A proficient and versatile online student-teacher collaboration platform for large classroom lectures

In this section, we firstly present an overview of the implications and importance of online collaboration on lecture contents and then, we present an overview of existing works on online collaborative learning.

In an online classroom environment many of the learning activities and expectations are similar to those found in a traditional classroom (Harris et al., 2009; Hrastinski, 2008; Simonson et al., 2012). However, online learning provides some added benefits over traditional classroom learnings (Martnez-Caro, 2011). Online learning environments provide the students and teachers with different approaches to interact, share, and offer them the ability to collaborate and ask questions in real-time through available learning technologies. Research, for example: (Díaz & Entonado, 2009; Er et al., 2009), indicate that the higher the students perceive the level of collaboration the more satisfied they become with the online learning environment. In both the traditional and online classroom environments, interaction and collaboration are identified as a major factor in successful learning outcomes (Bonk & Zhang, 2006; Martnez-Caro, 2011). Online learning environments provide flexibility and offer the students personalized learning opportunities which are achieved through feedback and interactive collaboration (Lorenzo & Ittelson, 2005). Here, the students can autonomously express their thoughts (Er et al., 2009).

In case of both synchronous and asynchronous collaboration, research indicates that such collaboration enhances the overall student learning capability (Díaz & Entonado, 2009; Er et al., 2009). Through such collaboration, the students develop a sense of community which is essential to sustain the educational experience over time (Garrison & Kanuka, 2004). In case of asynchronous collaborative learning, the students possess the opportunity to reflect on the learning objectives since they have the time to critically synthesize their learning (Bonk & Zhang, 2004; Garrison & Kanuka, 2006). Besides this, through asynchronous learning technologies, a teacher can assess what students understand about the content and can adapt future course contents to facilitate a higher level and more in-depth understanding of the content (Bonk & Zhang, 2006; Hrastinski, 2008). The most significant tool which asynchronous collaboration provides is a learning space where learners can argue on debatable ideas in more objective and reflective ways (Garrison & Kanuka, 2004).

Blended learning is the thoughtful integration of classroom face-to-face learning experiences with online learning experiences (Garrison & Kanuka, 2004). What makes blended learning particularly effective is its ability to facilitate a community of inquiry. Community furnishes the stabilizing and cohesive impact that balances the open communication and unlimited access to information on the web (Garrison & Kanuka, 2004). Our proposed MS accommodates the attributes of a blended learning approach where a convergence of F2F meeting and online learning takes places via available technology.

We mention in the previous section that existing works in this area can be classified into two main types – distance online collaboration (DC) and in-class online collaboration (IC). In case of DC, several research, for example: (Brindley et al., 2011; Strijbos, 2006; Swan et al., 2009), has been pursued which investigates the effect of collaborative learning, among a group of participants, on a specific project or homework. Furthermore, there are quite a few tools available which support DC for different purposes for different user groups.

Groupboard (2016) is one such DC platform which allows participants to collaborate on a certain topic through text, audio and video chats. The collaboration in Groupboard doesn’t occur directly on lecture slides because the participants don’t have access to the slides; so they collaborate mainly on certain topics from the lecture delivered by the teacher. It also has an IC part with very limited functionality. Vyew (2016) is another DC tool which is used mostly for collaborating on group projects or homework. Vyew has the biggest similarity to our OMS approach in terms of functionality. In Vyew, teachers can upload lecture materials for real-time presentations and then students can meet online and collaborate together in real-time or separately over time. Here, users can create annotations on slides and post suggestions about a lecture content to the teacher via text chat. A few other notable DOC tools are Scribbler (2016), Twiddla (2016), RealtimeBoard (2016), GoToMeeting (2016) and WebEx (2016). Most of these platforms support a form of collaboration between a group of participants on specific projects such as artworks or text materials.

There are also quite a few IC platforms which support collaboration among the students and the teacher during the class. The authors, in (Anderson et al., 2006), present Classroom Presenter which is an IC platform where the students submit their answers of the provided questions via wireless connectivity. Upon receiving the answers from the students, the teacher evaluates the responses, and randomly selects a few to annotate and display them simultaneously on a display medium. In Classroom Presenter, the students and the teacher use stationary Tablet PCs which are connected wirelessly. Therefore, it does not support web based connectivity and hence, it fails to reach a wide range of users to interact with the system. It also has the limitation of providing a reliable communication platform. Besides this, Classroom Presenter might also suffer from the consequences of the loss of attention of the students and, the specific use of a single device limits the use of technology which could be used in various other ways.

Furthermore, much research has been pursued in the field of Classroom Response Systems (CRSs), for example: (Bruff 2009; Draper, Cargill, & Cutts, 2002; Kay & LeSage, 2009), which can be defined as a subset of IC platforms. Despite the fact that the CRSs are mostly not connected to the teacher’s slides, they provide wide possibilities to gather learners’ feedback. Over the years two main feedback types have been established: learners can post messages to the audience and multiple choice questions answered by learners. Whereas both of these types are widely implemented into learning platforms, only a few platforms, for example: (Vetterick, Schwennigcke, Langfeld, Cap, & Sucharowski, 2014), preserve the feedback, gathered by these feedback types, for later use. Multiscript has the ability to collect IC feedback while presenting it later on in its OMS functionality.

Another IC platform, namely Ubiquitous Classroom Response System, is presented by Caceffo and Da Rocha in (Caceffo & Da Rocha, 2011). This approach has the most similarity to our IMS approach. Its working procedure has certain resemblance to the Classroom Presenter, however it manipulates the context information to devise a dynamic environment where students can utilize any available mobile device to respond to the teacher’s questions. In addition to this, it does not have the shortcomings of the Classroom Presenter since it works via web based connection for supporting the collaboration. Another similar approach to this system is presented by Oura et al. in (Oura, Kato, & Akahori, 2006).