1 Becoming a Virtual Professor Preliminary Results of Semi- Structured Interviews Nancy Coppola, Starr Roxanne Hiltz, and Naomi Rotter Presentation at the Fourth International Conference on Asynchronous Learning Networks, New York, November copyright© November 1998

2 Background 4 “Virtual Classroom”™: NJIT series of computer-mediated communication systems tailored to support “anytime/anywhere” interaction among students and instructors in ALN (Asynchronous Learning Network) 4 15-year history 4 Individual courses and full degree programs 4 Evaluation instruments and approaches

3 Virtual Classroom™ + Video Sloan Foundation support 4 Delivered and evaluated 26 courses 4 Majors: Information Systems and Computer Science 4 Lectures on videotape 4 Discussions and collaborative assignments online

4 From Virtual Classroom to Virtual University 4 Sloan Foundation Expand the innovation to other schools, departments and degree programs 4 Fall 1998: 500 students enrolled in ALN

5 Objectives of Virtual Classroom ™ Projects 4 For students: improve access to and effectiveness of college-level education 4 For faculty: provide new tools for more effective teaching and to reach more students 4 For universities: attract and retain new types of students 4 For research: explore effective use ALN

6 Preliminary Results 4 Goal: to interview all faculty who have completed preparation and delivery of one ALN course 4 Ten completed interviews now: 4 Computer Information Science faculty; 6 other departments; 4 tenured faculty; 3 women 4 Using Software for Qualitative Data Analysis

7 Preliminary Results 4 Themes that emerge from interviews 4 Time needed to prepare and deliver the courses (in video plus ALN mode) 4 Sources of Satisfaction 4 Sources of Frustration 4 Our experiences with QSR Nud*ist

8 Effort to Prepare Course 4 Can you make any estimate of the number of hours or person weeks you spent on preparing the lecture portion for taping or CD ROM, and then on preparing the ALN components? hours for videotape hours per hour of CD-ROM lecture

9 Time Spent /Delivering via ALN 4 In terms of the first time you delivered the course with ALN, not counting the prior preparation, would you say that in total you spent more time, less time, or about the same time as you would have on a traditional section? 4 More time than ever spent in classroom 4 A lot more extensive

10 Fulfilling Aspects 4 Overall, in what ways has teaching distance courses with ALN been a fulfilling experience as a teacher? 4 More discussion online 4 More interaction with students 4 More personal 4 Ability to enable people 4 Intellectually challenging

11 Frustrating Aspects 4 Overall, what are the most important ways in which it has been a frustrating experience? 4 Keeping students actively involved 4 Problems with technology 4 Amount of preparation time 4 Not right for all students

12 Using QSR NUD*IST 4 Qualitative data analysis software 4 Researcher determines codes for searching 4 Text units are entered 4 Interview/document imported 4 Coded interviews are stores 4 Frequencies can be generated

13 Tree Display of Interview Guide

14 Index of Coding Categories