In Search of a Virtual Schoolby MORTEN FLATE PAULSEN, Assistant ProfessorNKI College of Computer Science, Norway

I believe that the virtual school will dominate future distance educa-tion, and F d like to describe a few of the more interesting paths F vepursued in search of a virtual school. This work has been conductedwithin the framework of the EJtKO Project of our college, a project toinvestigate the possibilities of establishing such a school in Norway.

In order to explain what I rrtean by a virtual school, I should start witha definition of a school ifi general. In my opinion, the variousresponsibilities that a school must assume fall into f our main categories:professional, didactic, administrative and social. For all of these, a largemeasure of interpersonal communication is required.

The professional tasks are those of establishing and maintainingcurricula for the subjects to be offered at the school. This entailsformulating a description of the academic goals for each subject andchoosing the educational instruments that will be used to attain thesegoals. In addition, student performance must be evaluated. It is importantfor a school to establish a professional environment that allows itsmembers to upgrade their own professional standards and competence.

The didactic tasks are those of establishing conditions for teaching andlearning so the academic goals may be achieved. The actual pedagogicmethods used will, of course, depend upon the subject to be taught, thelevel at which it is aimed, the number of students, etc.

The administrative tasks are those of maintaining a good practicalenvironment for running the school, i.e., efficiently supporting andfacilitating its teaching duties. Examples are scheduling, conductingexaminations and paying salaries.

The social tasks consist of creating a socially beneficial and coherentenvironment for the students, teachers and staff. It is very important for aschool to have a good social environment; this will be conducive to boththe professional and personal development of its members. Anylimitation of the facilities for interpersonal communication will decreasethe possibility of creating a good social environment.

The kind of school we are all familiar with is the physical school. Ithas, through the years, proved able to address all the tasks mentionedabove, but it has one large disadvantage: It is necessary for the studentsto be physically present during fixed intervals of time. This poses aproblem for many prospective students, and out of this situation hasevolved the institution of distance education.Distance Education

Distance education, as it has traditionally been conducted, is eminentlycapable of dealing with tasks of a professional, didactic andadministrative nature, as outlined above. It is, however, not well-equipped for handling the social tasks of a school, primarily because ithas very limited facilities for interpersonal communication. It is myclaim that traditional distance education has not succeeded in creating a

(contmuedonpage 72)

Traditional distanceeducation has notsucceeded.

Morten Flate Paulsen n head of the EKKO Ptojett and amembei of both l Fl P Woiking Gioup 3 6 on Di stane e Leaintngand the Eu> opean SUPERNET Pi ojet t on Di stane e Leai mnq

T.H.E. JOURNAL 71

What is needed is avirtual school.

Most tasks will behandled by people.

21.

22.

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Hebenstreit, J. Microcomputers and InformationTechnology in the Teaching Process. Ecole Superieured'Electricite, Plateau du Moulon, Mars 1982.Rekkedal, T. Fjernundervisning og datateknologi, NKI.November 1984.Kristiansen, T. "Teleundervisning—om fjernundervisning iei naer framtid, TF. " Report, July 1985.Maurer, H. Nationwide Teaching Through a Network ofMicrocomputers. Institutes for Information ProcessingGraz, Technical University ofGraz and Austrian ComputerSociety.Berg, A. "Kristina pluggade på distans med videote.\."Datavaerlden, Oct. 13,1986.Kerr, E. and Hiltz, S. Computer-Mediated CommunicationSystems, Status and Evaluation. Academic Press, 1982.PortaCOM, Computer Conferencing System. StockholmUniversity Computing Center, QZ. Stockholm, 1986.Scher, J. and Smith, D. Today's External Degree College,Tomorrow's Electronic University. New Jersey Institute ofTechnology.Meeks, B. "The Quiet Revolution." BYTE, February 1987.Johnston, C. "One Year Later." PC Magazine, July 1986.Gretz, P. and Wolak, R. "Electure: Just a Hobby or a Waveof the Future?" The Source, 1982.New Jersey Institute of Technology. Telecommunicationsand Higher Education. Conference Briefs. New JerseyInstitute of Technology, April 29, 1982.Turoff, M. The EIES Educational Experience. New JerseyInstitute of Technology, 1982.Hiltz, S. The Virtual Classroom: Initial Explorations ofComputer-Mediated Communication Systems as anInteractive Learning Space. New Jersey Institute ofTechnology, 1985.Turoff, M. and Hiltz, S. Remote Learning: Technologies &Opportunities. New Jersey Institute of Technology, 1986.Haile, P. Computer Conferencing in Post-SecondaryEducation. New York Institute of Technology, October,1985.Deutschman, W., et. al. Computer Teleconfercing. The NextStep in Distance Learning. New York Institute ofTechnology, 1985.Glossbrenner, A. "On-Line College." PC Magazine, Oct.30, 1984.Richards, A., et. al. On-Line at New York Institute ofTechnology: Computer Teleconferencing Workshops forFaculty. New York Institute of Technology, 1985.Deutschman, W. Computer Teleconferencing and NewYork Institute of Technology. New York Institute ofTechnology.

