynchronous online usage. Broadcast lectures are relatively easy to transfer, but adapting content is harder when classes use small-group discussions, as in role-playing or negotiation games. To be successful, such environments should address three interrelated design challenges: (a) sustaining engagement, (b) promoting content-focused discussion, and (c) promoting reflection-on-action. This article is a case study of how one interactive role-playing game, Island Telecom, was adapted for online play. We describe eight design features, including automated player roles and a structured team decision-making process, and show how they match with design challenges. Feedback from a recent run of this game shows that, although students still prefer to play face-to-face, they now also give favorable ratings to the online version. Feedback on specific adaptations is also presented.
Keywords: Online learning; online play; interactive role playing; e-learning
(ProQuest Information and Learning: ... denotes formulae omitted.)
THE CHALLENGES OF SUPPORTING COLLABORATIVE LEARNING ONLINE
The rapid rise of e-learning presents a huge design challenge. A recent report estimates that 1.9 million college and graduate students in the United States took courses online in the fall of 2003 (Allen & Seaman, 2003). Many more people will take noncredit online courses as part of company-sponsored training or informal self-study opportunities. During a period when many other sectors of the online marketplace have experienced slow growth or stagnation, online learning opportunities continue to grow at a rate near 20% per year (Allen & Seaman) as colleges, universities, and private training companies convert more and more face-to-face courses to online. But, as educators and designers, we should ask the question: What kind of learning is taking place online?
The first generation e-learning platforms supported broadcast (one-to-many) lectures and individual assignments much more easily than they supported projects, complex simulations, or small-group discussions (Bonk & Cunningham, 1998). Most e-learning software platforms were designed to support communication between an instructor and students, not student to student communication, and often did not incorporate features such as student-managed folders or e-mail lists, or awareness tools such as Instant Messaging that aid group work (Gutwin & Greenberg, 1999). This is changing rapidly, and...