" A Wizard's Plan for an Electronic University."Businessweek, March 19, 1984.Osgood, D. "The Electronic University Network." BYTE,March, 1986.Harasim, L. "Computer Learning Networks: EducationalApplications of Computer Conferencing." Journal ofDistance Education, Vol. l. No. /,Bates, T. "Computer-Assisted Learning orCommunications: Which Way for Information Technologyfor Distance Education?" Journal of Distance Education,Vol. l,No. 1.Meeks, B. "An Oven'iew of Conferencing Systems." BYTE,December 1985.

Norwaysocially satisfactory school environment. What is needed is a virtualschool. I define a virtual school as an information system able to handleall the tasks of a school without the basis of an existing physical school.

The world "virtual" usually means "imaginary" as opposed to "real."A virtual school will thus not exist as a physical building containingclassrooms, offices, teachers, staff and students. Nevertheless, it may bethought of as real, since it can assume all the responsibilities of anordinary (physical) school.

Most tasks will be handled by people, as in a physical school. Many ofthese tasks involve interpersontl communication. A virtual schoolshould therefore possess a maximurn of facilities for this. Ideally, suchcommunication should be free of limitations with respect to time andplace.

A virtual school may be regarded as art information system, that is, asystem for generating information. This entails the gathering,processing, storing, transmission and presentation of information. Theseactivities may be performed manually by people or automatically bycomputers.

In any information system there is a coherent order, or pattern,defining the context in which the information is to be generated. Aschool is an example of such a context. All the tasks of a school entailthe generation of information, as outlined above.

My proposition is that it is possible to create a virtual school around acomputer-based information system and that virtual schools willdominate future distance education.Where Can a Virtual School Be Found?

I have tried to learn whether any virtual schools exist today. In thissearch I have proposed the following four requirements for a virtualschool:• It shall address the professional, didactic, administrative and social

tasks of a school.• It shall be accessible from any geographic location.• It shall be accessible at any time.• It shall satisfy the need for interpersonal communication among

members of the school.Much work has been done in trying to adapt new technologies for use

in distance education. This concerns, in particular, the fields ofcomputer-assisted learning (CAL) and telecommunications, I have,therefore, concentrated on these two fields.

CAL may be included as an element of a virtual school. It may be usedto relieve the teachers of some of their tasks and may also offer thestudents a satisfactory alternative to traditional textbooks. The use ofinteractive video and various techniques of artificial intelligence mayfurther enrich this type of teaching. In Norway, the Dambu and GrimstadProjects have been central in establishing our competence in CAL.

CAL contains many exciting professional and didactic aspects but istotally lacking in possibilities for interpersonal communication. It will,therefore, never be able to act as a base for a virtual school. The generalaspects of CAL1 and its bearing on distance education2 are discussedelsewhere.Telecommunications

It has become customary to use this term to mean communication overlong distances by means of electronic equipment. This offers flexible

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possibilities for interpersonal communication and will, therefore, be acentral element in future distance education. Work in this field is mainlyconcentrated in two areas: audio/visual and data communication.

Audio/visual communication is transmission of information by soundor pictures or both. The Research Department of the NorwegianTelecommunication Administration (Televerket) has issued a com-prehensive report on the use of audio/visual communication in distanceeducation.3

This report discusses the use of local area television networks,telephones with loudspeakers, linked studio transmissions for televisionconferencing, language lab equipment in cable networks, electronicblackboards and interactive video.

The advantage of this approach is that communication proceeds in a"natural" way. The disadvantage is that it must run in real time. Thefacilities for communication among all participants in a group are alsolimited. Technology has not yet progressed to the point where it ispossible to create a virtual school based upon audio/visualcommunication.

By data communication we mean electronic communication betweencomputers. This technique can be used to transmit information, whichmay also be stored and processed by computers. It is used today to offerdistance education based upon videotex and computer conferencingsystems.Austria Uses Videotex

Videotex is the internationally accepted term for a new medium ofinformation distribution. It affords the possibility for electronic mail,graphics, color and animation. The public videotex service in Norway iscalled Teledata.

In Austria, an impressive amount of work has been done to establish asystem of computer-based distance education.4 More than 200 CALlessons are available on the national videotex network. Most of these areavailable free of charge for all 10,000 videotex users in Austria. Thecourses include data processing for teachers, introductory programmingand videotex. A separate project named COSTOC is attempting toproduce more than 2,000 lessons covering a wide variety of subjects.

In Sweden, Inventel has produced a videotex-based course onmicrocomputers,5 and in Norway, the Edb skolen offers a videotex-basedcourse on data communication.

So far, all existing videotex systems have one disadvantage incommon: The possibilities for communication in groups are ratherlimited. We expect that this problem will be solved in the future, buttoday these systems do not offer sufficient facilities for interpersonalcommunication to create a virtual school.Computer-Based Conferencing Systems

Computer conferencing is designed to facilitate interpersonalcommunication. Several different programs are available.625 Most ofthese are used by conference hosts for purposes not directly connectedwith teaching. But some hosts, notably within university environments,use this medium actively for organized distance education. I maintainthat computer-based conferencing systems can be used to establish avirtual school.

In fact, when judging the various technologies available, myconclusion is that, at present, computer conferencing is the onlytechnology that can serve as a basis for creating a virtual school. This issummarized in the following table:

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Communication shouldbe free of limitations.

A virtual school may beregarded as aninformation system.

T.H.E. JOURNAL 73

Virtual schools willdominate futuredistance education.

CAL is lacking ininterpersonalcommunication.

Norway(contmued)

There is a wide variety of software available for the type of systemthat may ultimately lead to the virtual school of the future. I haveprovided an overview of the ones with which Fm familiar in theaccompanying table.Conferencing Systems in Teaching

The first use of such systems for teaching, I think, was on TheSource's PARTICIPATE system in the Fall of 1982. The teachingmaterial was presented in seven two-page "lessons," one per day for aweek. After each lesson, the views of the "students" were invited, andvarious questions concerning the topics covered in the lesson werediscussed. Altogether, about 100 persons participated in one or more ofthese lessons. Gretz and Wolak11 draw this conclusion about theelectronic lecture, or "electure":

"Audience interaction is especially pronounced in the electureformat. The computer conferencing mechanism made the post-electure exchange less of a question-and-answer period and more ofa free-for-all discussion....The information presented in commentsprovided many examples of the ideas presented in the electure aswell as some opposing views.

"The electurer tends to assume a less dominant role than anormal lecturer."The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) is among the leading

research environments in the field of computer conferencing. The EIESsystem was developed there, and this system has been endowed withseveral functions designed for teaching purposes. In 1982, NJITarranged a conference on Telecommunications in Higher Education.12

Several virtual courses have also been given.1315

The New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) is another leader. B.Ward Deutchman and his collaborators have used the PARTICIPATEsystem in various teaching projects.1620 NYIT has established theAmerican Open University (AOU), which currently offers 130 onlinecourses.

Telelearning2021 in San Francisco is a company which was started byRonald Gordon in 1983 to distribute university courses to studentsthrough the Electronic University Network (EUN). The actual design ofthe courses, however, is the responsibility of the university. Thefollowing universities have been connected with this project: OhioUniversity; the University of Nebraska; Thomas A. Edison State Collegein Trenton, N.J.; City University in Bellevue, Wash.; John F. KennedyUniversity in Orinda, Calif.; and De Anza College in Cupertino, Calif.According to BYTE magazine,22 around 17,000 students have registeredwith the EUN. The courses are varied—from MBA degree studies to

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Software for Computer-BasedConferencing Systems

COM is a comprehensive system that can handle mail, blackboards and conferences. Itwas developed at the Swedish Military Research Institute by Jacob Palme andcollaborators^ and put in operation in 1979, It is distributed by QZ, the Swedish UniversityComputer Center. The foilowing institutions have also been involved in the developmentof COM: the Josef Stefan Institute in Yugoslavia, the University of Oslo (Norway), theUniversity of Duesseldorf (German Federal Republic), the University of Helsinki(Finland) and the CSATA Institute in Bari (Italy).

Originally, COM was developed for Digital Equipment Corp. computers, bu,t it hassince been converted to run on other machines as well. The system, generally denoted asPORTACOM, is available on the foilowing computers; VAX/VMS, Sperry 1100, CDCNOS, Siemens BS2000, Burroughs B78QO, IBM MVS/TSO, VM/CMS and Prime/Primos.

EIES (Electronic Information Exchange System) was designed by Murray Turoff atthe New Jersey Institute of Technology toward the end of the *70s.8 The program iswritten for the Perkin-Elmer 7/32 and 8/32 machines and for the whole 3220 series. Thesystem is very comprehensive, containing facilities for mail, conferencing, usergroupings, personal document files and personal registers. In addition, EIES offersgrading sheets and transcript systems specially designed for teaching purposes. EIES hada predecessor called EMISARL

PARTICIPATE is an advanced conferencing system that is widely used. It was<developed by CH. Stevens at Participation Systems, Inc. of Winchester, Mass., incollaboration with the New York Institute of Technology. Perhaps the most well-knownuser of this system is The Source,

NOTEPAD is a simple and user-friendly conferencing system. It can handle onlineconferences in real time as well as coftferences where contributioris (talks, comments,etc,) are stored over a period of time. It is also possibie to conduct a vote online. Thissystem is used by NASA, arnong others, and is marketed by the U.S. company InfoMedia.

eFORUM from Network Technologies International, Inc. is one of the more recentproducts in this line. It is very user-friendly. The company has developed amicrocomputer program that enables an IBM PC to link up with eFORUM. The systemalso contains a word processing package.

CoSy was developed by J.W. Mayer at the University of Guelph (Canada). This systemwas chosen by BYTE magazine for its BIX (Byte Information Exchange), a conference forBYTE readers. CoSy runs under UNIX and is, therefore, available on mainframes, minisand micros. It offers electronic mail, addressable to both individual users and groups ofusers, and both open and closed conferences.

AUGMENT can offer both online conferences in real time and stored conferences. Itis possible to search for text in stored conferences both by headings and by authors*names. The system was originally designed by Douglas Engelbart under the nåme of NLS.The name was changed in 1978, when Tymshare bought the rights to the program.

GENIE was developed by Stephen Heitmann for use in research and educationalenvironments. It contains very advanced facilities for text manipulation. Several authorsmay work in parallel on the same contribution in a conference.

HP-FORUM is a system that offers mail, bulletin boards, real-time communicationand voting.9 It was developed by Ed Sharp at The Computer Exchange in Phoenix, Ariz.,for the HP 3000 computer.

CONFER was designed by Robert Parnes at the University of Michigan around 1975for an Amdahl computer. It offers conferences and electronic mai! addressable toindividuals as well as groups. Mail may be stored in the system until a date specified bythe author and then distributed. Hewlett-Packard has chosen this system for internal use inthe U.S.

Among the other available conferencing system software programs are HUB,developed for DEC computers; P ANALOG, designed by Edward M. Houseman at theGTE Labs for use on the IBM 3033 computer; and PLANET, a simple conferencingsystem developed for DEC computers.

More detailed descriptions of all these systems may be found elsewhere.6-25

Conferencing systems based upon micros as host computers are widely used, but theyhave serious limitations on capacity—particularly as concerns the number ofcontemporaneous participants possible. Some are in the public domain. Many of theavailable microcomputer conferencing programs were described in a 1986 article in PCMagazine.10

Computer conferencingis the only technologythat can serve as abasis.

Audience interaction isespecially pronouncedin the electure format.

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All existing videotexsystems have onedisadvantage incommon.

A virtual school itiustbe independent ofpface.

Norway(contmued)

single courses in accounting, mathematics and computer science. Thereare approximately 150 courses. The EUN uses a conferencing systemcalled Protege.

At the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) in Canada, acourse titled Equal Opportunity in Computer Training was given in theSpring of 1986. Forty-one teachers from various parts of the province ofOntario took part in this course. The material was presented using theOISE's PARTICIPATE system.23

At Datahogskolen in Norway, a course on computers and dataprocessing was given in the Fall of 1986. Ninety-six on-campus studentstook part in this experiment. The conferencing system EKKO, developedat Datahogskolen, was used.

The Open University in England is planning to start usingconferencing systems in distance education this year.24

Among other universities claiming to use this medium for teachingare: Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Va.; the University ofCincinnati, Ohio; and Nova University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

In my search for a virtual school, I have arrived at this conclusion: It ispossible to establish a virtual school based on a computer conferencingsystem. During the last few years, work has been done on this in variousenvironments, and some valuable experience has been gained. There isstill a long way to go before all the problems raised by virtual schoolshave been solved. But I maintain that we've now progressed to a stagewhere the virtual school exists. QD

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